I decided to play tonight

[samcurry]

With my laptop and wireless connection. Guess what i have found 2 unprotected wireless networks in my neighborhood. Oh what fun it is to sit in the backyard and surf for free. I cannot believe how people never pay attention to their manuals. I am using a d-link ag660 it is dual band so i can get on any network. sooo goooood.

 

[Luis G]

lol, over here wireless is not so common, most people that own computers only own one, and a little percentage have a laptop. Wireless is still kind of a luxury thing to have at home. Restaurants and schools have it, but not the average joe.

I can not find any access point nearby other than my own

 

[samcurry]

hehe i cant connect inside my house yet, but i'll get that resolved soon. But sitting outside is kinda nice.

 

[Luis G]

I bought the wireless thingie because I'm too lazy to connect and disconnect the network cable everytime I leave or get home. The access point is like 50cm away from the puter and that's the only place at home where I use the computer. I wouldn't want to be outside with the damn sun burning my skin and leaving me like a lobster

 

[samcurry]

im already past lobster, now im looking indian.

 

[tommyj27]

only 2 sammy? sounds like you need an antenna

 

[catocom]

only 2 sammy? sounds like you need an antenna

I like where it says "click on image to enlarge" on that first pic of the can.

 

[Inkara1]

I thought surfing off someone else's network was kinda illegal... ???

 

[Winky]

Um, no it is not.

Is it illegal to listen to AM radio?

Think Ink THINK!!!

 

[HomeLAN]

When my neighbor went wireless, he could see the other puter in his LAN but couldn't surf, so I went over to take a look. Turns out he was hooked into someone else's router with a different IP address range, but he was still set to look for the old gateway (he had been wired). Couldn't see their computers because (I assume) they had no shared resources. What confused me was that the other goob had the brains to change the IP range on the router, but didn't secure it. Didn't even turn off DHCP or limit the range of addresses it would hand out.

After I got him fixed, he listened very closely to what I told him about security.

 

[chcr]

I just built a pc for a guy and he's going with dsl + wirelessG, so I sent him home with his new computer and I'll go over this weekend and set up his wireless. He called me Tues. night and said, "The wireless network is up, I didn't have to do anything at all." I asked him what the name of his wireless network was and he gave it to me, then asked, "who named it that?" One of your neighbors, dude. I always set up wireless networks with static ips myself.

 

[HomeLAN]

In most cases, I'll do the same, but some folks want DHCP for other environments. In those cases, I'll limit the router to assign a number of addresses equal to the number of computers on the LAN. At least limit the possibilities....

 

[Professur]

I usually lock down the MAC addresses too. It's not unbeatable.... but if takes care of the riffraff

 

[Luis G]

I lock the MAC addresses, enabled 128-bit WEP (palm doesn't support WPA) and disabled the SSID broadcasting.

Limiting the range of the DHCP server is useless as it only assings an IP it doesn't restrict access, anyone that can get over the mac lock, the wep key and guess the SSID can surely specify a fixed IP.

 

[tommyj27]

I thought surfing off someone else's network was kinda illegal... ???

*cough* we weren't talking about accessing wireless networks, just enumerating them, to um, determine proliferation of wireless technology.

and as far as security goes, i'm convinced that wireless security is a sham. if i were to go breaking into networks, just about every security option in consumer-grade devices takes only a few keystrokes to bypass. things like WEP are more secure, because only a determined attacker is going to spend the time to crack it, making it an almost 'good enough' solution for joe homeowner. if you want true security for your wireless clients, IMHO you have to stick with the tried and true methods used to secure wired networks, firewalls to control access, VPNs to secure traffic, IDSs to detect breakin attempts. anyone can access my wireless network and get an address via DHCP, but that doesn't do them much good when just beyond the wireless there's a digital brick wall.

 

[Professur]

cloning a mac is easy enough, if you know how to work a sniffer to find one in the first place.

 

[HomeLAN]

Limiting the range of the DHCP server is useless as it only assings an IP it doesn't restrict access, anyone that can get over the mac lock, the wep key and guess the SSID can surely specify a fixed IP.

True enough, but it'll keep his next door neighbor from coming in by accident, which is the biggest threat to a residential user, IMO. Shit, look at what Sammy just did. It's not like this guy is doing things with his LAN or PC's that would make him a big, fat target, and a determined hacker could probably get in whatever you do at the router.

Something must be OK, because I haven't seen any wardriver signs in the hood (and I look).

 

[tommyj27]

Something must be OK, because I haven't seen any wardriver signs in the hood (and I look).

People in cars with laptops or those silly little symbols someone came up with to scrawl on the curb?

 

[HomeLAN]

Both.

 

[samcurry]

so your saying the neighbors might get suspicious with me walking around with my laptop and a big can attached to my head? All to easy padawans all to easy. I think i should just mount it next to my satalite dish.

What i thought was funny is that i didnt have to do anything but tell it to let me in. No sniffers or snything. Gheesh wait till i test that part out. Plus i may go tell them to upgrade their router so i can surf faster. 11mbs is tooooo slow.