Wireless Internet Theft

QiG

QiG

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So this morning I received an email from my ISP regarding illegal file sharing via BitTorrent of "Let Me In (2010)[DVDripEn]" and the timestamps basically indicated that it was happening at the time the email was sent. So I go home on my lunch and check my router's logs to see that a neighbor has been using my wireless connection. First thing I did was turn off the wireless radio and change passwords, but I was able to collect some information and basically know it's whoever is 2 apartments down from me.

So my question is, what course of action should I take? Do I contact my ISP and relay this information to them? Do I have some kind of 'vigilante' justice I could perform with IP/Mac addresses? It basically indicates a female is the one doing it and I'm not going to knock on their door and punch a woman in the face, but if there's some kind of way to F them over, that'd be nice.
 
If it's from your ISP don't worry about it. They're legally obligated to tell you to stop it as a first warning. Unless you're hearing from lawyers it's not worth losing sleep over it.

Ban the other person's MAC address from your router, change your password, and forget about it.

Interestingly enough, this post has caused me to go check my e-mail account from my ISP for the first time in about a year. I had a total of one e-mail in the in-box and it was from them about copyright infringement. Oddly enough, the e-mail refuses to open when I try to read it. Oh well.
 
A female you say????

Burn a copy of ""Let Me In (2010)[DVDripEn]" on a DVD-R, write the name on it, go knock on her door while waving the DVD-r in the air and tell her..."would you like to have a movie night?"

Let her know that you know what shes been doing - use it to your advantage.

If by 2 days your not giving her a good Rodgering, call the cops on her.

Well, that's what i would do....
 
Did you have a password on the wireless signal in the first place? If not I don't think there is any action you can take. You also probably wouldn't lose a copyright infringement lawsuit either, I've read of several cases that were thrown out because it is not easy to prove who was sharing files over an unsecured wireless connection.

If they hacked your password I think there are definitely charges you can file. Wasn't there some story recently about a guy doing jail time for signing into his wife's email? You can allow them back on your network again and share some nice viruses or malware with their computer, I'm sure others here can help with that.
 
Depending on where you live, your neighbor's access to your network may be a felony, and regardless, I'd call the cops and report the issue to them.

As suggested above, block her MAC address or limit your wireless access to only the MAC addresses on your network.
 
[quote name='Clak']You didn't have the connection secured? :rofl:[/QUOTE]

Yea your just asking for it lol. Your router must be very powerful or your walls are paper thin :|
 
Seriously, I don't mean any offense, but if you didn't have the connection secured you might as well have left your door open and invited her in to use your computer.
 
My friend got an email from his ISP for Karate kid (ROFL). Anyway he stopped but now he has started back up with some TV shows. i told him that it's not a good idea but he loves his shows. After a warning, they might really screw you but who knows.
 
We're out in the country with neighbors at least 300 feet from us, so I don't even bother locking mine. I can't get all my systems to work if I lock it, so I just keep it open.

I turn off my router and modem at night when I go to sleep anyway.
 
I love that everyone assumes I'm some kind of retard... if I left my door unlocked, does it mean everyone has the right to raid my apartment and steal whatever they want? Some of you need to grow up.

I know how to secure my connection, but as I use different devices, which as gamers most of you should realize, have different security requirements. In the past several months I've had my PS3, Wii, DS, PSP and Android phone using my wireless signals at different points and rather than switch up as needed, I opened it up and applied MAC filters because my Droid's WiFi was having major problems working when secured with a password and that's something I use heavily everyday. Somehow those filters got cleared and seeing as how 90% of my neighbors are senior citizens, it wasn't something I checked regularly for unauthorized users.

End of story: Lesson learned.. I'm 'over' my anger towards the situation and these things have a way of working themselves out.. by not bringing it up to my neighbor I'm sure they'll use their own internet to keep doing the same thing without realizing they can get popped for it and they'll get caught themselves eventually.
 
[quote name='CaseyRyback']At least she has good taste.[/QUOTE]

if she had good taste shed be downloading the original not the remake.
 
[quote name='QiG']End of story: Lesson learned.. I'm 'over' my anger towards the situation and these things have a way of working themselves out.. by not bringing it up to my neighbor I'm sure they'll use their own internet to keep doing the same thing without realizing they can get popped for it and they'll get caught themselves eventually.[/QUOTE]

Chances are, if they were stealing your internet, they don't have their own. I've never encountered someone who paid for internet but stole someone's unsecure connection to download Torrents. It doesn't seem worth the time or effort. They'll just look to steal some old person's unsecured wireless next. Or maybe they'll have to pony up and get raped by the cable/phone company like the rest of us.
 
[quote name='ITDEFX']Yea your just asking for it lol. Your router must be very powerful or your walls are paper thin :|[/QUOTE]

Um, you know that with $10 worth of parts, you can make an antenna that picks up WiFi a few miles away, right?

