UNPROTECTED LYNKSYS ROUTER NETWORK - WHAT ARE CONSEQUENCES

My network is currently "unprotected". When I tried to set up the
protection with Linksys tech support they tried to help, but to no avail. I
had great difficulty understanding them since the tech spoke so fast.
After about an hour"messing around" I just gave up, totally frustrated.

I have 1 laptop computer on the wireless network. I understand that the
router has a firewall, but I also have firewall software on my laptop.

Since it is very frustrating talking to Linksys tech support, I am inclined
to do nothing, like about 2/3's of the networks that do not have protection
or are unsecured. I understand that someone close to my house can get onto
my network. WHAT CAN THEY DO? Can they do any damage to my computer? Can
they copy any files from my computer to theirs?

--
Have a great day, except you spammers
To email, remove the obvious

.......

On Thu, 04 Aug 2005 20:29:50 GMT, "Les"
<lester123_nospam@adelphia.net> wrote:

>My network is currently "unprotected". When I tried to set up the
>protection with Linksys tech support they tried to help, but to no avail. I
>had great difficulty understanding them since the tech spoke so fast.
>After about an hour"messing around" I just gave up, totally frustrated.
>
>I have 1 laptop computer on the wireless network. I understand that the
>router has a firewall, but I also have firewall software on my laptop.
>
>Since it is very frustrating talking to Linksys tech support, I am inclined
>to do nothing, like about 2/3's of the networks that do not have protection
>or are unsecured. I understand that someone close to my house can get onto
>my network. WHAT CAN THEY DO? Can they do any damage to my computer? Can
>they copy any files from my computer to theirs?

So, I take it you've given up and just need to ask for some help?
It's not like we're not sympathetic to your exposure to Linksys tech
support. Of course since you didn't bother to disclose what hardware
you're using, specific help is a bit awkward.

However, I'm good at guessing.
Turn on WEP128 and use a Hex key instead of an ASCII key. It will
work. If you want to know why ASCII sometimes doesn't work, kindly
supply some details such as your hardware makes and model numbers.

As for what hackers can do?
Steal your passwords,
Use your credit cards.
Download incriminating love letters to your mistress
Deliver a worm, trojan horse, virus, spyware, etc,
Use your computah to deliver spam.
Use your computah for a distributed denial of service attack.
and of course:
deltree /y *.*
format c: /u


--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831.336.2558 voice http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
# http://802.11junk.com
# jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us
# jeffl@cruzio.com AE6KS

At this time, I have absolutely no faith that Linksys Tech Support can help
and a long call to them is a pure frustration. When I originally purchased
the Linksys Networking Kit Model no. WKPC54G , using a Dell Inspiron Laptop
with Windows ME Operating System, I had trouble with the installation /
configuration, and I could not get connected to the Internet. After 2
separate calls to their tech support, I was finally passed on to the next
level "expert" and he was able to get me connected using manual codes, with
some trial and error.

How does a hacker do those nasty things? I assume that the person would
have to me near my house to do such things? Wouldn't the software firewall
on my laptop prevent such things from happening?

It should be noted that I recall that the tech did turn on WEP128 with the
hex key and I was then not able to connect to the Internet.

If I mess around with trying to make changes and I am not successful, can I
use the Windows ME System Restore to get back where I am now?

Thanks in advance for any help.

--
Have a great day, except you spammers
To email, remove the obvious

.......
"Jeff Liebermann" <jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us> wrote in message
news:hl45f1t1tl0ncbbafo2lnobjfnjgqnbf8f@4ax.com...
> On Thu, 04 Aug 2005 20:29:50 GMT, "Les"
> <lester123_nospam@adelphia.net> wrote:
>
> >My network is currently "unprotected". When I tried to set up the
> >protection with Linksys tech support they tried to help, but to no avail.
I
> >had great difficulty understanding them since the tech spoke so fast.
> >After about an hour"messing around" I just gave up, totally frustrated.
> >
> >I have 1 laptop computer on the wireless network. I understand that the
> >router has a firewall, but I also have firewall software on my laptop.
> >
> >Since it is very frustrating talking to Linksys tech support, I am
inclined
> >to do nothing, like about 2/3's of the networks that do not have
protection
> >or are unsecured. I understand that someone close to my house can get
onto
> >my network. WHAT CAN THEY DO? Can they do any damage to my computer?
Can
> >they copy any files from my computer to theirs?
>
> So, I take it you've given up and just need to ask for some help?
> It's not like we're not sympathetic to your exposure to Linksys tech
> support. Of course since you didn't bother to disclose what hardware
> you're using, specific help is a bit awkward.
>
> However, I'm good at guessing.
> Turn on WEP128 and use a Hex key instead of an ASCII key. It will
> work. If you want to know why ASCII sometimes doesn't work, kindly
> supply some details such as your hardware makes and model numbers.
>
> As for what hackers can do?
> Steal your passwords,
> Use your credit cards.
> Download incriminating love letters to your mistress
> Deliver a worm, trojan horse, virus, spyware, etc,
> Use your computah to deliver spam.
> Use your computah for a distributed denial of service attack.
> and of course:
> deltree /y *.*
> format c: /u
>
>
> --
> # Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
> # 831.336.2558 voice http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
> # http://802.11junk.com
> # jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us
> # jeffl@cruzio.com AE6KS

On Fri, 05 Aug 2005 01:08:48 GMT, "Les"
<lester123_nospam@adelphia.net> wrote:

>At this time, I have absolutely no faith that Linksys Tech Support can help
>and a long call to them is a pure frustration. When I originally purchased
>the Linksys Networking Kit Model no. WKPC54G , using a Dell Inspiron Laptop
>with Windows ME Operating System, I had trouble with the installation /
>configuration, and I could not get connected to the Internet. After 2
>separate calls to their tech support, I was finally passed on to the next
>level "expert" and he was able to get me connected using manual codes, with
>some trial and error.

