Is someone stealing my wifi?

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hamo

53 posts

Master Geek

#61824 24-May-2010 18:26

Hey chums,

Last month we busted our 5Gb cap for only the second time ever. I wondered whether it was because my wife Skyped her sister for somewhere between half and hour and an hour. We hadn't really Skyped before, so I don't know how data-intensive it is.

Anyhow, today I got an IP conflict on my Vista laptop. From the research I've been doing, it says that this can indicate that someone's using my wifi illegally. Could this be the case? We use a password, I'm pretty sure we're using a WPA-PSK key, but I'm not going to go into the other room and grab the router password to check at this stage since the baby's asleep in there!

Today is the first time this has happened. Restarting the router didn't seem to fix it, but turning the wireless on my laptop off and then on again has enabled me to get onto the internet.

Anyhow, is there a way to find out if someone's "wardriving" us? Any other suggestions? Since I have internet access again now, should I just wait and see if it happens again?

I aim to misbehave

freitasm

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#334168 24-May-2010 18:31

The first thing to do is check on your router's status page - there must be somewhere listing all connected computers and their names. Look at the list for something odd to start with.

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hamo

53 posts

Master Geek

#334169 24-May-2010 18:34

freitasm: The first thing to do is check on your router's status page - there must be somewhere listing all connected computers and their names. Look at the list for something odd to start with.

Thanks M. Nothing about connected computers on my status page, I guess I'll have to dig the password out later and look for that info in other areas.

I aim to misbehave

marpada

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#334182 24-May-2010 19:14

Cracking a WPA wireless networks is a very time-consuming task unless a simple password is used, so I'd look for another explanation before that (trojan or malware calling home?). WEP encryption, on the other hand, is quite easy to break with the appropiate tools

freitasm

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#334185 24-May-2010 19:17

Yep, if nothing strange in connections then it's time for a full virus scan, then a malware scan. If you have something already installed but nothing is showing up, try running http://free.antivirus.com (click "Cleanup tools and run the AV from there).

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itxtme

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#334200 24-May-2010 19:50

How many computers connect to the router? Do you and your wife have a separate computer each? If several this could be the reason for the conflict

hamo

53 posts

Master Geek

#334226 24-May-2010 21:08

Yep, two laptops connected to the router, both running Vista. I've been running AVG Free and using Windows Defender, but I'll have another crack with that site Mauricio recommended.

Thanks heaps for the replies guys.

I aim to misbehave

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johnr

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#334228 24-May-2010 21:12

malware bytes I find is very good for finding spyware / malware / scareware

www.malwarebytes.org

John

Ragnor

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#334372 25-May-2010 10:37

Recommended settings for wireless are:

Mode: WPA2 (you might need to use WPA aka WPA1 if you have older devices connecting)
Encryption: AES
Password: 12 digits alpha numeric with mixed case

Password generator
http://www.pctools.com/guides/password/

To get a reasonably accurate measurement of data being used by each PC you can install Networx (a bandwidth monitor) on both PC's
http://www.softperfect.com/products/networx/

Couple of tips for Networx;
- Right click on the icon in the system tray and goto settings.
- On the main tab check ignore local traffic within the LAN.
- On the advanced tab change the start day to be the same as your billing period.

hamo

53 posts

Master Geek

#334581 25-May-2010 15:34

Thanks again everyone.

I aim to misbehave