wireless bandwidth thief!

[LostMyMind]

Well, the local 2 ISP providers. If you get wireless through them, it's already locked down. They get alittle nuts, they won't even let the user know the password to get into the router admin. So just ask around, someone might be nice enough to let you have the key to get into their wireless. Especially if you're offering free tech support

[Broomjockey]

I'm failing to see the "market saturation" link here...

The link is, how many people have a Motorola router, vs. brands like D-link, Linksys, etc. If only 5 people have Motorola routers out of 1,000,000, but you don't know that only 5 people have those, then if you hear 1 complaint, it doesn't seem so bad vs. the 500,000 that have Linksys, and you hear 10,000 complaints.

[Shabo]

The link is, how many people have a Motorola router, vs. brands like D-link, Linksys, etc. If only 5 people have Motorola routers out of 1,000,000, but you don't know that only 5 people have those, then if you hear 1 complaint, it doesn't seem so bad vs. the 500,000 that have Linksys, and you hear 10,000 complaints.

Ah, then you are thinking market share as opposed to saturation. Gotcha.

Warning!
For those who don't know what these terms mean: Saturation refers to what percentage of the target market currently owns/uses the product or service, and there is little growth opportunity for the product unless they enter a new market or there is a strange growth in the population, thus decreasing the amount of market saturation.

Market share, on the other hand, refers to what percentage of the market is using a specific company's product or service. For example, Intel has an estimated 90% market share (give or take).

It's easy to see how the terms were mixed up, since they mean nearly the same thing. The only real difference is that market saturation refers to industries as a whole whereas market share refers to a specific product.

/offtopic...

[BravoOrig]

Yes, thats what I was referring to.

My ISP does give you the password for the router we offer to go in and change just about any settings you please. Of course we have our own password to login and enable or disable what settings you can change.

[myswtghst]

This is yet another reason it's lovely to have a computer geek/genius for a brother. He knows all my passwords (and I trust him with them, he's a trustworthy kind of guy) and has set up my computer and did the final lockdown on my wireless in my apartment, so my neighbor's can't steal. Granted, he was mighty proud that I set up the modem and router on my own, and just needed help locking it all down.

[Broomjockey]

Ah, then you are thinking market share as opposed to saturation. Gotcha.

I know that (stupid marketing majors not shutting up! ), but I was interpreting. I made that mistake before I was told more than I ever wanted to know by a co-worker in a business degree program.

And on topic, if I didn't need an easy way to have my desktop, laptop, and Wii online, but still movable, I'd have gotten a regular router as opposed to wireless, as it doesn't talk very well with the system here. I've got MAC address filtering on, but if someone wants to steal my bandwidth, they're welcome to, as we're all on the same account anyway.

[Shabo]

Yep, you ever want to discuss business theory with anyone? I'm your girl!

(Takes off marketing cap and sits down...)

[draggar]

I can't believe the number of unsecured networks out there.

My parents have a timeshare and my mom brings her laptop with her. She's not computer savvy at all, in fact, rather computer illiterate when it comes to things outside of what she uses at work but boy can she find an unsecured network and get onto it!! I've even been able to get into the router's admin screens, which means I can do some tricky things!!

It's scary, becuase if someone decides to do something illegal, YOU are the one who the feds will go after since they're using your IP address.

The sad part is that it is so easy to secure your own network. Change the admin password FIRST! (Or else people can lock you out of your own network). Second, change the SSID. Third, turn OFF SSID broadcasting. Those three will eliminate about 99% of people wanting to (illegally) use your network.

[SuperDan]

Well, the local 2 ISP providers. If you get wireless through them, it's already locked down. They get alittle nuts, they won't even let the user know the password to get into the router admin.

At least until you go to the router manufacturer's website and get the reset procedures and default passwords. If you reset though, you lose all configurations that the company set so you'd better know how to re-configure it yourself.

The reset is also a nice feature to use if someone hacks your admin password and changes it. Usually it's a hidden button that you have to poke with a straight pin and hold for ten seconds, but at least it assures that the person in physical possession of the router has ultimate control of it.

