[Kerrigan]

My internet connection has normally been in the ~2mbps range. I have a cable modem with a standard home plan, nothing too fancy.

Lately though I've noticed that things are downloading too fast. I just checked my "broadband speed" and it came in at 3.8mbps, but last week I noticed it was as high as 19.7mbps (!!). I looked at my bill and my plan/price is the same.

I'm concerned that someone else is on my WiFi and that is what is causing these speed fluctuations. Does anyone know how I can stop this? Am I being hacked? Thanks.

[ibook_steve]

You're complaining about it being too fast? You should be happy, not suspicious. And someone on your connection would make it slow down, not speed up. If it really bothers you (I can't imagine why), contact your cable company.

Steve

[Simon]

Steve's right. No wifi user will make your connection faster. If you are still worried about wifi, make sure to activate WPA2 and change your password.

You can call up your cable company. Chances are they won't know squat about it. If you're unlucky they'll discover a config blunder on their end, fix it, and you'll be back down to 2Mbps.

As they say on a plane. Sit back, relax, and enjoy.

[ghporter]

The only thing some leech could be doing is slowing you down. So logically the only way you'd be able to tell is by speed fluctuations, but instead of a speed up, you'd see a slowdown. Or you HAD a leech that was there all the time and they got tired of you... Not likely.

What's probably happened is that a) a number of heavy users in your part of the cable system have shut down for some reason or (more likely) b) the cable company upgraded their hardware.

[Chongo]

Cox upped the speed at my Mom's house in response to Qwest offering 20Meg service in our neighborhood. I have the 12Meg from Qwest. Does you ISP have any competition?

[Kerrigan]

Thanks for the responses everyone.

It turns out my neighbor next door had just set up a wireless network that also had the name "linksys." I must have been joining that network somehow. I notified him of this and he secured his network.

I thought it was pretty strange though that someone who would pay for that type of connection would not bother to secure his wireless network.

[ibook_steve]

Wow, you're probably one of the most honest people I've ever read online. There's no way I'd tell anybody about a "problem" like this.

While he should have secured his network, why is yours also named the default "linksys"?

Steve

[hwojtek]

...and apparently also not secured???

[hatehereyes]

Man you're lucky, the only "linksys" networks I've ever been able to connect to have the slowest and very unreliable connection.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by hatehereyes 

Man you're lucky, the only "linksys" networks I've ever been able to connect to have the slowest and very unreliable connection.

You have not been around mine then. I have great speed and solid connections throughout my house and even on the patio out back. I should point out that my connections are through a Linksys access point, and that it has external antennas, something I think is important to ensuring decent coverage.

Originally Posted by Kerrigan 

It turns out my neighbor next door had just set up a wireless network that also had the name "linksys."

Kerrigan, if you've left your network name as the default "linksys," what else have you left default? Make sure you've changed the default admin password!

Also, unless you think a little about placement of your router, you could wind up making the router's connections unstable and slow. If you stuck it under the desk or in some cubby that makes it hard for the radio signals to get through, that would really make for slow and unreliable connections. Any access point or router should be up high and you should orient it (or its external antennas) so that you get the best coverage. That takes a little work, but it's worth while.

[steve626]

Originally Posted by hatehereyes 

Man you're lucky, the only "linksys" networks I've ever been able to connect to have the slowest and very unreliable connection.

Not sure what you're trying to convey with that comment, but Cisco, which is the largest seller of routers in the world, makes Linksys products. Being the market leader does not necessarily mean being the best (witness Microsoft), but in the world of routers, consumers have many choices (versus the business world where often PCs with Windows are mandated by various constraints), but many of my neighbors are now using Linksys routers, paired with Macs in fact. I just got a new Linksys N router (replacing an old Belkin G router) and it seems pretty good performance wise. The setup program even runs on a Mac now, although that's not really necessary because doing the setup from a browser works just as well (maybe even better). Also, you can flash update the firmware using a browser from any operating system now, so the product has become more Mac friendly in fact.

