The case of the magic router



  • Lately I've been volunteering at a local organization that provides meals to the homeless and other poor; they also have an open computer lab that folks can use for whatever they need. Today I came in only to hear that the computers in the lab were not connecting to the internet, though the ones in the office were still connecting. So I go and look at this and sure enough, I can't even see the wifi network that the lab computers were connecting to! Did someone hack into the router and change the network settings? Yes, and not only that, but they even replaced the default Linksys router firmware with the open-source DD-WRT firmware! So I press the reset button on the router so I can log in and reconfigure it, and spend over an hour trying to get it to connect to the secured router downstairs that the office PC's use. And then I realize - the downstairs router is not wireless! But... wait a second... last week I was here, and everything was working properly... and what was plugged into the internet port on the lab router? NOTHING! So, where exactly was this router getting its internet connection from before it was hacked????


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    @ekolis said:

    NOTHING! So, where exactly was this router getting its internet connection from before it was hacked????
     

    The other unsecured wifi router in the same area.



  • @ekolis said:

    a local organization that provides meals to the homeless and other poor
     

    I read this as males.

    Oh god.



  • Predictable "related comic" image here:

    fakebook image.



  • @Lorne Kates said:

    @ekolis said:

    NOTHING! So, where exactly was this router getting its internet connection from before it was hacked????
     

    The other unsecured wifi router in the same area.

    My wife works for a small business that also has a second office in a neighboring town and she has to go there a couple of times a month.  One day she calls me and starts asking me a bunch of questions about network problems.  Apparantly the second office is using "Go To My PC" to connect to a computer at the main office and she was having trouble with the internet connection.  I wasn't able to figure out what the problem was, but I was able to determine that the office had no internet connection and they were using the free wi-fi from the coffee shop next door.

     



  • @Cassidy said:

    Predictable "related comic" image here:

    fakebook image.

     

    I lol'd

     



  • An anecdote once told to me by someone I used to know, who worked at an ISP's help desk: a customer contacted them to complain his connection was slow, despite the fact that he had the fastest (and, of course, most expensive) one they offered. It turned out this had been the case for all six months or so that he had been paying for this, and now he had had enough. However, they couldn't work out at first what was causing this; when one of the techs went over to the man's house to check it out, it turned out his computer was using a neighbour's unprotected wifi. And so had been paying something like €125 a month for something he hadn't actually used at all …



  •  How the hell is that even possible? Why do wifi routers ship with a default setting of COME GET SOME WEBZ!



  • When I was at university there was another student house in the area that left not only their wireless unprotected but also left in the default username and password on the router itself. We already had an Internet connection ourselves, so we just used to go on it to fuck with him, like renaming the network and throttling the routers speed to dialup instead of the 1Mb connection it really was. The rest of the time it was fun to just go on and net send various messages to screw with them. They eventually figured out what kept happening and secured their router password, at the same time changing their wireless network name to say something along the lines of "protected network".  Unfortunately for the, that's where they stopped, they'd completely forgotten to actually secure the wireless.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @dhromed said:

    Why do wifi routers ship with a default setting of COME GET SOME WEBZ!
    They tend not to these days; they tend to have factory generated random passwords for both the admin login and SSID and put both on the sticky label on the unit.



  • @ASheridan said:

    left not only their wireless unprotected but also left in the default username and password on the router itself

    This describes my apartment complex neighbors. Prior to getting our own service (for reliability/ethical reasons), I logged into their router and configured it to allow the use of my router to act as a repeater / repeater bridge. I also noted that the router's access logs showed that I was not the first to do this, and that a huge array of mobile devices used this router at any given time. The joys of an apartment complex!



  • @PJH said:

    They tend not to these days; they tend to have factory generated random passwords for both the admin login and SSID and put both on the sticky label on the unit.
     

    oh good

    My ISP got me a new wifi one but I disabled its wirelsss until I need to know how wifi works. I'm a wire guy. I have the holes in the wall and everything.

     

    Sweet! Now let's run some cables.



  • @dhromed said:

    My ISP got me a new wifi one but I disabled its wirelsss until I need to know how wifi works. I'm a wire guy. I have the holes in the wall and everything.
     

    Obligatory XKCD comic

    http://xkcd.com/654/ 



  • Users can't configger them fancy WPAs, and they certainly can't remember a password. 

    Plug and play prevents thousands of returns.



  • UPDATE: I got an email from someone at this organization today saying that one of the employees' offices was rearranged, and it contained routers and stuff... So apparently they have more than 2 routers!



  • @PJH said:

    @dhromed said:
    Why do wifi routers ship with a default setting of COME GET SOME WEBZ!
    They tend not to these days; they tend to have factory generated random passwords for both the admin login and SSID and put both on the sticky label on the unit.

