Hey all My oldest daughter is off at college. She has a cable connection for her internet and a wireless hub (lynksis?) that she uses to connect to her laptop. She set it up herself but she doesn't think she encrypted her hub. She is pretty certain other people are parking in front of her apartment and using her connection. Is there a website or a some FAQ she can access that will show her how to encrypt her hub. She said there was nothing with the instructions from her hub that explained how to encrypt the signal. I am too far away and I am not sure how to do it as my hub was installed and encrypted by Best Buy when I purchased my hub.
Better then that........... If it is a Linksys product, have her contact them. They will guide her though everything. Their tech support has alway come through for me. If that doesn't work she can go to the comp sci ctr. at the school. I'm sure someone there would be more than happy to help. FYI - It is pretty easy to setup.
Have her login to the router through her web browser, using the IP 192.168.1.1. For username, type 'admin', leave the password field blank. This will ger her into the router setup. In addition to encryption, do MAC address filtering to, so only her laptop can get on. Go here for more detailed info:http://www.linksys.com/support/support.asp
If this works then she should immediately password protect her router before doing anything else. This is the default setting and every hacker knows this.
Almost correct. Typically the username is blank and the password is 'admin'. It needs to be changed. Yup, needs to be changed. But setting up WEP encryption or removing random access is necessary. Heck, this post that I'm making right now is being used off of one of my neighbors unsecured wireless routers. Would you like to see what else is on their network or shares? =D
Yes, because it's degrading your service because they're using up your bandwidth. Imagine if the person using the bandwidth was, say, downloading music and movies. Your connection would be sloooooooow. Definitely change your router password, enable WEP, and put access in place for only the single laptop. There's really no need for anything more than that on a residential network. The bandwidth theif will simply move on to the next unprotected wireless access point, which is probably about 500 feet away. That said, WEP and MAC filtering are kind of like "the club" on a car - they're deterrents, but not infallible. It's incredibly easy to spoof a MAC address, and WEP encryption is pretty weak (FWIW... 128 bits isn't really 128 bits). Just for kicks, I sometimes run netstumbler on my laptop when I'm driving somewhere to see how many insecure wireless networks I pass from point A to point B. You'd be amazed... and I don't live anywhere near a big city.
Indeed. Neat little app. I recommend it: http://www.netstumbler.com/downloads/ As for shares, no you aren't sharing anything but others have shares setup for business, home sharing, etc. I'm not going to say anything more than I'm quite ethical and do not crack into someone's system to mess it up, but as a network administrator, I like to discover what is secure and what is unsecure.
Thanks guys. It's always a bit nerve racking when a daughter calls for help and you don't know exactly what to do. I called her a few minutes ago and gave her the link to Lynksis support and I told he to review the page and then call support and have them walk her through the process. She said that Saturday evening she noticed a car out front in the parking lot and a guy just sitting there in the car. As it got darker, she could tell he was using a laptop. She is pretty sharp and figured out what he was doing. She unplugged the cable from the router and the guy left immediately. She caught him again Sunday doing the same thing. The fact that someone is using her bandwidth is bad enough, but having people sitting in the parking lot in front of her apartment really bugs me.
I think most wireless products supports this now. In addition to performing encryption, you can turn on this feature. Basically, every wireless card or network interface card(NIC) has a "unique number" (12 digits in hexadecimal). So in the security setting, you can only limit your daughter's wireless card to access the Linksys, it will add another layer of protection/security. Hope if helps.
This is why I have stuck with wired routers. We used to have a net admin who drove around with a laptop, wireless card and GPS. He would find open connections and then make those people his clients. I use a NAT firewall and software firewalls on all my PC's. In addition, stay on top w/ MS Baseline Security Analyzer. I live by that thing.
It's just that he's using the bandwidth, but it's highly likely that he can also access her laptop. If she hasn't protected the router, I doubt she has protected her laptop files.
