[moofman]

I'm home visiting my folks and my father asked me to check out an oddity he's noticed. Unfortunately I've never seen anything like this before. They live in a rural environment, with only a few visible SSIDs around (3-5, depending on the weather) and have AT&T U-verse as their ISP.

One visible SSID is a 2Wire router ("2WIREXXX"), provided by AT&T. Another visible SSID is identified as "Motorola-XXXX." Both are locked.

Somehow, the Motorola network was selected as the default connection, though my father has no recollection of joining or entering a password for this network. But this is the weird part: switching to the other 2Wire network happens instantaneously, and the computer maintains the same IP. In fact, everything in the TCP/IP panel stays the same, including the Router IP, no matter which network the computer is on and no matter how many times you switch back and forth. When switching between netoworks in the Network SysPrefs, "WiFi" drops below "Ethernet" for ~1 second, but the "status" dot next to it stays green and still says "Connected", and when I go to the Router's IP, on either network, I get a 2Wire interface.

There's no evidence that I can see in the router's software interface that the 2Wire is broadcasting 2 SSIDs.


Other possibly pertinent information: the U-verse connection appears to be through a Cisco wireless router connected to a 2wire modem (so I assume AT&T has software that lets the 2Wire modem externally control the Cisco wireless router?) My father also claims there is no Motorola tech in the house anymore, though there used to be a Motorola router used for their prior ISP.

Any idea what's going on here, and how to determine where the Motorola SSID is coming from?

Thanks in advance!

[mduell]

The Cisco could have an SSID of Motorola-XXXX; SSIDs are arbitrary text.

It could be the Cisco is set up as an access point only so it's not doing routing or NAT or DHCP. Thus the IP and router don't change when you switch between wireless networks.

[moofman]

I'm aware the SSID is arbitrary. I'm just confused who would set a non-motorola device's SSID to Motorola-XXXX.

Also, the only wi-fi network projecting devices that my father knows about are the Cisco Wireless Router (connected to the 2Wire modem, which does not have WiFi), and an Apple Time Capsule... But there's no way those could be connecting to the computer with the same IP, right?

Is there anyway to find out more about the source of a network, besides the Router IP (since the router IP is leading to the same software, no matter which network I'm connected to)?

[mduell]

Originally Posted by moofman 

I'm aware the SSID is arbitrary. I'm just confused who would set a non-motorola device's SSID to Motorola-XXXX.

Personally I'm a fan of "DEA_surveillance".

Originally Posted by moofman 

Also, the only wi-fi network projecting devices that my father knows about are the Cisco Wireless Router (connected to the 2Wire modem, which does not have WiFi), and an Apple Time Capsule... But there's no way those could be connecting to the computer with the same IP, right?

Yes, they can, under the same logic as above where one of the routing-capable devices is being used as only an access point.

Originally Posted by moofman 

Is there anyway to find out more about the source of a network, besides the Router IP (since the router IP is leading to the same software, no matter which network I'm connected to)?

A directional antenna and a bit of time.