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Wi Fi Thief

carbonmotion

carbonmotion

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 28, 2004
983
0
San Francisco, CA
It's been a long time since I've gone home and now that I'm finally home I find that everything is the same... except there's a WiFi theif in my neigborhood. I only know because my dad's been complaining about slow internet speeds and back when I was in highschool (three and half years ago) I got 700kbps downloadspeeds. Now it seems I barely get above 30... could my ultra fast 70 bucks a month dsl connection be ripping me off? Well, the answer provided itself when I overheard my neighbor's kid talk on his cell phone on his drive way while I was getting groceries out of the car. He said he didn't have internet at his house but he "ganks" his neigbor's wireless for Battlefield 2. I realized that he must of meant my wireless. Personally I don't really care if someone uses my open wi fi for casual browsing, but taking up 99% of the bandwith is just too much. I don't want to talk to him face to face since it's kinda awkward, is there anyway for me to send him a message, since I have his mac address? I really don't want to use WPA, I just wish people didn't abuse open wifi.
 
Geez, just turn on SOME kind of security... MAC addresses, WEP, you name it. Don't confront him about it, just do it and let him worry about his sudden loss of connectivity.
 
well i cant block his mac address and my parents aren't tech savey enough to type in a password (don't roll your eyes at me, they're old). as for adding every MAC address in the house to the router, i dunno... seems like it'd be alotta trouble when my dad brings home his laptop from work... and i'll be back to school. i'd rather send him a message... if that doesn't work, I'll use brute force.
 
maybe i should just talk to the kid's parents... i mean if hes parents cancelled internet they must have a good reason right? the fact that he's using mine to play games means he's not doing his homework.
 
carbonmotion said:
well i cant block his mac address and my parents aren't tech savey enough to type in a password (don't roll your eyes at me, they're old). as for adding every MAC address in the house to the router, i dunno... seems like it'd be alotta trouble when my dad brings home his laptop from work... and i'll be back to school. i'd rather send him a message... if that doesn't work, I'll use brute force.
Click to expand...
Munkle's right... you'd only have to enter the WEP password once on any given machine, Mac or PC.

I wouldn't tolerate a WiFi thief who messes with your connection sufficiently that it causes you to post here about it. He's obviously gone beyond the point of what any reasonable person might call "acceptable behavior".
 
You really need to protect yourself and turn on WPA. If you are using an Apple Airport, it is very very easy to do. Your parents won't need to do a thing once it is enabled, your mac only asks for the password once when you first set it up.

Your neighbor or just someone driving by could do something illegal and the Feds will trace it to you. Don't be stupid, protect yourself. I knew someone in college who thought it was funny to wardrive and then send bogus messages to www.fbi.gov. Sad but true. Turn on that WPA!
 
You can rename the wi-fi network, and turn off SSID broadcast. That at least prevents non-savvy users from accessing your internet.

Here's to the Crazy Ones ​
 
It's hardly stealing to take something which you're making publically available. When you put rubbish out at the curb, its not stealing if somebody comes along and takes something out of it.

Use the slightest bit of security and it sounds like no prob. A WEP password is definitely easiest, make it a super simple word for your parents. You can even go ahead and set it up on all the computers that are around the house, and tell your dad to call you when he brings home his work laptop -- if it comes to that.

edit: no you cant send him a message on his mac address...not one he's likely to see anyways. if you want to go the personal route, then just grow up and walk over there and confront him and/or his parents about it. like i said above, i hardly think he's doing anything wrong. if you're giving something away how you can get mad at somebody for taking it?
 
i actually don't mind ppl using it for casual browsing, it just bothers me that i pay for a 700kps download speed and i can't even stream a cctv newscast
 
Lock down to the MAC addresses. I think some routers can block certain ports. Maybe try and find port that BF 2 uses and block that. Also, I recommend listening to a few Security Now! podcasts. They talk about WEP, WPA, and MAC filtering. Just a suggestion.:rolleyes:
 
savar said:
It's hardly stealing to take something which you're making publically available. When you put rubbish out at the curb, its not stealing if somebody comes along and takes something out of it.
Click to expand...

That's a rubbish analogy (pun intended).

And yes, it is stealing.
 
CanadaRAM said:
I'm wondering how sending a message but not talking to him or parents will accomplish anything, and conversely why 15 minutes of setting up any kind of security is too time consuming???
Click to expand...

Exactly. Why is it that you don't want any kind of security, which we have all told you is very easy to set up, and only has to be done once..? Odd.
 
You've probably spent as much time on this thread as it would have taken to secure the wifi...
 
XIII said:
Exactly. Why is it that you don't want any kind of security, which we have all told you is very easy to set up, and only has to be done once..? Odd.
Click to expand...

Because he's already said that his parents are using Win 98 and if something goes awry, they won't be able to fix. I completely understand. I had to set up my aunt's Win 98 PC to work with wifi in the summer. It took me 6 hours since it would only accept WEP security intermittently and there was no way my aunt would be happy figuring it out.

In the end I changed the SSID to something only the family would understand and hid the SSID. No MAC addresses either since the kids bring home laptops from school on occasion and they weren't there to add their addresses. Carbonmotion, that's probably the easiest thing to do; sure, your dad will have to remember the name of the network to key in when he brings home a laptop from work but aside from that, it shouldn't be a problem.
 
I've noticed that when connecting to some wi-fi networks (usually the ones that you pay to use) some special website (usually a login screen and/or some welcome message) will be displayed. What kind of setup (hardware/software) do you need to do that?

Could have a welcome site with a simple "Use too much bandwidth and I'll kick your ass/disable the network" type of message.

Re: Open networks

I used to have mine open since I don't mind if people just use it for simple e-mail checking, light browsing, and the internet coverage around here used to be pretty bad. I'm just happy to share... But I secured it with WPA when I noticed that someone was leeching a little bit too much. Was causing major latency issues when playing WoW, and I can't have any of that ;)
 
I don't understand the resistance to MAC filtering, you just have your ad bring home his laptop and enter it in, its really not that hard. If its a linksys router ( and other brands too I"m sure) you can even set up remote access so all he has to do is give you the number and you enter it.

In my apartment at college I did this to the people in my building since our cable got turned on first. I turned it on and labeled it FREEINTERNET, by the end of the day I had ten users on my network. First thing I did was turn off the aim port for about an hour. Then I flushed them all off just to tease ... hehe haha
 
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