Wireless internet hacked?

mikemac

Hi all, I've an imac and UPC internet which runs off a wireless modem.
With my airport scans I can see several different wireless networks, it's for my neighbours in the apartment block
All have a padlock sign so they are password protected, so is mine and I know it has a WEP Password.

Today for the first time I got a popup error, something like "Safari is in use by another computer on your network with IP 192 ..........(forgot the rest of the address)

Is one of my neighbors working off my internet?
I've no idea how to check

Thanks

csm

I don't use macs so can't advise how to check, but WEP is an extremely insecure encryption. Any joe public can purchase an application for a couple of quid that can crack it, even if they don't know anything abut networking.

Change your network password and the type of encryption to WPA and you are far less likely to have a problem.

mikemac

Thanks I'll change the password now.
I just left it at the password that the UPC installation guy gave me.
Lazy I know

Blowfish

mikemac wrote: »

Thanks I'll change the password now.
I just left it at the password that the UPC installation guy gave me.
Lazy I know

Changing the password without changing the encryption protocol won't help at all, it'll be just as easy to crack. Make sure you change the encryption to WPA/WPA2 too.

Matt Bauer

Aye, change the encryption method to WPA now.

WEP is simply not secure at all. It takes but a few seconds and in many cases just a free application to crack it. No technical knowledge required. You might as well just turn off all security and not bother with any encryption at all if you're using WEP.

WPA, and especially WPA2, is secure. For now at least.

mikemac

Thanks all, I'll change that now and lock out that freeloading neighbour :mad:

uncle_sam_ie

And, also make your new password long and random like this 03AFCEA748721E5492CB64DE7F08708126212BF79E5249695B20601602F7321F