Wireless Confusion???

[andy4200]

I've just bought a new laptop and it has wireless, IR, etc.
I was getting ready to install my BT2Wire broadband thingy and my wireless network picked up a Netgear connection.

Now here's my confusion, I don't have any Netgear equipment and my walls are about 1-2 ft thick. Is this likely to be from one of my neighbours? What is the realistic transmit distance of wireless through walls etc.
My Broadband modem has a slot to upgrade it to wireless which I would consider if it would travel round/through my walls without a router (is that the right part??)

Andy

[sotonS2]

Unless your neighbours are more than 50m away then yup, it's probably them that the wireless is picking up.

For reference, my place has thick walls and is about 40-45ft front to back. My wireless router lives downstairs at the front of the house and I have a laptop plus four desktops around the place, all sharing the same ADSL connection. The wireless network has NEVER failed and the laptop stays networked even when some 40m from the house in the back garden after travelling through three walls. I don't know how far I'd have to go for the connection to be dropped.

[andy4200]

That is good news about how far it goes.
Currently I have the Desktop into the modem and the laptop into a phone line back to the modem in the other room.
Wireless would make so much more sense for me just to get rid of all the wires, might have to try it out sometime soon.

Cheers
Andy

[sotonS2]

Going wireless has REALLY changed the way I use PCs and the Internet. Not only does it mean you can surf (or PH !) anywhere in or around the house but I also have a piece of kit called ShowCenter. Basically, it sits under the TV and is wirelessly linked to the PCs around the house. Any Media files (MP3, WMV, AVI, WAV, JPG, etc) stored on the PCs can then be played / displayed via the ShowCenter onto the TV and through my AV amp.

Great for MP3s and slide showing the photo collections.

[Mikey G]

Time to cancel your internet subscription then unless they have secured it!
I have always been paranoid about my wireless and so i have enabled MAC filtering and WEP encryption so it shouldnt be a problem here

[Mr E]

Mikey G said:

Time to cancel your internet subscription then unless they have secured it! I have always been paranoid about my wireless and so i have enabled MAC filtering and WEP encryption so it shouldnt be a problem here

WEP encryption will take about 5 hours of traffic trace and a hour or so of number crunching to crack.

Mac filtering isn't to tricky to hack around either (although that's from what I've read, I've never tried it).

Never the less, enabling MAC filtering and WEP is to be commended. It will stop 99.9% of attacks. And it also stops the bastard next door from stealing your connection.

I was working at my mums recently, and noticed that next door had a visitor (they're totally computer illiterate) who though he was being oh so clever leeching bandwidth through the wall.

What he/she failed to consider is that wireless works both ways. So they now have a hard disc full of donkey porn.

[pdV6]

Mr E said:

What he/she failed to consider is that wireless works both ways. So they now have a hard disc full of donkey porn.

[tycho]

Mr E said:

I was working at my mums recently, and noticed that next door had a visitor (they're totally computer illiterate) who though he was being oh so clever leeching bandwidth through the wall. What he/she failed to consider is that wireless works both ways. So they now have a hard disc full of donkey porn.

Not going to ask why you had a hard disk full of donkey porn so readily to hand.....

[Bobbins]

sotonS2 said:

For reference, my place has thick walls and is about 40-45ft front to back. My wireless router lives downstairs at the front of the house and I have a laptop plus four desktops around the place, all sharing the same ADSL connection. The wireless network has NEVER failed and the laptop stays networked even when some 40m from the house in the back garden after travelling through three walls. I don't know how far I'd have to go for the connection to be dropped.

I would say (having tested some wireless kit for work) that's *very* good performance - especially as the general recommendation is to have the wireless router as high as possible.
Might I ask whose kit you're using (especially the router and laptop card)?

[FrenchTVR]

Our wireless network (netgear) is being used over a 40metre range from home to my office. Works well apart from one brick wall, which I got around with a USB adaptor and lead.Currently don't have any security on my wireless network, can't detect any other networks around here. How can you tell if someone is 'borrowing' your bandwidth/connection?



>> Edited by FrenchTVR on Friday 5th November 10:59

[bga]

Mr E said:

WEP encryption will take about 5 hours of traffic trace and a hour or so of number crunching to crack. Mac filtering isn't to tricky to hack around either (although that's from what I've read, I've never tried it).

Tools like Kismet will allow you to get MAC address with reasonable ease. IIRC newer versions support SSID decloaking too

Mr E said:

Never the less, enabling MAC filtering and WEP is to be commended. It will stop 99.9% of attacks. And it also stops the bastard next door from stealing your connection.

Agree, but if your hardware supports WPA then it's pretty straightforward to set up and currently gives a bit more protection than WEP.
Teenagers after a faster connection to harvest smut are pretty tenacious, I'm buggered if I'm going to let the scrotes round me get hold of my 1M pipe.
They can play with the 5 other unsecured connections I can pick up from my front room. The joys of living in a flat!

[guydw]

speaking as a Network Architect... be very aware of the security implications of using wireless. If you walk down your street you will be able to access various wireless networks, I can even access the internet from my bank !

[Mr E]

tycho said:

Not going to ask why you had a hard disk full of donkey porn so readily to hand.....

Erm.... I plan ahead?

OK, so not a 'hard disk full'. They got about 20 rather dodgy pictures in 20 common directories, along with a small note reminding them that they weren't as clever as they thought.

And yes, that's probably an illegal act on my part.
Ho hum

[tonyhetherington]

Mr E said:

They got about 20 rather dodgy pictures...[snip].......along with a small note

The ONLY problem with doing things like that, is that you don't get to see their face when they realise

[Mr E]

tonyhetherington said:

I like that smilie so much I have stolen it.

[ATG]

My cousin was "borrowing" bandwidth off his neighbours for a while. They obviously noticed as one day the ID was changed to "F**kOffFreeLoader" which he thought was quite funny.

[sotonS2]

Bobbins said:

sotonS2 said: For reference, my place has thick walls and is about 40-45ft front to back. My wireless router lives downstairs at the front of the house and I have a laptop plus four desktops around the place, all sharing the same ADSL connection. The wireless network has NEVER failed and the laptop stays networked even when some 40m from the house in the back garden after travelling through three walls. I don't know how far I'd have to go for the connection to be dropped. I would say (having tested some wireless kit for work) that's *very* good performance - especially as the general recommendation is to have the wireless router as high as possible. Might I ask whose kit you're using (especially the router and laptop card)?

Sorry for not responding sooner - been getting the garden ready for a firework party.

All my wireless gear is Belkin - PCI, PCMCIA plus router. The PCMCIA card does not have a protruding aerial. I was dubious about Belkin stuff to begin with but so far it has performed A1.

[Pot Bellied Fool]

Mr E said:

OK, so not a 'hard disk full'. They got about 20 rather dodgy pictures in 20 common directories, along with a small note reminding them that they weren't as clever as they thought.

Nice one.

Can I ask how you actually transferred the files over though? Did you simply have a guess at their workgroup name (wouldn't they need to have sharing enabled though?) to join their (unknown to them) network?

What have I missed? There must be a better/easier way?

(Networking ain't my discipline, I'm more of an electron juggler but always wanting to know new wrinkles!)


Did something similar a while back when I noticed a Dutch site hotlinking to a graphic on my site - cheeky gits.

Wonder how long it took them to realise that their page was now displaying a most unbusinesslike message?