What should I print on my neighbor's printer?

pmanton said:
How can you tell your neighbor is using your router? My router is password protected so I assume it's safe. When I fire up my laptop it sometimes connects to my neighbor's router which is NOT password protected. Unless I watch during the bootup I can't tell the difference once connected. I generally leave my wireless router on at all times on the assumption that the passwore protects it. Am I at risk?
Click to expand...

You should be able to set your router as the preferred network, and put your neighbor's into the denied list.

As long as you have any password you're better off. WPA is much better than WEP, as in it can't cracked in a few minutes by somebody who wants to.
 
pmanton said:
How can you tell your neighbor is using your router? My router is password protected so I assume it's safe. When I fire up my laptop it sometimes connects to my neighbor's router which is NOT password protected. Unless I watch during the bootup I can't tell the difference once connected. I generally leave my wireless router on at all times on the assumption that the passwore protects it. Am I at risk?

Cheers:

Paul
N1431A
KSDM
Click to expand...

The easiest way is looking at the DCHP table for the router. It usually gives some information, so when "JOHN-HOMEPC" connects, I know its not mine. If they're more intelligent, and they use a generic name, I just compare MAC Addresses, of which I know who should be connected.

Finally, you can just count. I have no more than 8 pcs connected to my router that are allowed. If there's 9, I know something's up.
 
SSID on my router is my amateur radio callsign. But, the password? Good luck. Too many seemingly random characters for me to try and remember. But, both routers in our house, and our neighbor's, are locked down. His because my son and a friend found it was open and went over and suggested he lock it. Ours because "paranoia are us" defines more than the company I work for. :D
 
SkyHog said:
Finally, you can just count. I have no more than 8 pcs connected to my router that are allowed. If there's 9, I know something's up.
Click to expand...

Wow, I think the most I've ever had connected to mine at one time (since college, anyway) is 3.

I am clearly not as much of a nerd as I should be. :nonod:
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Wow, I think the most I've ever had connected to mine at one time (since college, anyway) is 3.

I am clearly not as much of a nerd as I should be. :nonod:
Click to expand...

LOL. Let's count:

1) My PC, running Ubuntu 8.10
2) My laptop, running Ubuntu 8.04
3) My roommate's PC, running Ubuntu 8.10
4) My roommate's laptop, running Windows XP
5) My PC, running Windows Vista
6) My XBox360
7) My Cellphone - running Android
8) My roommate's cellphone - a Blackberry Curve

I am a dork. lol
 
mikea said:
Brilliant. The cops who are already monitoring all traffic to the sites will have Nick's IP address.
Click to expand...

Oh all right. How about a nice undressed photo of and salacious note from his girlfriend? Should go over real well with the Mrs.
 
steingar said:
Oh all right. How about a nice undressed photo of and salacious note from his girlfriend? Should go over real well with the Mrs.
Click to expand...

You're assuming this person has a Mrs. More likely, he'd just go "PORN! YES!!!"

The point is to make the guy's life worse, not better.
 
John Baker said:
Neighbors, ya gotta love em. Mine put in a new Jacuzzi about a year ago. Last month I came home and my garden hose was leading straight to it. I had been wondering why my bill was so high. This is a young guy with a wife and kids and a darn good job. I haven't decided what I want to do other than bringing my hose in and keeping it in my garage.

John
Click to expand...

You could go with billing him for the water but you'd probably end up wasting more time in conciliation court than it's worth. I'd be real tempted to rig up something that would inject a powerful tint along with some sort of awful stench into the hose for the next time he uses it. If he doesn't use it right away, sneak over and siphon some of your water out of the tub so he needs a refil.
 
lancefisher said:
You could go with billing him for the water but you'd probably end up wasting more time in conciliation court than it's worth. I'd be real tempted to rig up something that would inject a powerful tint along with some sort of awful stench into the hose for the next time he uses it. If he doesn't use it right away, sneak over and siphon some of your water out of the tub so he needs a refil.
Click to expand...

If you can get it, toss some indole and 3-methylindole in the water (smells like Sh**- literally). Other smelly compounds include cadaverine and putrescine (as their common names suggest, they small like something died)
 
Ted DuPuis said:
I like Greebo's idea. That's not just stealing your utilities and costing you money, but trespassing. You could get quite a bit from him. I'd make him pay the increased water bill.
Click to expand...
It kind of depends on whether you like the guy. If you don't, call the police. If you do, remind him that even water isn't free and that you've noticed an increase in your water bill which you can only assume is HIS use.
Of course, this may all be totally unintentional. He really just wanted to borrow your hose. Since it was attached to a facet, it just made it easier. He didn't have to undo the hose first.
Neighbors. You can't live with them; you can't shoot them (and get away with it!).
 