Short answer: You should secure it.

MAC address blocking takes next to no effort to bypass. Don't use WEP either, because that takes a relatively short amount of time to bypass as well (
 
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I believe you get three warnings.

Our account just got permanently dropped from our cable company for a supposed 4th offense of downloading copyrighted files. (We never got a third warning.)

But I was able to hook up a week later under my wife's name instead of mine. :)
 
[quote name='DurbanBrown']just chill out man. if your internet was unsecure, its your fault. add a password and be done.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for reading the whole thread..
 
That sucks. I'd just go to her and ask if she had been using it and to ask her not to. Maybe she doesn't understand that she's stealing internet, or her devices are configured to use the best wireless signals and yours was stronger than hers.

Don't assume the worst though and just approach her like an adult.

Also as a side note, how would I check to see if someone was using my password to steal my wifi? I've got a netgear router with a WEP password that was randomly generated with a bunch of letters and numbers.
 
[quote name='QiG']I love that everyone assumes I'm some kind of retard... if I left my door unlocked, does it mean everyone has the right to raid my apartment and steal whatever they want? Some of you need to grow up.

I know how to secure my connection, but as I use different devices, which as gamers most of you should realize, have different security requirements. In the past several months I've had my PS3, Wii, DS, PSP and Android phone using my wireless signals at different points and rather than switch up as needed, I opened it up and applied MAC filters because my Droid's WiFi was having major problems working when secured with a password and that's something I use heavily everyday. Somehow those filters got cleared and seeing as how 90% of my neighbors are senior citizens, it wasn't something I checked regularly for unauthorized users.

End of story: Lesson learned.. I'm 'over' my anger towards the situation and these things have a way of working themselves out.. by not bringing it up to my neighbor I'm sure they'll use their own internet to keep doing the same thing without realizing they can get popped for it and they'll get caught themselves eventually.[/QUOTE]Yeah, if that's all the "security" you had I do think you're retarded. Own up to your mistakes and stop trying to blame everyone else.
 
Yeah, don't worry about it man, if it's from the ISP, no big deal. But I'm in a similar boat as you. I can't add security to my network because the ancient WiFi adapter for my roommate's desktop won't work with any kind of security. But what I do is just don't broadcast the SSID. It's not going to stop a hacker, but it stops the loser college students in my building. And if worse comes to worst, I just block all MACs except for those on a whitelist.
 
[quote name='Access_Denied']Yeah, don't worry about it man, if it's from the ISP, no big deal. But I'm in a similar boat as you. I can't add security to my network because the ancient WiFi adapter for my roommate's desktop won't work with any kind of security. But what I do is just don't broadcast the SSID. It's not going to stop a hacker, but it stops the loser college students in my building. And if worse comes to worst, I just block all MACs except for those on a whitelist.[/QUOTE]

P.S. Not broadcasting the SSID doesn't do much either. MAC afters filtering is a waste of time. Just do yourself a favor and set up WPA, and that's as good as it'll get. Hidden SSID, MAC address filtering, and WEP combined takes an hour or two MAX to circumvent. WPA is crackable as well, but it is by far the safest still.
 
[quote name='javeryh']That is pretty cool. Doesn't look to hard to make either - I'd love to increase the signal just in my own house![/QUOTE]

The main component is the directional antenna, which has to be machined. I'm sure most people here have seen those huge antennas they use to track animals. Exact same concept.
 
I imagine the neighbor two appartments away isn't the only person jacking your fuck. If you live in a tight community (appartment complex, townhouse development, cookie-cutter neighborhood), you can be certain that someone is trying to piggyback on somone else's connection.

It baffles me that you chose to complain about this when you have an unsecured network.
 
How many "common" people actually know how to crack WEP though? I hear it's easy to hack all the time but unless you're living near someone slightly 1337, I don't see it happening all that easily. I especially don't see it happening from someone who would connect to someone's unsecured connection as it might possibly be ad-hoc.

I think my router is WPA2-PSK (I forget the syntax of the letters) but my Hero can only do WEP tethering. Granted I don't use the phone that much but I've never had any uninvited guests.
 
[quote name='elessar123']P.S. Not broadcasting the SSID doesn't do much either. MAC afters filtering is a waste of time. Just do yourself a favor and set up WPA, and that's as good as it'll get. Hidden SSID, MAC address filtering, and WEP combined takes an hour or two MAX to circumvent. WPA is crackable as well, but it is by far the safest still.[/QUOTE]

But my wireless adapter for my desktop doesn't work with ANY kind of security. And who's honestly going to go through all the trouble to get my internet? We're on campus with free internet everywhere. Nobody cares that much.
 
