Router IP Shows Town 40 miles Away - Someone Disconnected Router & Connected Internet to Computer ?

[tabby]

Macintosh Sierra 10.13.6 on a Mac Pro.

A Macbook Pro that I sometime use connects to the Mac Pro via WiFi.

I have a Cisco BEFSR41.

I haven't accessed the router unit, its settings via the browser, or the back of my Mac Pro in some time.

I was planning on hard wiring in another ethernet cable to the router to support a old G4.

To my utter amazement I found that the router was no longer connected and the high speed fiber optic cable was now connected directly into the back of the Mac Pro's ethernet 1 port. A short piece of cable used to connect the router to the Mac had both ends disconnected.

I checked Ethernet 1 under System Preferences > Network and it shows a router IP address that is from a town 40 miles away.

I removed the ethernet cable from the back of the Mac Pro and attached it to the internet port on the router. I reconnected the short piece of cable from port 1 on the router to ethernet 1 port on the Mac Pro. The internet light will not light up. The port lights will not light up. I've reset the router using the small button on the back. I also disconnected the power cord. Can't access the router via any web browser. I also replaced the short bit of cable with a new one in case it was bad.

Does this mean someone has hacked the computer by gaining physical access to it?

Firewall is running under Security & Privacy.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

It is normal for your router/computer to show an IP address that is not anywhere near your physical address. Because of the way that ISP DHCP and switching is setup, my IP floats all around the country from time to time. Currently, my Comcast IP shows my location 125 miles away in another state. No worries for that.

In regards to the mysterious cabling...not sure what could have happened there.
-Do you live alone?
-Does anyone else have access to your home?
-Who is your ISP? Cable or DSL?
-Did they perform the initial hardware setup and configuration, or have you had a service call recently?
-What is the brand/model of your cable/DSL modem?
-The Ethernet cable (WAN) from your modem to your Cisco is not a fiber optic cable, as Mac's do not have a fiber optic port and cannot convert the incoming signal from a fiber optic run to your home. The Cisco connects to your modem using the WAN (Wide Area Network) port - the one on the left on the back, and other devices can then share that connection via the four LAN (Local Area Network) ports on the right.

I would highly doubt that someone hacked your computer, especially if you haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary on the iMac itself.

We'll try and help you figure this out.

C

 

[Agret]

It sounds like the router died at some point and someone bypassed it by directly connecting the cable to the computer. This is okay since modern OS have firewall built into them but you should probably replace the router at some point so you can use WiFi again.