wireless router users, beware!

we had some dsl issues last night so i finally called sbc. turned out we hadn't received a letter they sent out telling us we had to register our account.

so they're walking us through the process when i notice there are not two but THREE computers that use our dsl - and one has a name we 100% would never have on our computer. that one is using wireless, which we never bothered with.

it appears our neighbors have been helping themselves to our dsl - and to do it, they had to either have physical access to our router (they could only have that by entering our apartment without our knowledge) or possibly by opening the letter from sbc, calling and someone getting someone over there to help them into the system.

man, am i pissed!

of course i turned off the wireless feature right away. :evil:

Did you have encryption turned off? You basically become a free hotspot without it.

I've done that with other peoples' wireless :-x

At an old coffee shop I used to go to, the guy who lived in an apartment upstairs had better wireless than the coffeeshop so everyone would use his hehe. And a lot of my neighbors would have wireless networks that I could pick up.

What always blew me away was what they named their wireless networks. Stuff you wouldn't want strangers knowing. Their wireless network would be their first and last name, or a phone number, or something else you don't really want to broadcast to total strangers. There was even a neighbor who had his online screenname as his wireless network's name. It was like "jockbttmfratboi" or something lol. For shits and giggles I did a Google search on that and found online profiles of his and pictures and all kinds of stuff. I mean he was a neighbor so I already knew what he looked like but still. Do you really wanna broadcast that?! And he wasn't even cute!! :(

But anyways... encrypt it! And it never hurts to have a network monitor around too so you can see everything that goes in and out of, on and through your network. Especially with wireless.

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Originally Posted by CorbinFisher_BD

Do you really wanna broadcast that?!

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Well, if he was on that many profile sites then, yes. Maybe he was hoping someone would catch him, see his info and "punish" him. LOL!

yes, make sure you have security turned on, or beware the leachers.

and, yes, I have leached in the past as well. And now with PDAs becoming 802.11b/g enabled, this will happen more and more.

cheers,
Luke

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What always blew me away was what they named their wireless networks. Stuff you wouldn't want strangers knowing.

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checking out my sub div came up with one open accesspoint with the SSID set to be the persons address !!!

*sigh*

would you believe this? the security people that sbc use TELL you in mail and when you talk to them that security is on but it turns out that their settings actually default to publically broadcast your wireless. anyone parking in our building lot with a laptop could have suddenly found themselves online without even knowing why.

if you're using sbc, better log into 2wire and find the settings for that.

if you need to do this, go to Home Network and then Wireless Settings. UNtick SSID Broadcast. having it ticked means that you're broadcasting your wireless - and they seem to default to that setting.

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Originally Posted by CorbinFisher_BD

There was even a neighbor who had his online screenname as his wireless network's name. It was like "jockbttmfratboi" or something lol. For shits and giggles I did a Google search on that and found online profiles of his and pictures and all kinds of stuff. I mean he was a neighbor so I already knew what he looked like but still. Do you really wanna broadcast that?! And he wasn't even cute!! :(

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I am TOO CUTE!
Whoops..never mind!

some people are just naturally born exhibitionists, even if its in a geeky way like that!

I have a hotspot in my pants. Oops, did I say that out loud? :eek:

At our condo, I can pick up at least 15 different open connections. It's crazy.

Is it wrong to take advantage of stupid people like that?

Jimmy

its never wrong to take advantage of stupid people, as long as you let them know you are doing them a favour :bush:

In Seattle, you can hardly NOT find a "hotspot"..
Man..I remember the days when that meant something SO entirely different!

hrmmm....just checked for the fun of it and I have 14 unsecure networks showing up right now, most of them are called "belkin" or "default" LOL!!!

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Originally Posted by Slade

In Seattle, you can hardly NOT find a "hotspot"..
Man..I remember the days when that meant something SO entirely different!

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you know we are talking about wireless networks and not gay bathroom gloryholes, right???

EEEK! I have SBC DSL too and I have no idea how to change my security settings! HELP!

i have a couple neighbros around here that seem to have left their wireless routers open to anyone that wants to use them.

