open network...
 

I live in an apartment complex with numbers units surrounding me. I have recently discovered a wireless network where the owner has left the network name as the default: linksys. Just out of curiousity I tried to access the router. Sure enough the owner hasn't done a thing. The username and password are still the default: admin. Rather than going door-to-door asking whether the occupant has a wireless network running, is there a way I can notify the owner of the network to secure it?

Part of me wanted to be mischievious and just close off the network and stop broadcasting so that I'd be the only one who would be able to access it. :D But the good citizen in me took over. Oh well, I could have had some fun.

Or you could do that and force the owner to take action himself... Dunno, on the one hand an open AP is a nice opening for untraceable criminal mischief, while on the other hand annoying people who choose to be stupid might not be the right way to go about it either.

I'm almost convinced that there is a Linksys representative out there slyly setting up wireless routers at random points around the world!

There was one in my apartment building for several months and I asked everyone in the building but nobody would own up to having it - it could have been across the street I guess - and eventually it disappeared.

Then I was visiting in Houston Texas about at year ago and there was a legitimate "free" wireless network operating near where I was staying, but then frequently there was also one simply called "Linksys" that was wide open.

Then this past summer, I was in London, UK and the same thing happened. The first couple of days I was there, I couldn't find a network, and then suddenly, there was a wide-open Linksys one. I was able to surf for free for the rest of my stay.

Or maybe there's just a bunch of inept networkers around.... :rolleyes:

I wardrive routinely just for the hell of it. On my drive to work I can pick up about 35 networks, probably 80% of them open.

okay... that's all nice. but is there anything i can do to let this person know that their net is not secure?

Sure! Search for a shared printer and send them a anonymous message.

Yes, there are.

Sniff...
 

Run a sniffing program to watch IM traffic on the open network. Find the most likely IM handle of your friendly neighborhood access point owner from that, then just IM them.

That may be a bit advanced, but that's probably what I'd do.

How do I search for a network printer? I like that idea. In the printer setup utility, I'd have to know the address of a network printer. I guess I may be making it a bit more complicated than it needs to be.

Ethereal. Available through fink and DarwinPorts.

Trevor

huh? that's doesn't help me...

It does to some extent. With it you can see if there's any printer traffic. If the printer is networked with the WAP, you'll see printer traffic.

Personally, I think you should just do this old skool and go door to door. Use some Sherlockian deduction to help you figure out where to go. Use signal strength, WiFi signals are broadcast in a torus, and that ~150ft is the range on a standard WAP (sure it could have extra antenna to elongate it's range, but if some were to do that, wouldn't they be more likely to have the savvy to protect their WAP?), to help you determine where it's coming from. Knock on doors. Leave printed messages.

maybe i didn't make myself clear on the printer thing. i wouldn't have asked if i new about networking. i learn things as i go, and i haven't had to do anything like that before. so i don't have a clue how to go about searching for things on a network when i don't know what is there.

anyway, i know the internal IP address of the user's computer. is there a way to send a message to pop up on the screen? i don't know anything about monitoring traffic, so if you have a solution, please use detail.

thanks

Here's how you would look for a shared printer:

Go to the Printer Setup Utility, and click on Add Printer, and then choose either Rendezvous or Windows Printing to see what's available.

thanks. though i didn't find any printers. any other ideas?

Hmmm… If it's a Linksys router, and you're connected wirelessly, you can log into the router at http://192.168.1.1 with the password "admin" (No user name. Since they didn't set security, they probably didn't setup anything past the defaults.). Go into the Wireless setup and change the network name (SSID) to "Your Network's Open to the Public!" and save settings. This would alert the owner since (s)he would have to reconnect on the next reboot and would see the network's name. Of course, they would then need to figure out how to configure it.

I think this might be a very old fashioned idea, but if you don't want to mess with the networking side of it, you can just make a note and post on the door. That way you don't have to deal with someone accusing you of getting into their network, and at the same time you may save his ass from a passer-by-hacker-wanna-be.

Right, but the trick is... which door?

The main reason we see so many unprotected networks is because ISP's almost give out wireless routers nowadays as a signup incentive, so people go home and look at the instructions... It only states how to connect to DSL with the router... it does not include they network setup it self, just uses the default one. And the nice bonus now... Lots of those ISPs who provide those routers don't offer support for them ! :mad: Realy just a way to get people who actually go... "hmmm and unknow exe was sent to me via email by an unknown person... lets click on it !" to buy more stuff. At least around here in Montreal thats what I've seen !

I suspect Raven is right. You can't save people from themselves and pointing out their stupidity to them often just gets them riled up.

When my ISP first installed DSL, I still had OS 8.5 or something and you could see other people logged on in the Chooser. Well most people were smart enough to only share a folder or two, but one goofball had his whole hard drive shared.I copied some apps from him and then I left notes on his desktop explaining the dangers of sharing his whole drive, but the next day, I'd go back and all my notes would be gone, but his hard drive was still wide open. Of course the ISP didn't caution anybody about how to share folders.

My brother has a good saying that applies here. "There's lots of people in the world available to worry about problems, let somebody else worry about this one."

Take care, Margaret

Speaking of open computers, I can see a bunch of networks from my apartment, but only two are strong enough to connect to. One is encrypted, presumably someone in my building. The other is a wireless internet service at the apartment complex across the street.

They have it set up where you can join the network, but you need a username and pass to access anything but the login page and a handful of other homepages. I don't have an account, but I can see dozens of Windows File Sharing computers over it. Speaking of accounts, the network isn't encrypted, and the login page isn't SSLed. Bet I could sniff a few passwords if I cared to try... ;)

Use windows messaging?
 

You could try the Windows messenger service. It may be turned off though if they find popup messages to be annoying (likely).

In terminal type:
replace IP_Address with the IP of any machines you find on the wireless network.

I tried this to connect to my XP machine (which is not wireless) and i couldn't get it to work. Typing the exact command you gave me causes the terminal window to enter into what appears like an infinite loop. I can stop the process by hitting ctrl-c.

After studying the man pages for smbclient, it appears that I need more command options, but there are so many, that I can't figure out what to do with it.

I tried again after turning off my firewall. The process ended simply giving the error message "session request failed."

Print out in great big letters:

"Your Wireless Network Is Not Secure"

and tape it on the wall near the elevator.

Gldmne