[quote name='QiG']I love that everyone assumes I'm some kind of retard... if I left my door unlocked, does it mean everyone has the right to raid my apartment and steal whatever they want? Some of you need to grow up.
[/QUOTE]

actually you kind of are one.

if you leave your door unlocked and open expect your **** to be gone when you get home.

thats life.

expecting your stuff to be there when you get home is stupid and naive.

same goes with expecting people not to get on your internet and do things you dont want them to when you freaking live in apartments of all places and you dont put a password on your wifi.
 
[quote name='Access_Denied']But my wireless adapter for my desktop doesn't work with ANY kind of security. And who's honestly going to go through all the trouble to get my internet? We're on campus with free internet everywhere. Nobody cares that much.[/QUOTE]

There are good wireless adaptors for $10-$15 from Newegg.com all the time, at times a couple bucks after rebate.
 
[quote name='Access_Denied']But my wireless adapter for my desktop doesn't work with ANY kind of security. And who's honestly going to go through all the trouble to get my internet? We're on campus with free internet everywhere. Nobody cares that much.[/QUOTE]
If you're living on campus, I'd be surprised if there wasn't a rule in your housing agreement that explicitly said you were not allowed to have a router, switch, etc. Every college's housing agreement I've looked into all had a clause about that.

As for whether nobody cares that much, people will connect to whatever open network they can.
 
[quote name='Altanis']If you're living on campus, I'd be surprised if there wasn't a rule in your housing agreement that explicitly said you were not allowed to have a router, switch, etc. Every college's housing agreement I've looked into all had a clause about that.

As for whether nobody cares that much, people will connect to whatever open network they can.[/QUOTE]

I'm living in a privately owned apartment, not a university building. (But even in the dorms, I had wireless routers set up anyway.)

As for people connecting to my network, as I said, nobody cares enough to do it. Of the possible 10 apartments that would be able to get my signal, they would first have to scan for hidden networks to connect. And even then, they're not getting blazing speeds. Nobody has used it yet and it's been 6 months, so I don't see anybody using it in the foreseeable future.

And as for buying another adapter, screw that. This adapter is hooked up to the POS desktop that I built for my roommate out of spare parts after her laptop fried. I have a wireless N adapter in my custom built PC, but I'm sure as hell not going to buy another one for a PC that I'll probably tear apart in 4 months. :lol:
 
If you live in apartments and don't secure your wifi, someone is going to use it eventually. I know people who live in apartments who don't even have internet as they only need e-mail and can usually leach off neighbors.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']If you live in apartments and don't secure your wifi, someone is going to use it eventually. I know people who live in apartments who don't even have internet as they only need e-mail and can usually leach off neighbors.[/QUOTE]

Yep.

If it's there people will leech.

I used to leech off the laundromat near my apartment personally...but eventually got my own internet.
 
1) Secure your network with WPA2 encryption (WEP is broken) and a good password. If your router does not support WPA or WPA2, use WEP until you can buy a new router (I would get a new router ASAP as WEP is not secure and can be broken in a matter of hours...if that)
2) Set up your MAC filter to only ALLOW your devices' MAC addresses (this will take a bit of time, but you should be able to find all the MAC address info in your router's log (or on the device its self if necessary)). Dont deny specific MACs to block specific users (e.g. a blacklist), instead create a whitelist that you need to be a part of to log in... (may depend on the capabilities of your router whether you can create a whitelist/blacklst)
3) Limit the number of concurrent wireless connections (e.g. If you know the maximum number of wireless devices you will ever connect to the router is 3 or 4, set the max to 5...it is just good measure)
4) Set your router to NOT broadcast your SSID (this makes it *slightly* more difficult to set up your devices since you will not just be able to select the network from a list, but it is very much worth the little extra effort as your router will no longer "announce" its self to everyone in your apartment complex. This way, the average passer-by or neighbor will NOT see your network in their connection list...therefore the average user will not even know its there. Stealth network :p)
5) Disable wireless/remote administration (basically, the only way you should be able to modify your router's settings is though a PC that is physically next to and connected to the router with a network cable. This will add another level of security if needed, but for the most part could be unnecessary if you do step 4. It is good measure though, like step 3.)
6) Lastly, some newer (and nicer, more expensive) routers have options to reduce their transmitting power. This is especially useful for those of us living in an apartment complex. Turning down your broadcast strength a little bit could make it so that the devices in your apartment get a good signal while those outside the walls will get little to no signal. (This is definitely optional and may not be necessary if you do step 4)

Hope that is helpful. Its no one's fault but your own if someone is able to use your wireless router without your permission because you did not secure it. Securing my router is the first thing I do after I buy it and take it out of the box.
 
