Neighbour acting the muppet.

Hobbes

Ok myself and my two neighbours beside me have wireless networks. Guy on the left knows what hes doing and set it up correctly, guy on the right isn't that great at setting up so set him up for free.

So we have three wireless networks, all set up not to disturb each other.

Then comes one of the neighbours. They just got eircom broadband. I don't know how they have set up their wireless but when their box comes online it knocks out 1 or more machines on the other networks and is running on one of the neighbours channels.

Doesn't take out my network but stops my wifes machine from connecting to our network even though we are on different channels. If she restarts the network card once or twice he disappears from the list and she can connect again until he tries again.

Thing is I don't who the new person is. Anyone any suggestions on (a) How I find them them, (b) what it is they have done wrong?

bushy...

I suppose download netstumbler here http://www.netstumbler.com/downloads/netstumblerinstaller_0_4_0.exe
if you have a windows laptop/pc , or kismet if its linux stuff you have ( can be better because its a passive mode scanner) . With this you should be able to figure out the brand of router and where it is.
Its probably just a "dirty" router radiowise , some are horrible yokes.

Hobbes

Cheers, yea I have a tablet PC. Will go a wandering with it.

Hobbes

Ok it took a little while to figure but all I can is bloody hell thats impressive little tool.

The machine wasn't crashed when I checked the list of eircom broadband devices showing up and walked outside with the tablet PC. Within seconds 17 devices showed up and 5 of them were not even secure.

Anyway I checked the first device on the list, it was two streets away, knocked on the door the woman was a bit shocked that I knew she had wireless in her house but not causing the prob.

Second house was 5 doors down from where I live, guy had only gotten broadband and said he had no problems so I don't think it was him.

Will keep looking. Will be taking my network down over the weekend and setting up WPA with fixed IPs and MAC locking.

zAbbo

Hobbes wrote:

Will keep looking. Will be taking my network down over the weekend and setting up WPA with fixed IPs and MAC locking.

Thats the way to go, also disable broadcast SSID, and do some channel testing for signal strength

cregser

Maybe the problem is caused by a wireless router with Speedbooster or some other proprietary equivalent? They use a few channels at once to boost bandwidth - may be interfering with your finely homed channel setup. Eircom Netopias don't have it AFAIK, but the likes of linksys and netgear do.

Just checking that you realise that two channels side-by-side do interfere with each other? It's best to separate channels as much as possible. i.e for 3 APs use 1,6,11 or for 4 APs use 1,4,8,11 etc. If you can choose up to 13channels (US is restricted to 11, EU-13), all the better. But I've read the theoretically something on channel 1 can still interfere with something on channel 11.

There are known countermeasures for attacking wifi. Maybe you have a real geek in your area with a god complex :rolleyes:

Hobbes

yea maybe thats it.

The majority of the routers were eircom and had some number after the name. I take it thats linked to a persons account so eircom can check? Also all the eircom ones were on Channel 7? Would this not cause issues for each other?

Also I was amazed the first person I tracked down was so far away and had a couple of houses in the way. When I got to thier street I was getting a signal strength on par with what I was getting off my router in the next room. Took a little while by zooming into the signal to find the exact house.

I'm pretty sure that much radiowaves can't be healthy.

DaSilva

Hobbes wrote:

The majority of the routers were eircom and had some number after the name. I take it thats linked to a persons account so eircom can check? Also all the eircom ones were on Channel 7? Would this not cause issues for each other?

I've noticed this too, seems to be just a default they set it too and never bother to change it, 802.11 protocols are fairly robust though and although they will interfere with each other, the interference is tolerable, as the throughput will still be generally above what the persons internet connection is capable of.

Also interference can come from multiple sources, not just other AP's. Microwave ovens, cordless phones even fluorescent lights or badly insulated cabling.

Hobbes wrote:

Also I was amazed the first person I tracked down was so far away and had a couple of houses in the way. When I got to thier street I was getting a signal strength on par with what I was getting off my router in the next room. Took a little while by zooming into the signal to find the exact house.

I've noticed that the netopia routers Eircom supply do have a decent power antenna, but still we are talking minute amount of power really.

Hobbes wrote:

I'm pretty sure that much radiowaves can't be healthy.

I guess there could be health concerns, IANAD though so I can't be sure, but I can say that you're average WiFi router is pumping out very low power signals, and if you're concern is with the radiation, perhaps moving south of Three Rock would have a greater impact that turning off you're WiFi router. Though I don't know the figures so that's a guess.