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Someone remotely accessing my macbook

H

hunterofdawn

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 15, 2008
2
0
I have been observing autonomous mouse pointer movements and typing in the address bar even while I am using my macbook. Just the other day when I woke up in the morning I saw the remote desktop settings window open although I did not do that myself. I suspect someone is trying remotely control my macbook over WiFi. I changed the SSID and made the access MAC address controlled but that did not resolve the issues.

I have vine VNC server installed and initially I thought it was because the server was active, I have it that way sometimes so that I can access my mac from my PC at work. But I killed that and it didn't help.

Any ideas/suggestions/recommendations would be really helpful. How do I prevent this from happening?
 
rick3000

rick3000

macrumors 6502a
May 6, 2008
646
269
West Coast
Your sharing preferences should fix it if someone is remotely logging in. But you could also try unplugging your Mac from the internet as well.
If you have roommates start by questioning them, when occasionally someone will learn how to ssh, or something, and doing this type of thing as a prank.
 
C

Chrisuk89

macrumors newbie
Dec 16, 2008
1
0
Hi hunter,

My friend has a similar problem. She says that suddenly windows will start minimising and opening etc, and she'll restart the computer and it'll be okay. Its probably happened about five times in the last few months, and she only bought it a few months ago. It's an iMac, not a macbook. I find it hard to believe that it is someone using the wi fi connection since she lives in a small village with very few people around. I guess it is still possible that there is someone nearby hacking it or whatever. I've got her to switch airport off as a precaution and use the ethernet connection instead, but all the sharing options were set to block remote access anyway.

I wonder if it is still possible for someone to hack around these settings to gain control? She hasn't reported any text being entered, just the mouse behaving strangly and the window she's using popping up and down.

Does this sound similar to your problem?

The only other thing I can think of is that she is using a faulty graphics tablet, she got one of those "bamboo" things.
 
H

hunterofdawn

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 15, 2008
2
0
I will try disabling remote screen access. Although would it matter if I don't have VNC server running?

I don't live with roommates so that is ruled out.

Chris, I know this is not a graphics problem because I have seen that a number of times, the pointer is moved forcibly in different direction even while I am controlling it, as if someone vnc'ed into your machine while you were using it.
I have also seen addresses and words being typed in the address/google search bar like "You've been had". No doubt it's a prank and someone is remotely accessing my macbook.
 
R

rainydays

macrumors 6502a
Nov 6, 2006
886
0
Do you have a firewall? If so, how is it setup?

I would install a network monitor to try to figure out who's connecting to your computer. Then contact that persons ISP.
 
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