Unsecured Wireless Networks

[jisaac 0]

Man it is ubelievable how many people do not secure their wiireless networks. I have 7 unsecured networks around my house. At almost any give time in little rock I can find an unsecured network to jump on if I need to. I thought about getting verizons wireless broadband so during the day I can always have access. But dont need to. If they are advanced enough to set the dang thing up you would think they would secure it. Nope.

[tomeb 0]

Chicago and some surrounding areas are actually talking about putting in city wide free wireless (supported by advertising of course)

[Jasper 0]

Man it is ubelievable how many people do not secure their wiireless networks. I have 7 unsecured networks around my house. At almost any give time in little rock I can find an unsecured network to jump on if I need to. I thought about getting verizons wireless broadband so during the day I can always have access. But dont need to. If they are advanced enough to set the dang thing up you would think they would secure it. Nope.

 

I can relate to the people not setting up their security properly. This new wireless Linksys router has a button on it to make it easier to setup security. My older Linksys does not have this feature. I played around with the security setting a bit when I first bought it and didn’t get it working right away so I gave up. I ended up using the MAC address filtering feature. Even if I had security setup on it I know it could be compromised by someone who knows how to do it. It would keep out most people if I had the strongest level of security setup on it.

 

Now if I am not using my laptop around the house I just turn off the wireless feature. When I first moved into my house and didn’t have my cable internet hooked up yet I was sure glad my neighbor had an unsecured network. It helped me get through a week or so without internet service.

 

Since you brought this up I think I will try to secure my wireless network so I can have it up and operating so I don’t have to go into browser admin screen every time I want internet access for my wireless laptop.

 

What security method do I use? There are more than a few listed in my router. Which is considered the most secure? Once I know that I can see if I can find some directions for helping me set it up.

[rory 0]

Sshhhhh, dont tell them, we want to keep getting free wireless internet ...

[VJD 0]

Jasper, if your router has WPA or WPA2, that is what you would use for encryption.

[jisaac 0]

my wife would be so proud of me (she is a komando listener. I find it extremely boring)

http://www.komando.com/tips_show.asp?showID=8796

[rory 0]

if your online then your just as unsecure, if the PC is setup properly for the internet & security then the most you have to worry about is people using your bandwidth .. obviuosly if you have shared files/folders then you're already SOL .. people worry too much, if you use MSN IM your already easy to hack ...!

[jisaac 0]

I use use cat 5 for my LAN. When I moved in I put two runs per room. So dont use my wireless in my house unless I get really lazy and dont want to plug into the wall, at that point I have 7 signals to choose from.

[Jasper 0]

OK Rory I won't tell anyone, didn't plan on it anyway. You never know when you might need that access. And I don’t use any of the IM or stuff like that, heck I can’t even get you to talk to me.

 

VJD, thanks for the info. WPA2 is apparently the same as WPA Pre Shared Key on my router which is supposed to be the best based on the Link Isaac posted.So I will be trying to set that up.

 

Magee, thanks for the link I think that will probably help me. It seems to be a very concise article of just what I needed. Hopefully everything will go as smooth as the article and I will be protected. 7 Signals to choose from that is funny. Full coverage for any area of your place. Me I have to stand by my window with my Laptop if I have a problem with my equipment.

[Jasper 0]

Well that went fairly smooth. Part of my difficulty of doing it before is that my IBM Thinkpad has its own unique program for dealing with wireless networks. Once I figured out how to bypass it and put my key in I got it working.

 

Now neighbors can look, but can't touch.

[joe4 0]

Funny the Houston cable provider wants to lock them up.

 

http://www.twctheft.com/TypeOfTheft.aspx

 

"WiFi Theft – WiFi theft occurs when someone installs a wireless network in a residence or business location and intentionally enables others to receive broadband service for free over their wireless network.

 

Wireless networking is a great product, but when using a wireless network subscribers should always secure their home networks from unauthorized users. Unsecured wireless networks allow others to access a subscriber's network and potentially see all of the subscriber's personal files, allow potential criminals and terrorists to send untraceable communications or allow an individual to download illegal materials, such as copyrighted or obscene material that would lead back to the subscribers modem."

 

I like the terrorist part, somthing you would not see a few years ago.

[rory 0]

They cant prove they intentionally left it open, as that is the default.

Besides any real hacker can crack any of that light security anyways ..

[cam2 0]

Yeah, its default mode is open so...

