[QUOTE=Evil Economist]
I didn’t miss it; why do you think I did? Of course you should turn on encryption. However, as is clear in the cites I gave, turning off the SSID doesn’t stop the router from broadcasting; it just has it broadcast a null SSID, which means hackers can still find it, but your devices might have connection problems.
[/QUOTE]
sigh Which is why I said to turn off your SSID AND turn encryption on. Even with encryption on you could STILL be hacked. However, it will eliminate most casual hacking and, as I said, make it not worthwhile for people to bother trying to get into your network since most likely you don’t have anything worth the effort to get into.
Turning off your SSID is the equivalent of locking your house with one of those little latches people have on their back door…the ones that can be easily defeated with a screwdriver. It will foil casual intrusion but anyone wanting to break in can still just use that screw driver to get in…or smash the back window with a rock.
If you don’t want to turn your SSID broadcasts off that’s fine by me. I’ve never had an issue with computers trying to connect to wireless networks when SSID broadcasts were turned off (at my house, where I use such simplistic security measures) but if it’s a problem then by all means keep the thing on. Definitely turn encryption on whatever you decide to do, even if it’s just the cheesy WEP option.
You obviously feel very strongly about, and I don’t really care all that much. I think that it’s the equivalent of locking your door and using a security service…doing one is marginally helpful, doing the other is vastly more helpful, doing both IMHO further enhances security. YMMV and it’s not worth fighting over (to me) so do what you like.
(FTR, I’m a network engineer but I’m not a security specialist, nor do I play one on the SDMB)
I tried the steps in **enalzi’s **link, and we got it back, so thank you for that enalzi. I still think it’s possible that the teenage boy that moved in next door while I was deployed took our network for his own purposes (I know I’m stereotyping, but if his parents had put some kind of filter on their network, he could browse porn or torrent sites all day on ours if he wanted, and he wouldn’t have to worry about my wife using “his” bandwidth… plus the wife thinks he looks “shady” :rolleyes:), but I don’t know for sure. Either way, it shouldn’t matter now… I think I’ve got a pretty good password blocking access at this point. I used the security settings recommended in the link, and so far I haven’t had problems with any of our devices accessing the internet on our connection.
Also, I wouldn’t say I’m clueless, exactly (I had a network password originally and was able to remove it, after all), I just was unprepared for this. After I originally posted, but before I checked back here, I found my original router admin password on a Post-It note at the bottom of a drawer, and it didn’t work, either, so *something *happened. Anyhoo, all’s well now.
Thanks again Dopers! I love having this community to help out with problems big and small.
I don’t believe anyone here thought you were, but the person who changed your password probably thought so (after all, you didn’t have the network encrypted so they may have thought you didn’t know how to access your router webpage either).
Many people who don’t have the one, can’t do the other. I could drive you around my town and show you at least half a dozen I know about that I could log onto (and did) and fuck with (but didn’t), using my laptop. That sort of cluelessness is really quite common. My mechanic, just a couple of weeks ago, mentioned that his shop’s landlord had said he could use landlord’s wireless, and had me check the signal. I checked it by logging on to landlord’s router admin page. Worked just fine. He hadn’t changed the defaults at all. Same router as I have at home.
FTR, mine is open (no encryption), but a) it’s no longer set to the default, and b) it’s set so you can’t access the router admin page wirelessly, anyway.
ETA: I have the same model as the OP. PM me and I can help you set it up however you want, and advise you on what’s good or bad for your situation.
