Wireless Networks Question

[Eli]

I have a wireless network at home and when I look at that thingie windows has for choosing which wireless network to connect to, it shows that my network is an "unsecured wireless network".

The guy who installed the whole system for me told me back then that he rigged it in such a way that only my specific wireless card can get access to it. In retrospective, this sounds slightly weird.

So, how do I check whether other people can or actually do steal my bandwith? Can I somehow see the log of all the connections made to the network or see who is connected at a certain time?

[Zopperoni]

Check the security settings of your router.

It could be that access is only granted to your network card's specific MAC address.

[Sava]

knowing what kind of router it is would be helpful

[Eli]

The only thing it says on the router is Edimax Wireless Broadband Router.

[Sava]

must be some evil zionist brand router

[pchang]

Listen to Zopperoni. Or try to connect with another laptop.

[Ecthy]

Indeed, an absolutely wireless question

[Urban Ranger]

The "unsecured" bit means the packets are not encrypted. It means people can listen in on them. They can't access the wireless router (or switch) in the sense that the device refuses to talk with them.

[Japher]

so they can't suck his bandwidth

but they can view what he's doing

[Eli]

Ok, so how do I fix this?

[VetLegion]

You need to be able to access your router. Check your IP address on the LAN for clues what your router's IP address is.

For example, for me, my address is 192.168.2.2 and my router is 192.168.2.1.

Type your router's address into the web browser.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Eli
Ok, so how do I fix this?

Connect to the router (or switch). These things come with a Web interface these days. Turn on WPA (WEP if you are using 802.11b, but I don't think that is the case), give it some tough to guess password.

You need the same password for your client as well, so don't lose it.

[VetLegion]

UR, I don't know why we're helping him. He admitted that he was a bully in highschool in the thread about home schooling

If he was studying instead of beating people up he'd know how to do this himslef.

[Agathon]

Re: Wireless Networks Question

Originally posted by Eli
I have a wireless network at home and when I look at that thingie windows has for choosing which wireless network to connect to, it shows that my network is an "unsecured wireless network".

The guy who installed the whole system for me told me back then that he rigged it in such a way that only my specific wireless card can get access to it. In retrospective, this sounds slightly weird.

So, how do I check whether other people can or actually do steal my bandwith? Can I somehow see the log of all the connections made to the network or see who is connected at a certain time?

They can't if the router is configured to accept only the MAC address of your card. I have my wireless network set up this way.

If you don't care about people knowing you download midget porn, you could leave it as it is. Otherwise just enable encryption (WPA is best).

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by VetLegion
UR, I don't know why we're helping him. He admitted that he was a bully in highschool in the thread about home schooling

Well, I hope he has amended his ways.