[quote name='RedRingOfDeath']1) Secure your network with WPA2 encryption (WEP is broken) and a good password. If your router does not support WPA or WPA2, use WEP until you can buy a new router (I would get a new router ASAP as WEP is not secure and can be broken in a matter of hours...if that)
2) Set up your MAC filter to only ALLOW your devices' MAC addresses (this will take a bit of time, but you should be able to find all the MAC address info in your router's log (or on the device its self if necessary)). Dont deny specific MACs to block specific users (e.g. a blacklist), instead create a whitelist that you need to be a part of to log in... (may depend on the capabilities of your router whether you can create a whitelist/blacklst)
3) Limit the number of concurrent wireless connections (e.g. If you know the maximum number of wireless devices you will ever connect to the router is 3 or 4, set the max to 5...it is just good measure)
4) Set your router to NOT broadcast your SSID (this makes it *slightly* more difficult to set up your devices since you will not just be able to select the network from a list, but it is very much worth the little extra effort as your router will no longer "announce" its self to everyone in your apartment complex. This way, the average passer-by or neighbor will NOT see your network in their connection list...therefore the average user will not even know its there. Stealth network :p)
5) Disable wireless/remote administration (basically, the only way you should be able to modify your router's settings is though a PC that is physically next to and connected to the router with a network cable. This will add another level of security if needed, but for the most part could be unnecessary if you do step 4. It is good measure though, like step 3.)
6) Lastly, some newer (and nicer, more expensive) routers have options to reduce their transmitting power. This is especially useful for those of us living in an apartment complex. Turning down your broadcast strength a little bit could make it so that the devices in your apartment get a good signal while those outside the walls will get little to no signal. (This is definitely optional and may not be necessary if you do step 4)

Hope that is helpful. Its no one's fault but your own if someone is able to use your wireless router without your permission because you did not secure it. Securing my router is the first thing I do after I buy it and take it out of the box.[/QUOTE]

1) Press the Enter key twice.

2 - 6) See 1.
 
I just use WPA, the rest is too much hassle.

I live in a high rise condo, but there's not that much risk since everyone has internet as it's provided in our condo fees so no need for leeching and I doubt any other buildings are in range since I only pick up a few networks despite this tower (and the one next to it) being over 300 units each.
 
[quote name='elessar123']P.S. Not broadcasting the SSID doesn't do much either. MAC afters filtering is a waste of time. Just do yourself a favor and set up WPA, and that's as good as it'll get. Hidden SSID, MAC address filtering, and WEP combined takes an hour or two MAX to circumvent. WPA is crackable as well, but it is by far the safest still.[/QUOTE]

[quote name='Soodmeg']1) Press the Enter key twice.

2 - 6) See 1.[/QUOTE] ?


The most common firm of wireless internet "theft" is through average users on their laptop clicking the little wireless connection icon in the system tray, viewing the available wireless networks, and connecting to the first unsecured one they find. Not everyone is a 1337 hax0r like Soodmeg is. :p Hiding the SSID and using a MAC whitelist (in addition to WPA encryption) can be very effective to combat most wireless "theft".

On the other hand, if you have someone out there that knows what they are doing, and wants in, then you are going to have problems with security.

It is obvious that you should always encrypt traffic on your network via WPA/WPA2. There is no reason not to use it. If you have a non-conforming device, use a wired connection. There is no reason to reduce your wireless security to cater to one non-conforming wireless device.

Everything I mentioned is all good measure when setting up your home network. You want to make as many hoops for people to jump through as possible if they are trying to connect to your network and are not authorized to do so. WPA encryption and whitelist MAC filtering are the 2 most important, followed by disabling remote administration.
 
[quote name='RedRingOfDeath']The most common firm of wireless internet "theft" is through average users on their laptop clicking the little wireless connection icon in the system tray, viewing the available wireless networks, and connecting to the first unsecured one they find. Hiding the SSID can be very effective to combat most wireless "theft".

On the other hand, if you have someone out there that knows what they are doing, and wants in, then you are going to have problems with security. It is for these cases that I recommend setting up a MAC address whitelist that only allows specific MAC addresses and will deny all others. This can be bypassed as well, but it is another step.

...and you should always encrypt traffic on your network via WPA/WPA2. There is no reason not to use it. If you have a non-conforming device, use a wired connection. There is no reason to reduce your wireless security to cater to one non-conforming wireless device.

Everything I mentioned is all good measure when setting up your home network. You want to make as many hoops for people to jump through as possible if they are trying to connect to your network and are not authorized to do so. WPA encryption and whitelist MAC filtering are the 2 most important, followed by disabling remote administration.[/QUOTE]

I have picked up hidden SSIDs without doing anything special, many times. Yes, people won't see it the vast majority of the time, but it can still be seen. The SSID is still being transmitted at some point.

The argument against MAC addresses is that it literally takes less time to bypass than to set up, due to the MAC address also being transmitted.

But yes, don't lower your security for one device, like I already said earlier.

Edit: This is one of the better pages about wireless security.
 
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