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threestain · Dec 2, 2003, 10:12 AM

We've got a wireless network in our house (top floor flat), and haven't managed to be able to put any security on the network (dodgy cheap router - by Origo). Today whilst Iming my house mate (lazy I know) there was a random quote put in from me apparently, that was

He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind: and the fool shall be servant to the wise in heart

Is there anyway to tell if someones leaching our bandwidth, or can anyone tell us how to put at least a pasword on our router (www.origo2000.com)?

Thanks guys!

Jim_MDP · Dec 2, 2003, 11:21 AM

Can you give a direct link to your model? Or a complete model name.

You should, at the least, be able to limit the wireless to just your MAC address and maybe turn off broadcasting of the network name. If so and you've already been leeched, you'll have to change the network name after turning off ID broadcasting or whoever it is will still have the name.

Without WEP (and maybe even with), a determined (knowledgeable) leech can still get on your network.

threestain · Dec 2, 2003, 11:34 AM

Model is AWR-8210

http://www.origo2000.com/product/pro...?PAGE=awr-8200

Cheers for the other info.

We;ve tried to secure it but the details are rather... "obscure"!

Sarc · Dec 2, 2003, 03:08 PM

Originally posted by Jim_MDP:
Can you give a direct link to your model? Or a complete model name.

You should, at the least, be able to limit the wireless to just your MAC address and maybe turn off broadcasting of the network name. If so and you've already been leeched, you'll have to change the network name after turning off ID broadcasting or whoever it is will still have the name.

Without WEP (and maybe even with), a determined (knowledgeable) leech can still get on your network.

all three ways to secure a Wireless network (at least for 802.11b) are weak (that is SSID hiding, MAC address filtering, xbit WEP).
All you can do is to implement all three just to buy some time. The use of this is that if the hacker just wants network access, he'll keep on driving till he gets to an insecure AP.
Now if the hacker wants something with your computer(s), or he is you neighbor and doesn't have anybody else in range, it only takes a few hours to crack all 3 "security" measures.

BTW. you can check the router's log for DHCP requests and see if anyone other than you has been requesting an IP.

I would also check your computer's logs ... just in case.

Big Mac · Dec 2, 2003, 06:19 PM

Remember that with WEP you usually have to put the dollar sign character $ in before you type/paste the password string into the password field. Also note that your router should only have one WEP string set at any given time, even though it may support more than one. The reason is, Apple's Airport driver doesn't support multiple keys so you won't be able to login if you set more than one.

Everything that Sarc said is correct - wireless security is inherently insecure. It is said that while adding a single extra bit to standard encryption increases its strength exponentially, adding bits to wireless encryption only provides a linear increase in security. One other comment I would add is that even the new 802.11 security features that were designed to replace WEP have their own major exploits. Wireless security is an evolving process, and you can only try your best.

kcmac · Dec 2, 2003, 07:27 PM

If you have file sharing, etc turned off, how can anyone gain access? Aren't they really just stealing bandwidth?

l008com · Dec 2, 2003, 07:45 PM

Dumb question but, are you both on Macs? It doesn't sound to me like you've been hacked at all. I've seen this before, there are windows viruses/worms/whatever that can take over AIM and randomly send message to people you talk to online. It sounds like that has happened to you. Though if your network is open, I'd wrap it up if I were you. Also, can even MAC address filtering be hacked? I thought that was a pretty secure way to do it, it just makes wireless less useful.

qyn · Dec 2, 2003, 11:04 PM

Originally posted by l008com:
Also, can even MAC address filtering be hacked? I thought that was a pretty secure way to do it, it just makes wireless less useful.

MAC address spoofing is pretty easy to do, since for many wireless cards you can just type it in. And MAC addresses are required to be transmitted unencrypted, so sniffing out valid ones is trivial (with the right tools, of course).

The best solution is to use the built-in firewall on all machines that are using the network. But do all the other stuff, too (WEP, MAC filtering, etc) since you don't have to be totally secure, just more secure than your neighboring wireless networks...

threestain · Dec 3, 2003, 05:46 AM

I've got the only mac - the others are wintel crap. Doesn't sound promising does it!

Right well I've just scanned with Macscan to see if there was anything obvious, nothing yet...

Also... bugger forgotten it, will remember soon!