my home network keeps getting hacked

hi
i have a wireless router setup in my home and until today had a wep key setup. i have a trial of network magic which shows me that there are more computers on my network than there were supposed to be. i switched to wpa today and we'll see if the problem continues. The only thing that worries me is if they're doing illegal things under my ip address.

i want to teach the people who are using my network a lesson. is there anyway for me to see what they're doing on my network? i want to pull a prank on them.

lastly, this is not illegal. correct? since it's my network and i'm paying for my internet.

thanks

 

How do these people get into your network if you enabled WPA to do your prank?

 

The wireless network is not endless . AFAIK , the signal of the wireless device is 150 m - 450 m max (depending on the devices) and this is the max signal in the best visibility . You can manually find any possible device attached to your wi-fi router .

Suggestions:
1. Change to WPA2 (not WEP)
2. Check the administrator password for the router and change it to a better one if necessary
3. Make sure the wi-fi router uses NAT or other technologies to protect the network from outside attacks
4. Use software firewall and AV programs on all computers connecting to the router.

 

i only changed it to wpa today to prevent misuse right now. i'll switch it back to wep if i can somehow play some pranks on them. i read an article which teaches you to mirror all the text and images that they see on the net.

 

Don't bother about any pranks, if this is indeed happening then the fact that it is illegal is the only retribution you'll need. Use this experience as a drive in learning to keep your home network secure.

 

You could also use mac address filtering to further increase your networks security.

 

No he can't. It won't increase any security. It is easily bypassed, and if someone can crack WEP, then MAC address filering should take about 5 seconds or less to bypass. MAC addresses are sent without encryption through the air, regardless of the use of WPA/WEP. This means that all they have to do is sniff the address and change their own MAC address with a utility.

The only way to secure a network is to use WPA/WPA2 with a long random passphrase, or use a combination of authpf to keep out intruders and vpn to encrypt the network.

BTW, if you want to mess with people connecting to your network, then you can always setup a box running squid, and make it so they are redirected there and that every website they go to is something weird, or make it so that all the images are upside-down. There is an article somewhere on the internet where somebody did that using iptables+squid. I wouldn't recommend doing it unless you have the proper knowledge though so you could leave a whole open that allows them to bypass it and use your internet anyways.

Cheers,

Alphalutra1

 

Cheers for that, i guess my network security methods need to be updated lol! I'm too stuck in my old ways

 

Report of 23.08.2007 18:55
Arrest for wireless piggybacking

The Metropolitan Police have reported that "A stop by two PCSOs from Hounslow borough has resulted in the arrest, by officers, of a 39 year old man for stealing a broadband connection.

http://www.heise-security.co.uk/news/94788

 

I thought MAC addresses were linked to hardware...

 

My comments in red

 

No, The hardware has a mac address, then the mac address is linked to an IP.
The mac address can be changed directly if the card supports "clone mac", or can be changed via the registry, or a small program (utility) can be used (smac as example).

Some ISP`s do bind a user/customer to a certain MAC address, so changing the mac address may cause loss of internet.

 

I wasnt aware of this, so thanks for the explanation.