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Posted

So I sit here now renting out a place including interent and all. I have noticed that their wifi connection is unsecured. Should I be concerned? Are they they seeing what i am typing? I am growing a slight distrust, the longer I am here! After what I have gone through lately , you are darn right I check and double check. Every thing is to a tee, but,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, something is not right at all. Call it a hunch, instinct or what ever. Jeeze I dont even haver paper work or proper receicts from them at all, but in lieu of it, ive got signed notes for rent paid :thumbsup_anim: Im curious if they are registered with the renters assoc :whistling: Just my little rant for today, sorry guys. Something threw me off while starting my QC venture topic dry.gif

I will report tommorrow about my little mini vacation :)

Posted

Vin, relax bud. Most hotels and other bussiness offering free internet access, use an un secure access network, to allow there customers to sign in without a password. It doesnt mean people can get into your computer.If you are using XP or Win7, just make sure windows defender and firewall are started and functioning correctly.

 

Now get some sleep angel.png

 

 

Posted

I wouldn't read too much into it. A lot of landlords have apartments that are considered "not legal" because of all the crap you have to go through for it to be legal and conforming. The open wifi is either a convenience thing or just laziness on his part. I don't think anyone can break into your computer if your virus and spyware is up to date...

Posted

One can access that wifi network without a password.. As far as someone see what you're typing? I wouldn't worry too much, lol.

 

Exactly :thumbsup_anim:

Posted

I would still turn off any file sharing and also turn off the wifi when yer done, if you're concerned. But yeah, if he was smart, he'd make it a closed network invisible to people who are cruising and looking for free wifi.

Posted

Having a unsecure network can and cannot be bad.... it can open you up for certain types of attacks etc... but as far as them seeing what you are typing.... unlikely unless they have injected your pc with a keyboard logger.... that said, someone else could also be using the landlords internet service... log into the router and see how many devices are connected to it... http://192.168.0.1 is the usual IP to log into the router... and the typical login and pass is admin/password

 

the only thing the average person can see is the logs from the router... websites you have visited etc.. most routers log this information.

 

Good luck

 

G

Posted

don't worry about it too much. like woodenboater said, disable file sharing on your pc. if you do this, others will be able to see your pc is connected but not access anything.

 

if you have a home network setup, then you should add additional measures to secure your portion of the LAN.

Posted

Here'a why a unsecured WiFi connection could be trouble...

 

Was on our Local New a few weeks ago.....a family with young kids got their house door knocked in at 6am by a swat team....Dad and computer were taken into for questioning....turns out the police were on a hot trail of child pornography that showed the house they had a search warrant was being used to access the Internet.....problem was....it was a neighbour that tapped into their wireless connection......But REAL embarrassing for the family at the time.

Posted

Having a unsecure network can and cannot be bad.... it can open you up for certain types of attacks etc... but as far as them seeing what you are typing.... unlikely unless they have injected your pc with a keyboard logger.... that said, someone else could also be using the landlords internet service... log into the router and see how many devices are connected to it... http://192.168.0.1 is the usual IP to log into the router... and the typical login and pass is admin/password

 

the only thing the average person can see is the logs from the router... websites you have visited etc.. most routers log this information.

 

Good luck

 

G

 

 

I beg to differ.

Unless the user has not pasword protected their computer it is pretty simple to get into even with file sharing turned off. Even if they have password protected it but not password protected the administrator account (or any other administrative account) it's a simple hack to get into it.

 

I would guess that since the landlord hasn't turned on encryption on their router they probably haven't changed the admin password on the router either. This can allow a hacker to get into all of the router settings and even prevent you from accessing the internet if they want to.

 

Do not do any sensitive work over the internet until it is encrypted.

Because it's not encrypted all data travelling over the network between your computer and the router is plainly readable with another computer on the network loaded with any one of a number of tools to grab and inspect the packets on the network.

 

How do I know this you ask?

Network security is what I do for a living. B)

 

Any more questions just send me a pm. ;)

Posted (edited)

Dave, do you have your tinfoil hat on?

 

Even with WEP, WPA, WPA2, breaking into a wifi network is anything but hard.

