OT? Can my neiighbor, whose wifi I'm using, see what I'm doing?

Here most people protect their wifi with a password, so you can not borrow it. Sometimes I am at a flat with dozens of WiFis around, none open.

This is not actually intentional, it is that now the free ISP routers come already protected.

Welcome.

Here too but this guy must be an exception, just when I needed one.

On a prior occasion decades ago, when I'd just gotten a laptop and I was to leave on a translatlantic trip the next day, then too I ended up using the next door neighbor's wifi, a different person then, and I was lucky because a lot of stuff had to be put into the laptop before I left. I don't remember why mine didn't work. Maybe I only had DSL then and his was faster.

I think mine had a password. His was Comcast's other name, which escapes me right now.

I made a mistake not changing the password to something I could remember. they have to use one that no other subscriber to Verizon has. I'd only have to use one that no other neighbor had and no one around could guess, or use software to find. Didn't know how many times I'd have to enter it, the printer, the cell phone, the next cell phone, a TV, Alexa maybe, and a couple other things I didn't forexee and don't rmeember. I should have made it shorter and easier.

Hmmm! 19 replies & not a mention of bandwidth theft.

Amazed that any wifi router is set for no authentication ...

micky snipped-for-privacy@fmguy.com wrote: [...]

You're mixing up passwords.

There are two passwords: 1) The one to access the web UI of the modem/router and 2) the password for your WiFi network.

Your neighbor's internet belongs not to you. Stop using it. :)

Contact your cable service provider to fix the modem problem. Does it have LAN ports? Are they still working?

I'm sure almost everyone knows the two credentials, but I'm not sure if the OP is aware of the differences between them...

1. The admin "password" to the router is sometimes (often?) limited to 8 characters (at least it is on some of my older Netgear routers) and it may require uppercase,lowercase & funky characters (as my Netgear routers require), so you're limited in your choices.
2. The SSID "passphrase" to the access point, can be 8?63 characters for WPA2/WPA3, which can be resistant to brute-force attacks.

I suspect most people aren't aware of oublic rainblow hash tables, which take advantage of the fact that WPA2 uses PBKDF2 (Password-Based Key Derivation Function 2) with HMAC-SHA1 to stretch the passphrase into a

They're only effective if the attacker can guess the SSID, because the SSID is part of the salt in WPA2 key derivation. That's why you want your SSID not to show up in a dictionary lookup, as then you have no AP security.

WPA3's SAE (Simultaneous Authentication of Equals) protocol makes those tables obsolete, but for most of us, what all this means is we should simply choose an SSID that isn't found in typical dictionary lookup tables.

Something like "gibberis_plus_more_gibberish_optout_nomap" for example.

Hi Micky,

YES, and if not him, then anyone else that is also using his network (authorised or not). And then, everytime he switches on his machines with unknown malware (who knows?), those same machines are looking at you, you being on the same network.

Please fix this. If you have a large or difficult property, consider wiring access more points and sticking them on 5GHz. Your router password needs to be quite long, looks like complete randomness, you'll hardly ever type it. Change it from the one the manufacturer set as a matter of course.

BTW There is no point any more in hiding SSIDs that used to be fashionable security advice. In fact if you do that then your portable device is forced to maintain a local list of recent contacted SSIDs and repeatedly calls out "Are You There?", which anyone can use for tracking you when you are out and about.

To that point, while I get my Internet for free from a WISP, I live on a mountain where I can see a city below of almost a million inhabitants, so with any one of my many powerful Ubiquiti Rocket dishes, I can "see" perhaps hundreds of access points, some of which are not secured.

Of course, the rooftop radio needs to have a very good sensitivity with low noise in my local environment (for a good SNR) to reliably receive weak signals and of course the radio needs to be set to a very high power output with a narrow beamwidth (and channel width), but all that "can" be accomplished if you felt like stealing someone else's bandwidth.

I don't do it, of course, for the obvious reasons, but my only point to other is that a surprising amount of those appear to be unsecured.

--

Be careful.

This advice is perfectly correct for security. But it's dead wrong for privacy.

See my previous post on how to set up your SSID & devices for privacy, where not broadcasting the SSID has distinct and immediate privacy advantages unknown to most people.

For security, most modern devices can set a random MAC address per SSID, and almost all Android phones can optionally set that random MAC address to be per connection. On iOS 14 and above, you can only set the random MAC address per SSID, but not per connection (so yet again, security and privacy on iOS is always less than that on Android).

Note: However, Adrian Caspersz is correct that if you set up your SSID to not broadcast, which IMHO everyone should do, then if the device connecting to it is a mobile device, then it's more private to set that mobile device to not automatically connect (for reasons spelled out in my prior posts and which Adrian was well aware of).

Thinko...

For "privacy" (not security) you want to set a random MAC per SSID.

MAC randomization is primarily a privacy feature, not a security feature.

Implications?

1. Android is more private (as usual) than iOS because you have the option of setting MAC randomizaton per SSID & per connection.
2. iOS is less private (as usual) than Android as you can only set MAC randomization per SSID.
3. For Windows 10, it's like iOS in that it's only per SSID. Settings > Network & Internet > Wi-Fi > Manage known networks [Network] > Random hardware addresses.
4. For Windows 11, it's more like Android in that it can be per diem.
5. Also Windows can set randomization for all access points en masse.

In all cases, the MAC randomization feature is about privacy (reducing tracking), not security (preventing attacks).

It seems to be mostly a tale about semi-broken or half-functional kit. Since the OP has his own paid Internet service, there is no evidence of "100% leeching" going on, particularly. I bet the OP could tighten up his settings a bit.

Paul

It is that neighbour responsibility to close the door, ie, put a password on his WiFi.

There are computers and phones that will connect automatically (by default) to any open WiFi without asking.

You do NOT take advantage of others' mistakes. :)

Carlos was pointing out that some things will connect to any open wifi, _without the user knowing_. That is not "taking advantage" - or if it is, your opprobrium needs to be addressed to the makers of such equipment, not the users.

Well, I don't use automatic wifi connect. I always look for my own router's SSID. :)

I use automatic wifi connect, to known wifis. I have disabled connect to open wifis.

The OP knows he has connected to the neighbour's wifi but said nothing about having permission. Until clarified it is bandwidth theft.

micky's *computer* *accidentily* connected to his neighbour's WiFi:

This morning I rebooted and on its own, it connected to the wifi of a neighbor, but not to my own wifi Hmmm after 30 minutes of using his, it just switched to my wifi. But still not to the cable, which I thought would take priority, plusd last night the Troubleshooter said my laptop's wifi was bad too, the one that hasn't worked since February. </micky>

So *instead of* connecting to his "cable" (wired LAN?) or WiFi, his

Could he have disconnected the neighbour's WiFi in those 30 minutes? Yes. Did he know how to do that? I don't know.

As to "bandwidth theft": I'm sure his accidental use, doesn't deserve your harsh condemnation.