Neighbors are stealing my WIFI!

So I found out today my neighbors have been stealing my wifi. How do I stop that? Is there a program I need? Or can I do it with the router config screen? Thanks! wink

Kill them.

Turn off SDID (sp?) broadcasting
make a MAC address whitelist

Before you do this, redirect all their traffic to goatse.

Do this ---

http//www.ex-parrot.com/~pete/upside-down-ternet.html

lol

It'll make your neighbors have blurry or upside-down internet pages.

or you could use their method to route all traffic to www.bloggerpals.com

Why does it bother you?
And if you really want to annoy them, call them with that snakes on a plane thing, or flaming dog poo works.

It would bother me because I pay for it and they mooch off it for free.

How wouldn't it bother you? If they offered to help pay, that would be different.

Because you're helping out your neighbor? If you're going to pay for it anyway, why not just share.

Because I pay for it and they are stealing my bandwidth?

do blur-10 ahha i can imingine that

[quote4fd03aaa27="bruman"]Kill them.[/quote4fd03aaa27]

If you aren't bothered by the internet speed, confront your neighbor and ask him to pay half your monthly payment.

how did u find out anyways?

[quotee21ccda4e0="benner410"]So I found out today my neighbors have been stealing my wifi. How do I stop that? Is there a program I need? Or can I do it with the router config screen? Thanks! wink[/quotee21ccda4e0]

You need to turn on the security features of your router. Im sure your router has either WEP or WPA. Setup a Key to keep those filthy moochers at bay. Heres a good guide http//www.pcmag.com/article2/0%2C1895%2C1819544%2C00.asp

[quote96e03e2628="J4320"]Do this ---

http//www.ex-parrot.com/~pete/upside-down-ternet.html

lol

It'll make your neighbors have blurry or upside-down internet pages.[/quote96e03e2628]
trust me. before you do anything else, at least try this ;)

[quote533ac783b1="Averagejoe1039"][quote533ac783b1="J4320"]Do this ---

http//www.ex-parrot.com/~pete/upside-down-ternet.html

lol

It'll make your neighbors have blurry or upside-down internet pages.[/quote533ac783b1]
trust me. before you do anything else, at least try this ;)[/quote533ac783b1]

[quotec42ca9b6b8="bruman"]Kill them.[/quotec42ca9b6b8]

And take their foods. lol

No...really. Encrypt your router. You can do it through the router's configuration. Then they can't steal your WiFi, and then they get 0w|\|3d. D

Meh ^, I prefer the other ideas mentioned in this thread..

i will tell you what.... i consider myself 'fairly okay' with computers. i know maybe a bit more than an average kid who just sits on myspace all day, but not much more. anyways. when i moved in to my apartment, i sat up my wireless... and i spent two hours trying to get either WPA of WEP to work. the 'easy setup' was completely foreign to me. it made no sense at all, and i never got it to work. it generated some huuuuge chain of characters for me and it was my understanding that it needed to be typed in every time i wanted to log in, but i could change it on my computer or something. but nothing ever worked. at all.

i ended up restarting everything, giving the network a name, and although the router is on all the time, i hit the standby modem EVERY time i am done computer for more than 5 minutes. basically, when i am not on the internet, the connection gets turned off. there IS still a connection and signal, but no internet to go with it. believe me, i have spent a few groggy mornings preparing to set my laptop on fire because it will simply not get on the internet with its 'very good' wireless signal reception, but i then realize that the modem is still on standby.

that could be an option... every modem i have had has had a standby button, anyways. my theory is that if anyone was using it, they quickly learned that it is pretty unreliable, what with cutting out randomly [due to it being put on standby and such]. so i figure that people would realize this fairly soon, and if they can actually tolerate the most unpredictable connection EVER, then they are free to use it. but if i am in bed, out, at class, at work, or watching television, there is no internet.

The proper steps have been mentioned throughout the thread (although clouded by the sillyness). Here it is again all in one place

1. Disable SSID broadcasting
2. Enable MAC address filtering and add the MAC's from all of your PC's to the list.
3. Enable encryption, at least 128-bit WEP but preferally WPA since WEP is easily cracked.

You should never allow unknowned persons to ride your internet bandwidth. You could find yourself party to lawsuit or prosecution over such things as P2P/copyright infringement, child pornography, internet stalking, or any number of other nasty things that YOU could be held liable for since your internet connection was used. Courts have already implied that people have a responsibility to take measures to secure their connections, and can be held responsible if they don't. Even when judged not liable, the expense of defending yourself is YOUR responsibility.

Not only that, but I hate a freeloader, especially one who takes without asking first.

[quoteda2c4d712e="dmorris68"]
1. Disable SSID broadcasting
2. Enable MAC address filtering and add the MAC's from all of your PC's to the list.
3. Enable encryption, at least 128-bit WEP but preferally WPA since WEP is easily cracked.
[/quoteda2c4d712e]

heh... all i can do there is smile and nod.... apparently, i have absolutely NO idea how to do any of that. the router i have is a little over a year old, but i am wondering if i should just get a newer one. sure, it may mean i dont eat as much this week as i normally do, but eh.... i folowed the directions (the few that they DID give) and it still got me nowhere. it did not explain what anything was, and it used technical terms from the get go, expecting everyone to autimatically know what everything means. am i correct in my assumption that new routers make it much easier to set up the security stuff?

it appears as if i cannot compute my way out of a wet paper bag.

