WiFi astonishment

[Handruin]

I'm having fun with Wireless connections right now. I got a new laptop from work a few days back and it came with a 802.11b wireless card for work.

So I was having the normal discussing during lunch the other day how people don't lock down their wireless networks...blah blah. You know the story.

Tonight I got curious (mind you I own no wireless routers or AP's) so I fire up the laptop and begin playing with the wireless card's tools. Sure enough I have 3...yes 3 wireless networks to pick from, all with good signal strength. I was able to browse the web on all of them. I mean, I didn't even have to hack a thing, I just told the card to scan for available networks and POW...I selected a network.

Ok, not ONLY was I able to connect to their network, these poor bastards didn't even change the web based admin account password. I'm sitting here looking at their router's settings. :bigeek:

 

[mubs]

Doesn't it scare you? That war driving business is all bull. You don't need t drive; it's all delivered right to your system!

When I set up a wireless network a while ago, I found a couple of networks with good signals. I was doing my thing in a single family detached home, mind you. The one I set up was a G network. Turned on WPA, turned off SSID broadcast, set access based on MAC address, and every other security option available.

Problem is John Doe buys the stuff at Best Buy, sets it up and crows about what a smart guy he is. Gives me the creeps.

 

[Handruin]

It does scare me. I do plan o getting my own wireless router at some point and when I do, I'm going to lock it down as best I can.

I found two more AP's while I've been investigating a tool called NetStumbler. Out of the 5 total AP's, two of them look locked with WEP, but must be broadcasting something? 4 are on channel 6, and on is on channel 2.

Like you said, the hell with War Driving...I can get awesome access anywhere in my apartment, and probably outside.

 

[Clocker]

I have the same situation here at my new house. I'm picking up a Linksys 802.11g router which must be at one of my neighbors houses. The signal strenth is pretty low but it is good enough (abou 5mbps). I was able to log in to the router since they didn't change the defaults too.

Only problem is, it appears the router isn't connected to anything (not even on the WAN side). The router has not been assigned an IP by an ISP and there are no other computers attached to it but mine. It's like somebody just plugged in the power to the router and forget to connect it to anything...that's no fun!! :lol:

C

 

[blakerwry]

somebody probably thought they needed an AP to go with their computer(s)...

or possibly the AP is configured as a switch and would not have a WAN IP. If there is no DHCP server on the network assigning you an IP you could try to guess the IP information.

 

[Clocker]

Hi blake...

My neighbor's linksys is assigning me an IP. It appears I'm the only computer accessing the router as the routers address is xxx.xxx.0.17 and my machines IP is xxx.xxx.0.18

I'll just check it out occasionally to see what he's up to and if he ever connects anything... :wink:

 

[sechs]

This is just furthur proof that people are amazingly stupid.

I can pick out two open networks from my living room -- one of them appears to be a company net.

 

[ddrueding]

My sister doesn't even bother ordering broadband when she moves. She just brings her AP+Smoothwall to her new place and has never been dissapointed.

She is a college student (soon to be moving to Ithaca, New York for graduate work at Cornell), and students are quite ignorant/carefree about this kind of thing.

 

[blakerwry]

I've been thinking of talking to the other tennants of my apartment building to see if they're interested in paying me a few dollars a month for the service of letting them use my wireless AP to connect to the internet.

I get enough range to cover my building and the 2 adjacent ones without problems(18 apartments). Anything further and I'd need an AP with an external antenna.

Sure would be an easy way to recoup my cable bill. But I don't want to end up sharing with some p2p crazed nut who will get me in trouble... or use up all the bandwidth.

 

[Handruin]

My friend at work did the same thing in his apartment. He shared his ISP connection with his neighbors. He just told them to buy their own access point and then he gave them the connection information they needed.

 

[Stereodude]

I apparently have the only broadcasting Access Point within range of my apartment. After seeing my neighbors, I'm not too surprised.

I have WEP and MAC address filtering enabled. If I turn off the broadcast one of my two notebooks can't seem to access the network anymore.

 

[Adcadet]

I usually don't use wireless in my appartment, so I just turn mine off when I'm not using it. Solves that security issue.

I'm so clueless about wireless it's almost embarasing. And I use wireless at school 5 days/week. If you want to grab credit card numbers, just go to your local wireless university for a while and listen in.

 

[ddrueding]

For some strange reason this subject has me quite interested. A posting on slashdot that referenced this pagetalked a bit about using USB wifi adapters mounted to parabolic antennae as a feasible long-distance solution.

I have access to quite a few 18" DirectTV dishes, and live in a very affluent neighborhood. Should be plenty of unsecured APs hooked to broadband out there, all I need is a way to agregate the bandwidth. Thoughts?

 

[Howell]

[Commercial break]
This Neatgear wireless "media" router has a USB port and you can connect a USB2 external HD. Shared household drive space without a seperate server.
[/commercial break]

 

[MaxBurn]

For amusement I put the external antenna onto my truck and take a spin with net stumbler running. I get a couple that are locked down but the majority of them are not. I haven't ever tried to stop and use the connections or search for file shares, nothing stoping anyone though.

I kind of like the idea that I could stop just about anywhere and use the internet if I really needed it though.

 

[Fushigi]

[Commercial break]

Darn, and I just recently bought the 624. Nice idea, there, although I'm sure some would want 1394 instead...

 

[GIANT]

I can pick out two open networks from my living room -- one of them appears to be a company net.

WEEEEE HEEEEE HEEEEE!

About 3 or so years ago, I recall someone posting a glowing (er... slobbering) account about "Going ALL Wireless: This Is The Future And It's Great" once back at the OLD Snorage Review website.

I offered a snide confutation along the lines of, "No thanks, I don't want to open up my network to every hacker or to every detrimental electromagetic effect within antenna range. I'll stick with wires (Ethernet, USB, Firewire)." I believe I was then accused of being a prude. I followed up with a volley of, "If you think M$ has security problems, just wait 'til wireless networks become popular -- it won't compare." Nobody responded, but I do recall the discussion sinking deeply into frivolity with someone next going on and on about how they really wanted to have a totally wireless monitor.

Needless to say, I think wireless security has become as bad as I was thinking it could.