Neighbor stealing internet service

[ahoier]

Originally Posted By: tinmanSC
It's hard to believe that one additional connection from outside the house would cause your network to go down.
It's not too hard to believe

I had an old neighbor (he moved out now....) that hopped on my network a couple times and apparantly was downloading "warez" and stuff over my network....my ISP called me up and I was so confused.....apparantly, he did it for like a month straight, every night after 10pm after we all went to BED....so my "pipe" was wide open for all his transfers......

But yea.....check out grc.com/securitynow - there's gotta be a way you can activate WPA/WPA2 or some sort of "password protection" on your router.....also go ahead and change the "SSID" (most commonly it'll be "linksys" or "2WIRE" or whatever your router brand is.....) as well as the password for your router login (the one you access in your web browser, usually by going to http://192.168.1.1....)

Then check out your port forwarding section and make sure he hasn't opened any ports on your network, or set up the "DMZ" mode...

portforward.com may also be a good site to check if you need help resetting the port forwarding stuff.

 

[tmorris1]

I can't believe anyone would be running without security enabled. They are all defaulted to on now and Windows complains if you connect without security enabled.

 

[tinmanSC]

I think we making a few too many guesses here. Poor Jimmy is going to be awash in information that he cannot use because it's not a techie. Stick to the basics, make sure you have some kind of wireless encryption if you need wireless. If you don't need wireless, disable it. Once you have encryption, recheck tomorrow morning. My guess is that it will show the same result and that the issue is not encryption, but at least it's a starting point.
Originally Posted By: ahoier
Originally Posted By: tinmanSC
It's hard to believe that one additional connection from outside the house would cause your network to go down.
It's not too hard to believe

I had an old neighbor (he moved out now....) that hopped on my network a couple times and apparantly was downloading "warez" and stuff over my network....my ISP called me up and I was so confused.....apparantly, he did it for like a month straight, every night after 10pm after we all went to BED....so my "pipe" was wide open for all his transfers......

This is not the symptom he's describing. And I didn't say it was impossible, it's just odd.

 

[Al]

I disabled the wireless portion. I am strictly wired as unDummy suggested.

 

[Jimmy9190]

OK Thanks for all the help on this. I have the online version of the owner's manual for my router. It's a TP Link TL-WR340G/TL-WR340GD 54M Wireless Router, version 2.2. I am not good with computers, so the manual might as well be written in Chinese.

I did find directions in it though that tell me to go to the Network Connections tab in my Control Panel, and when I click on it it brings up another window that says Local Area Connections. In that window there is a button I can click on that says "properties" and another one that says "disable". I think if I click "disable" it will disable the wireless part of the router and then my neighbor won't be able to get on my internet service.

Am I right, or does the disable button disable or turn off the router altogether?

Thanks.

 

[Ursae_Majoris]

By doing it you will disable the wired (Ethernet) card on your computer. To operate the router, you have to log into the router itself by using the said wired connection, so not disable it. While you are trying to figure it all out, at least take the antennae off the router (looks like yours is detachable). It will decrease your wireless range and make connecting to your router harder.

 

[uc50ic4more]

Rename your wifi network to "FBI Surveillance Van #42" and you may find less folks poking their grubby little fingers into it.

 

[Jimmy9190]

Thanks for all the help here. I don't know enough about this to be making any changes so I will leave well enough alone. I don't even really know for sure if my neighbor is getting on my service or not.

I think the other guys here who replied about the ISP having issues are probably right. The ISP we have here is not very good and unfortunately is the only high speed ISP available where I live.

If I keep having problems, I will have to call the State help desk again, or maybe bump up to the next higher level (more expensive) of internet access with my ISP.

This is something I need to leave alone and if it gets worse I will call in a computer technician to set it all up correctly. I know for a fact I would do way more harm than good if I tried to fix it myself. I will see how it does the next few days.

Thanks for the help here.

 

[PandaBear]

Remember guys, do not use WEP anymore, it can be cracked in minutes with the right software nowadays.

 

[tmorris1]

This doesn't sound like a neighbor stealing your signal to me. Something else is wrong like interference or modem/isp problems.

 

[hate2work]

Jimmy, do a google search for a computer help forum, those guys live and breath to help people with problems like this

I talked my boss into signing up for the annual remote PC repair service for the computer at work, and since they cover 3 computers I have my two computers at home covered with it for free. Slickest thing I've ever seen, they sign on remotely and fix stuff while you watch, I love it.

 

[tmorris1]

Originally Posted By: hate2work

Jimmy, do a google search for a computer help forum, those guys live and breath to help people with problems like this

I talked my boss into signing up for the annual remote PC repair service for the computer at work, and since they cover 3 computers I have my two computers at home covered with it for free. Slickest thing I've ever seen, they sign on remotely and fix stuff while you watch, I love it.


That will work great when your internet isn't working...

 

[Errtt]

Originally Posted By: uc50ic4more
Rename your wifi network to "FBI Surveillance Van #42" and you may find less folks poking their grubby little fingers into it.

lol - Or every kid might want in for the fun of it and have fun with it.

 

[Errtt]

I didn't know myself, so when I can, I have one of my kids do the computer work. I remember my son using the WPA2 and change the "SSID". Give the network a common virus name.
I have a few neighbors with wide open wireless. Sure was nice to use between me getting routers & modems.

 

[Brons2]

The problem with people like the OP is that they are the ones that get their computers taken over by hackers and used as part of a botnet for distributed denial of service attacks.

 

[tmorris1]

Originally Posted By: Errtt
I didn't know myself, so when I can, I have one of my kids do the computer work. I remember my son using the WPA2 and change the "SSID". Give the network a common virus name.
I have a few neighbors with wide open wireless. Sure was nice to use between me getting routers & modems.

You will be safe then because anyone looking will just connect to your neighbors unsecure network.

 

[Jimmy9190]

An update--2 days ago I had to attend a staff meeting in person and I asked a few colleagues if they had had the same problem. They all suggested upgrading my internet service, the basic speeed didn't work well for them in their home offices either.

So I upgraded to the next level of internet service, "Turbo" speed at 20 megabits/second. My ISP says in ordinary everyday use it usually is somewhere between 20 and 30 megabits per second.

I have had absolutely no problems since I upgraded my service this past Thursday, and it only costs another $15.00 per month, which is well worth it to keep me from spending $65.00 per week on gas to commute back and forth to the office every day. Both of our personal computers are working faster as well.

Thanks for the help on this.

 

[ZeeOSix]

If someone is piggy backing on your wireless modem you should see the traffic lights blinking like mad on the modem when you are not doing anything on it, and they are. Need to encrypt the wireless setup on it as others have said.

 

[SrDriver]

We have a couple of people in my neighborhood that have no security.

 

[EricF]

In your router setup there should be a menu that shows the computer names that DHCP is dishing out to.

You can also get the mac address of the foreign computer and block it.
You can and should like everyone has mentioned, upgrade your encryption to wpa2, use alpha numeric passwords.. my secret scheme is actually very easy to remember: license plate numbers. There.. secret's out!
line up 3-4 license plate numbers, you now have a very difficult password to crack. wpa2 can be cracked, but it takes 100x longer than a WEP, which literally can take 2 minutes.
even if you setup only by mac address it's just another minute for the hacking.

You can also unlock the address of the neighbor so it's wide open to the world.. he'll be getting hack attacks cause his addy is out in the world.. it's called DMZ setting.