i have connected to my next doors wireless

phill79

JohnR wrote:

The Netgear router has the option for something called MAC address filtering. Basically, you tell the router the MAC address of all the devices (PC's, Laptops, Consoles etc) that you wish to connect to it. If a different device tries to connect, they will see the network, it will even appear unsecured, but they will not be able to connect. It also means your network does not slow down due to the various encryption options.

I wouldn't rely on MAC filtering. Its not something to use to secure your network, only to stop the casual user from connecting as they drive by. Anyone with a couple of mins and a Linux box can be on easily enough.

albertross_2

mac address filtering and disabling SSID broadcasting are both good things to do, but the only method of making sure your wireless network is as secure as it can be is to use WPA encryption with a random 63 character key. Without this, everything you type, every website you visit, every email you send or receive, is floating across the airwaves for anyone who wants to listen to pick up

T4i

If you can access his/her printer then send a document to the printer about making the network secure....

love from a concerend neighbour....

If you are in doubt about some1 using your network for bandwidth simply install somethnig like Netstat Live and make sure YOUR LAN is on idle, if Netstat shows bandwidth activity then someone local is been dodgy!

dickibobboy

i could do that with the printer, but he will know it is me (i think) as he should be able to pick up my wireless and the name is my name, i will just go round sometime and tell him to secure it

in_my_wellies

Thank you for the useful comments on this thread.

I was at a friends last night. She has wireless. She thinks it is secured.

We wondered whether, if it was not secured, would she know every time someone tried to connect? Would she notice anything? Could she look anywhere to see if someone has been trying or has been successful?

Thank you

THE_MIDDLEMAN

Quincy wrote:

'Tell them, they may be your future wife/husband

LMAO Quincy.....good point made though.

happenstance

Rex_Mundi wrote:

This is a very bad way of thinking. If the postman delivered your neighbours package to your house wrongly. You seem to be saying that you have a right to keep it. This is both legally, and morally wrong. The same if the milkman delivered your neighbours milk to your house by mistake. This does not give you a legal right to keep/use it (you would be stealing).

Your neighbours would have paid for their internet connection, and the wireless equipment to network with. Just because they are not aware that the network isn't secure doesn't make it right for anyone to use it. You would be stealing a product they have paid for.

Actually I was talking about milk being delivered directly into my fridge not delivering it outside my door. Of course something consumable accidently being delivered to my house that by using it is prevents the person that paid for it using it is wrong. But this is not the case.

It's different with something that is not consumable and is not going to affect the other persons use of the service, apart from if you hog all the bandwidth. People here seem to be suggesting that users are billed for any extra bandwidth they consume. I doubt this is the case, I phoned up my ISP and they said that if double the bandwidth limit was exceeded then a letter would get sent to let the users know. Only if this bandwidth limit continues to be broken will they cut off the service.

happenstance

in_my_wellies wrote:

Thank you for the useful comments on this thread.

I was at a friends last night. She has wireless. She thinks it is secured.

We wondered whether, if it was not secured, would she know every time someone tried to connect? Would she notice anything? Could she look anywhere to see if someone has been trying or has been successful?

Thank you

I doubt her router would give an indication (ie light) if someone was connected to the router or attempted to connect to the router. If she logs onto the router it will probably show the attached devices and their mac address. As long as she has programmed in the mac addresses of devices that can connect to it and set up some decent encryption she should be ok.

Rex_Mundi

happenstance wrote:

It's different with something that is not consumable and is not going to affect the other persons use of the service, apart from if you hog all the bandwidth. People here seem to be suggesting that users are billed for any extra bandwidth they consume. I doubt this is the case, I phoned up my ISP and they said that if double the bandwidth limit was exceeded then a letter would get sent to let the users know. Only if this bandwidth limit continues to be broken will they cut off the service.

There are a lot of ISPs now with strict download limits. If you go over your limit, you pay for extra GBs. Some of the limits are extremely low (IMHO). Look at Madasafish and their 5GB deal. As soon as you go over this limit in a month, you are charged for each extra GB. Even Zen now don't offer unlimited deals to new customers. Depending on the deal you take, you have either a 20GB, or 50GB limit (downloads only, not counting uploads). As soon as you go over these limits, they charge you for each extra GB. There are even some ISPs with deals limited to as low as 1GB to 2GB a month before you pay extra for more downloads.

So using a neighbours wireless network could very much cost them extra money each month depending on their ISP, and the deal they are on.

THE_MIDDLEMAN

Rex_Mundi wrote:

There are a lot of ISPs now with strict download limits. If you go over your limit, you pay for extra GBs. Some of the limits are extremely low (IMHO). Look at Madasafish and their 5GB deal. As soon as you go over this limit in a month, you are charged for each extra GB. Even Zen now don't offer unlimited deals to new customers. Depending on the deal you take, you have either a 20GB, or 50GB limit (downloads only, not counting uploads). As soon as you go over these limits, they charge you for each extra GB. There are even some ISPs with deals limited to as low as 1GB to 2GB a month before you pay extra for more downloads.

So using a neighbours wireless network could very much cost them extra money each month depending on their ISP, and the deal they are on.

Very true, point well made, question though how do we keep it secure?



I am sure that if you own the network, even with say a wanadoo live box, you can use the manufacturers software to password the network.

TOP TIP change the na,e of your home network away from the Microsft default.

Treat the network name like a password and that way no one will crack it.