peace and love and all that jazz

[rooter]

So, I have a wireless network, that I keep open (no password) to help some peoples out, course I only allow 4 connections max... which doesn't help many out, but I dont' really want to be all weighted down by gaming neighbors!

But lately I've had lots of annoying difficulties. And I've very much appreciated other network'ers generosity before and think it's good to give back -- when I have all these problems as of late - it's my neighbors open network I jump onto...

But, I feel like I should be able to kick others off when they are using up my spots? Or if I'm transfering important work stuff that's heavy and I don't want the connection slowed down... (i assume multiple users boggs the connection speed and reliablity; is that true?)
Is there some solution to this? I was talking with Linksys today and they said you can't even kick people off - why, how's that?!

Isn't there a way to prioritize that the two computers at my house have priority and always are on, and others can jump into those others spaces?

Can't I give but not get sucked dry?

 

[Kyomii]

I am not sure there is a way to carry out what you want to do but I do know that leaving your network open is not really wise so be careful.

However, I can tell you that number of users can affect speed/performance to a degree, and if they are uploading, it can affect it incredibly.

For example, I have the kids computers and two Macs and an xbox360 connected via a router on a 2meg connection.

That is seven connections. Now, we can all be online, even gaming and performance is reduced by about 25 per cent. If my oldest is uploading, or using a P2P program though I can always tell because the connection goes down by over 60 per cent and it is like being on dialup again!

However, 4 of us can be surfing, 2 can play online games via the PC, and hubby can play the xbox and all this does not use as much as uploading via P2P. Needless to say I have banned P2P because it is annoying.

So, if any of your neighbours are using P2P, just have a word with them about it because this could be slowing you right down.

 

[Ric]

Hi there,

thats very generous of you !

If you want to only allow 'certain' people access to your hotspot then you could ask them for their MAC Addresses and add these into your router...then only these computers could access the hotspot...it would stop people who you didn't know accessing your hotspot ! (this however is not hard for a good network person to spoof !)

You could also shut down certain ports on the router so that P2P apps couldn't be used. Most P2P apps run on certain ports which you could shut down. This would stop anyone using P2P.

That being said...

From a network/security point of view I personally would not do what you are doing...

The fact that your network is open means that anyone with the right software could monitor all the data on your network...

ie

When you open 'mail.app' it sends out a request to your email host...thus sends out your username and password...this is normally done in what is called cleartext...ie no encryption.

So if I was one of your neighbors, or sat in a car near your house with a copy of KisMac and a iBook I could effectively 'listen' in on all your network traffic...this is where the hi-tech criminals start when they are attempting identity fraud...

KisMac is a network tool, that is also used by the 'good guys' to help find leaks in their own companies networks etc...

This is one of my areas of expertise...

If I fire up KisMac with an Orinoco Wireless card in my Laptop...it instantly tells me that there are 5 wireless networks in my location (my lounge !) and one of them is an unencrypted one just like yours !

KisMac can then be instructed to 'record' or dump everything to a file which can then be anaylysed later with software such as Ethereal

Another thing to think of...what happens if someone is using your connection for mass mailing spam, accessing porn or using it to try and hack into someone's network etc...the network 'trace' as it were would all lead back to you, well to your Internet connection...which you are responsible for.

So if someone was using your connection to download masses of MP3's and the anti piracy policy decided to have a clamp down in your area...it would be up to you to 'try' and prove that it wasn't you that had downloaded all those MP3's...if you see what I mean.

regards

Ric