Help!!! I Think My Wireless Network is Hacked!!!

I think I may know why my network has been all screwy.

I just connected to the internet via a direct cable, no wireless on my laptops ethernet port.

Now before, I tried to access the router setup page, I left the passwords default which most of you know it as "admin". But when I tried getting on to the setup page it says that was not the password.

Which means someone must have changed it.

How can I reclaim my wireless network?

I currenty have my router disconnected from the electrical plug.!

 

If it's disconnected, from my experience you really can't go to mainteneince...

BTW< doesn't it have a reset button?

If you had it connected, unplug it, unplug the power cord from it, hit the reset button for about 10 seconds, it'll reset your router to default standards, then you can change it to whatever yo want.

 

My router did that earlyer too, it had reset itself a couple of hours ago, the time and date are back at jan 2000, and ur took a few atempts at putting "admin" in for it to register.

 

Ok, thanks, I reset it and changed the passwords.

Weird, anyways, I also enabled the log on it to log an incoming IP's.

 

Leaving your wireless internet connection open on your router is just asking for trouble. By not changing your SSID and password to the default settings you're leaving your system unprotected where people may not only leech your connection but be able to monitor your files and other private documents. First I would set up a MAC address filter and WPA2 network key. These are not full proof, but will be a deterrent.

Also you can disable your SSID from being broadcasted.

Check out Nickspohn's Wireless Guide sticked at the top of this thread page. It provides a lot more information, more than I know.

 

Just take a pin and push in the reset button on the back? When your back up put up WEP?

 

Ok, so I changed my SSID and disabled SSID broadcast.

Enabled WPA Personal with a random key made by me.

Set the mac wireless filter to only accept connections for mac addresses on the list.

And I changed the router administration passwords.

Is that good enough and is there anything else to make my network more secure.

 

Nope, sounds like you are set for the moment. If someone wanted to get into your connection it would be much harder now than it ever has been. Even if they had airsnort, or some other encryption key recoverer, it may take them days to find the key.

 

Do have a "log" on your router ?, If so will that not show any suspicious connection attepts or anomalys ?

 

A lot of newer wireless routers don't allow administrative control or any setting changes from computers connected to it wirelessly. You have to physically be connected to the device to make those kind of changes.

Sometimes if a router gets scrambled somehow, it may take a full reset or enough power-diconnected time for RAM to clear before you can get back in, even if you know the password is correct! Had that happen a lot before, especially with Linksys products. (Sometimes my WRT54g won't even allow access to itself at all!)

Also, I wonder if you had changed the password sometime before and just didn't realize it, or had a case-sensitive password that you were typing incorrectly.

I really find it hard to believe someone would take the time to hack an open and unsecured wireless network. Not saying it can't or doesn't happen, but there's no real point, if you already had the access why would you compromise it by changing stuff around and make it obvious you were there? The only thing I can think of is if they needed to change your port forwarding to allow for file sharing or etc, then it might have been logical to hack you.

Anyway, keep us posted on what happens in the future, and sorry to hear about all your WiFi trouble.

 

Well, yes, actually I enabled the log today, it was disabled.

Hmm, ok thats good to hear.

Well one thing is, I can actually access my routers setup page via my wireless laptop.

And yeah, now I think its buckled down pretty good.

Only one last thing troubles me, the WPA Key, I made it myself by mashing a bunch of random numbers on my keyboard.

Is it still secure enough?


Oh, and thankyou so much guys

 

There are tools/encrypters online that will make WPA keys for you randomly, be carefull though, sometimes you cant copy and paste them into the relevant configuration boxes,,,,,,,,,,and that means alot of typing, Im lazy !

 

A very long (20+ characters) mixture of upper and lower case, special characters, and numbers is very secure. In case you didn't know, if someone sniffs your network for long enough, they can figure out your SSID. It's a good idea to change your SSID and PSK every so often (if you're worried about someone gaining access to your network). Personally, I change mine about every two months, just to be on the safe side.

 

Well, you can also set your wireless router to allow only one wireless connection. That is to say, if you leave your laptop connected all the time, nobody else would be able to connect to your network. Not sure if your router would support this...

 

I think it does, hmm, im going to go check.