OMG, somebody has been using my wireless network!!!

Man of Honour
Man of Honour
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I have a Linksys WRT54GS, and recently unplugged it for a few days due to redecorating the room. Anyway, I plugged it back in and assumed it would be as I left it (security, port forwarding settings etc etc)

I just logged into the setup and noticed all settings were back to default (no wireless security etc.), whats worse is when I looked at the DHCP clients table I noticed a computer that is not on my network :eek:

I immediately disconnected him and setup my security and other settings.

Obviously I am now concerned about how long this guy has been using my network (could be more than a week), and all kinds of scary thoughts are going through my head :(

Give me a worse case scenario please :(
 
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The worst thing I am guessing is that he could have dome something illegal on your connection, or got some personal details from you.
 
cymatty said:
The worst thing I am guessing is that he could have dome something illegal on your connection, or got some personal details from you.

That's the kind of thing I'm worried about :(
 
Although to be fair it is probably some n00b, if he was anything other he would have locked you out of your router. :p
 
Windows firewall is active, but file and print sharing exeptions is ticked. Blueyonder PC Guard firewall is active too.

Router security is WPA2 (AES), but was off as default.
 
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sounds like you got off not too bad, probably just some noob with there pc or laptop set on auto connect to available wireless networks and they never noticed.

keep an eye out though.
 
just to confirm, the settings were reset when you unplugged it?

but then you didn't relise until around a week later, were the deault settings an open wireless network?
 
mike1210 said:
just to confirm, the settings were reset when you unplugged it?

but then you didn't relise until around a week later, were the deault settings an open wireless network?

Yes, that's it in a nutshell.
 
ok got ya, trying to asses the skill of the other party, cos i thought for a minute he cracked a WPA2 password :eek: ..........

may have just used it for a while then disconected, just to be double sure i'd run virus scan on all pc's etc.

does sound like someone found your network by chance and decided to use it, are there many people within wireless range of your house, and what age group are we talking
 
Well TBH the houses round here tend to be young families and older people, not your typical 1337 h4x0rs.

I scanned all PCs right away, and they all seem to be virus free.
 
if you have put back the WPA2 AES security then that's pretty rock solid (with a strong password), could restrict by MAC as well but the WPA2 is very much the main security feature there.

you may already know this site but it will generate a 64 character password for you

http://www.kurtm.net/wpa-pskgen/

double check the router every now and again, odd that it lost the settings though :)
 
mike1210 said:
ok got ya, trying to asses the skill of the other party, cos i thought for a minute he cracked a WPA2 password :eek:

Not that much of a stretch if the passphrase is weak.

If the router's losing its settings when you switch it off, there should be an option to write the settings to flash (or something's gone wonky, but hm).
 
I know when I set up my network it gave me the option of joining my neighbours one lol cos they didn't use WAP, but I didn't because I'm nice like that. If I were you I'd be watching your neighbour's geeky little kid ;)

Jonny
 
Mr-White said:
i take it you have his i.p ? what do the logs say he's been doing ?

MW

Sorry for being a n00b, but where can I find the logs on this router?
 
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