Thread: Question about IP's (sort of)

the only way to geographically fix a wireless connection is via triangulation

Someone will need to isolate the stream of packets between you and your neighbour's router, and then using 3-4 receivers in different locations, try to triangulate your position

*edit*
sorry,
I think I've misunderstood what you're asking

you mean, if you are leeching a torrent
and someone is spying on the leechers
can it come back to you?
in this case, no, it'll end it the router

Not sure for certain, but I'd guess they'd be able to trace it to the router, but they won't be able to trace it to your computer unless you're connected to the network.

Such a strange question...

Naughty naughty...

Originally Posted by Kushna Mufeed

Naughty naughty...

I often hop on my neighbours network
just to see what I look like in torrent swarms, etc from other people's connections

nought wrong with that
I equate it to using the loo in someone's house
as long as you don't leave a horrible mess after you, no problem

Well I won't be shy and admit I have done some of my leeching from neighbors wifi, I even brought an SRX 400 attenna for the bigger pc

At first it was cause this place had no phone connection or cable installed to begin with, so I didn't wanna pay.

But now I'm a law abiding citizen

Anyway, they won't figure out it;s you, tho they might call there ISP and ask whats wrong with there cnnection, then the isp could tell em well if you're using a router someone could be spooning off it and then they'll just turn off the router/modem when not in use @.@

Can you say "Network Sniffer?"

It would be a cakewalk to figure out who it was if you happen to check email. ISP_A can call up E-mail Provider_B and usually find out what account the person logged in with if they suspect something was up and with most ISP's all connections are logged.

Also the wireless router should be logging the MAC address of the card, which uniquely identifies your computer.

However tracking directly to you at the keyboard is a tougher feat, but by no means is it difficult to trace someone's activity on the network.

Originally Posted by Ne-yo

Also the wireless router should be logging the MAC address of the card, which uniquely identifies your computer.

That's really probably all that you need to know, Xaqaria. There are ways to mask that I would imagine...if you don't know how, though, just keep what Ne-yo said in mind.

Okay, I've got another question. Is it possible for me as a normal user to find the IP address of someone else who is using a forum?

Originally Posted by Xaqaria

Okay, I've got another question. Is it possible for me as a normal user to find the IP address of someone else who is using a forum?

no

only possible if you control the forum (ie. admin or whatever)

I know I've mentioned this before, somewhere
but all you really need to do, is set a webserver up
(you can even do it on your home machine if you have a static IP)

plonk an image on it,
then PM the image to your "victim"
once he reads the PM,
bam, his IP is in your server log

Originally Posted by Ne-yo

but by no means is it difficult to trace someone's activity on the network.

If they are a computer a geek then this is true. Considering he is tapping into a neighbor's wifi and then saying he doesn't know networking (which means cracking WEP or WPA is out of the question), I think it's safe to assume that the neighbor is not using encryption, and therefore is a computer noob. And computer noobs are not going to be monitoring or logging their traffic. I think he's safe.

Your neighbour can also check the DHCP table and can usually see the names of the machines connected. Like, if you are called Joe, and your computer is called Joe204, your neighbour can probably figure out who you are.

I can't believe there are people setting up wireless networks all over the place who don't bother to encrypt it.

My wife and I were having the floor redone in our basement, where our router and cable modem happen to be. We had to go offline for a few hours while the equipment was shoved into another room. To my surprise, when I went back to my computer, I was still connected to the internet. Taking a look at the available networks revealed three that were not encrypted, and zero that were. This in my quiet little residential neighborhood.

Unencrypted connections are just convenient
It's a pain in the arse to talk someone through WPA stuff over the phone

at work, plenty of visitors request net access
(people coming in to do talks / presentations, etc.)

Most barely know how to work their machines (save pressing "slideshow" in powerpoint)
so they would have no idea how to auth against our router
and they don't like 3rd parties (ie. me) doing it for them

We've got unencrypted Wi-Fi
it hands out IP's on a separate sub-net to our workstations
(so they can't access anything internally - our server, etc.)
also, this guest subnet is allowed outgoing connections only on certain ports (web & email)

It works well

There's nothing inherently wrong with unencrypted Wireless
It's no risk to us
In fact, it's a security risk for the client, more than anything, as I (if I wished) could log everything they do, as it's not encrypted

I'm talking more about people's home networks, which is what I'm picking up in my little patch of suburbia.

same difference, really
I used my workplace just as a real life example

what are you afraid of, to make you secure your wireless?

People sitting outside your house downloading torrents, leaching all your bandwidth? - restrict the outgoing ports on the unencrypted wireless - block anything except web & email (and anything else you want to grant them)

It doesn't have to be "all or nothing"

"Free for all" guest access for web & email
(means your mates can bring their laptop round and have no issues connecting)

Require authentication & encryption for anything else
(means you are free to do anything, on any port - plus it's encrypted, so no-one can snoop on your traffic)

Originally Posted by Ynot

what are you afraid of, to make you secure your wireless?

I'm very stingy with my bandwidth. I paid for it, and I want every speck of it to myself!

It doesn't have to be "all or nothing"

In this case I consider "all" to be vastly superior to "nothing." Anything between requires extra work on my part. When my mates start bringing around their laptops, maybe I'll revisit the issue. -- Except I won't need to. They can just use my neighbors'!

maybe I'm too nice....

Originally Posted by Ynot

same difference, really
I used my workplace just as a real life example

what are you afraid of, to make you secure your wireless?

People sitting outside your house downloading torrents, leaching all your bandwidth? - restrict the outgoing ports on the unencrypted wireless - block anything except web & email (and anything else you want to grant them)

It doesn't have to be "all or nothing"

"Free for all" guest access for web & email
(means your mates can bring their laptop round and have no issues connecting)

Require authentication & encryption for anything else
(means you are free to do anything, on any port - plus it's encrypted, so no-one can snoop on your traffic)

This sounds like much more trouble then just putting a simple MAC filter and WEP key on your network. Sure it's still easily hackable, but only to other computer geeks. WPA is really what everyone should be doing, but it's a pain in the ass to get connected in linux to WPA.

In my apartment complex I can see roughly 15 networks, 3 are unencryped, 6 are WEP, and 6 are WPA. So I would say that most people are using encryption.