The Mitsubishi Pajero Owners Club®

[The Apache]

Just thought i would make those of you with wirless networks at home aware of just how easy it is for somebody to hack into your network and possibly use your internet connection for free, or even worse view your files!

The reason i am posting this, is because i recently discovered that somebody had been using my internet connection.
This only became apparent, when my pay as you go broadband bills were showing that i was exceeding my inclusive monthly bandwith and being charged considerably more than the flat fee. I looked at the summary of usage and noticed that 108MB had been downloaded on 31st of December, which was odd, because we were't even at home that day???
I knew that i hadn't personally used that much, so, who the *beep* had?????
The only way to find out was to access the configuration pages of the router, and see if any unrecognised connections were showing........
Well, b-ugge-r me, 3 Pc's were connected, mine, my lads upstairs, and another, which i was instantly able to identify as the little b@s7ards next door, because the name of his computer was the same as his dog, WHAT A PRAT.
I have now set the security so that he can no longer gain access.
As yet, i have not approached him, but when i do

Here are a few links to help you secure your wireless networks, because as i found, the instructions that came with my router, were poor to say the least


http://www.dslwebserver.com/main/fr_index.html?/main/secure-wireless.html

http://reviews.designtechnica.com/print_guide25.html

[Google]

[Roger Dard]

thanks for the links m8, im gonna set up a wireless router at the weekend and wondered how i could make it secure, although i will have a firewall on each pc that wouldn't stop anyone using the connection
thanks again for the links

[The Apache]

no probs rog, i would like to think that my experience will prompt more ppl to make their networks secure. what does annoy me is that there is very little warning by manufacturers and retailers on just how vulnerable, wireless networks are when they are in their "out of the box" default settings.

If only the little toe rag had his folders and files set to share, i might just empty the contents of my virus vault into his machine

[noiseboy72]

With wireless routers, set up a wep or wma encryption password and turn off the SSID broadcast. This makes your router invisible to the average user and damn near impossible to connect to without the password.

I must confess when I am working away, I will use any "free" wifi hotspot I can find. I was at the Thistle Hotel in Kensington yesterday and found 2 wireless networks, both with the default name of Belkin54g and both without security ! Why pay £1.50 per 5 mins to the hotel when i can get it for free ? With 150 rooms, think how many other people are doing the same ?

Whats worse, I could easily hack the connection and re-configure it as people who have not bothered to secure the connection rarely change the password to the router, so change this as well.

I only download my emails though, not my bittorrent streams, so I won't affect anybodies usage allowances. Consider it the moron tax

[Blue Thunder]

Also you could find someone sat outside your house with something like an XDA 11, my mates got one and can use his neighbours internet connection, sat in his car

[Roger Dard]

when i set up my existing wireless network up i found another network somewhere that i could connect to, wasn't very good tho cos the signal was weak but it made me wonder about security, at present i connect through a usb modem but im gonna set up a router at the weekend so this information is good to have

[Bluemoon]

It really surprises me that people/companies who are running a Wireless Network are leaving them wide open to anyone, who, with little more than a PDA can surf to their hearts content & all at somebody else's expense.
Now a lot of people are unaware of the security measures you can take to secure your connection, mainly down to bad documentation, but in some cases they just can't be bothered reading up on it (that's not aimed at anyone by the way) & then wonder why they have problems.
Companies who do the same should invest a little more & get someone in who knows what their doing and implement some reasonable security measures.
All but the cheapest of Routers these days have pretty good security built in to them, all you have to do is set them up properly.
As Noseboy said, use WEP or WMA encryption, 128bit at the least and hide your SSID (network ID). I also use MAC Address Access Control (this might not be available on all Routers), all this does is give access to the equipment you want to by entering the MAC address of each PC/Laptop etc into this option & enable it, this will then deny access to anything other than the authorized equipment.
If you have a built in Firewall enable that too, most are already setup & are fine as they are. Also make sure you assign a password to the admin a/c, so you have to login every time.
It's also worth having a PC connected by the LAN for any maintenance in the future, Firmware upgrades etc.
HTH.