Who is stealing my wi-fi?
in [Mac Systems]
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From: Tom Harrington on 2 Mar 2005 11:27 In article <4225d03f$1_1(a)baen1673807.greenlnk.net>, "SRMoll" <stephen.no.spam.please.moll(a)amsjv.no.spam.please.com> wrote: > 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. Geez, where do _you_ live? Around here we get charged based on the amount used. And if the total goes over a certain threshold, the rate increases. But I guess that's just because we've had a multi-year drought. I'm surprised to hear that unmetered water is available anywhere these days. -- Tom "Tom" Harrington Macaroni, Automated System Maintenance for Mac OS X. Version 2.0: Delocalize, Repair Permissions, lots more. See http://www.atomicbird.com/
From: SRMoll on 2 Mar 2005 11:40 "Tom Harrington" <tph(a)pcisys.no.spam.dammit.net> wrote in message news:tph-60A34F.09270402032005(a)localhost... > In article <4225d03f$1_1(a)baen1673807.greenlnk.net>, > "SRMoll" <stephen.no.spam.please.moll(a)amsjv.no.spam.please.com> wrote: > > > 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. > > Geez, where do _you_ live? Around here we get charged based on the > amount used. And if the total goes over a certain threshold, the rate > increases. But I guess that's just because we've had a multi-year > drought. I'm surprised to hear that unmetered water is available > anywhere these days. > > -- > Tom "Tom" Harrington > Macaroni, Automated System Maintenance for Mac OS X. > Version 2.0: Delocalize, Repair Permissions, lots more. > See http://www.atomicbird.com/ London, England
From: Doug Anderson on 2 Mar 2005 11:46 Charles Dyer <charlesd(a)newsguy.com> writes: > 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... Changing the default IP address won't even slow down an intruder. He won't notice the change until he has intruded anyhow. > It also has a built-in username and password. I changed them to something not > so easily detected. That won't slow down an intruder, but it will slow down how fast he could reconfigure your router (should he want to), so it is a good idea. > 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. That should slow down an intruder. > 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. That should also slow down an intruder. > 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 I don't think an intruder needs this information. > 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. Yep > 3 the WEP key is yet another non-trivial assemblage of alpha and non-alpha > characters. Yep. > 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? 3 probably takes quite a bit more time and effort than 4. Did you also set your machine not to broadcast its SSID? That is another way to reduce the number of people who 'stumble' across your network. So I also have similar minimal protections on my WIFI network. But what I wonder is why care so much? It is true that someone who wanted to could eventually break into my network. It is also true that once they did that, they would have little to do more interesting than surf the web. So should we really care that much?
From: Greg Shenaut on 2 Mar 2005 11:49 Davoud <star(a)sky.net> exponit: > That, sir, is a distinction without a difference. Copyright > infringement, misappropriation, trademark infringement, et al, are all > different forms of theft. I wonder whether the common law principle of a prescriptive easement might not be relevant to this kind of "airwave" or "IP address space" issue. That is, if you park on someone's wifi (or hardwired) router long enough and openly enough, could you end up with a permanent right to do so? Obviously, at least one issue that must be resolved is whether there can be virtual "real estate". It seems to me that there could be; certainly there is a great deal of terminology that suggests it (licensing wave"lengths" & ranges of IP "addresses", "routing", "gateways", and so on). Greg Shenaut
From: Tim Streater on 2 Mar 2005 12:01
In article <tph-60A34F.09270402032005(a)localhost>, Tom Harrington <tph(a)pcisys.no.spam.dammit.net> wrote: > In article <4225d03f$1_1(a)baen1673807.greenlnk.net>, > "SRMoll" <stephen.no.spam.please.moll(a)amsjv.no.spam.please.com> wrote: > > > 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. > > Geez, where do _you_ live? Around here we get charged based on the > amount used. And if the total goes over a certain threshold, the rate > increases. But I guess that's just because we've had a multi-year > drought. I'm surprised to hear that unmetered water is available > anywhere these days. There is the naive view that it's free, you see. After all, it falls out of the sky without so much as a by-your-leave. Of course by this argument petrol should be free also, as indeed should be all commodities. The fact that these items requires refining in one fashion or another is overlooked. -- tim |