On Wed, 24 Aug 2005 01:47:35 +0000, JE wrote:

> A neighbor has a wireless network in his home and a person about 2 blocks
> away came to him and told him that he knew everytime my neighbor logged onto
> the internet and helped him setup security and stop broadcasting across his
> network. We both have become very curious as to how this guy knew this and
> what did he see on his network that would tell him just exactly whose
> network was not secure. Curious minds need to know!
>
> Thanks

He has a utility that scans for access points which gives details about
what the SSID is, what type of wireless encryption is used, the channel
being used and the signal strength. The utility comes with the wireless
card but XP comes with a Windows version and Linux comes with a few
wireless analyzing tools. SSID broadcasts and lack of encryption allows
hackers (or neighbors) easy access to the wireless network. If the type of
encryption used is WPA, then SSID broadcasts are not a significant
security issue. It is best to secure the wireless network because of
possible legal problems due to illegal activities by hackers or neighbors
such as copyright infringement (illegal file transfers or music or movies
or whatever).