 

I'm pleased everyone doesn't lock it down, im surfin free USA style

[joe4 0]

They cant prove they intentionally left it open, as that is the default.

Besides any real hacker can crack any of that light security anyways ..

 

I would say anyone that can do a web search could break light security wifi.

 

I would start with VPN over WIFI and keep adding options and products till I could sleep at night.

[Thomas 0]

Kim Komando has a room tempature IQ and simply shills for who ever pays her. Most of her advice and techincal statements are either wrong or just "duh".

Turn on WPA2 if you can, WPA if you can't. But always assume that the network is insecure.

 

I want to iterate this point. All wireless networks should be assumed to be not only insecure but already compromised. WEP is a joke to break and WPA has some serious flaws. Neither one takes much time to break.

[Jasper 0]

Well there went my sense of security, no not really. I know that if your connected to the internet or have data flowing through the air you are always susceptible.

 

I’m just glad to have the little lock symbol on my dot in Netstumbler. I walk around my house with my laptop using this program and make adjustments to make the signal just strong enough to give coverage within the house. I have taken off the antennas before to produce a signal just strong enough to reach into the other room.

 

I know if someone has a good antenna they will be able to pick up the signal, but that is where the average person will be stopped by the security encryption, at least I hope so. If not, well like I said I consider my computer an open book anyway. If you don’t want anything too potentially fall into someone else hands don’t put it on your computer.

 

What I think people need to do in addition to having a hardware firewall such as a router is that they install a software firewall as well to prevent unauthorized outbound traffic which could be transmitting your personal information somewhere.

[Thomas 0]

It's a matter of how hard is it for the bad guy to get access to the packet. On a wireless network I can get easy access to the network. That makes packet sniffing trival. On a wired network I can still sniff packets but I have to have physical access to the network.

 

Over the internet...I could do a Man in the Middle attack but it's much much harder to get the timing right. It's not impossible but it is very, very hard. Encryption on a wireless network is like a cheap lock. It just keeps honest people out.

[rory 0]

once you know their IP ... its all over ...

[Thomas 0]

If I have your IP I can attack you offensively. I can DOS you. I can view your shares. I can do all kinds of nasty things.

 

I can't see your packet unless I can be inbetween you and your ISP or I have to be on the hops between you and what you're trying to reach. . Hence the term "Man in the middle." This isn't that easy since most people only take ISP and backbone hops. It's not impossible but very, very hard. So trying to steal your credit card as you send it to Amazon is unlikely. It would be much, much easier to try to steal Amazon's DB with all of that info.

[Jasper 0]

If I have your IP I can attack you offensively. I can DOS you. I can view your shares. I can do all kinds of nasty things.

 

I can't see your packet unless I can be inbetween you and your ISP or I have to be on the hops between you and what you're trying to reach. . Hence the term "Man in the middle." This isn't that easy since most people only take ISP and backbone hops. It's not impossible but very, very hard. So trying to steal your credit card as you send it to Amazon is unlikely. It would be much, much easier to try to steal Amazon's DB with all of that info.

 

DOS sounds pretty boring unless it is someone you really want to mess with.

 

I started to look into sniffing some packets one day, but I thought what the heck would interest me enough to bother. I guess if you can use a filter to log only the data that interests you that it could be interesting. Have you ever sniffed some packets that were really exciting.

 

Is it just the challenge and the fact of knowing you can see someone elses data?

 

How can I sniff my own packets?

[kandcorp 0]

Yea but can you guys do this:

[Jasper 0]

In that magazine I can do anything. Is that the Weekly World News or something like that?

 

I buy one of those every now and then for a good laugh.

 

So if somebody has my IP address what can they do?

 

I want to know what to expect from Rory.

[rory 0]

sneak in some bots through MSN IM

[Thomas 0]

So you can sniff packets (Etheral or a number of other programs will do that. Snort does it for wireless.) and see them.

 

I can see this causing confusion. On a LAN I can sniff packets because many Network cards and routers aren't set up correctly to not broadcast to everyone. But on the internet, your connection to the ISP is point to point. Me to the ISP to thier provider (say Cogent) to ATT to L3 to tier 2 to webhost. I'm not going to be shot gun spaying this around. My packet is going only where I want it to. So I have to get between the ISP and my end site.

[VJD 0]

How can I sniff my own packets?

How come when you sniff your own packets they don't smell so bad?