I think someone has PENETRATED MY WIRELESS NETWORK.

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Hey Geeks --

I came home from work tonight and got onto iTunes. Noticed that someone who is NOT one of my roomates had a shared library. However, I password protected the network (WEP). When I tried to connect to this person's library, the computer stalled a bit and then came up with an error message that said either me or this other guy was behind a firewall.

What gives? Is there a haX0r messing with my network?

― giboyeux (skowly), Friday, 16 December 2005 01:51 (twenty years ago)

WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO, HUH?

― giboyeux (skowly), Friday, 16 December 2005 01:53 (twenty years ago)

Seemingly, yes.

― Aimless (Aimless), Friday, 16 December 2005 01:54 (twenty years ago)

I don't know much about that, but I hear you should try to turn on your MAC address requirements. Most WiFi routers have them. "With this enabled, ONLY THE PCs ON YOUR LIST CAN CONNECT. MAC address spoofing is possible, but problematic, and it is MUCH harder to break than WEP encryption."

― no orz, Friday, 16 December 2005 02:02 (twenty years ago)

Huh. I may have to try this.

― giboyeux (skowly), Friday, 16 December 2005 02:04 (twenty years ago)

Google WEP and you will find that it is easy to not only crack, but to spoof.

― don weiner (don weiner), Friday, 16 December 2005 02:07 (twenty years ago)

I think this is what happened. Should I upgrade to WPA?

― giboyeux (skowly), Friday, 16 December 2005 02:10 (twenty years ago)

Hell yes.

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Friday, 16 December 2005 02:23 (twenty years ago)

yeah I heard WEP was porous to any half-competent hacker before this year when (some development I glossed over) made it like having no security at all. Mac authentication, WPA, and disabling ssid broadcasting I know are three broadly recommended security measures but they be on some next shit now, I haven't read up in a while.

― tremendoid (tremendoid), Friday, 16 December 2005 02:35 (twenty years ago)

Why do you give a shit? link-layer encryption for the home = tinfoil hat. Are you worried they'll go filesharing and the RIAA will come sue you for it?

― TOMBOT, Friday, 16 December 2005 17:39 (twenty years ago)

They could grab your credit card number, for one. Although I'd hope any sites that would grab that would have SSL, so that's kind of unlikely too... websites that want your password in plaintext, maybe.

― mike h. (mike h.), Friday, 16 December 2005 17:42 (twenty years ago)

Yeah if you're pushing CC#s and such in plaintext that's basically the same as crossing the street without looking, bus grilles and you were made for one another

http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~nks/papers/tinysec-sensys04.pdf

― TOMBOT, Friday, 16 December 2005 17:48 (twenty years ago)

Just wondering. Sheesh.

― giboyeux (skowly), Friday, 16 December 2005 17:55 (twenty years ago)

I think someone has PENETRATED MY WIRELESS NETWORK.

I had this same thing happen to me. But I was in college and I was experimenting. I didn't really like it. Perhaps I'm more "vanilla" that I previously thought.

― [jailhouse tattoo] (nordicskilla), Friday, 16 December 2005 17:58 (twenty years ago)

Are you worried they'll go filesharing and the RIAA will come sue you for it?

this surely isn't a dumb worry?

― toby (tsg20), Friday, 16 December 2005 18:02 (twenty years ago)

maybe it was the NSA, looking for tunes.

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 16 December 2005 18:04 (twenty years ago)

In the US there already exists precedent to protect you from being charged with crimes somebody else commits on your bandwidth. If your router+AP keeps logs, I suggest checking those from time to time.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/30/warspammer_guilty/

― TOMBOT, Friday, 16 December 2005 18:12 (twenty years ago)

wow, thanks for the link, i had no idea. that said, if the riaa come after you, would you want to risk going to court with that defence? sounds risky to me...

― toby (tsg20), Friday, 16 December 2005 18:30 (twenty years ago)

I sure as hell would. The issue is whether or not you can prove you and the perp are different. It's the same difference between "my car was stolen" as alibi and "my car was stolen" as evidence for the prosecution in the trial of a bank robber. Does that make any sense?

― TOMBOT, Friday, 16 December 2005 18:42 (twenty years ago)

in terms of credit card ripoff or other fraud, you're much better off spending your time worrying about people stealing your mail out of your mailbox. But general privacy issues make wireless privacy fairly obvious: I wouldn't be thrilled to find out that my neighbors are pulling up every URL I'm surfing (in near real time) simply because I'm too lazy to worry about my WEP encryption. It's very easy to find sniffers that are GUI-based and easy enough for any bunghole off the street to use. No, you don't need to worry about the next door neighbor ruining your credit rating, but you might think twice the next time you google "horny fat housewives who need sex."

― don weiner (don weiner), Friday, 16 December 2005 19:23 (twenty years ago)

Why do you give a shit?

Because depending on what they do on your router it can significantly slow your network? See also: the reason why I made it so that only my computer can connect to OUR router?

― Allyzay must fight Zolton herself. (allyzay), Friday, 16 December 2005 19:26 (twenty years ago)

four months pass...

I am intrigued by the idea of a cantenna which can pick up wireless signals a mile away. Has anyone ever bought a special antenna for the purpose of picking up open wifi signals in the neighborhood?

― Gitchi, Tuesday, 2 May 2006 19:10 (twenty years ago)

two years pass...

Hey guys. I'm a dumbshit idiot.

I realized, when trying to connect my new laptop to my home wireless, that I've completely forgotten my WPA key.

I'd just do a reset, only I'm a dumbshit idiot and seem to have lost track of the documentation that would get me through the reset. That means a reset would basically brick the router for our wired connections, right?

Am I fucked if I want to have a wireless network? Do I need to shell out $$ for a new one?

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Wednesday, 21 May 2008 23:02 (eighteen years ago)

harass tech support for a week or so first at least

― deeznuts, Wednesday, 21 May 2008 23:05 (eighteen years ago)

what brand of router is it

― El Tomboto, Wednesday, 21 May 2008 23:07 (eighteen years ago)

Do a reset. Unless it's not made no mo, the docs are out there.

― libcrypt, Wednesday, 21 May 2008 23:07 (eighteen years ago)

i just realized it prob looked like im telling hoos to stfu but actually i just mean that ive had the same prob & it often takes some persistence to get it right w/ the tech people

― deeznuts, Wednesday, 21 May 2008 23:10 (eighteen years ago)

what brand of router is it

-- El Tomboto, Wednesday, May 21, 2008 11:07 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

netgear

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Wednesday, 21 May 2008 23:11 (eighteen years ago)

do you have a network cable? you should be able to cable into the wireless router and get at the web interface for it that way right?

― gff, Wednesday, 21 May 2008 23:15 (eighteen years ago)

I tried that, but for some reason the default "Username: Admin" "Password: Password" isn't getting me in. I have no memory of changing it, but knowing my tinfoil-hat-ass I might have changed it out of paranoia and subsequently forgotten it out of disuse.

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Wednesday, 21 May 2008 23:19 (eighteen years ago)

admin
1234

― El Tomboto, Wednesday, 21 May 2008 23:20 (eighteen years ago)

http://kbserver.netgear.com/kb_web_files/n100651.asp

― El Tomboto, Wednesday, 21 May 2008 23:20 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah I was readin that page earlier, no luck on that either.

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Wednesday, 21 May 2008 23:21 (eighteen years ago)

Thx though

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Wednesday, 21 May 2008 23:24 (eighteen years ago)

maybe your reset didn't work? reset again

― El Tomboto, Wednesday, 21 May 2008 23:33 (eighteen years ago)

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