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Quickie Question on wireless networking

H

hairygit1

Member
Hi,
Thanx for looking in.

This is the problem, or not:

My neighbour uses wifi for his computers that are on a broadband subscription, and has offered me a connection as well [as long as I get the hardware- which is on its way].
The question is,
how secure is this arrangement - as my neighbour is in full control of the incoming and transmitting router - can he access my computer or see what sites I am surfing?

I am running Win2K pro and have a good firewall, so I know that some of the traffic I can filter out, but the main question is about the internet security between the signal coming into the house and coming to my computer.......
Look forward to a YES [tis all ok], or a NO [invest in your own broadband connection you cheapskate cos it aint secure]
 
My question is how far away is the router from your PC? You may find you are too far away to get a decent signal.
 
I thought I already posted on this question...

ask him to bring his laptop to your place and run some bandwidth tests from there to see if you connection will be feasible and/or fast. check out www.bandwidthplace.com for a free test

i splt my wired network between 6 Pc's and a playstation2. and dont have any probs. DSL is fast here 1700-1200/700-300 (max-min down/max-min up)

its definately quick enough to split the bill between 2-3 people so long as your neighbor isnt downloading 50 tracks simutaneously on filesharing apps.(if he is, you could ask him to keep it down to 4-8, works fine for us, and he still gets great download speeds).
 
why dont you just get your own then these issues become moot.

things are cheap now. and youd be helping out the economy
 
"how secure is this arrangement - as my neighbour is in full control of the incoming and transmitting router - can he access my computer or see what sites I am surfing?"

He will definitely be able to see what sites you frequent. As far as getting access to your data. It depends on what security measures you have taken locally. That wouldn't matter whether your wired or wireless. The same rules would apply for both problems.
 
Thanks for the replies guys.

1- he has already run a laptop from another room which is further away than mine.
2-the cost is about the same as my dialup connexion, so i can ditch that and have some proper internet.
3-the economy can go and stick its head up its own arse
4-Would it be very very easy for him to see what sites are frequented. The stuff on my computer is pretty secure - firewall.
I was mainly wondering if he has to make significant efforts to be nosey, or if the information would be on his computer waiting to be looked at.
Thanks fellas and fellies
 
Obviously, if he has the broadband router at his place, he can look at what comes across the wire. It's pretty easy to pick out the sites with a free network monitor like www.ethereal.com so watch where you surf! 😀 It's not that difficult to protect you from him snooping on your machine, you'll need a decent firewall.
 
I have got a decent firewall [Kerio - free but good].
But that will only stop any access coming into my computer.

Between his router and my computer, I don't think I can have any control - is this true?
 
Any website visited will be, or can be logged. Depends on the router I suppose and if he has logging enabled but all sites are visited from the WAN IP on the router then NAT'd to the local IP on your PC. He'd have to look at the log files or the log webpage on the admin GUI of the router but he will most certainly have access to any website you have gone to.
 
1) If you want increased network security you will have to enable MAC Address filtering and even WEP (WEP will degrade performance). Depending on his router you should consider allowing mixed-standard (b & g) so that the range will be extended by going to 802.11b mode.
2) Did you know? Sharing internet in this way is illegal! But hey, there are enough open WAPs in the world anyway.
3) Get the free version of ZoneAlarm FREE Version! Make sure you click FREE Version not "I want to block cookies and all that stuff" because that version costs money. 🙁

-Por
 
Originally posted by: hairygit1
I have got a decent firewall [Kerio - free but good]. But that will only stop any access coming into my computer. Between his router and my computer, I don't think I can have any control - is this true?
Click to expand...

If you have a firewall, configured properly, you can block any accesses to your system from either the LAN (his systems), or the Internet. You have all the control you choose to exercise between his router and your computer.
 
Originally posted by: gunrunnerjohn
Obviously, if he has the broadband router at his place, he can look at what comes across the wire. It's pretty easy to pick out the sites with a free network monitor like <a href="http://www.ethereal.com">www.ethereal.com</A> so watch where you surf! 😀 It's not that difficult to protect you from him snooping on your machine, you'll need a decent firewall.
Click to expand...

Actually, applications like ethereal can only see what comes across the wire that it is connected to. If the broadband router being used implements a built in switch, hardwired machines could not see each others traffic. Wireless on the other hand is a lot easier because it is effectively a wireless hub through which any packet sent out is seen by any other wireless clients on that network. I'm not entirely sure if WEP would plug this hole up or not since all clients on the wireless side would basically know how to decrypt the traffic.

This is not only an issue that could let your neighbor/friend view your traffic, but anyone who is walking down the sidewalk with a laptop/wireless NIC that knows your network's SSID can sniff just the same.

I wouldn't be too worried about it though. Most computer users don't even know about applications like ethereal, even including a lot of wireless users. So unless your neighbor has it out for you, you should be fine. Personally, if I even thought that I had to worry about this I would not be considering it as an option, but that's just me, and i'm EXTREMELY paranoid when it comes to security on my network.
 
Cheers to all of ya for your replies.

The firewall on my computer will protect my computer - that I am happy with.

I am pretty confident now that he will be able to see the sites/http's that are visited, but to what detail -
I trust the fella, but don't want him knowing my banking password!!
The encryption used- would this stop any serious snooping?

Also, say i was using kazaa or something like that, what detail would he be able to pick out?
Thanx again
 
Sorry = not trying to bump.

If it helps, I will be using something that conforms to the 802.11b standard.
Does that make it more secure?
 
Originally posted by: hairygit1
Cheers to all of ya for your replies. The firewall on my computer will protect my computer - that I am happy with. I am pretty confident now that he will be able to see the sites/http's that are visited, but to what detail - I trust the fella, but don't want him knowing my banking password!! The encryption used- would this stop any serious snooping? Also, say i was using kazaa or something like that, what detail would he be able to pick out? Thanx again
Click to expand...

As long as you do all your banking on secured sites, seeing your bank password isn't an issue. To answer the next question, 802.11b is the standard 11mhz WiFi standard, but it's far from secure, as you can see in other threads here. 😀
 
First off, is he that knowledgeable to make you worry about all this?


second, i say again. if you dont trust him spend your own money.
 
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