somebody stealing my internet?

[Hitman47]

Ok, so I have a router, which I use for 2 PCs going to the internet and wifi for iphone and ipad, had some kind of security on can't remember which type of security, definitely a Joe on the street shouldn't be able to connect to me. Few days ago I started noticing my internet speed going to really low every evening, almost 0 kb/s while I should have 1 Mb/s, basically it makes it impossible for me to browse the internet, let alone play something. I htought my ISP is sucking again but this became weird to me, so I tried today to log into my router, and I couldn't, says "wrong username and password". I have the username and pass written down on a paper, so there's no way I forgot it or made a typo or whatever, tried different variations of it too, jsut to make sure, no joy.

My question: is it possible somebody from the neighborhood hacked my router and changed my username and password? And how to prevent crap like this happening?

When I was in high school, some girls had a program which allowed them to breach into routers, even if they were running some security mode, and use their internet, so since high school girls can have access to this type of crap I wouldn't be surprised somebody doing it to me now, for free internet.

[Jokerle]

sure it is possible

reset router by hand, get new, strong password
Make a WPA2 Wifi and turn off this Wifi PIN code thingy that lets you automatically connect your PCs (cant remember the name WPS, thx expandas)

[expandas]

You might want to reset your router and reconfigure it with SSID broadcasting turned off and MAC address filtering turned on. Those steps, combined with a strong WPA2 AES-encrypted password should thwart most would-be attackers. WPS is a serious vulnerability and should be disabled.

[matsif]

if you're really that worried, turn off broadcast SSID and filter MAC addresses to only allow your devices as pandas said. best way to go about doing it.

[KaptenKarp]

it is possible that someone guessed your password to your router.

otherwise it would take blue gene (IBM's supercomputer) around 20 yeras to brute force your password.

but as the others said.

reset your router manually. get your self a strong password containing letters (uppercase and lowercase) numbers and some other symbols like !, @ or ?

when you are configuring your wifi turn on WPA-PSK2 TKIP something something for your cryptation method and for god sake, dont use WEP, a single core processor can easily brute force a WEP.

and there again a strong password containing letters, numbers and symbols.

any problems? poke me on ts

[Ash2Dust]

Sorta all of what everyone said. Its been proven anything can be hacked whether or not the people with the resources want to hack you. If you're using WEP, that was blown eons ago.

As others said, reset your wireless security (Better yet turn off wireless). And if you see improved bandwidth, you know its a wireless issue.

Another bandwidth stealing issue is if you have an infected device screwing you. Test that by turning everything off and try one device at a time to see the results.

[Necromancer]

Tracert to a large local site and see if there are any problems on the way.

[undrt0w]

I am not a fan of the idea of turning ssid off...i mean the idea of wireless is to be able to see your connection.

On top of WPA2 encryption you could turn on MAC address filtering. Add the MAC addresses of all your devices and state that only those should get access.

Other than that, everything what was said above.

[.Sup]

If you log on to your router web control panel using the url bar and its default ip you should see all attached devices that are using you internet connection. If there is an ip you don't recognise then thats the problem.

[Hitman47]

I had to reset the router since I couldn't log in using the username and pass, so now I'm running with wifi off to see how it will behave (so far so good). Thx for the tips guys, I'll make sure I make those wifi secruity options that you recommended when I turn it back on.

[Digz]

you got great tips from all. met a guy that traveled using laptop
with sniffer. what that does is pick up the password info from the WiFi network in reach
and after that he can use the network, and of course log on to lock out the owners.

over here some routers come with the same default login info.
so unless the owner change it...all can login and help themselves.

I admit I did it too when there was no router at my Ex girlfriend
and we couldn't sleep the night before since the people next door
had a birthday party late night screaming the same song over and over.
next day I took their net as payback.

[undrt0w]

I admit I did it too when there was no router at my Ex girlfriend
and we couldn't sleep the night before since the people next door
had a birthday party late night screaming the same song over and over.
next day I took their net as payback.

lol, this is funny. When I used to live at my gf's place I had just mobile internet, so I bought a Chinese wireless antenna that came with a cd of backtrack just so I can try and poke in my neighbors wifi. I dropped my laptop and broke the antenna and never got the chance to use it

[LazyJohnwon]

If you use WEP, anyone with google could crack it in an hour AT THE VERY MOST
If you use WPA 2 AES with a strong key, you're bulletproof, unless your router like most these days has WPS enabled by default, then someone who knew what they were doing could get in fairly easy.

Also, many wireless routers on the market to the average consumer today are just crap hardware/firmware. If you can flash DD-WRT, if not then use a WPA 2 AES encrypted key, with WPS disabled, and be prepared to reboot the router every here and there anyway. Happens to a large amount of 2nd gen NETGEAR routers I've worked with (constantly needing to reboot as the firmware decides for one reason or another to essentially block most/all traffic for reasons I to this day do not know as I didn't write it and don't have access to it), and many others of course.

[Digz]

If you use WEP, anyone with google could crack it in an hour AT THE VERY MOST
If you use WPA 2 AES with a strong key, you're bulletproof, unless your router like most these days has WPS enabled by default, then someone who knew what they were doing could get in fairly easy.

Also, many wireless routers on the market to the average consumer today are just crap hardware/firmware. If you can flash DD-WRT, if not then use a WPA 2 AES encrypted key, with WPS disabled, and be prepared to reboot the router every here and there anyway. Happens to a large amount of 2nd gen NETGEAR routers I've worked with (constantly needing to reboot as the firmware decides for one reason or another to essentially block most/all traffic for reasons I to this day do not know as I didn't write it and don't have access to it), and many others of course.

28 days later