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Suppose I have Wifi and a desktop computer. Without me knowing, my next door neighbor gets my wifi password and accesses my wifi router.
Is there any way he could access the data on my computer? If so, how?
I was told that when you use a wifi laptop, it sends data to the wifi router, which sends the data out to the internet. My desktop computer would have nothing to do with it.
My friend had XP with a new DSL modem + wifi router. When the Wii game was using the wifi, there was no indication of it on the computer's screen. I was told that there wouldn't be any.
With Windows7, if you have wifi, is there a way to tell which devices are currently accessing my wifi? If so, what is it?
It's possible that the only way I would know he is using my wifi, is a slowdown in the signal? And possible the indicators on the router.
Even if he can't get access to my computer files, can he get access to the data being sent by my own wifi devices?
I have been using this program for years, it show you just about everything that is going on on your Wifi network. You can password protect see a map of all devices either on the network or that have tried. It's free and from Cisco. Cisco Network Magic Pro Features
Apparently you can type the router's URL and go to Maintenance and see attached devices.
Perhaps Windows has no built-in way to see this.
Would like to see more responses to my original post.
If they can get on your network, then it is absolutely possible for them to gain access to your machine and/or sniff your traffic.
Change your wifi password and make sure you are using WPA2. Consider MAC address filtering.
Install xarp. It should either come with winpcap or you will have to install that separately. Load xarp and let it populate the table with devices on your network. It should resolve NETBIOS network names and will give the LAN IP address, MAC address, and vendor for their network card. Try to eliminate ones from the list that you recognize and make a list of your devices' MAC addresses. If there are more devices in xarp than you have connected to your network then you know something is up. (xarp will find all devices on your network and not just wifi devices).
Yep, every windows has an Administrative share "C$" for your C: drive.
Do you have passwords set on ALL users on your computer?
Your password for wireless (actually a pass phrase) should be long, upper case, lower case, symbols, numbers, and not have a "word" in it that can be found in a dictionary, and use WPA2 encryption.
All other suggestions you might see (disabling SSID broadcast, MAC filtering, etc.) are virtually useless if someone wants to hack in, but WPA2 with a good passphrase will stop 99.99% of them.
(In computer and network security, nothing is 100% secure)
Suppose I have Wifi and a desktop computer. Without me knowing, my next door neighbor gets my wifi password and accesses my wifi router.
Is there any way he could access the data on my computer? If so, how? I was told that when you use a wifi laptop, it sends data to the wifi router, which sends the data out to the internet. My desktop computer would have nothing to do with it.
My friend had XP with a new DSL modem + wifi router. When the Wii game was using the wifi, there was no indication of it on the computer's screen. I was told that there wouldn't be any.
With Windows7, if you have wifi, is there a way to tell which devices are currently accessing my wifi? If so, what is it?
It's possible that the only way I would know he is using my wifi, is a slowdown in the signal? And possible the indicators on the router.
Even if he can't get access to my computer files, can he get access to the data being sent by my own wifi devices?
In that case, your desktop and your laptop are on the same LAN (unless you included segregation in the network). So the two can still communicate (i.e share files, printers etc.). If a neighbor gets access to your wifi network, his/her computer is now also on your network. So whether or not they can access your computers will depend what additional controls you have to protect the computers. If MS (or Apple) released a new critical patch that you haven't installed.. they might be able to exploit that. If you have folders/directories openly shared.. they'll be able to access that. And and as Ashville native said, the administrative share is there if you've modified that Local Security Policy.
Many people share folders or even just share the entire drive without passwords at home. One thing I always do when I connect to a public hotspot or hotel is look the other computers on the network.... you'll often see shares that are wide open. Usually they forget when they leave the house and keep it open... Since Win7 (or maybe even Vista?), they've made it a bit more security by identifying the networks you're connected to. But as indicated above - there is no 100% security.
...unless you unplug the cable, and even then you need to make sure the door is locked.
True. If you take all the usual precautions that are available with consumer routers (good password, etc.,) it would be far easier for most people to break into your computer the "old fashion" way (e.g. be gaining physical access to your machine.) security measures simply reduce the probability of someone compromising your data. The more precautions you have the in place, the lower the probability that your data will be compromised.
If your desktop is disconnected from the network they will not have access. If he's connected then the potential would be there.
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