1) Call Boost (have the battery out, so you can read the label) and ask them to check if it's a clean ESN. If there's a bill pending against it, it was reported lost or stolen, or a few other things, they won't activate it.
2) No, you can't use it free. You can use it on wifi if you have a wifi router, but you can only make 911 calls on the phone part.
3) Hacking into someone else's wifi is 3 problems:
a) It's illegal. The crime is theft of service. Depending on a couple of things, it can be felony theft. The cable company WILL push for prosecution. (They all will, it doesn't matter which company it is.)
b) You'll have to pay for every month's service since the person whose wifi you were using first got internet. It's legally assumed that you've been doing it since then, If you haven't, you have to prove it. Could be 10 years. At $150/month. That would cost you $18,000. In addition to whatever they give you for the theft charge.
c) The person whose router you're connecting to can lose their cable account. They can then sue you for any loss (including emotional distress) they suffer.
Buying internet for $15/month is a lot cheaper.
Oh, if you use Magic Jack on my router, I know how to listen in on your phone calls. And it's legal, since It's legally the equivalent of my listening into an extension in my house. I can also connect to your computer and steal files, "plant" files there (even illegal ones) - anything. I have the legal right to access any computer connected to my network - when you connect, you grant me that right. Posting some compromising information I found on your computer? Using your account that I found there? Big oops - for you.
REALLY not worth it.
So I guess that's not what you were talking about when you mentioned wifi hacker, right?
