Who is stealing my wi-fi?
in [Mac Systems]
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From: Chris McDonald on 2 Mar 2005 08:09 Gnarlodious <gnarlodious(a)yahoo.com> writes: >OK, maybe that was inappropriate. >But when people accuse their neighbors of "stealing" their free and publicly >available radio signals it makes me realize just how much the FCC has turned >the spectrum into a commodity to be owned. It makes me angry, just like the >media conglomerates that gobble up local broadcast without obligation to >serve the public. You're joking, right? I doubt that the OP was worried about the radio spectrum being used, via his unprotected equipment, but that the OP is paying good money to an ISP which is accessed via that equipment. It's a very common expression to say that the "wifi is being stolen". ______________________________________________________________________________ Dr Chris McDonald E: chris(a)csse.uwa.edu.au Computer Science & Software Engineering W: http://www.csse.uwa.edu.au/~chris The University of Western Australia, M002 T: +618 6488 2533 Crawley, Western Australia, 6009 F: +618 6488 1089
From: SRMoll on 2 Mar 2005 09:47 "Chris McDonald" <chris(a)csse.uwa.edu.au> wrote in message news:d04du7$e7n$1(a)enyo.uwa.edu.au... > Gnarlodious <gnarlodious(a)yahoo.com> writes: > >OK, maybe that was inappropriate. > >But when people accuse their neighbors of "stealing" their free and publicly > >available radio signals it makes me realize just how much the FCC has turned > >the spectrum into a commodity to be owned. It makes me angry, just like the > >media conglomerates that gobble up local broadcast without obligation to > >serve the public. > > > You're joking, right? > > I doubt that the OP was worried about the radio spectrum being used, > via his unprotected equipment, but that the OP is paying good money to > an ISP which is accessed via that equipment. > It's a very common expression to say that the "wifi is being stolen". > > ____________________________________________________________________________ __ > Dr Chris McDonald E: chris(a)csse.uwa.edu.au > Computer Science & Software Engineering W: http://www.csse.uwa.edu.au/~chris > The University of Western Australia, M002 T: +618 6488 2533 > Crawley, Western Australia, 6009 F: +618 6488 1089 > This argument comes up quite often in various forums, with various answers and conclusions. My take on it is this: If I put all my valuables in my front garden, completely unprotected then if someone takes them without my permission, whilst they have technically been stolen, I shouldn't be surprised. The comparison above falls over when you consider that when the valuables are stolen, I no longer have them at all... I can't use or even see them anymore. A wireless connection doesn't simply disappear when people consider its use to have been stolen. When the "stealing" stops the owner still has ownership. Whilst the "stealing" is taking place, the user still has use of it, even if with reduced capacity. So a better analogy would be the water tap I have in my garden to water the plants. If someone walks up to it and without permission takes away a bucket of water, has that water been stolen from me? I personally would be a little miffed that someone used my tap without asking, but I still wouldn't consider it theft, because even though I pay for that water to be delivered, that cost stays the same no matter how much I use, so I've lost nothing.
From: Tony Soprano on 2 Mar 2005 10:10 In article <010320052110189286%herb793(a)nospam.yahoo.com>, herb <herb793(a)nospam.yahoo.com> wrote: > I have a NetGear wireless router hooked up to my iMac and broadband > cable modem. I never configured any software for this setup, literally > I plugged it in and it worked. I noodled around with Airport setup and > the various utilities in the Applications folder but none would let me > setup this wi-fi signal with a password. > > Lately I've noticed the status lights flickering A LOT on the router > indicating airport access even when my laptop is shut off, so I assume > one of my neighbors is tapping into my wi-fi. Any suggestions how to > keep them out? > > I am running Little Snitch and it doesn't tell me anything about > unauthorized access or any security issues, but I DO have a neighbor > who is a computer hacker... > > any help appreciated. Turn off your wireless router while your computer is shut off?