SkyHog said:
LOL. Let's count:

1) My PC, running Ubuntu 8.10
2) My laptop, running Ubuntu 8.04
3) My roommate's PC, running Ubuntu 8.10
4) My roommate's laptop, running Windows XP
5) My PC, running Windows Vista
6) My XBox360
7) My Cellphone - running Android
8) My roommate's cellphone - a Blackberry Curve

I am a dork. lol
Click to expand...

I got you beat. Primary laptop with vista (yuck!), company with XP, old primary with XP, old company with Ubuntu 8.10, old old primary with XP, and a printer. Hardwired are two LAN hardrive servers. One has 700G on two drives; the other has a terrabyte on two drives.

Oh.... and I live with my dog.
 
silver-eagle said:
It kind of depends on whether you like the guy. If you don't, call the police. If you do, remind him that even water isn't free and that you've noticed an increase in your water bill which you can only assume is HIS use.
Of course, this may all be totally unintentional. He really just wanted to borrow your hose. Since it was attached to a facet, it just made it easier. He didn't have to undo the hose first.
Neighbors. You can't live with them; you can't shoot them (and get away with it!).
Click to expand...

I have a problem with just calling the police on a neighbor you don't like without first attempting to speak with them in a civilized manner about the problem. If they refuse (or have a history of refusing), it's another matter. However people in society these days don't want to confront anyone, they'd rather have someone else do it. This is a waste of time for the police if you haven't made any initial efforts.

If any of my neighbors are on my property (with one exception) it is without my permission, and as such I will have a firm discussion with them. If that doesn't work, then I'll take greater action. The exception is one neighbor who asked if he could cut up a dead tree of mine for fire wood. He gets wood, I get rid of a dead tree. Win win situation. I gave him permission.
 
SkyHog said:
LOL. Let's count:

1) My PC, running Ubuntu 8.10
2) My laptop, running Ubuntu 8.04
3) My roommate's PC, running Ubuntu 8.10
4) My roommate's laptop, running Windows XP
5) My PC, running Windows Vista
6) My XBox360
7) My Cellphone - running Android
8) My roommate's cellphone - a Blackberry Curve

I am a dork. lol
Click to expand...

. . . . . and I'm in the dark! My single PC(with XP) is tied to a router, only because my cousin was here for a couple months and the router was needed for her to tie into my HughesNet service. Her company has a huge server in Massachusetts. Frances' "office" has departed but I'm still hooked to the router. Can dangers be lurking re my router?

HR
 
Lawreston said:
. . . . . and I'm in the dark! My single PC(with XP) is tied to a router, only because my cousin was here for a couple months and the router was needed for her to tie into my HughesNet service. Her company has a huge server in Massachusetts. Frances' "office" has departed but I'm still hooked to the router. Can dangers be lurking re my router?

HR
Click to expand...
Only if you let NICK near it!
 
Lawreston said:
. . . . . and I'm in the dark! My single PC(with XP) is tied to a router, only because my cousin was here for a couple months and the router was needed for her to tie into my HughesNet service. Her company has a huge server in Massachusetts. Frances' "office" has departed but I'm still hooked to the router. Can dangers be lurking re my router?
Click to expand...

I would think if you had any other human within 250 feet you would either a) know them or b) be chasing them off with a weapon.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
I have a problem with just calling the police on a neighbor you don't like without first attempting to speak with them in a civilized manner about the problem. ...SNIP...
Click to expand...
I agree. Generally, if you've gotten to the point you don't like the neighbor, it is because one or the other of you are not cooperative thus you need a completely impartial third party. In most cases, this will be either Town Hall or the Police.
And civility went out of fashion back in the 80's. People now are primed for a fight. A blue suit changes some of that.
 
Lawreston said:
. . . . . and I'm in the dark! My single PC(with XP) is tied to a router, only because my cousin was here for a couple months and the router was needed for her to tie into my HughesNet service. Her company has a huge server in Massachusetts. Frances' "office" has departed but I'm still hooked to the router. Can dangers be lurking re my router?

HR
Click to expand...

As someone else said, you are only vulnerable if there are computer users up to about a 250 foot range.

Go to the manufacturer's website, download the manuals and learn how to turn the wireless function OFF for complete security. Or just unplug the router, and plug the incoming ethernet connection directly into your computer. Problem solved. Or use the same manual to set up encryption for your wireless feature, which will also give you a password necessary to access it.

-Skip
 
Skip Miller said:
As someone else said, you are only vulnerable if there are computer users up to about a 250 foot range.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't count on it - I'm about 400 feet from the nearest neighbor, but I pick up two other WiFi networks frequently.
 
SkyHog said:
LOL. Let's count:

1) My PC, running Ubuntu 8.10
2) My laptop, running Ubuntu 8.04
3) My roommate's PC, running Ubuntu 8.10
4) My roommate's laptop, running Windows XP
5) My PC, running Windows Vista
6) My XBox360
7) My Cellphone - running Android
8) My roommate's cellphone - a Blackberry Curve

I am a dork. lol
Click to expand...

