The WiFi next door hears you having sex

This is not quite what it sounds like, so to speak. But still worth noting.

According to a BBC story, neighbors are getting down right vindictive and hoaxing in the names they choose for their WiFi networks. Those names pop up on other people's nearby WiFi-connected computer menus. In some cases, the labels communicate a "shut up" type message to, say, fellow building dwellers who don't know how to keep the music down. In others, the word play is a bit more prurient.

Some common names noted by OpenSignalMaps, a company that keeps a database of network handles:

• • We can hear you having sex
  • Stop having so much sex
  • Stop wearing heals
  • Stop slamming the door
  • Shut up
  • Stop shouting
  • You're music is annoying (to which someone replied via a new WiFi name, Your grammar is more annoying)
  • Terror network
  • Virus detected shutting down

And then there are names intended to tell WiFi moochers to "keep your hands off":

• • Stop stealing my paper
  • Go away don't steal my broadband
  • Thou shalt not steal
  • Covet not thy neighbor's wi-fi

Now that we've circled back to sex, let's leave the name game there. Meanwhile, safe computing!

Image: "Eavesdropping" by Vittorio Reggianini, from Wikimedia via Sotheby's.

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com