Neighbours mooching off my wi-fi
- Thread starter perthguy
- Start date
It is a shame that you got hacked and is very much a case of live and learn.
Hide your SSID broadcast if you like. Where you need to improve(as you have suggested) is with your password (WiFi passphrase). It has to be a minimum 15 characters and you need to have lower case, upper case, numbers and symbols. It must not contain dictionary words, it must not contain word hacks (eg R085, R0b5 etc). It must be randomly scrambled.
Don't use capitals at the start, don't use symbols and numbers to finish off the code. As they are all common scenarios in passwords.
Use a variety of everything throughout.
Example, f5t-*uJl@-(6^5$.>A
As you would be using your router as a DHCP server, limit your starting and ending IP addresses, and then assign a device via its MAC address to an IP address.
Leave a spare IP if you like for when a friend comes around etc.
It may sound extreme, but once you set it up on your router and devices, there will be no room for them to utilise your router and you'll rarely have to worry about entering a complicated password again.
Hide your SSID broadcast if you like. Where you need to improve(as you have suggested) is with your password (WiFi passphrase). It has to be a minimum 15 characters and you need to have lower case, upper case, numbers and symbols. It must not contain dictionary words, it must not contain word hacks (eg R085, R0b5 etc). It must be randomly scrambled.
Don't use capitals at the start, don't use symbols and numbers to finish off the code. As they are all common scenarios in passwords.
Use a variety of everything throughout.
Example, f5t-*uJl@-(6^5$.>A
As you would be using your router as a DHCP server, limit your starting and ending IP addresses, and then assign a device via its MAC address to an IP address.
Leave a spare IP if you like for when a friend comes around etc.
It may sound extreme, but once you set it up on your router and devices, there will be no room for them to utilise your router and you'll rarely have to worry about entering a complicated password again.
And now my laptop won't connect to the network. I put in all the new settings but... nada. That's great. My network is now so secure that even I can't use it. Fantastic.
Never mind. All working now. I set security in Windows to WPA2-Personal(TKIP) when it should have been WPA2-Personal(AES-CCMP) of course
Done.
done. 63 char random alpha-numeric-symbol combo upper and lower but no caps at the start or numbers at the end.
Do you mean a MAC address white list? I have not done this yet but I will.
Not to me. My street has 6 houses and I have lived here for over 15 years. I have never had a thief living next door (rental property). All the other tenants have been awesome.
What is bitterly ironic is that the hacker has his SSID set to broadcast. Perhaps I should just hack him back.
Arp table is another place to look. If it was me, I'd set my device to a static IP so it wouldn't show in their Leases list.
If anyone is actually following this, don't think that hiding your SSID will actually do anything. A hidden SSID is ridiculously simple to bypass. Just type "hack a wireless network with a hidden ssid" into google.
The issue is setting a strong passphrase as outlined above. Also what dtraeger said about using static IP addresses and what Ostraylia said about whitelisting mac addresses.
I will need to do some additional setup to secure this modem but that will have to wait until tomorrow.
And it looks like I will be switching ssid back on again.
http://lifehacker.com/5636856/is-hiding-your-wireless-ssid-really-more-secure
"Hidden Wireless SSIDs Actually Leak Your SSID Name
Is Hiding Your Wireless SSID Really More Secure?
When you hide your wireless SSID on the router side of things, what actually happens behind the scenes is that your laptop or mobile device is going to start pinging over the air to try and find your router-no matter where you are. So you're sitting there at the neighborhood coffee shop, and your laptop or iPhone is telling anybody with a network scanner that you've got a hidden network at your house or job.
Microsoft's Technet explains exactly why hidden SSIDs are not a security feature, especially with older clients:
A non-broadcast network is not undetectable. Non-broadcast networks are advertised in the probe requests sent out by wireless clients and in the responses to the probe requests sent by wireless APs. Unlike broadcast networks, wireless clients running Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or Windows Server? 2003 with Service Pack 1 that are configured to connect to non-broadcast networks are constantly disclosing the SSID of those networks, even when those networks are not in range.
Therefore, using non-broadcast networks compromises the privacy of the wireless network configuration of a Windows XP or Windows Server 2003-based wireless client because it is periodically disclosing its set of preferred non-broadcast wireless networks."
http://lifehacker.com/5636856/is-hiding-your-wireless-ssid-really-more-secure
"Hidden Wireless SSIDs Actually Leak Your SSID Name
Is Hiding Your Wireless SSID Really More Secure?
When you hide your wireless SSID on the router side of things, what actually happens behind the scenes is that your laptop or mobile device is going to start pinging over the air to try and find your router-no matter where you are. So you're sitting there at the neighborhood coffee shop, and your laptop or iPhone is telling anybody with a network scanner that you've got a hidden network at your house or job.
Microsoft's Technet explains exactly why hidden SSIDs are not a security feature, especially with older clients:
A non-broadcast network is not undetectable. Non-broadcast networks are advertised in the probe requests sent out by wireless clients and in the responses to the probe requests sent by wireless APs. Unlike broadcast networks, wireless clients running Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or Windows Server? 2003 with Service Pack 1 that are configured to connect to non-broadcast networks are constantly disclosing the SSID of those networks, even when those networks are not in range.
Therefore, using non-broadcast networks compromises the privacy of the wireless network configuration of a Windows XP or Windows Server 2003-based wireless client because it is periodically disclosing its set of preferred non-broadcast wireless networks."
I've downloaded and run that, but I can't really tell much from that. I've got IP addresses, Mac Address and some have last computer name (none of those suspicious) but that's it.
My download quota is disappearing fast- but that may just be daughters. Is there a way of finding which computer is responsible for the downloads? Or if there's a neighbourly "leak"?
Log into your modem and look at attached devices, the DCHP leases table or the ARP table... depending on which modem you have. You will see a list of connected devices or (in my case) all devices that have connected in the last 24 hours. It was easy for me as soon as I say xbox and android, I knew my system had been compromised and my neighbours were mooching of my wifi - I don't have an xbox or android phone.
funny as
Well, at least my usage has drastically dropped off:
18/January/2014 - 4,825.58 MB
19/January/2014 - 2,276.95 MB
20/January/2014 - 3,791.68 MB
21/January/2014 - 1,859.86 MB
22/January/2014 - 250.38 MB
23/January/2014 - 479.69 MB
Guess which day I cut them off?
That is harsh! Some peice of equipment failed at my exchange and I was left without internet for 3 days. Felt like a week.
When we first connected to satellite Wi-Fi we put the toggle in the supplied power point convertor and off we went.
Went thru our usage really quickly - I contacted the provider and found out that even tho the computers were switched off, the Wi-Fi wasn't necessarily disconnecting itself (ie, one period at 66 hours straight).
Now we just leave the toggle out of dog reach, and plug it in to the actual laptop when we want to log on.
Would this be relevant to your situation?
Anyhow - I know how you feel to be hacked ... I've had my house broken into years ago ... and recently found hubby's ex from over 15 years ago has been hacking into my facebook to spy on us ... the second made me feel more violated because I knew them
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Mine is ADSL with a wi-fi modem. I communicate with my ISP through the phone line. It's not the same as a Wi-Fi modem like you have. Thanks though! I appreciate everyone's thoughts even if they are not related to my situation.
It has been a week and still down
Library ... !