[hatehereyes]

Originally Posted by steve626 

Not sure what you're trying to convey with that comment, but Cisco, which is the largest seller of routers in the world, makes Linksys products. Being the market leader does not necessarily mean being the best (witness Microsoft), but in the world of routers, consumers have many choices (versus the business world where often PCs with Windows are mandated by various constraints), but many of my neighbors are now using Linksys routers, paired with Macs in fact. I just got a new Linksys N router (replacing an old Belkin G router) and it seems pretty good performance wise. The setup program even runs on a Mac now, although that's not really necessary because doing the setup from a browser works just as well (maybe even better). Also, you can flash update the firmware using a browser from any operating system now, so the product has become more Mac friendly in fact.

I was talking about how when i first moved into this house I didn't have internet up yet so I had to connect to different networks but the only network I could find most of the time were "linksys" networks which most of the time I had a hard time connecting to and when I did connect to it and connection was slow and unreliable.

[Simon]

I think somehow people here are misinterpreting hatehereyes' comment about Linksys routers.

He's not saying they are bad routers per se, he's claiming he connected to a couple and those connections were slow. That's not especially surprising since he was (as he pointed out btw) "leeching" off other people's connections. So these networks could have been further away or blocked by obstacles (walls, etc.). It's no surprise the connections were slow and hatehereyes never claimed Linksys were somehow sub-par devices.

[Simon]

What I find amazing is how many of these Linksys networks I find totally open. Are Linksys somehow targetting noobs or something? How hard can it be to configure your router and at least set up some kind of primitive encryption or address filtering? I have never seen an open AppleNetworkxxyyzz network (default AirPort name) but tons of wide open Linksys. Why's that?

[hatehereyes]

Originally Posted by Simon 

I think somehow people here are misinterpreting hatehereyes' comment about Linksys routers.

He's not saying they are bad routers per se, he's claiming he connected to a couple and those connections were slow. That's not especially surprising since he was (as he pointed out btw) "leaching" off other people' connections. So these networks could have been further away or blocked by obstacles (walls, etc.). It's no surprise the connections were slow and hatehereyes never claimed Linksys were somehow sub-par devices.

Yes that's exactly what I was trying to say, I was talking about the routers. I was saying how all the linksys networks I've connected to where slow and had bad connection.

Originally Posted by Simon 

What I find amazing is how many of these Linksys networks I find totally open. Are Linksys somehow targetting noobs or something? How hard can it be to configure your router and at least set up some kind of primitive encryption or address filtering? I have never seen an open AppleNetworkxxyyzz network (default AirPort name) but tons of wide open Linksys. Why's that?

My netgear router also didn't leave the default network wideopen like linksys does.
I've got no idea why they do that.

[ghporter]

Linksys hardware is indeed open by default. But newer units have a button that you push and it sets up encryption for you. There's also this handy CD in the box that Windows users can run to be hand-held through the process of securing the thing. The problem? Most people just plug-and-forget these things.

The reason so many other brands don't present this problem is that they either are closed by default and you have to go through some sort of setup just to see that the thing is working, or there's some sort of initial configuration routine/wizard built in that MAKES you configure it. This is NOT by any means universal; D-Link stuff seems to come out of the box naked as a jaybird; my brother-in-law is still trying to find the D-Link user near his home so he can tell them to secure their box.

It's my impression that Linksys figures it's better not to tick off customers (and generate irate customer service and tech support calls) by locking down the box by default. They DO make it incredibly easy to configure their boxes, whatever OS you're running, so if a user "forgets" to configure the thing, or they just don't bother, at least they have the opportunity and it's up to them.

And yes, I had misinterpreted hatehereyes' post. You certainly aren't going to be able to "find" my network and then leech off of it because I'm fairly well secured. I tend to think in terms of how "a right thinking person would configure their network," so I default to expecting all networks to be secured. My bad.

[turtle777]

That was unexpected turn of events.

The hunch with WiFi leeching was very close, after all.

-t