[tendomentis]

My internal network (one primary, two repeaters) is set up to use MAC filtering, no encryption. Encrypting a network that is already locked down with MAC filtering is just an unnecessary slow-down, and older devices that don't like WPA can't get on (but they can if you don't use encryption but just limit the MAC addresses that can connect).

[LostMyMind]

Just remember the encryption don't really prevent people from accessing your network (all the standard wireless encryptions can be broken within minutes). It also encrypts the data coming and going from the wireless router and the device. So if your wireless network is not encrypted, all your data is freely able to be read. So no passwords over the wireless, unless you trust the people around your area.

[Brightglaive]

Actually that's not true. Encryption does protect your network by obscuring the data and (through the authentication) restricting access to the network. No, not all wireless encryption can be broken in seconds or minutes. AES encryption has yet to be broken. Your statement is almost true about static WEP or dynamic WEP with LEAP authentication. Depending on the method and amount of traffic static WEp can be broken in 4 minutes on up to days. LEAP authentication with dynamic WEP can be broken in 2-15 minutes. However that's only one type of authentication in Dynamic WEP. There are other types that have yet to be cracked (e.g. EAP-TLS, PEAP-MSCHAPv2, PEAP-GTC, EAP-FAST and PEAP-TLSv2.) Not only that but the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol(TKIP) and Message integrity check (MIC or Michael algorithm) extends the time of attacks on the encryption out to the same time it takes for the death of stars. If someone can crack your wireless encryption it means you are missing, not using, misusing or misconfiguring your wireless encryption and authentication or are missing some important pieces of software or hardware required for this (RADIUS server +wireless card and drivers supporting 802.11i+ wireless device or AP supporting 802.11i).

So it's not a question of not securing your network because the encryption is faulty. Let's call a spade a spade. People are ignorant of how to secure their networks, they are lazy and don't want to take the time to do so, they don't want to take the time to learn how to properly do it, and don't have the patience, money, or expertise to implement all the components required to properly set up their wireless connections. This is why a 4-mile drive through Salt lake City, Utah yielded 90-plus APs with fully 2/3rds unsecured.

But the question is, "who would want to connect to your network or steal info from your network or computers?" Your average cracker is looking for credit card numbers, bank accounts and other things that are transmitted in the clear, or they are looking to pass viruses, bots and worms onto the internet or surf the internet for free. Simply turning on WEP encryption and mac filtering is going to deter 90-95% of people from trying to get on your network simply because there are easier targets (i.e the people that don't secure their networks.)

Usually it's not worth trying to crack some home user's AP when someone down the road has one that's wide open. Targets of opportunity and all that.

By the way, Restricting the amount of IP addresses does not stop someone from getting on your network. It simply makes it SLIGHTLY harder. Most home users still use the 192.168.1.x network with a 255.255.255.0 subnet mask. so it's simply a matter of statically setting an IP address in that range. If you want to make it hard try setting a subnet mask of 255.255.255.248 that gives you 6 useable IP addresses in each block of subnet addresses. Try 255.255.255.252 for only 2 usable addresses per subnet block. Also try changing your address range to 172.16.x.x or 10.x.x.x to further throw them off.

P.s. my technical background is as a Technical Lead at Cisco Systems in Security and Wireless.

[BravoOrig]

I love talking to Cisco when some Ford dealership loses their connection at 2 in the morning due to some maintenance we're doing. They always want a ticket #, which we don't have, and frankly, it is very hard to understand them. Otherwise they are very polite and professional.

I was troubleshooting slow wifi speed to my router as it was only giving out 3Mpbs download via wifi, tried two different wifi devices on the pc, disabled av/firewall, etc. I got close to full speed when direct connecting the ethernet cable, and I always get 100% signal as they are only one wall apart. My basement is mostly finished so running cable is a bit too involved. I updated the firmware and Motorola just stuck on a really crappy GUI. I went through and resetup the security for wifi, including the WPA with TKIP+AES now availabl to me. Then I found out neither of my wifi card's software supports both at the same time, just one or the other. I had to string a ethernet cable down the hall again so I could login and change that setting to be able to connect wirelessly.