So, while in Slidell, I decided to see if the Church had high speed internet. I noticed a secured wireless network, but an unsecured access point. So, early Sunday afternoon, I disconnected the access point, I did a quick Skype video test to my wife and reconnected everything back the way it was. Later that evening, two young men show up, one seemed a little steamed, working on his PDA, the other was instructed to take pictures of AP right before the network cable was clipped. After a brief interrogation where I disclosed what I had done and answered a question on the company my laptop immediately tried to VPN into when it was connected to the network, they were gone with nothing more than "I am making a report to my supervisor".

Now, being in the industry, I know what could come of this. And, just my luck the first time I even attempted something like this (I don't even have TCP/IP enabled on my CarPC for fear it will auto join a network) I get caught, with network trespassing being a hot topic for prosecutors, I knew the potential was there for me to spend more time and money than I had planned on down South. Afterwards, I was a wreck; I called Bruce, the man overseeing the volunteer crews. Bruce and my pastor offered some advice, and that the issue would be dealt with the next day most likely with little penalties, and then I did the only thing I could do, prayed. After prayer I was able to sleep. However, the wind was taken out of my sails for the work I was sent to do. But, as my luck would have it, God had better plans for me. Monday came and went, and since we were working in the church, I had a chance to see the sysadmin a few times, but not a word was said, just not-to-happy glances my way. Tuesday came, and we were still working in the church, and seeing the sysadmin a few more times with more not-to-happy glances. At lunch I remembered a sermon a few months ago on how we should deal with problems with other Christians, so following God's teachings I walked into the sysadmin's office and apologized once more for my intrusion into his network. My apology was met with an apology on his part. He informed me that I had connected in the middle of a sting operation on someone else. When I connected, airsnare (an network intrusion detection program) notified him and he rushed over, but I was gone before he got there. It seems that someone else had been connecting to the network as well, but was perusing adult content. It wasn't until he compared my MAC address (a computer thumbprint) to the offender's address that he was able to rule me out as a suspect for the browsing. But, in his attempts to intimidate me on Sunday night, he did not get a good look at me to find me and set things straight. He did inform me of free internet access at a local coffee shop 10 min from the church, where we were able to connect and hold a 45 min video conference with my family and my pastor's family for his daughter's 3rd birthday. Once I connected, I called the sysadmin so he could see exactly what I had done. And so, the rest of Tuesday night was spent in fellowship between two techs. Which was a blessing on me since I don't have too many I can talk shop to, and a blessing for him since none of his tech friends have moved back yet. Weds night was more fellowship whiled I looked over his domain, offered some little suggestions, and offered some websites and applications I use. I also was able to backup his friend's laptop before the HD died (which to my knowledge, is still working). Thursday night was the last night I was in town, and resulted in a 5 person LAN game of Halo with Myself, Pastor Aaron, John (the sysadmin), Paul (the photographer), and Justin (a resident) from 8 PM until 2 AM. All had a good time. When all was said and done, God had bigger plans for me than I knew, and as with all his plans, they are for the best.