Spooky stuff today on my laptop wifi.

Josey Wales · 28 Aug 2021 at 16:35

Hello everyone,

I was wondering if you could help.
I got a brand new pc laptop from work 2 days ago. Went out to girlfriends house today and took kids to dance class. Nobody was in my girlfriends house. When we got back I put the laptop on for first time in her property expecting for the SSID to come up and I enter the password. When I logged in it was already connected to the network which still requires a password for any device that you use as I checked this.

The machine logged on by its own at 9:52pm today according to logs and we were all out at that time getting breakfast and picking kids up from dance.

nobody was at the property, laptop has never been on network before and it was connected when I logged in for first time after getting back, I’m baffled!

I thought my girlfriend may of went on early on morning but she swore she didn’t and did not know password login although she can enter wifi password from login screen but the logs show wifi logon at 9;52 am and we was all out at that time. The last wifi logon before this was my network at my house 10 miles away yesterday....I’m baffled....any ideas please? There is no wps button on router either.....it’s as if somebody connected today but who?? Somebody could have remoted on from work I guess but rdp logs don’t show this, nobody’s at work today, and how would they connect the laptop to the router as I never connected it. The laptop seems to have connected itself to the router all on its own for the first time while no one was in the house. I’m stumped....

VersionMonkey · 28 Aug 2021 at 17:11

I seem to remember that known WiFi networks can sync through a Microsoft account, but I could well be wrong about that.

Do you sign into the new laptop with a Microsoft account and have you also previously connected to that WiFi network on a device signed in with the same Microsoft account?

If the laptop was sleeping, not shut down; it could have woken to check for updates or something and found the network password through your Microsoft account?

Josey Wales · 28 Aug 2021 at 17:38

I signed into a MS office 365 account but it was a new one setup at work and nothing to do with my personal account as i keep both separate etc. Network and sharing private is disabled at home on all computers and devices even though its set as default.

I also checked my history just to make sure and nothing entered to my personal accounts, baffled in all honesty.

This guy had a similar problem here....
https://community.ee.co.uk/t5/Broadband-home-phone/WiFi-connecting-without-password/td-p/898318

Still not explained

lsg1r · 28 Aug 2021 at 19:05

I'd say it's likely that stupid thing where Microsoft will share wifi passwords between friends etc, so theoretically it could have got to you via an indirect route of more than one other user, say work account associates with you, you associate with girlfriend.

Called wifi sense iirc and imo is one of the worst things that could be added to an OS....although it looks like it might have been removed after version 1803.

EDIT: Actually thought about it, does the laptop/girlfriend have alexa, in my head that will automatically connect things, so it might be 'smart device' giving out the details.

gpuerrilla · 28 Aug 2021 at 20:53

IIRC apple devices do this too. Wife had something recently that I had to troubleshoot and it had never been in the house before. Took me a while to realise it got the wifi info through her account as I replaced an AP with a ubiquiti unit and there is no way new devices would have known this password.

Josey Wales · 29 Aug 2021 at 15:18

Th0nt said:
IIRC apple devices do this too. Wife had something recently that I had to troubleshoot and it had never been in the house before. Took me a while to realise it got the wifi info through her account as I replaced an AP with a ubiquiti unit and there is no way new devices would have known this password.

Which account was that with your wife? email?
Yea its probably the same thing, im not sure, either that or a ghost lol
Anyhow thank you all for your replies people, thing is i think m just going write this off. Even with everything you guys have said it still dont make sense as i never logged onto personal account (email) on my new laptop as its strictly for work and also checked the history and not cached details into my outlook account only cached to my work account so i dont know were the credentials could have came from....wierd.

THX1138 · 2 Sep 2021 at 10:27

If for work perhaps your boss is checking up on you.

Cyber-Mav · 6 Sep 2021 at 09:42

THX1138 said:
If for work perhaps your boss is checking up on you.

this

Josey Wales · 7 Sep 2021 at 15:21

THX1138 said:
If for work perhaps your boss is checking up on you.

No it wasn't as I checked the RDP logs through event viewer. Even if he was the laptop is not connected to the wifi so how would he do that???

gpuerrilla · 7 Sep 2021 at 15:42

Yeah there's virtually no way work would know it and even if they did connect to it, it would be by 4G sim - unless your network is broadcasting a password-less open AP.

mrbazmondo · 7 Sep 2021 at 15:49

Have you used a different work pc at home before that could have remembered your password on your work account?

THX1138 · 8 Sep 2021 at 14:16

Th0nt said:
Yeah there's virtually no way work would know it and even if they did connect to it, it would be by 4G sim - unless your network is broadcasting a password-less open AP.

P45 in the post.

Josey Wales · 9 Sep 2021 at 15:13

mrbazmondo said:
Have you used a different work pc at home before that could have remembered your password on your work account?

No way as its not my house and how could it connect itself to the router for the first time on its own? Its as if there was a ghost in there, i still cant get my head around it.
Unexplained in my opinion.

nutsnut · 9 Sep 2021 at 19:15

Had you used a previous works laptop on this network? Then your employee migrated all the settings to the new laptop?

mrbazmondo · 9 Sep 2021 at 21:53

Could it be that the SSID and password happen to match another one you have used in the past? Or maybe it has no password set up. Does your phone connect too?

Josey Wales · 13 Sep 2021 at 17:14

nutsnut said:
Had you used a previous works laptop on this network? Then your employee migrated all the settings to the new laptop?

I used another laptop but was from a completely different company. How could the wifi settings enter themselves when the lid on the laptop is also shut and in a bag, never been taken out of the bag in this building before????

Josey Wales · 13 Sep 2021 at 17:16

mrbazmondo said:
Could it be that the SSID and password happen to match another one you have used in the past? Or maybe it has no password set up. Does your phone connect too?

Yes my phone connects but how can my phone give credentials to wifi on a brand new laptop that is in sleep mode in the laptop bag but never been opened or connected to the network?

nutsnut · 13 Sep 2021 at 23:22

Is it your work phone? Is that set up to share/sync with the work laptop profile?

Josey Wales · 24 Sep 2021 at 00:03

nutsnut said:
Is it your work phone? Is that set up to share/sync with the work laptop profile?

No it isnt as when i get back i just use my own phone