hello everybody

ive been reading the forum for about a month now and got my tr about 3 weeks ago, but ive just run into something weird and i thought id see if i could get any advice here… :?:

i was fiddling with my tr in my bedroom about 15 minutes ago, and tried turning on the wireless connection switch on the front of the machine

a network (which i know nothing about) was detected, and i connected to it

i live in a rural area and i wasnt even aware that broadband was available where i live (i’ve always used a freeserve dialup connection)

but for the last 15 minutes ive been using broadband which i seem to have picked up for free from a nearby network of some kind!  :!:  :shock:

is this legal? can i get in trouble for it? any advice would be great cos i have no idea if i should be using this or not :?:  :D

Evidently someone is broadcasting a network near you.  The only caution to the wind I can give you is that whomever the admin of that network is will have full access to your HD.  Enjoy the free surfing, though.  There is nothing illegal about it if that person/entity wants to open up their network to the general public.

wow that was a quick reply! thanks

is there any way i can protect my hd without blocking incoming stuff? like with zone alarm or norton internet security or any other programs? not sure im comfortable using this connection if im risking the computer :?

just put all your sensitive data in a removeable drive…just remove the drive when you are surfing…for FREE!! hehe

haha i like that idea   8)  thanks! im just enjoying it while it lasts, i could get blocked or something any moment… on the other hand, it might last weeks or months or forever :drool:  :D :wink:

The wireless stuff is new to me, also, but can’t you change the properties on your drives to either password protect or not show on the network?

from my understanding…people can get acess to your data when you have it on your shared folder (legal acess)but to be on the safe side..i keep all my data on a removeable drive. the settings are there but how good is it? roll: pretty sure if hackers really want to get your files..nothing is impossible. perhaps tifosiv122 can enlighten us since he does this for a living.. :ph34r:

The wireless stuff is new to me, also, but can’t you change the properties on your drives to either password protect or not show on the network?

ooh how do i do this? anyone know?  :?: 

there’s gotta be better protection then that for wireless connections, ie. t-mobile hotspots and whatnot.  i am sure gunna figure this out before i leave for wireless land next week…i’m hoping that zone alarms firewall tabs (main, zones, expert) hold the key to safe use of wireless networks.  These tabs are the only ones i have yet to decifer in this product, which i must say works great for my ppp broadband connection - i get port attacks all day and it repels them all.

what about making sure that all your partitions (C, D, etc) in properties are not marked as shared???
if they are not shared than they cannot be viewed on the network, isn’t it?

On my home network, form my desktop, I can see only the shared folder on the TR.  My point is that any good admin should be able to get around this.  I don’t know how, but then again, I don’t know half as much as my post count suggests. :D

Talk about real estate or the bible and then I might know a few things!

[quote author=“TruthSeeker”]The only caution to the wind I can give you is that whomever the admin of that network is will have full access to your HD

This may be true, but do you really think someone who doesn’t know enough to put a security key in their router configuration would be able to do this?

[quote author=“richtrader”][quote author=“TruthSeeker”]The only caution to the wind I can give you is that whomever the admin of that network is will have full access to your HD

This may be true, but do you really think someone who doesn’t know enough to put a security key in their router configuration would be able to do this?

Only if he configured it this way to do exactly this (access other’s HD’s)
But thinking about this may be a bit paranoid

But the idea is great. Maybe I should open up my WLAN to public   :D

You could always install a software Firewall, Zone Alarm or Norton Internet Security (which was supplied preinstalled with my TR2MP) and lock your machine down so you will almost be invisible (unless quite IT savvy) on there network.  They won’t be able to see you if you disable all netbios traffic on your TR and disable all ICMP traffic.  The only way they’ll be able to see you is in the wireless access point as a connected user but this will just be the Mac Address of your wireless card.  I’m not entirely sure of the Legal aspect of this but you haven’t done anything to gain access illegally I.E. circumvented security methods to gain access so I imagine it’d be very grey here and I can’t really see you been charged with cyber terrorism.  The other thing this could be is a lot of companies are starting to offer broadband in areas where fixed cable broadband isn’t available.  They install a satellite in a pub or farm and then set up powerful WiFi access points so they can offer broadband internet access to residents in these areas.  In your case they maybe testing so have turned all security off.  The SID of the access point should give an indication of who owns this access point, if it is something like a random jumble of letters/numbers or the name of a manufacturer Linksys or Buffalo should be tell tale signs of a naïve user.  My advise to you is enjoy it while it lasts but don’t hammer the connection with downloads, video, music and P2P or you’ll probably end up losing it especially if the connection has a bandwidth limit which a lot of broadband providers have today.

[quote author=“rec”]
Only if he configured it this way to do exactly this (access other’s HD’s)
But thinking about this may be a bit paranoid

But the idea is great. Maybe I should open up my WLAN to public   :D

Is that kinda like reverse psychology hacking? 8)

As long as you have not enabled sharing on any of your volumes, then they cannot be accessed on the network.