wireless PC connected to network connection

Very interesting. Thank you for sharing your insights. I am obviously no expert at this but I was wondering why there were so many attempts with no DHCP request or lease. However, the MAC address indicated it was a Cisco brand and I don't know of anything in the house with that. I may bite the bullet and increase the security to WPA at the expense of the Axim. Thanks again. I will monitor this and post back anything else.

It might have been entirely innocent. Some wireless cards, set up for ad-hoc networking, will search on the strongest signal repeatedly. Your Axim will do this while waiting for you to select a network if the radio is turned; you can verify this in the wireless log. If you were hacked, the foreign MAC address should have been reported in the router's DHCP client table and in the MAC address filtering table (depending on the router, not all have a dynamic MAC address table). A connection has to first be made to begin negotiating with the router, so the fact of connection is more or less innocuous, IMO, since there was no authorization for an IP address (i.e., WEP worked).

You are caught behind the security curve, as I am, with expensive devices that predate WPA. The only interim solution is to do as you did to enhance network security.

Q

Very interesting. Thank you for sharing your insights. I am obviously no expert at this but I was wondering why there were so many attempts with no DHCP request or lease. However, the MAC address indicated it was a Cisco brand and I don't know of anything in the house with that. I may bite the bullet and increase the security to WPA at the expense of the Axim. Thanks again. I will monitor this and post back anything else.

Informational update: When I got home, I changed the WEP to 128 bit encryption with a new passphrase. I then tried to connect my Axim to the network while watching the router log. An entry appeared showing that a wireless pc had connected (obviously not the unidentified one whose MAC address I did not recognize). On the Axim, it showed me as connected to the network, but I could not get onto the internet. I deleted the settings on the Axim, put in the new WEP info, and connected again. This time the same 'wireless pc connected' message appeared in the router log which was immediately followed by a DHCP lease entry and my Axim's name. That tells my limited mind that perhaps Quaoar's opinion that the entries I saw previously from the unknown computer were innocuous and did not actually get all the way through. There were no other entries on the log since I added the MAC filtering last night.

The Dell Axim is an x3i and in it's current state, is not capable of WPA encryption. There is a discussion ongoing in the Aximsite forum about using

3rd party apps (Odyssey, etc.) for WPA capability but it has not been confirmed yet.

Thanks again to all for the time and advice.

[POSTED TO alt.internet.wireless - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

That's probably what happened. 64-bit WEP is laughably easy to crack.

Yes.

The intruder may have a static configuration.

Switching to 128-bit WEP is better than nothing, but not much, and MAC address filtering is pretty much worthless. I strongly advise upgrading the Axim and everything else to WPA (with a long strong passphrase), and in the meantime changing your WEP key frequently.

Good description.

Bad description. What model Dell Axim?

Some models have a built in WPA client. Others allow for add in software such as the Odessy client.

Not necessarily -- as noted in my prior response, the intruder could have a static configuration.

I suggest you continue to keep an eye on it.

The Axim X50v does come with Odyssey. Unfortunately, it also comes with practically no useful information on setting it up so users ignore its capabilities.

Q