"Peabody" <waybackNO784SPAM44@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:4U8hi.177716$dC2.22812@newsfe13.lga...
> Nel says...
>
> > Logged into my laptop in bed last night and noticed that
> > I'd connected to someone else's connection, rather than
> > my own.
>
> At your end, how did this happen without your being aware of
> it? Does your laptop just connect to anything it finds?
That's what I thought, and I've certainly not connected in the past to it.
I can only think that my wife must have used the laptop for her Ebaying,
been in a deadzone for my connection, and has clicked OK when presented with
the "unsecured network" warning without even reading it!!

> > Curiosity got the better of me and I had a bit of a
> > peruse and quickly found as well as being unsecured, his
> > router was also password-less and as well as my
> > accidental connection there was FOUR other PC's/laptops
> > connected!! I can't believe that if the owner had that
> > much kit, he'd also know nothing about security.
>
> > Is there any way I can get a message to him, even
> > offering to help him set it up?
>
> Maybe the router owner isn't the only one with a problem. I
> may be completely wrong about this, but it seems to me that
> if all of these computers still have the Windows default
> workgroup name ("WORKGROUP"), then you not only have
> internet access through the router, but also have become
> part of the same LAN, and have become infectable by each
> other's malware, and have access to each other's shares.
I don't use any default workgroup names and I'm well firewalled, so I should
be OK but I see where you're coming from.

> Maybe he's the one that knows what he's doing, and the rest
> of you are being baited. :-)
>
Maybe! Anyway, I'm thinking I might just forget about it - it they haven't
got the brains to set it up properly (and it's not rocket science!) why am I
on here debating and worrying about it!!