school's wireless network+new mac=noob

[catcat]

Hey folks,

Just moved into a dorm in the past few months and am on my school's wireless network and as it happens, I'm a lifelong PC user who bought a mac in July...meaning I don't know my way around anything. (Also a little nooby anyway.) But here's the deal.

A stranger's computer shows up on my connections ('shared'). Are they actually connecting to my computer, or are they just innocently using the school's wireless as well? Bear in mind, I'm in a dorm of about 2000 students, so my instinct is that more than just that one have got to be connecting to the wireless. What's going on?

And more importantly...if this Michael Kennedy is deliberately connecting to my computer...

how can I mess with 'im?

 

[Winni]

It's rather that you are already messing with him. This guy probably only has some shares open without even knowing it, and your Mac sniffed (actually, it broadcasted a couple of requests) over the network if there are other machines out there that are open for communication - and this machine used a compatible protocol and replied.

It doesn't really mean anything. Whenever you connect to some public network, you will always find other computers in your neighborhood.