    My last two experiences have been that wifi is desabled by default, but when enabled, there's nothing there to force the user to secure the connection.  Or change the default password.


  • @dhromed said:

    Why do wifi routers ship with a default setting of COME GET SOME WEBZ!
    Would you rather the router come configured like Lotus Notes?



  • @Anketam said:

    @dhromed said:

    Why do wifi routers ship with a default setting of COME GET SOME WEBZ!
    Would you rather the router come configured like Lotus Notes?

     

    I can't imagine how that would work— not even for the sake of humor.

    Sake of humor is not very tasty. In fact it is has a kind of punny aftertaste.

     



  • @dhromed said:

    Sake of humor is not very tasty. In fact it is has a kind of punny aftertaste.
    Does it also make you want to gag?



  • @ASheridan said:

    Does it also make you want to gag?
     

    It makes me want to gag you... so that's a yes?



  • @dhromed said:

    It makes me want to gag you... so that's a yes?

    Well fine, I thought we were playing the pun game :(

     



  • @ASheridan said:

    @dhromed said:

    It makes me want to gag you... so that's a yes?

    Well fine, I thought we were playing the pun game :(

     

     

    But we were! But!

     



  • @dhromed said:

    Sake of humor is not very tasty. In fact it is has a kind of punny aftertaste.
     

    Nagesh? Log out of dhromed's account and back in as yourself, if you please.



  •  I need to get out of the house more.



  • @dhromed said:

    I need to get out of the house more.
    Seems you are not a burglar. Otherwise you would have said: "I need to get more out of the house".



  • @Anonymouse said:

    @dhromed said:

    I need to get out of the house more.
    Seems you are not a burglar. Otherwise you would have said: "I need to get more out of the house".

     

    Compare: "I need to get out of this house. Now."

     



  • @dhromed said:

    Compare: "I need to get out of this house. Now."
     

    That would be a burglar at work in a house located in Texas, then?



  • @dhromed said:

    @PJH said:

    They tend not to these days; they tend to have factory generated random passwords for both the admin login and SSID and put both on the sticky label on the unit.
     

    oh good

    My ISP got me a new wifi one but I disabled its wirelsss until I need to know how wifi works. I'm a wire guy. I have the holes in the wall and everything.

     

    Sweet! Now let's run some cables.

    I bought a Linksys Cisco E2500 router a week ago. Not only did it not have any default settings, the damn thing wouldn't let me go online period until I inserted the CD to my laptop and walked through it's little configuration thing. Was a little weird to run into that after so many years of open-for-everyone routers.



  • @Jeremy D. Pavleck said:

    I bought a Linksys Cisco E2500 router a week ago. Not only did it not have any default settings, the damn thing wouldn't let me go online period until I inserted the CD to my laptop and walked through it's little configuration thing. Was a little weird to run into that after so many years of open-for-everyone routers.

    That's because they need you to agree to the EULA so they can force-upgrade you to the Connect Cloud firmware. The only reason they've backed down for the moment is because many of the router users (rightly) complained that the EULA (with the clause that says Cisco can force upgrades on you) doesn't apply to them because Cisco only shipped the EULA on the CD and they'd never used the CD.

    I would also like to add that you're an idiot for buying a Cisco product after the Cloud Connect news broke. What's wrong with you?



  • @blakeyrat said:

    That's because they need you to agree to the EULA so they can force-upgrade you to the Connect Cloud firmware. The only reason they've backed down for the moment is because many of the router users (rightly) complained that the EULA (with the clause that says Cisco can force upgrades on you) doesn't apply to them because Cisco only shipped the EULA on the CD and they'd never used the CD.

    I would also like to add that you're an idiot for buying a Cisco product after the Cloud Connect news broke. What's wrong with you?

    What's wrong with me?! I'll tell you what's wrong with me - I assumed that the 'professional' moving/packing company was competent and could actually pack everything in my old place and move it all into a POD. Especially when they attempted to charge me almost $2500 for the privilege.

    As you can guess, when that POD finally arrived at my new place and was unloaded, I seemed to be missing some things. All 3 wifi routers included. So I just ran to the closest place in town and grabbed the first router I came across.



  • Ok I'll allow it! But you should still return it and get a different brand when you get a chance.





  • @dhromed said:

    @blakeyrat said:

    defend your actions to Blakeyrat the ULTIMATE JUDGE!
     

    BUT JUST IN HIS OWN OPINION

    IS THAT IN YOUR OPINION?



  •  I don't know what that image is from. I'm sorry.

    ERROR NULL REFERENCE



  • It's from the Global Ho herself!

    ... I also have no clue who that is.




Log in to reply