Wifi

[hiro]

Anybody had bother with internet piggy backing over wifi network?

[amateurandy]

Anybody had bother with internet piggy backing over wifi network?

Yes, but what exactly do you mean? I can interpret that lots of ways

[hiro]

what sort of ways do you mean actually doing it or somebody doing it to you i mean the later but am interested on both counts

[amateurandy]

what sort of ways do you mean actually doing it or somebody doing it to you i mean the later but am interested on both counts

OK, so you mean someone is connecting to your wireless network and using your internet bandwith.

If you don't secure it in some way that is quite possible, and it needn't be deliberate, computers will do that all on their own (thank you Bill Gates!).

How risky that is depends on how your network is set up and whether bandwidth consumption matters to you. It may not, indeed you may want to provide it as a service.

So do you have a specific question?

[Smart Electrics]

set up your WEP key that will help !!!

[hiro]

OK, so you mean someone is connecting to your wireless network and using your internet bandwith.

If you don't secure it in some way that is quite possible, and it needn't be deliberate, computers will do that all on their own (thank you Bill Gates!).

How risky that is depends on how your network is set up and whether bandwidth consumption matters to you. It may not, indeed you may want to provide it as a service.

So do you have a specific question?

if somebody does use my wireless internet connection can they get any details from me ie passwords bank card number etc?

[Guest rjbsec]

if somebody does use my wireless internet connection can they get any details from me ie passwords bank card number etc?

Depends how your network is setup - do you have sharing of any files? If you do they may be accessible.

Make sure that either encryption is used (best) or stipulate MAC addresses of PC's able to access your network.

[amateurandy]

if somebody does use my wireless internet connection can they get any details from me ie passwords bank card number etc?

In general they will see exactly the same as anyone else on the internet, including me sat here miles away.

So, tell us a bit more about your network equipment and PC and we can be more specific.

[Guest]

So, tell us a bit more about your network equipment and PC and we can be more specific.

Or, in true TSI style, you sound like you'd be better getting someone else to sort it out!

[Guest RichardS]

Nobody has managed to my knowledge to piggyback my wireless but I've got it locked down - here's how from the beginning assuming a basic consumer wireless router/firewall:

1) Power everything up and connect the wireless devices to the network.

2) go to the homepage of the router via IE/Mozilla etc (normally on 192.168.1.1)

3) Under security enable WEP or if the router can do it WPA-PSK - WPA is a stronger encryption than WEP as it uses a rolling code, someone who really knows what they're doing can crack WEP surprisingly quickly so go for the longest key length possible if you have to use WEP.

4) Make a note of your key and keep it somewhere safe (i.e. not on the PC!)

5) Under Network connections in control panel (assuming a windows installation) go to properties for the wireless link and enable WEP/WPA-PSK and enter the key. Windows may automatically prompt you for the key as soon as you enable the encryption on the router anyway. It is this encryption that keeps your private information safe as it travels through the air so it's very important.

6) You should now be able to go back to the router homepage and again somewhere under security etc. should be the option to hide the SSID - do this as this will mean that the router will no longer broadcast that there is a wireless network available.

7) Also a good idea is to restrict access to the wireless network by MAC address - do this as well. If you have a laptop with onboard wireless or an internal card in your PC where you can not easily see the printed mac address information you can do the following start > run > type 'cmd' then hit enter, this will open a DOS prompt, now type 'getmac' and after a few seconds it will list the mac adresses for all installed network cards. You should now have your MAC address and can enter it into a field on the router, entry format may vary but is typically something like 00-11-44-11-A0-25 or 00:11:44:11:A0:25 - make sure the adress is added to the 'allow' field then enable MAC filtering. If you now lose connection to the network on the wireless device you have either got the adress wrong or configured the filter incorrectly, if this is the machine you are using to configure the router you will either need to plug in to the router via a CAT5/RJ45 cable or if you do not have one perform a factory reset on the router and go back to step 1

8)If you do not have one installed already then make sure you have a firewall enabled on your PC/laptop and that your wireless router is in the 'internet' zone rather than 'trusted' as it's likely that any malicious traffic heading towards your machine will be coming via the router (unless there's an unmarked van/car parked out the front of the house!). Anti-Virus software should also be running and up to date!

Any questions feel free to ask as I do this sort of stuff for a living!