[quote0ee2c479ea="i blame history"]the router i have is a little over a year old, but i am wondering if i should just get a newer one. sure, it may mean i dont eat as much this week as i normally do, but eh.... i folowed the directions (the few that they DID give) and it still got me nowhere. it did not explain what anything was, and it used technical terms from the get go, expecting everyone to autimatically know what everything means. am i correct in my assumption that new routers make it much easier to set up the security stuff?[/quote0ee2c479ea]
No, a newer router probably won't make it any easier. Different makes/models will all vary a bit in their user-friendliness and their configuration options, but ultimately you're expected to figure out what an SSID, key, and MAC are.

I don't think it's really that hard, but then again I do this stuff every day. ;)

SSID is your station identifier, i.e. the name you assign to your AP/router when you set it up. You should always change this from the default (for example with Linksys routers the default is usually "linksys"). Then disable broadcasts so that anybody looking for hotspots cannot find it by just scanning. They would have to know the name, or be skilled enough to discover it by sniffing your WiFi traffic.

Every ethernet network device has a MAC address, and every one is unique. You can find yours in Windows by going to a command prompt and typing [b0ee2c479ea]ipconfig /all[/b0ee2c479ea], then look for your wireless network adapter in the list. There will be a "Physical Address" line that contains 6 pairs of letters/numbers that looks like "00-15-CB-F2-3A-B0". That is your MAC address. If your router/AP supports MAC filtering, you should enable the feature and enter these into the router. This will prevent unknown computers from attaching to your network. Again, this alone is not secure against a determined & skilled hacker, because without encryption they can capture your WiFi traffic and deduce your allowed MAC's, since they are included in all ethernet traffic, and then spoof his own MAC to match one of yours.

The above two steps will prevent casual/accidental WiFi hijacking, as is common from computer-illiterate neighbors. However if your neighbor is a geek or has geek kids who actually have a clue about hacking (or if you're worring about wardrivers), then you need the additional security of encryption. Your PC's WiFi adapter must support the same level of encryption that you're using on the router/AP. You will generate a key on the router first, then write this key value down and type it into the WiFi adapter configuration, along with the SSID (that is now not being broadcast, so your adapter won't automatically find your network).

The specifics of setting these things vary between makes/models, so I can't be more specific than that. Just take your time and carefully read the directions included with your equipment, and you should be able to figure it out. )

Security in layers is the key. Individually, these steps can be fairly easily circumvented. In combination, they are very effective in securing your network from lialmostli anybody. Except maybe the government. ;)

Maybe dmorris should make a housecall on this one xD.

oh man. +kma for that. i am going to have to give this another shot soon. the modem/router is all hooked up on my boyfriends desktop, which pretty much needs to be wiped clean and have the OS installed again if system restore will not do the job (.exe files will not open, but the internet is the only thing that still works, which is why we have been putting it off). whenever that gets done, i will give it another try.

any chance that my adapter might need to be replaced? i bought it in january of 2004 when i got the laptop, so i think i might have an antique on my hands. both the card and the router are linksys... never had any problems with the card, but i am not sure if it would work with encryption. i dont see why not, but i have no idea.

If it's only a couple years old it should certainly support encryption, at least WEP if not WPA. I still have some old Netgear 802.11b (10Mbit) access points and NIC's that are a lot older than that and do 128-bit WEP (but not WPA).

WPA is preferred as it is (yet) uncrackable through anything other than brute force. WEP is crackable due to a flaw in the standard that allows a hacker with the right tools to crack through it and get your key in minutes, but it's still better than nothing.

The only other thing I can add to what dmorris said is that if you do not think your router can do WPA but it's "newer," try updating the firmware.

Luckily for me, I'm marrying a network engineer whose main job is handling about 1300+ APs around Purdue's main campus. I still don't understand why senior staff is bitching about WPA when they KNOW WEP can be cracked.

how bout you ring their doorbell and talk to them about it.

[quote0cf9fabf5f="amir89630"]how bout you ring their doorbell and talk to them about it.[/quote0cf9fabf5f]

then

[quote0cf9fabf5f="bruman"]Kill them.[/quote0cf9fabf5f]

[quote7a32ce316c="VrExe"][quote7a32ce316c="amir89630"]how bout you ring their doorbell and talk to them about it.[/quote7a32ce316c]

then

[quote7a32ce316c="bruman"]Kill them.[/quote7a32ce316c][/quote7a32ce316c]

Boom, headshot. lol

[b7a32ce316c]benner410[/b7a32ce316c], I find it amusing you live in Houston, Texas. I'm going there in two weeks from yesterday to visit my grandparents. I could come over your house and configure your router for you, and if you'd like, I could take your neighbors food. ^_^

do a key

Use a packet sniffer. You will be able to intercept everything, AIM, ICQ, EMAIL, EVERYTHING!

thats actually a better idea than using WEP or WPA.... lol