OK, so you have it work. Is encryption enabled yet?

>How does a hacker do those nasty things?

Not too easily. Some expertise and tools are required.

>I assume that the person would
>have to me near my house to do such things?

Yes, they would need to be within range of your access point. That's
fairly obvious if someone is sitting in a car outside your front door.
It's not so obvious if it's being done from a neighbors house. Also,
high gain directional antennas allow hacking to be done from a
considerable distance.

>Wouldn't the software firewall
>on my laptop prevent such things from happening?

Yes. The usual screwup is to leave wide open shared folders (i.e.
shares) on your laptop. If I can connect to the access point, I can
see the shares and browse around. There are also hidden shares and
other tricks that allow entry. A personal firewall will see such an
attack and usually (not always) block it. However, it's much easier
to simply apply some common sense security and not share the entire
hard disk to the network. Passwords on shares are also helpful. This
fairly well covers the major issues:
http://cable-dsl.home.att.net/netbios.htm

>It should be noted that I recall that the tech did turn on WEP128 with the
>hex key and I was then not able to connect to the Internet.

That's because of the ASCII to Hex conversion incompatibility problem
I previously hinted. If you had used a Hex key instead of ASCII, it
would have worked. Your laptop and router should be able to do WPA,
which is MUCH more secure than WEP. Try making WPA work.

>If I mess around with trying to make changes and I am not successful, can I
>use the Windows ME System Restore to get back where I am now?

Windoze ME System Restore does not work very well. I would not use it
for anything useful. I disable system restore on ME only (works on
XP) to save CPU cycles.

All the network setting for ME are in the registry. Lots of ways to
save the settings. Writing them down is the easiest as there's very
little to change. Making screen dumps of the setup window is another.
If you're really desperate, boot to an ME floppy disk boot and run:
scanreg /restore
You'll have a choice of 5 registry copies to restore by date.
You can also force a registry save from windoze with just:
scanreg


--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831.336.2558 voice http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
# http://802.11junk.com
# jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us
# jeffl@cruzio.com AE6KS

--
Have a great day, except you spammers
To email, remove the obvious

.......
"Jeff Liebermann" <jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us> wrote in message
news:ebn5f151o9aku96198k4iq6175mbgkgbm9@4ax.com...
> On Fri, 05 Aug 2005 01:08:48 GMT, "Les"
> <lester123_nospam@adelphia.net> wrote:
>
> >At this time, I have absolutely no faith that Linksys Tech Support can
help
> >and a long call to them is a pure frustration. When I originally
purchased
> >the Linksys Networking Kit Model no. WKPC54G , using a Dell Inspiron
Laptop
> >with Windows ME Operating System, I had trouble with the installation /
> >configuration, and I could not get connected to the Internet. After 2
> >separate calls to their tech support, I was finally passed on to the next
> >level "expert" and he was able to get me connected using manual codes,
with
> >some trial and error.
>
> OK, so you have it work. Is encryption enabled yet?

NO! When I tried having Linksys Tech support help me thru this, the net
result was that I no longer could get to the Internet, and they told me to
call Microsoft.
>


> >How does a hacker do those nasty things?
>
> Not too easily. Some expertise and tools are required.
>
> >I assume that the person would
> >have to me near my house to do such things?
>
> Yes, they would need to be within range of your access point. That's
> fairly obvious if someone is sitting in a car outside your front door.
> It's not so obvious if it's being done from a neighbors house. Also,
> high gain directional antennas allow hacking to be done from a
> considerable distance.
>
> >Wouldn't the software firewall
> >on my laptop prevent such things from happening?
>
> Yes. The usual screwup is to leave wide open shared folders (i.e.
> shares) on your laptop. If I can connect to the access point, I can
> see the shares and browse around. There are also hidden shares and
> other tricks that allow entry. A personal firewall will see such an
> attack and usually (not always) block it. However, it's much easier
> to simply apply some common sense security and not share the entire
> hard disk to the network. Passwords on shares are also helpful. This
> fairly well covers the major issues:
> http://cable-dsl.home.att.net/netbios.htm
>
> >It should be noted that I recall that the tech did turn on WEP128 with
the
> >hex key and I was then not able to connect to the Internet.
>
> That's because of the ASCII to Hex conversion incompatibility problem
> I previously hinted. If you had used a Hex key instead of ASCII, it
> would have worked. Your laptop and router should be able to do WPA,
> which is MUCH more secure than WEP. Try making WPA work.
>
> >If I mess around with trying to make changes and I am not successful, can
I
> >use the Windows ME System Restore to get back where I am now?
>
> Windoze ME System Restore does not work very well. I would not use it
> for anything useful. I disable system restore on ME only (works on
> XP) to save CPU cycles.
>
> All the network setting for ME are in the registry. Lots of ways to
> save the settings. Writing them down is the easiest as there's very
> little to change. Making screen dumps of the setup window is another.
> If you're really desperate, boot to an ME floppy disk boot and run:
> scanreg /restore
> You'll have a choice of 5 registry copies to restore by date.
> You can also force a registry save from windoze with just:
> scanreg
>
>
> --
> # Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
> # 831.336.2558 voice http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
> # http://802.11junk.com
> # jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us
> # jeffl@cruzio.com AE6KS