Fun with Wi-Fi

[Trekbike]

At one time mine was named John Galt. My Dad was at my house and was looking at the available networks on his phone and asked, "who is John Galt" not knowing the significance of the question. My wife and I busted out laughing.

[vontar]

At one time mine was named John Galt. My Dad was at my house and was looking at the available networks on his phone and asked, "who is John Galt" not knowing the significance of the question. My wife and I busted out laughing.

 When I go on vacation at work, I take a post it and stick it to my monitor, Who is John Galt?

[Wicked1911]

Lol I use "FBI Surveillance Van #2" on my cellphones hot spot.

[Jeb48]

Sounds like fun I may have to change my WiFi name. I actually have two networks, one private secured and one that is open for anyone close enough, to use. Public service. Of course I'm 500 feet off a back road so it is mainly for people visiting me.

[TripleDigitRide]

If you ever see NotYourWiFi pop up on your device, you're close to my crib. Edited March 22, 2015 by TripleDigitRide

[Tncobra]

Mods can delete this if its too much.

So I named my broadcast Col. Angus one time. It's from a SNL skit. If you don't know it, (Google it before reading further.)

My neighbor who was a Lt Col retired back in the late 70s. He passed just over a year ago and was a good friend since we both were in Armor . We all called him "Colonel," not many knew his real name.

After his passing my other neighbor asked me if I had gone to Col Angus's funeral. OMG!

I'm assuming it was the Col. part that threw him off, but I never corrected him.

I've since changed it. Edited March 22, 2015 by Tncobra

[NoBanStan]

So as my wife was driving me around the other day I noticed my iPhone was polling people's routers. It would tell me the router name and ask to connect. I never do even though most are not secured. That got me thinking that if I am getting their information what information are they getting from me.

So when I got home I checked my router and my name was on my router so I assume my it will be on other people's routers. Also, there were several questionable devices in the connection list but they did not connect but showed up in the list.

That got me to thinking that I had had better change my name on my phone so when it tries to connect to someone else's router it will not have my name. And while I was at it I changed my router name as well. But I decided to have some with it.

So my new name for my phone is "DEA Surveilance Van #8" so as I drive by routers it will show up in their device list. After changing it I checked my router and that is what it says.

Along with that I changed my router's name to "DEA Camera #5". I am going to turn the range up so it will show up on people's phones as they drive by. Should make things interesting for the druggies living a few houses away and making daily runs.

 

Outside of the joke, you can always turn off SSID broadcasting. That way people have to know the name of the router before they can connect. Or do MAC address filtering, that way only specific devices are allowed on.

 

I did the same thing though. my guest wireless is "Virus Infected Wifi".

 

***edit*** My personal favorite name is about 4 blocks away and it's "I LOVE BOOBS!"

Edited March 23, 2015 by NoBanStan

[Guest Broomhead]

Lol...My cell's mobile hotspot name is "NSA Mobile Unit 15", not that they'd really ever use that. I always have that turned off anyway, unless I'm using a non-wireless device away from home. I still think it's funny nonetheless. My home router's SSID is the brand name with a few numbers, but the password isn't in decimal or the usual letter/number format, thanks to my dad who's been a programmer since the punch card days.

[wewoapsiak]

I'm not saying that hiding your ssid is silly, but if someone is looking to jack your personal stuff it's not going to help you. Sure, it might stop your 14 year old neighbor, but using wireshark or any number of programs, the bad people can find you anyway.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/28653/debunking-myths-is-hiding-your-wireless-ssid-really-more-secure/

[Omega]

I'm not saying that hiding your ssid is silly, but if someone is looking to jack your personal stuff it's not going to help you. Sure, it might stop your 14 year old neighbor, but using wireshark or any number of programs, the bad people can find you anyway.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/28653/debunking-myths-is-hiding-your-wireless-ssid-really-more-secure/

Correct, if they are out to get into your network, then they can.  But most of us dont have a network that hackers want to get into.  And crackers/hackers are more likely to go after the soft targets to further hack a better network from.  So anything you can do to make it harder for them is worth doing.

[NoBanStan]

I'm not saying that hiding your ssid is silly, but if someone is looking to jack your personal stuff it's not going to help you. Sure, it might stop your 14 year old neighbor, but using wireshark or any number of programs, the bad people can find you anyway.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/28653/debunking-myths-is-hiding-your-wireless-ssid-really-more-secure/

Yeah but that's like saying it's not worth locking your front door because they could bust out a window.

Of course if someone wanted to get in...they could. But I really don't think anonymous is after my private residental network.

[GlockSpock]

Outside of the joke, you can always turn off SSID broadcasting. That way people have to know the name of the router before they can connect. Or do MAC address filtering, that way only specific devices are allowed on.

 

I did the same thing though. my guest wireless is "Virus Infected Wifi".

 

***edit*** My personal favorite name is about 4 blocks away and it's "I LOVE BOOBS!"

 

Your router should not be broadcasting it's ID, if you want someone to connect you will tell them your router ID and password.  That setting is available to most routers, but its best to access the routers settings through a hard line not via Wi-Fi.   As for your phone, only the phone name should show and I think it records the MAC address if you connect.

