Someone trying to connect to my PC

B0bbyEwing

PC, not laptop although that shouldn't really make a difference.

I have a bluetooth USB 'thingy' (dongle?) plugged in to my PC so that I can use wireless headphones on the PC & that's the only purpose this USB stick has.

So I get a message popping up saying [Joe Bloggs wants to connect to your PC] - although not those exact words as I can't remember what the exact wording was, it was words to that effect. 

Allow / Deny.

Thing is, from their name I'm pretty sure I know who on the street it was. 

Q1: Is it at all possible that they tried to connect without knowing about it (they had an iPhone if that makes a difference) or would they have had to have known what they were doing - as in intentionally trying to connect (or at least just flagging the message up)?

I'd never had this before so I tried my own (Android) phone to connect to it under Bluetooth. When I did it it brought up a PIN that needed to be matched - this wasn't the case with this other person. No PIN mentioned. So:

Q2: why is that?

Q3: Is it possible to not broadcast to randomers but be perfectly fine for home use? Or not?

Windows 10, if that makes a difference.

forgotmyname

No pin mentioned because your device asked them for a pin?

I used to send messages to people in crowded areas using bluetooth many moons ago.  Some devices you can turn off
the publicly visible name so you can only connect if you know it.

You get the same in cars in traffic,  someones phone finds your cars bluetooth active and tries to connect.  Good reason
to make sure your password/pin is unique and not the generic one.  Quite often devices have the factory supplied code
still active.

MattMattMattUK

You just need to turn Bluetooth visibility off, it will still work with existing paired devices but no normal unconnected device will see it, I say normal because with the correct software one can still see it, but a random is very unlikely to have that. 
Q.1 Yes they would have had to know what they were doing, but that does not mean they knew what they were connecting to, they likely did it out of curiosity. 
Q.2 Some pairings need a PIN, others require the user to verify/accept the connection, some require both as well as the devices being in pairing mode.
Q.3 Yes, just turn off Bluetooth visibility, you would need to make the connection visible again if you wanted to add another device yourself. 

DullGreyGuy

What does your computer ID as in Bluetooth? Is it something meaningful or not? 

The Dell laptop I had from my last client used to ID as Dell and some random numbers and used to get the occasional connection attempt when on a train etc. Personally put it down to the fact it wasn't really very identifiable and the person could be genuinely mistaking it for their own device which IDed as Dell and a different set of random numbers. 

Living in flats we similar get some random things appearing in lists like what appear to be speakers. I know the model numbers of ours, which again unhelpfully is what they show as, so can select ours but no idea what would happen if a neighbour bought the same Sony wireless headphones. 

It could be someone either hoping to get some free internet or something more malicious and so for precaution you should turn off broadcasting the ID publicly. 

MattMattMattUK

DullGreyGuy said:

What does your computer ID as in Bluetooth? Is it something meaningful or not? 

For a while I labelled the Wifi hotspot on my phone "MET-Police-Surveilance-Van-47", when working in coffee shops it was amazing seeing people looking around for a van, some even going out and looking at vans parked outside. 

forgotmyname

MattMattMattUK said:

For a while I labelled the Wifi hotspot on my phone "MET-Police-Surveilance-Van-47", when working in coffee shops it was amazing seeing people looking around for a van, some even going out and looking at vans parked outside. 

I like that one.. I changed my Router WiFi to   "  Your neighbour is spying on you  " and boosted the power for a little while but the unit used to get super
hot because of increased power.  Probably should have made it password free and see how many people connected to it.

cerebus

MattMattMattUK said:

DullGreyGuy said:

What does your computer ID as in Bluetooth? Is it something meaningful or not? 

For a while I labelled the Wifi hotspot on my phone "MET-Police-Surveilance-Van-47", when working in coffee shops it was amazing seeing people looking around for a van, some even going out and looking at vans parked outside. 

Hilariously that shouldn't have fooled anyone with half a brain....

There are some hilarious router names out there though 

GingerTim

cerebus said:

MattMattMattUK said:

DullGreyGuy said:

What does your computer ID as in Bluetooth? Is it something meaningful or not? 

For a while I labelled the Wifi hotspot on my phone "MET-Police-Surveilance-Van-47", when working in coffee shops it was amazing seeing people looking around for a van, some even going out and looking at vans parked outside. 

Hilariously that shouldn't have fooled anyone with half a brain....

There are some hilarious router names out there though 

At my old place of residence, someone in a nearby property had named their router 'we can hear you having sex'.