Playing With My Router

My web access was particularly slow yesterday morning, so I took a look at my router. My neighbors were eating my bandwidth.

It's okay by me if my neighbors use my router -- I'm paying a flat rate -- but when it starts to slow me down, I guess I should do something.

I set up an access policy to block the offending box from the internet, and timed out the DHCP leases.

Last night, same thing. Half the boxes on my LAN were my neighbors. Okay, new policy: only our boxes can access the internet.

This morning, there was a neighbor's box on my LAN even though it can't get on the net. At 4:30 in the morning.

Time for bruter force. I added WPA2. The test? It immediately knocked my iBook off, and I was able to log back in with the password. I'll look again tonight, just to reassure myself that I don't have a cracker problem.

Looking on the bright side, I'm more familiar with my router. A year ago, I'd never have messed with it. Now, I do it without trepidation, and even know which security scheme to pick.