# Am I being hacked or tapped?



## looking4trth (May 5, 2007)

Hello all you tech geniusesray:

I think I might have a problem and I am hoping someone can answer it with an answer that isn't going to cause me to have an anxiety attack  Also, if you don't have an open mind to any and all possibilities, please don't respond. 

We had a severe power outage here and I had to reconfigure my wireless network because my laptop and netbook could not read the wireless router and I couldn't connect to the Internet. 

When I printed the "Network Configuration Page," so I could add the rest of my computers I noticed at the bottom of the page, which had not been there when I initially set up my wireless, it said:

Number of 802.11 networks discovered:5

1. SSID: linksys -*This is the network I am connected to.*
Mode: Infrastructure
BSSID: 00:25:9c:db:ee:53
Channel: 11
Privacy: RSN
Auth: WPA-PSK
Encrypt: AES/TKIP
Signal: -28
WPS: Yes

2. frontier6DCD
3. CJ
4. harris1

5. And this is the one that concerns me *a lot!*

SSID: Pack-N-Horns
Mode: Infrastructure
BSSID: c8:cd:72:d2:4e:9f
Channel: 11
Privacy: RSN
Auth: WPA-PSK
Encrypt: AES/TKIP
Signal: -91
WPS: No


The reason I am so concerned about this "Available network" is because it is my neighbor. Not only my neighbor but a hostile and aggressive neighbor whom I have a OOP against for coming to my house and attempting to attack me. Pack-N-Horns is the name of his company (he's a guide for the hunters that come to our area to hunt elk).

And, I have previously discovered an illegal "tap" on my phone line; Seriously, not kidding and not crazy. The reasons are not important, I just need to know if this person is tapped into my wireless network and wouldn't he have to have a license to broadcast his own private network?

Ok, that's the challenge for the day.

Regards,
L4T


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## epshatto (Dec 23, 2010)

From what I can tell by your post here, no, this is not an intrusion.

What you're seeing is a different WLAN - ie a different wireless network. Your router can see the SSID (network name) and details of any network that's within range of your router (that is also broadcasting that information).

If somebody had broken into your wireless, you wouldn't be seeing a seperate network. They'd be using the network information on YOUR wireless, so a sign of that for example would be tremendously high bandwidth usage (higher than can be explained by your usage). Your router should also be logging the MAC address of devices that connect to it, so reviewing logs would show you unfamiliar MAC addresses as well, or possibly you'd see devices connect to the network at a time of day that doesn't make sense (nobody was home at that time, or everyone was asleep, etc).

I think you're just seeing your neighbor's network info.

By the way you can disable the broadcast of your info and also restrict what devices can connect to it. These steps wouldn't stop a knowledgable/dedicated/talented hacker but they can stymie the average user from trying to hop into your wireless.


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## looking4trth (May 5, 2007)

epshatto said:


> From what I can tell by your post here, no, this is not an intrusion.
> 
> By the way you can disable the broadcast of your info and also restrict what devices can connect to it. These steps wouldn't stop a knowledgable/dedicated/talented hacker but they can stymie the average user from trying to hop into your wireless.


OK! How do I do that, please?

L4T


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## epshatto (Dec 23, 2010)

I'm not sure exactly in your case because I don't know what your router is.

You need to access your router from your web browser, and the IP address for your router is probably 192.168.1.1

So, open a browser and enter that IP address in the address bar.

This should bring you to the router's web interface.

You'll need to navigate through the available menus, but you'll look for things that refer to security settings, especially advanced security settings.

What you'll want to find is a setting referencing *SSID Broadcast* and set that to "disable".

For the MAC address, you'll want to find a setting identified as *MAC Filtering*, 
*MAC Address Filtering*, or *Physical Address Filtering*.

There should be a place to list the necessary addresses. Now, you probably don't know the physical addresses of different devices that connect to your network. If you want to be absolutely certain you're getting the right MAC addresses, you'll need to go to the different PCs and laptops that might connect to your network, open a command prompt, and type *ipconfig/all*

Write down what it says to the right of "Physical Address" and enter that into the router interface.

If you know the model of your router, you can reference your manual or do a google search using the router make and model and "disable SSID broadcast" and "enable MAC filtering" for more specific instructions.


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## Wand3r3r (Sep 17, 2010)

You need to set your wifi to WPA2 and then make a passphrase using numbers, letters and caps. Complexity is your friend. WPA2 is your best line of defence since its the first one encountered.

Also since your neighbor is using the same channel you are you should should switch your channel to 1 or 6 so there isn't and channel contention between the two wifi routers.


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## bdice (Aug 3, 2012)

I am experiencing the same problem, right down to the phone tap. I'm not crazy either, but it's really hard to prove if the hacker is more advanced than you. I decided to take him on myself. It's a daunting task because he's an IT pro with 20+ years experience and I'm just getting started. I have alot to learn but eventually I will and when I do, look out!


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## Basementgeek (Feb 7, 2005)

This older post is closed.

BG


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