if someone were connecting to your wifi

[robphelan]

without permission, what would you do and how? i think a neighbor is piggybacking my wifi because I'm seeing an unfamiliar MAC address.

I just changed my password to 20 digits, so that should keep them out for awhile.

 

[gwrober]

How did you know to look for another MAC? I'm a newb at this, and would like to know somehow if someone were on my network...

 

[nweaver]

Iwould properly secure my network....

 

[birdog]

 

[birdog]

yeah using WPA2 is possible if not then use WPA and you could use mac filtering. You could also check all of your MAC #'s. They should be posted on things like routers - On NIC cards just do an "ipconfig /all" and it will show you the mac numbers of your local nic's

 

[robphelan]

Originally posted by: gwrober
How did you know to look for another MAC? I'm a newb at this, and would like to know somehow if someone were on my network...

in my DHCP table, I saw my 2 PCs' IP addresses listed and then some MAC address. I only had 2 internet enabled machines in the house.

 

[skadoo323]

some options:
as mentioned used different password levels
consider using MAC filtering
maybe don't boradcast your wireless network's name
make sure you are not using the default password that the router is assigned when you first set it up

 

[jlazzaro]

Originally posted by: robphelan
I just changed my password to 20 digits, so that should keep them out for awhile.

if your running wep and they know what their doing, not really.

 

[marulee]

Originally posted by: gwrober
How did you know to look for another MAC? I'm a newb at this, and would like to know somehow if someone were on my network...

ipconfig /all > physical address

OR

DHCP client list!

 

[ITJunkie]

Originally posted by: nweaver
Iwould properly secure my network....

Winnar!

 

[JackMDS]

So let me make clear, you are using WPA, and you have a neighbor that knows how to Brake WPA?

 

[InlineFive]

Originally posted by: marulee

Originally posted by: gwrober
How did you know to look for another MAC? I'm a newb at this, and would like to know somehow if someone were on my network...

ipconfig /all > physical address

OR

DHCP client list!

ipconfig /all only lists MAC address present on your local machine. Not what MACs are connected to a WAP or SOHO router.

 

[Madwand1]

Why stop at 20 digits? Go for 63 semi-randomized mixed characters if your devices support them. (And if not, then the maximum your WPA/WPA2 implementation supports.) If you want, you can even use a public service to generate them if you don't trust your own randomization for some reason.

E.g.

http://www.speedguide.net/wlan_key.php

Capture that into a text file, save it somewhere, and copy/paste it into the configuration fields.

 

[kamper]

Originally posted by: skadoo323
consider using MAC filtering
maybe don't boradcast your wireless network's name

If he's already using decent encryption and a good password and his neighbor still knows how to get in, these methods aren't going to stop him/her.

 

[Lemon law]

In terms of playing what do we know for a certainty---do we (1) Even know if anyone is piggybacking on RonP's wireless network? (2) What if any networks file sharing was implemented at the time of the suspected piggybacking?

So it seems to me the logical advice is to go fairly big in one step---implement WEP2 with a long as possible password---and then monitor for anyone else using the network in future.

But if RobP got owned by someone really competent---they probably already put a back door program on RobP's computers---and will get back in sooner or later even if they have to use someone else's internet access to do it.---and then they will just pull whatever passwords they need to re-piggyback on from RobP's network. And if that proves to be the case--only a total reformat of all effected computers will cure the problem for sure.---but if WEP2 works for even a few weeks with no one piggybacking on----RobP should be able to relax.

But its also important to stress that this should be a case of going from absolutely NO SECURITY to decent security---and to stress that in a no security situation---almost any modern off the shelf lap top computer in the vicinity will automatically detect the presence of a wi fi hotspot---and who can blame any that log on.

 

[nweaver]

Yeah, we haven't been told WHAT password was changed...


although, tbh, I'm guessing it's a casual association/check email type MAC he found, and needs to change his SSID from default and enable WPA

 

[robphelan]

turns out it was a trojan... booted up in safe mode and ran a few antivir/spyware... found it and deleted.

i changed the wpa-psk pw...

thanks for the help.
rp.