bandwith theives

Hi all!

I'm a bit confused... aren't we all.
I have a Compaq Presario V2000 laptop with a WIFI card in the Turion
processor (that's how it works, right? Like the Centrino?)

I do not have a wireless network set up in my apartment. Nada. Zip. No
Linksys, etc. Just a direct cable connection to Comcast.

My questions are.... Can people with WIFI cards steal my bandwith? Can
I tell by looking at the Send/Receive lights on my cable modem? If so,
can this be prevented with a good firewall? Are there any good
firewalls that are easy and not huge memory hogs? Norton slows me down.


Any help would be appreciated. Thanks all!

Mala

In article <(E-Mail Removed) .com>, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>Hi all!
>
>I'm a bit confused... aren't we all.
>I have a Compaq Presario V2000 laptop with a WIFI card in the Turion
>processor (that's how it works, right? Like the Centrino?)
>
>I do not have a wireless network set up in my apartment. Nada. Zip. No
>Linksys, etc. Just a direct cable connection to Comcast.
>
>My questions are.... Can people with WIFI cards steal my bandwith?

Use the wireless control on your computer to turn off the WiFi interface
(somewhere in there to save battery power when you don't need it).

> Can
>I tell by looking at the Send/Receive lights on my cable modem?

Not really, there will be occassional activity with just your computer
connected.

> If so,
>can this be prevented with a good firewall?

Yes, this is a good idea regardless of anything else.

> Are there any good
>firewalls that are easy and not huge memory hogs? Norton slows me down.

Hardware? This is a wireless newsgroup so I would recommend a good Wireless
Router/Acees Point/Switch. Turn off the wireless portion and use the
firewall built into the router. A Linksys WRT54G (pre version 5) should do
the trick nicely. Of course Linksys makes routers without wireless that
offer firewall ability as well.

>
>
>Any help would be appreciated. Thanks all!
>
>Mala
>

fundamentalism, fundamentally wrong.

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) oups.com...
> Hi all!
>
> I'm a bit confused... aren't we all.
> I have a Compaq Presario V2000 laptop with a WIFI card in the Turion
> processor (that's how it works, right? Like the Centrino?)
>
> I do not have a wireless network set up in my apartment. Nada. Zip. No
> Linksys, etc. Just a direct cable connection to Comcast.
>
> My questions are.... Can people with WIFI cards steal my bandwith?

No. Your computer will not route their data (send it on to the internet)
unless you tell it to.

> Can
> I tell by looking at the Send/Receive lights on my cable modem?

No. The data will never get to the cable modem.

> If so,
> can this be prevented with a good firewall?

N/A

Alun Harford

Thanks Alun.

Yo Rico... I made it clear I had no wifi access point but that I was
asking a wifi related question. Any way FIDO.

Thanks guys!

Later

Malagente

Alun Harford wrote:

> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed) oups.com...
>> Hi all!
>>
>> I'm a bit confused... aren't we all.
>> I have a Compaq Presario V2000 laptop with a WIFI card in the Turion
>> processor (that's how it works, right? Like the Centrino?)
>>
>> I do not have a wireless network set up in my apartment. Nada. Zip. No
>> Linksys, etc. Just a direct cable connection to Comcast.
>>
>> My questions are.... Can people with WIFI cards steal my bandwith?
>
> No. Your computer will not route their data (send it on to the internet)
> unless you tell it to.

I'm not convinced.

>> If so,
>> can this be prevented with a good firewall?
>
> N/A

I think the good firewall is pretty mandatory. It might require someone to
hack your system first via the cable modem, but _theoretically_ it should
be possible for someone to (a) turn on your WIFI card; (b) put it in ad-hoc
mode; (c) bridge it to the ethernet.
--
derek

On Wed, 15 Feb 2006 10:16:10 -0400, in alt.internet.wireless , Derek
Broughton <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Alun Harford wrote:
>
>> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:(E-Mail Removed) oups.com...
>>> Hi all!
>>>
>>>
>>> My questions are.... Can people with WIFI cards steal my bandwith?
>>
>> No. Your computer will not route their data (send it on to the internet)
>> unless you tell it to.
>
>I'm not convinced.

How could the traffic get routed unless your computer told it to? The
wifi card will be on an internal net address, the CM on an external
one.

>>> If so,
>>> can this be prevented with a good firewall?
>>
>> N/A
>
>I think the good firewall is pretty mandatory.

This is absolutely true.

> It might require someone to
>hack your system first via the cable modem, but _theoretically_ it should
>be possible for someone to (a) turn on your WIFI card; (b) put it in ad-hoc
>mode; (c) bridge it to the ethernet.

Anyone who can already access your CM to this extent has no need to
hack your wifi - 'all your base are belong to them' already.
Mark McIntyre
--

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Mark McIntyre wrote:

> On Wed, 15 Feb 2006 10:16:10 -0400, in alt.internet.wireless , Derek
> Broughton <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>>Alun Harford wrote:
>>
>>> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>>> news:(E-Mail Removed) oups.com...
>>>> Hi all!
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> My questions are.... Can people with WIFI cards steal my bandwith?
>>>
>>> No. Your computer will not route their data (send it on to the internet)
>>> unless you tell it to.
>>
>>I'm not convinced.
>
> How could the traffic get routed unless your computer told it to? The
> wifi card will be on an internal net address, the CM on an external
> one.

Well, your computer is an idiot :-) and it does what it's told without
caring who tells it. I trust we're agreed that someone who can get into
your computer _can_ bridge your WiFi to your ethernet.

You're right that if someone can hack your computer that far you're in deep
doo-doo, but since Alun finished by saying that the firewall was "N/A", I
still think it's important. The firewall is _never_ "N/A".
--
derek

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>I do not have a wireless network set up in my apartment. Nada. Zip. No
>Linksys, etc. Just a direct cable connection to Comcast.
>
>My questions are.... Can people with WIFI cards steal my bandwith?

No, it takes quite a bit of configuration to allow someone to share
your internet, so you're safe.

As Rico said, turn off the WiFi and get yourself a hardware firewall
(router) to protect you from Internet attacks. Or get a WiFi router,
set a non-dictionary WPA key, and use your laptop wirelessly.