Make my Macbook invisible in network so it doesn't show up in router list??

[robotboy21]

Okay, i'll try to explain what I mean. When I access my router (you know where I can change different settings on the router and stuff, like firewall, etc etc) there is a section where you can see all of the devices using (or that have used) that routers connection.

NOW, I don't want to appear on that list when i'm using the internet. Is there a way that I can make my Macbook not show up with some sort of invisible mode or something? Where no one can see that my macbook is using that connection? And btw i'd like to appear invisible to other macbooks as well, like not show up in their list of shared networks or whatever. I want to be completely invisible to others as if I didn't exist.

Any kind of help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[jdavtz]

The router needs to give you an IP address so you can connect to it (and therefore to the internet, etc.)

To give you an IP address it needs to know that you exist.

If it knows you exist, you can't be invisible to it.

 

[robotboy21]

Dammmmmiit. Okay but is there any way it can now I exist but keeps me hidden? Like a privacy setting that allows me to stay hidden from lists?

 

[chrfr]

Dammmmmiit. Okay but is there any way it can now I exist but keeps me hidden? Like a privacy setting that allows me to stay hidden from lists?

No.

 

[yg17]

No, it's not possible at all. As long as you're connected to the router, you'll appear. But, err, why? The list in the router isn't visible to the outside world, and if you're leeching off your neighbor's WiFi, then I hope they find you and lock it down.

 

[robotboy21]

I'm not leeching off anyones connection so watch your attitude. I am a college student living in the college dorm and we're provided internet that the WHOLE dorm shares. I just wanted anonymity due to the fact that I don't want some freak hacker or something to register my laptop (whether thru the router or by my laptop appearing in shared/devices lists anywhere) and somehow get access to my files and personal info, that's all. I just wanted some privacy and some sense of security.

I would never leech of anyones connection illegally, I have my own internet service back at home so I know what's it like to have some cheap bum trying to leech off your connection. Anyways, thanks for the help.

 

[belvdr]

Dammmmmiit. Okay but is there any way it can now I exist but keeps me hidden? Like a privacy setting that allows me to stay hidden from lists?

As stated above, this isn't possible. To clarify further, the router needs your MAC address and your IP address. The only way to hide this from others is to restrict access to the router's administrative pages.

Your best course of action is turn on the firewall and block incoming requests. At that point, who cares if they see you on the router's administrative pages. Trying to hide is known as "security by obscurity". It doesn't really work.

 

[aristobrat]

Can you explain your setup with a little more detail?

Your college provides your dorm internet access? Wired? And you have your own personal router that you're plugging into the wired network to create a personal wireless network just for yourself?

FWIW, the type of people who know what they're doing in regards to hacking around publicly shared networks aren't likely going to try to hack into the router to get a list of the machines connected. They have programs that will simply start scanning every IP address on the shared network, and if a machine is present on one of those IP addresses, it will start doing a more detailed scan.

If your turn your Mac's firewall on, you're going to be about as protected as you get. If you've got a wireless router setup to actually route (vs. bridge) your dorm's wired Internet connection, you've also added another layer of security, assuming you've protected your wireless network with WPA2. (Not that it can't be cracked, but the effort involved probably isn't worth it for someone just casually snooping around).

 

[yg17]

I'm not leeching off anyones connection so watch your attitude. I am a college student living in the college dorm and we're provided internet that the WHOLE dorm shares. I just wanted anonymity due to the fact that I don't want some freak hacker or something to register my laptop (whether thru the router or by my laptop appearing in shared/devices lists anywhere) and somehow get access to my files and personal info, that's all. I just wanted some privacy and some sense of security.

I would never leech of anyones connection illegally, I have my own internet service back at home so I know what's it like to have some cheap bum trying to leech off your connection. Anyways, thanks for the help.

So if it's a college dorm, how are you or any other student getting into the school's router to see the computers connected to it? Surely they would have them locked down so only the IT guys can get into them.

If it's a personal router that you bought for your room to give you more ports, then just put a password on the router's admin page. No one will get in but you.

And FWIW, you don't even need to get into a router to see other computers on the same network as you. If you and I are plugged into the same router (which, in the case of a college dorm, may cover dozens of rooms), it's possible to find and discover the MAC and IPs of other computers on the same network - it's the very nature of how networks work and it can't be changed and you can't hide. All a router does is save someone the few minutes it takes to download a network sniffer that would use the subnet mask to calculate all possible IP addresses in the network and attempt an ARP resolution on them - something any "freak hacker" you mention would know how to do.

 

[belvdr]

And FWIW, you don't even need to get into a router to see other computers on the same network as you. If you and I are plugged into the same router (which, in the case of a college dorm, may cover dozens of rooms), it's possible to find and discover the MAC and IPs of other computers on the same network - it's the very nature of how networks work and it can't be changed and you can't hide.

Sorry, this doesn't make sense. You are referring to a switch here, not a router.

All a router does is save someone the few minutes it takes to download a network sniffer that would use the subnet mask to calculate all possible IP addresses in the network and attempt an ARP resolution on them - something any "freak hacker" you mention would know how to do.

This also doesn't make sense. You cannot sniff beyond a router by default, unless you setup something like RSPAN.

 

[yg17]

Sorry, this doesn't make sense. You are referring to a switch here, not a router.



This also doesn't make sense. You cannot sniff beyond a router by default, unless you setup something like RSPAN.

Yeah, router may not have been the correct word (it's been awhile since my networking classes. D'oh) But everyone within that subnet (which in a college dorm may be a large number of rooms) would be able to find the MAC of everyone else on the network with ARP. So making himself invisible to the router would serve no purpose, if it were even possible.

Within the context of your basic home router, everyone behind that router is visible to everyone else with ARP.

 

[belvdr]

Yeah, router may not have been the correct word (it's been awhile since my networking classes. D'oh) But everyone within that subnet (which in a college dorm may be a large number of rooms) would be able to find the MAC of everyone else on the network with ARP. So making himself invisible to the router would serve no purpose, if it were even possible.

Okay, I see what you're saying. I was wondering if I should start drinking.

 

[yg17]

Okay, I see what you're saying. I was wondering if I should start drinking.

Since when was an excuse to start drinking needed?

 

[freqazoidiac]

I would never leech of anyones connection illegally, I have my own internet service back at home so I know what's it like to have some cheap bum trying to leech off your connection. Anyways, thanks for the help.

It's perfectly ethical in a free society to utilize open net points for data transmission and receive. As long as you don't corrupt the open channel in any way there is no issues with what you term Leeching. Leeching would be if you were downloading massive things and blowing the quota on the internet account hence making owner have to pay for gluttony.