Wifi piggybacking

[olaf the fat]

What can be done to stop wifi piggybacking? or is a even a real problem??

I live on the outskirts of a village in wicklow, quite enough road. On a regular enough basis we get cars stopping at the side of our house, the really annoying ones are taxis late at night, engines running, lights on because its not a great place to park - (its not a set down or pick up of customers) they will stay there for ages until you turn off the router!! the noise wakes up the kids and generally distrubs evenone.

Our internet connection can be dire slow at times. But we do have to have a password to connect to the wifi.

Is this just something you have to put up with? or can it be costly or the reason for a slow connection?

Can anybody give some advise - google aint to much help unless I want to hack someone else!

[dave13]

Suddenly thinking of the Meteor ad where they all in the garden, didn't think it was a real problem
If you have security setup properly they can't access it(not without a lot of effort anyway).
Who is your broadband with and what router? if its an old eircom one there is a crack for using these as they were setup insecurely.

[Broken Wing]

Chuck bricks at them.

Change your password.

Don't leave your router on when you go to bed or leave the house.

Maybe don't chuck bricks at them.

[FLIP]

Odds are, your wifi uses the WEP encryption to secure your connection. WEP is basically broken completely as a encryption, so I would change the settings to use WPA2 if it is available, or WPA if not.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_security

[Danthefan]

You need to log into your router first of all, I get into mine by typing 192.168.1.1 into the address bar on my browser. It might ask you for a password. If you Google your router you should find the right address and default password.

Find the options for Wireless LAN. It'll have your security type and password, yours is probably WEP. Change it to WPA or WPA2 (or mine is WPA2-PSK by default), pick a new password, and hey presto. You might have to enter the new password into whatever computers/phones/whatever are connected currently.

[olaf the fat]

Cheers guys, sounds like that will sort it out.

Thanks.

[underpantsdance]

Its also worth looking into disabling SSID broadcasting. Basically it means your wifi won't show up when someone searches instead you need to know the name.

[johng]

You need to log into your router first of all, I get into mine by typing 192.168.1.1 into the address bar on my browser. It might ask you for a password. If you Google your router you should find the right address and default password.

Just have a look in your tcp/ip properties for your wireless card. The router address will be listed as the default gateway.

Right click on the icon for your wireless on the system tray at bottom right. Click on "status" click the "support" tab and there it is.

On a Mac you can get it in system preferences/network.

[Spud]

Hi,

Whilst all of the above will work, if you want to be ultra-protective of your wireless, you should enable MAC address filtering on your wireless router. This will allow you to specify each wireless device that connects to your wireless router, thus preventing unknown wireless devices from connecting, even if they gain your password.

(Note: You will need to specify the MAC address of each wireless device connecting to your wireless router. A MAC address is the unique physical number each wireless device has. Search the Internet as to how to find the MAC address of each of your wireless devices)

Also, read the instructions for your wireless router, before doing this.

Later

Me

[Spud]

Also, forgot to say. Should you ever lose all your wireless devices, who have access via the MAC filter, you will need to connect a laptop/pc to the router using a cable and then add in the new devices.

[meinster]

Not to rain on the parade, Spud, but MAC spoofing is easier than WEP cracking. WPA2 is the way to go, with regular key changing, or password changes. MAC filtering will only help with the casual punter (who can't be that casual if he's after cracking WPA2!!).

Sounds like the visitors all share the known password, or there is no password at all. Normally, it's the latter.

Definitely not something you should put up with. You don't want that call from a detective investigating a child pornography ring, or the 3-strikes letters. The carrier protection of an open hotspot provider isn't yet tested in our courts, and judging by some of the related ISP/carrier/copyright decisions, I sure as hell wouldn't want to be the first.

Change the password on the router, as a matter of urgency. Then, figure out how to enable WPA/WPA2. If all you have is WEP, then your router is really too old/useless to be using safely.

[Slipper1]

Other than cars parking outside, how do you know they're stealing your BB?

[ronk]

Other than cars parking outside, how do you know they're stealing your BB?

He says they stay there until he turns off the router.

[Spud]

Not to rain on the parade, Spud, but MAC spoofing is easier than WEP cracking. WPA2 is the way to go, with regular key changing, or password changes. MAC filtering will only help with the casual punter (who can't be that casual if he's after cracking WPA2!!).

Sounds like the visitors all share the known password, or there is no password at all. Normally, it's the latter.

Definitely not something you should put up with. You don't want that call from a detective investigating a child pornography ring, or the 3-strikes letters. The carrier protection of an open hotspot provider isn't yet tested in our courts, and judging by some of the related ISP/carrier/copyright decisions, I sure as hell wouldn't want to be the first.

Change the password on the router, as a matter of urgency. Then, figure out how to enable WPA/WPA2. If all you have is WEP, then your router is really too old/useless to be using safely.

Meinster, I stand corrected. I use a combination of WPA2, MAC address filtering, Hidden SSID and a cryptic password. Might disable the MAC address filtering, if it's no good. Thanks for the correction.

[Peg Leg]

Other than cars parking outside, how do you know they're stealing your BB?

He says they stay there until he turns off the router.

In turning off the router, is it the case that your (OP'r) getting up turning lights on and people scarper?
Does every car outside have that disturbing glow from people on Mobiles/tablets etc?
Could it be that there is some dodgy dealing/activity going on and you are frightening them away?
If not, WPA should do the trick!!