From: Davoud on 2 Mar 2005 10:54 Jim Hill: > If he doesn't think his money's good enough to secure his wireless > network then he can cry me a river. It's nothing more than a radio > extension of the scenario where people's Winboxes get jacked into being > zombies for other people's purposes. If you don't care enough to secure > it, don't whine. It's the Wild West out there, folks. Get a hat and a > gun. Good advice. The gun will protect against rustlers, while the hat will protect against skin cancer, which likely killed more cowboys than did rustlers. > It's also very common to say that copyright infringement is theft but > that's not true, either. That, sir, is a distinction without a difference. Copyright infringement, misappropriation, trademark infringement, et al, are all different forms of theft. Davoud
From: Charles Dyer on 2 Mar 2005 11:11
On Wed, 2 Mar 2005 00:10:18 -0500, herb wrote (in article <010320052110189286%herb793(a)nospam.yahoo.com>): > I have a NetGear wireless router hooked up to my iMac and broadband > cable modem. I never configured any software for this setup, literally > I plugged it in and it worked. I noodled around with Airport setup and > the various utilities in the Applications folder but none would let me > setup this wi-fi signal with a password. > > Lately I've noticed the status lights flickering A LOT on the router > indicating airport access even when my laptop is shut off, so I assume > one of my neighbors is tapping into my wi-fi. Any suggestions how to > keep them out? My Lincsys wireless router at home has the gateway (router) address of 192.168.0.1, by default. It can be changed to any 192.168.x.x address (if you know what you're doing...) and I did change it. It won't do much more than slow down an intruder, but hey... It also has a built-in username and password. I changed them to something not so easily detected. Next up, it has a 'Wireless Security' control section on the built-in HTML control site at that gateway address. I turned on 128-bit security and made sure that all the machines on my wireless net had the proper (extremely long and annoying) hex key input into their systems. A subsection of that page lists the MAC addresses of machines authorised to access the router. I made sure that all wireless devices were up and connected, noted their MAC addresses, had the router display the MAC addresses of all wireless devices on the network at the time, checked the displayed list to make sure that _all_ of _my_ devices were on the list and _none_ of _anyone else's_ were present, then locked down the access list so that _only_ my devices were authorised. My wireless net is now secure against the casual intruder. An intruder would have to: 1 work out where I shifted the router address to; trivial, but still an extra step 2 figure out my new username/password if he wanted to change anything on the router or to get certain other info the easy way; I took standard anti-dictionary-attack measures, so getting in would be non-trivial. 3 the WEP key is yet another non-trivial assemblage of alpha and non-alpha characters. 4 MAC addresses can be spoofed, so someone _could_ pretend to be running an authorised device, but in order to do that someone would have to go to truly significant levels of effort. If someone with that kind of skill set really wants access, he's gonna get access unless I simply turn the router off. But as people with that kind of skill set are rare and usually have better things to do than to try to get free access to a home wireless network when they can go down the road a few miles to a McDonalds or a Barnes and Nobles which has 'free' wifi, why would they bother? > > I am running Little Snitch and it doesn't tell me anything about > unauthorized access or any security issues, Little Snitch will tell you about attempts to get into your computer. It will not tell you about attempts to get into your router. > but I DO have a neighbor > who is a computer hacker... The Linksys has another page which lists all people currently on the router. You can look and see who's connected. And it takes no hacking skill at all to connect to an unsecured router. Just cruise by with a laptop which has a wireless card and which is set to join any unsecured net it picks up. If you're in an apartment building or townhouses or something of the kind, or even if you're in a stand-alone house but the neighbour is close, a desktop machine with a wireless card can and will pick up your net just by being turned on. Machines with standard wireless setups can pick up unsecured nets at ranges of 50 to 100 feet, maybe more if conditions are right. Machines with parabolic antennas can and have picked up unsecured nets at ranges measured in miles. > > any help appreciated. -- We are Microsoft of Borg. You will be assimilated. Stability is irrelevant. Where _you_ want to go to today is irrelevant. We will add your currency to our own. Bend over right now. Resistance is futile. |