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Shared items includes neighbor's music server?

Le Big Mac

Le Big Mac

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Home network using Time capsule as router (cable modem on WAN).

WPA2 encryption on, with password. Airport Express for b/g; TC for N.

Wife's laptop shows up in shared items as it should, as does time capsule.

However, neighbor's music server shows up as well. In fact, I could access it for iTunes sharing the other night, although that's a first, even though the device is there. I can't access it through finder, however--connection failed.

I thought I had a decent idea of networking, but do I have an unsecure network? I doubt he's hacked our password.

Why would this show up in shared items? He shouldn't be on our subnet, or I on his (and we haven't joined his network).
 
It's the other way around. You've got a careless neighbor who obviously has sharing turned on and is not using any sort of encryption scheme. Hope he has identity theft insurance. 😛

Be a good neighbor and let him know. :apple:

Regards.
 
chscag said:
It's the other way around. You've got a careless neighbor who obviously has sharing turned on and is not using any sort of encryption scheme. Hope he has identity theft insurance. 😛

Be a good neighbor and let him know. :apple:

Regards.
Click to expand...

Not necessarily; even if the neighbor's wireless is completely unsecured, Big Mac shouldn't "see" the server unless he's actively joined the neighbor's network. I'm not all that familiar with Apple's rendezvous, but it's likely some form of multicast, and Big Mac's correct in stating that it shouldn't be visible unless they're on the same LAN. Since Big Mac can't be connected to the neighbor's wireless network at the same time he's connected to his own, it would seem logical that the neighbor's server has connected into his.

Big Mac, if it were me I'd change the WPA2 passphrase and see if the music server's still there. Are you employing mac address filtering on your router? If not, I'd try turning that on and see if it's still there. You could also try changing the subnet you use on your home LAN (i.e. if you currently use 192.168.x.x change to 10.x.x.x). I doubt it's anything malicious, but I'd just be curious to find out exactly what's happening. I can only tell you that I sometimes have up to 10 different wireless networks visible from within my home and I've never seen any "rogue" devices appear. Maybe he just cracked your WPA passphrase to get free internet? I dunno, just seems strange...
 
Big Mac, I see that you posted to the following thread:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/422430/

To see if you're actually seeing the other computer over your shared ISP's network, disconnect your router from your cable modem and see if you're still able to see it; this would be particularly effective if you're able to stream from the shared library again and are able to disco the router while the music is streaming.

Also, I did find a support doc on apple.com that says that Bonjour uses multicast DNS, so if the neighbor's music server shows up as "neighbor" in your finder, you should be able to ping it by typing "ping neighbor.local" in a terminal window; see if you're able to do this while you see the server on your network. If so, take note of what IP address the server resolves to -- is it on the same network? Seems likely that you're seeing this over the ISPs network rather than wirelessly.
 
Thanks -- last night it didn't show up, so I'm really baffled. He's not malicious--I know who he is (house, not apartment), so I may ask him. I may try a different password. It could be my ISP--I've read about this happening.

As for being on the same network, I realize iTunes sharing is supposed to work only on the same subnet, but is it possible to set up limewire to share outside that network? I'm wondering if that's what's happening. The odd device in the shared items of course is some sort of broadcast server. But I have no idea if this is possible--I'm not joining his network and I'm assuming he's not joining mine (which I'll test out).
 
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