[bfurtado]

I have had no problems thus far with security and run of the mill port scans turn up a secure system. I have a wireless router and zone alarm on my pc. When I try to connect to any folder on my PC from my mac, weird things have started happening. My PC is called AMD on the network. So the typical address I've used to access my document has been smb://AMD/My Documents. Its worked fine for months. Now, whenever I go to GO:Connect to Server, the workgroup name changes EVERY SINGLE TIME. I can just press connect and it wills till connect, without me entering the proper name or even a password. The names very like OEMCOMPUTER, VV DIABLO, NUNET, etc, etc. Also, when I was access my music via iTunes from my PC on my mac, it constantly had t rebuffer each song as if the network traffic is overloaded. Have I been compromised?

I'm OK when it comes to networks, I can create Workgroup names, share folders, etc. But the nitty gritty and diagnosing is far above me (at this point). I really appreciate all your help in advance!!

Brian

[ghporter]

It sounds like a bunch of wireless-owning folks have moved in around you. Their networks aren't very well set up, or at least they're not hiding their network names (which you can do with some access points).

If you're just having this problem from your Mac, you can probably just set your AirPort card to connect to your preferred network. Can't remember just which tab that's in right now-I'm on a PC at the moment-but it's an option that's perfect for this kind of situation. You can do much the same thing with the PC, but the method is OS (and version) dependent.

[John Strung]

Just to add to what GH has said. If he in fact is right and you now have neighbours with wireless connections, it is absolutely essential that you set up security on your own wireless router to make sure your neighbours can't access your network.

You should do the following:

1. Turn off SSID broadcast.
2. Change the default SSID to something else.
3. Enable WEP
4. Enable MAC address filtering.

[bfurtado]

Thanks guys. I did what you said and added the PBs MAC address to the filtered list so it should be the only one connecting. I still get the weird names though, which is annoying. I don't understand - I live in a neighbourhood where you would think no one has a computer - much less a wireless network.


Brian

[John Strung]

The names you see may be computers on the local node of your cable provider - people who have file sharing turned on on their computers and are not using a router.

[bfurtado]

Ahh, interesting. I didn't know that was possible. The thing is, it just started out of nowhere, 2 days after I installed a VNC client on my PC, and a viewer on my Mac.

Brian