Connected to the home network, wired Ethernet or 802.11g...


My PC, running Vista Home Premium. Intel Q6700 Core2Quad processor
Wife's PC, running XP. Intel E6700 Core2Duo processor
My old PC, running XP. Intel 1 GHz PIII processor (I said it was old)
Wife's old PC, running XP. 2.5 GHz Intel Celeron processor (not much newer than my old one)
My laptop, running XP. 1.4 GHz Intel Celeron mobile processor (3 years old)
Intel SS4000-E Network Storage System. 4 250 GByte SATA drives in a RAID 5 configuration for file backup. Hangs off the Gigabit Ethernet switch serving wife's and my main machines.
Son's main computer running XP or Vista (depends on what he booted). Newer technology quad core from Intel.
Son's secondary computer running XP. Not sure which Intel chip he has in that one (forget what I bought for him at the employee discount)

Then, my work laptop (running XP Pro) comes home and connects to the network now and then.

Then, there are other computers in the house that aren't running these days.

600 MHz PIII system
Apple Mac LCIII
XT clone
Apple IIe
Commodore 64

And, yes, the last time any of the above were turned on, they worked. :D

Then there are the remains of old machines that died and haven't been tossed yet. Too numerous to detail here (and are the kid's, anyway).

I'm not a dork (well, I don't think so, anyway), but I will admit to being a geek. :D :D :D
 
flyingcheesehead said:
I wouldn't count on it - I'm about 400 feet from the nearest neighbor, but I pick up two other WiFi networks frequently.
Click to expand...

Put the wireless router in the basement (assuming you have a basement) and you'll get good coverage inside the house with an RF perimeter about 30 ft beyond the outer walls.
 
Nick, any reaction from your neighbor? Is he still logged on to your router?

-Skip
 
SkyHog said:
This guy's been latching onto my router, and I've never really cared, because he was a light user. Now, he's bringing my connection to its knees, and I'm not sure what he's doing. I boot him, and he reconnects.

Ahh, but he has his printer shared. Moron.

What do I print 500 times on his printer? Ideas?
Click to expand...

A couple of questions for you:

1. How do you know that the guy is knowledgeable enough to even know that he was mooching off your router?

2. Why not just enable encryption? Is there some downside to doing that?
 
pmanton said:
...When I fire up my laptop it sometimes connects to my neighbor's router which is NOT password protected. Unless I watch during the bootup I can't tell the difference once connected...
Click to expand...

From the discussion in this thread, WiFi is starting to sound about as safe as unprotected sex with strangers. It's amazing to me that manufacturers ship this stuff without encryption enabled by default.
 
I would print out whatever I needed at all hours of the night every night and walk over there and ask for the print out when it is done printing. Keep that up for a while, he'll get the meassage.
 
Skip Miller said:
Nick, any reaction from your neighbor? Is he still logged on to your router?

-Skip
Click to expand...

No and No. I don't know which neighbor it was, so I can only assume, and they didn't try to spoof anything to get back on. Hopefully they learned their lesson.
 
SkyHog said:
No and No. I don't know which neighbor it was, so I can only assume, and they didn't try to spoof anything to get back on. Hopefully they learned their lesson.
Click to expand...

Look for the guy in line at Staples buying a full set of ink cartridges.
 
Palmpilot said:
A couple of questions for you:

1. How do you know that the guy is knowledgeable enough to even know that he was mooching off your router?

2. Why not just enable encryption? Is there some downside to doing that?
Click to expand...

1) The SSID for my router is "United States Secret Service" which means he sees that every time he connects, so unless he works for the USSS, he knows.

2) The downside is that everytime a friend comes over, I have to give them my PSK. Plus, I don't mind neighbors using my internet from time to time if they're respectful.
 
SkyHog said:
1) The SSID for my router is "United States Secret Service" which means he sees that every time he connects, so unless he works for the USSS, he knows.
Click to expand...
That's good! :rofl:

I might have to change mine to something similar. Perhaps...

Austin Police Department - Computer Fraud Division
 
SkyHog said:
1) The SSID for my router is "United States Secret Service" which means he sees that every time he connects, so unless he works for the USSS, he knows.
Click to expand...

Guy's probably been bragging to his drinking buddies how he's hacked the Secret Service.

2) The downside is that everytime a friend comes over, I have to give them my PSK. Plus, I don't mind neighbors using my internet from time to time if they're respectful.
Click to expand...

I put my PSK on an old flash drive so I can just paste it into guest's PCs. And unless you get a whole new crop of friends every month or so, you shouldn't have to provide the PSK very often after the initial few times.

I'm not all that concerned about others occasionally using my bandwidth but I sure don't want anyone malicious on my side of the router's firewall.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top