I'd like to get one though even though Im not too impressed by wireless, it is much slower than cable wiring and the signal strenghth tends to wobble a lot

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Originally Posted by Chilihost

you know we are talking about wireless networks and not gay bathroom gloryholes, right???

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OMG!!!!

Jimmy

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Originally Posted by Xstr8guy

EEEK! I have SBC DSL too and I have no idea how to change my security settings! HELP!

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just make sure you setup a secure key that you have to enter before you are connected into the network, you should have some software that came with your router that will do this

the key was set up on mine and that didn't stop our neighbors. sbc is still telling us that means our neighbors either hacked us or broke into our house.

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Originally Posted by Chilihost

just make sure you setup a secure key that you have to enter before you are connected into the network, you should have some software that came with your router that will do this

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Guess which one is mine?

if someone were parked outside of the house where someone had wireless cable... does that mean that the person in the car could see everything
the person in the house was doing on their computer ?? Such as also
read their mail, or know what sites they were visiting... or get access
to their FTP - websites etc ??

~Bell

supposedly not - although there IS a setting that would allow that. we have a ten digit key code that sbc said no one could get access to our wireless without. however someone did.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bell

if someone were parked outside of the house where someone had wireless cable... does that mean that the person in the car could see everything
the person in the house was doing on their computer ?? Such as also
read their mail, or know what sites they were visiting... or get access
to their FTP - websites etc ??

~Bell

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Chilihost

just make sure you setup a secure key that you have to enter before you are connected into the network, you should have some software that came with your router that will do this

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Thanks Luke! I'll give it a try.

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Originally Posted by basschick

supposedly not - although there IS a setting that would allow that. we have a ten digit key code that sbc said no one could get access to our wireless without. however someone did.

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it must feel really creepy to know that neighbors were IN your house...
don't let that cause you to do something dangerous... steer clear of
them... you don't want to create an opportunity for just their friggin
creepy-ass thieven pig-faces to cause you to go OFF on them...
I don't want to have to bail you out of jail...:vanish:

might want to consider some sort of security cam motion detector
sort of set up to prevent further intrusions...

do they KNOW you KNOW ??

~Bell

actually i don't believe they were in my house. i believe sbc is mistaken. our cats try and run out the door every time it's opened, and they are always very upset when strangers come over. we have never come home and found them upset or hiding. and they're always still in the apartment.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bell

it must feel really creepy to know that neighbors were IN your house...
don't let that cause you to do something dangerous... steer clear of
them... you don't want to create an opportunity for just their friggin
creepy-ass thieven pig-faces to cause you to go OFF on them...
I don't want to have to bail you out of jail...:vanish:

might want to consider some sort of security cam motion detector
sort of set up to prevent further intrusions...

do they KNOW you KNOW ??

~Bell

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I accessed the neighbors unsecure wireless only once but it was when I moved and in my new apartment it was going to take a freakin week to get the internet installed and I had updates to publish for the site!

I never did any browsing and only checked email then got right off...felt bad about it BUT since I didn't have a laptop at the time it was necessary.

I always use every security possible on my system.

Lee

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Originally Posted by basschick

actually i don't believe they were in my house. i believe sbc is mistaken. our cats try and run out the door every time it's opened, and they are always very upset when strangers come over. we have never come home and found them upset or hiding. and they're always still in the apartment.

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that's a relief (of sorts)...
hope it gets settled the way you want it to...

~Bell


p.s. Lee W. - you have a PM from me...

thanks, bell.

hey, i've think i've seen more of you here in the last 2 days than in the last 2 months. how's it going lately? what's new in your world?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bell

that's a relief (of sorts)...
hope it gets settled the way you want it to...

~Bell


p.s. Lee W. - you have a PM from me...

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by basschick

thanks, bell.

hey, i've think i've seen more of you here in the last 2 days than in the last 2 months. how's it going lately? what's new in your world?

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I was finally able to finish up something I'd been doing for over a year and now have more time to do what I want to do... so I came back... (smile)
one of my favorite projects lately has been: DomainBELL.com

thanks for asking... (thanks for missing me tooooo...)

~Bell