sometimes my internet connection really slows down, and the right light is on - indicating heavy traffic i think: is somebody stealing my bandwidth? and if they are, how do I stop them? and what kind of software should i have on my computers (all running X) to protect myself?
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how can i tell if someone is stealing my airport?
- Thread starter Macette
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Do you have your network password protected? I would start by setting up a new password, also turn on Enable encryption.
What kind of connection do you have? If it is cable then it is possible to notice a flux in speed, speed is not guaranteed with cable.
Are you in an apartment? or in a city? If not then most likely no one is stealing you bandwidth because you might just see them sitting on your lawn.
Also, check to see if you have your mail apps auto checking mail.. or do you have iSync running every hour? things like this may show up as heavy traffic.
What kind of connection do you have? If it is cable then it is possible to notice a flux in speed, speed is not guaranteed with cable.
Are you in an apartment? or in a city? If not then most likely no one is stealing you bandwidth because you might just see them sitting on your lawn.
Also, check to see if you have your mail apps auto checking mail.. or do you have iSync running every hour? things like this may show up as heavy traffic.
You can decrease the signal range so that your base station isn't transmitting beyond your house into, say, your neighbor's living room. Also, you can set a password requirement in order to log into your network to prevent people from logging onto your airport network.
yep, my network's password protection, and encryption is on - but i can't decrease my range, because my partner works down the other end of the house, which is actually further away than my nearest neighbours.
i don't think it's the cable speed fluctuating - it's actually like there's heavy traffic, but there's seriously nothing else happening from my computers - no mail, or downloading or anything like that.
it's happened a couple of times before, and resetting the base station has helped (also, I've just uploaded the new basestation software, so maybe that will make a difference.)
thanks for your suggestions, and i'll post again if anything else occurs to me.
i don't think it's the cable speed fluctuating - it's actually like there's heavy traffic, but there's seriously nothing else happening from my computers - no mail, or downloading or anything like that.
it's happened a couple of times before, and resetting the base station has helped (also, I've just uploaded the new basestation software, so maybe that will make a difference.)
thanks for your suggestions, and i'll post again if anything else occurs to me.
The only thing that you don't want to do is call the isp. I did once and they gave me this big ta do regarding how they do not support such devices blah blha blha switch into os9 blah blah blah.. better off working things out on your own and if you do call just know that they may say something.
Seriously though, if you look outside at night and see the glowing of laptops then you might have a geek infestation problem.
Seriously though, if you look outside at night and see the glowing of laptops then you might have a geek infestation problem.
Are you distributing copious amounts of pornography? that might account for it.
if your network's protected, it's unlikely that anyone else is piggybacking on your connection. shut it all down, check your settings and connections and try again.
I know nothing about airport. Does it have SNMP capabilites at all? I would just run a basic audit of what ips/mac addys are using it the most and what they're doing at what times, etc... things like that, but then again maybe that's not possible with airport
I second Sun Baked's response. If you want to find out who's coming and going, setup to capture MAC addresses (I don't know Airport has these features... it isn't my hardware solution)
With a limited user base for your wireless, managing MAC is one of the easiest ways to control access.
With a limited user base for your wireless, managing MAC is one of the easiest ways to control access.
The right light does indicate network traffic, but not wireless traffic--that's the left light. If people were using your wifi that would be the one lighting up. If the right light is blinking and the left is solid, that's just network traffic--your cable modem is blinking the same way. If the left one lights up when all your computers are off then somebody is using your wifi.