 

 

Correct.

 

If people really want to get secure, they should go into the advanced settings on their wireless modem and set the MAC address filter to permit only the MAC address' you provide it.  But that would mean you need to get the MAC from every device in your house, and from your friends if you want them to be able to connect to your wi-fi when they visit.  Since every MAC is unique, it really locks down your network.

 

 

Set your wireless router/WAP to not broadcast your SSID and enable WPA2 encryption and then they won't see you. If you have friends come over you can tell them the SSID and password for you WiFi if you want them to access it.

 

Unless you just want to screw with people using creative names. :)

 

Not displaying an SSID sounds nice and secure, but to anyone that you would actually be afraid of "infiltrating" your network it means nothing. On Android there is an app, "WiFi Scanner" I believe, that will show you WiFI networks that don't broadcast an SSID. It simply shows them as "unkown".

 

If your only concern is your neighbor getting on and using your WiFI, you are probably good at just having a password and hiding SSID. However, for someone who is targeting your network, here you go. Hardware is cheap and most of the software is FOSS (Free Open Source Software). Your phone or computer constantly "ask" for your known networks. Go to Walmart and walk through the isles? Your phone is "searching" for your home network, sending out request beacons for a router to respond to. If you know your stuff, you can listen for these packets and then discover the SSID's of someone's "known networks". If your phone has your "hidden network" saved, I believe it should be that way someone could easily findout your SSID.

 

MAC address filtering sounds secure and I used it myself for a number of years. It got to be too much trouble really adding clients to the network. It is very easy to spoof a MAC address. Anyone of you with a network card and admin privelages can do it. All you would have to do is again watch for potential clients, listening to their device is broadcasting to to world to see when it isn't connected to any network, and eventually you will find a device that is "authorized" for that network. After finding a valid MAC address then all you have to do is spoof it (making your computer tell other computers it has that MAC address).

 

Most of the population would have no clue about any of this. That's why you are probably safe having a insesure password with SSID being broadcast and MAC address filtering off. However, for someone that does know what they are doing, hiding an SSID and using MAC filtering really makes little difference. They would only slow them down, not stop them.

 

Something I haven't seen I don't think in this thread is the importance of passwords. WEP was and is quite easy to crack. WPA2 with a good password (random alphanumeric with acceptable symbols, 10-20 characters) is probably "uncrackable" as long as no serious bugs or flaws are found.

 

For those more interested:

http://hakshop.myshopify.com/products/wifi-pineapple?variant=81044992

 

http://hak5.org/category/episodes

[NoBanStan]

Not displaying an SSID sounds nice and secure, but to anyone that you would actually be afraid of "infiltrating" your network it means nothing. On Android there is an app, "WiFi Scanner" I believe, that will show you WiFI networks that don't broadcast an SSID. It simply shows them as "unkown".

 

If your only concern is your neighbor getting on and using your WiFI, you are probably good at just having a password and hiding SSID. However, for someone who is targeting your network, here you go. Hardware is cheap and most of the software is FOSS (Free Open Source Software). Your phone or computer constantly "ask" for your known networks. Go to Walmart and walk through the isles? Your phone is "searching" for your home network, sending out request beacons for a router to respond to. If you know your stuff, you can listen for these packets and then discover the SSID's of someone's "known networks". If your phone has your "hidden network" saved, I believe it should be that way someone could easily findout your SSID.

 

MAC address filtering sounds secure and I used it myself for a number of years. It got to be too much trouble really adding clients to the network. It is very easy to spoof a MAC address. Anyone of you with a network card and admin privelages can do it. All you would have to do is again watch for potential clients, listening to their device is broadcasting to to world to see when it isn't connected to any network, and eventually you will find a device that is "authorized" for that network. After finding a valid MAC address then all you have to do is spoof it (making your computer tell other computers it has that MAC address).

 

Most of the population would have no clue about any of this. That's why you are probably safe having a insesure password with SSID being broadcast and MAC address filtering off. However, for someone that does know what they are doing, hiding an SSID and using MAC filtering really makes little difference. They would only slow them down, not stop them.

 

Something I haven't seen I don't think in this thread is the importance of passwords. WEP was and is quite easy to crack. WPA2 with a good password (random alphanumeric with acceptable symbols, 10-20 characters) is probably "uncrackable" as long as no serious bugs or flaws are found.

 

For those more interested:

http://hakshop.myshopify.com/products/wifi-pineapple?variant=81044992

 

http://hak5.org/category/episodes

 

I agree with all of this.

 

To clarify, I wasn't suggesting that turning off broadcasting would save you from any would be attackers, just as a means of "thinning the heard". To me it's the same as telling my mother-in-law that she needs to have an antrivirus installed.  I know good and well that it's not going to stop everything, but if it can catch the obvious attempts... that's less she has to worry about.

 

Your average everyday person isn't doing much war driving.