Edited by BillM
Posted

I beg to differ.

Unless the user has not pasword protected their computer it is pretty simple to get into even with file sharing turned off. Even if they have password protected it but not password protected the administrator account (or any other administrative account) it's a simple hack to get into it.

 

I would guess that since the landlord hasn't turned on encryption on their router they probably haven't changed the admin password on the router either. This can allow a hacker to get into all of the router settings and even prevent you from accessing the internet if they want to.

 

Do not do any sensitive work over the internet until it is encrypted.

Because it's not encrypted all data travelling over the network between your computer and the router is plainly readable with another computer on the network loaded with any one of a number of tools to grab and inspect the packets on the network.

 

How do I know this you ask?

Network security is what I do for a living. B)

 

Any more questions just send me a pm. ;)

 

 

I believe we said the same thing... however I did not go into details as most here will not understand them anyways.... trust me I know, I help out many here with computer issues.... all the wireless protections are garbage anyways.. So where do you beg to differ? and seeing as how we are bragging about our accolades Comp.Sci UWO, former Network Admin for Primus (in my younger years)... :) anyone can DMZ that router, they can gain control of the router so only a hard reset will restore it... but what do I know :whistling: they cannot like I said see what he is writing unless as I said earlier... a Keylogger is installed and if is stupid enough not you have logins well.... I cant fix stupid.

 

Have a good day.

 

G.

Posted (edited)

Dave, do you have your tinfoil hat on?

 

Even with WEP, WPA, WPA2, breaking into a wifi network is anything but hard.

 

A lot harder than one that isn't secure at all Bill.

That's also why in order to get on our wireless network here at the college you need to have a valid computer account and log onto our radius server before you can do anything. B)

And to answer your question yes I do have my tinfoil hat on!!! tinfoilhatsmile.gif

With out it major league baseball can read my mind!!!! :unsure:

Edited by DRIFTER_016
Posted

Yes you should care. You shouldn't use unencrypted. If someone wants to they can get everything you have on your computer... You don't care? Do you file your taxes online, online banking, Purchase with a credit card etc...

There is a history of all transaction you do on a website, in your cookies, temp files typed url's etc...your password that you have autmatically saved are not deeply encrypted and are easily recoverable... eg if I have remote access to your machine I can pullevery password Internet explorer or firefox has cached(saved)... do you use a different password for everything you use, banking websites, email etc....

using an unencrypted or WEP encrypted wifi is really bad news.

 

Most companies I work for ban people from using anything other than a wpa2 encrypted wifi. and some have even banned all wifi. Even wpa2 has been broken but only when using preshared keys.

 

Here is an article I wrote some time ago for more information. fairly basic info but gives you something to look at...

 

Wifi Encryption

Posted
they cannot like I said see what he is writing unless as I said earlier... a Keylogger is installed and if is stupid enough not you have logins well

 

a packet sniffer can read what you are sending/recving, no keylogger required.. it would require some configuration and know how-to to intercept but... point is it can be done.

Posted

a packet sniffer can read what you are sending/recving, no keylogger required.. it would require some configuration and know how-to to intercept but... point is it can be done.

 

Its pretty easy to set this up if required as well..

Gain access to wifi network

setup a computer on the wifi network as a router to pass information onto the wifi router. change the wifi routers IP and the new routers IP

now all information onthe network flows through the bad boys computer

Run any number of loggers to capture all data

 

some data will be encrypted and some will not.

128 bit to 1024 bit ssl encrypted web traffic is fairly easy to brute force. 2048 without he use of a multi gpu setup is going to take a really really long time even with an 8 core or more machine.

 

Its often times faster to just gain access to the acutal machine and download the password cache.

Heck een if you just crack the windows log in password your 90 percent there as most people use the same password for everything.

 

To say its easy is a bit misleading. However it is possible. Two critical things need to exist. 1) Desire and 2) Ability

If you live out in the boonies with 4 people down your dead end street, yah your pretty safe. If your at a large hotel, conference area, condo, near a school with punk kids etc.... you're more of a target.

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