Someone gaining access to my newsgroup account

[DK1000]

Hi, sorry if I found the wrong place to post this, can't really find a group
that exactly fits.

I do have XP Pro on one machine, and XP MCE 2005 on my other.

I have Adelphia cable, who contracts with Giganews to provide Usenet. You're
allowed 5 GB usage a month, anything over, you're banned until the next
month. Lately, I only been making a trading a limited number of text posts,
no binaries. Last month, four days after the new cycle started, I got an
email from Adelphia that I used more than 15 GB (300+ % of the allowed
amount), and that I was banned until the next month's cycle.

After several calls to Adelphia, they finally let me change my user account
name, so I could again have access to the newsgroups without waiting almost
a month. I check my usage stats at least twice a day now to make sure
everything is OK. I checked the night before last, and it said I used less
than 1%, which seemed right. Yesterday when I got up, all of a sudden my
usage jumped to 36%, almost 2 GB. I was sleeping all night, and did not have
any application going that would be downloading from Usenet, and I live
alone, so no one else used my PC's. I do use Outlook Express, for email and
Usenet, and often leave that open to view new email. I also leave my PC on
and connected to the Internet overnight. I was also running a Shoutcast
server, and I shut that down immediately upon seeing someone was using my
Usenet account again. I also have a cable modem, and a router, as I have a
VOIP phone and the other PC hooked in via Ethernet cable.

The router is also "wireless B", and I had the wireless component active,
but it never informed me anyone else was connecting. I use a Belkin wireless
USB network adaptor on an older PC I have in my garage.

Wondering if any of the above, or something I may not be aware of, let
someone have access to my newsgroup accounts? I find nothing else being
touch, not my email, nor any files or sensitive info that I can see, just my
Usenet usage?

I'm just trying to figure how to make the wireless more secure, but my
garage PC has 98SE and I can't see how to set any authorization or passwords
with my router. So for now, I disabled the wireless. Can someone else be
breaking into my Usenet account some other way as nothing else seems to be
touched? I ran several virus and malware scans, as well as Window's
Malicious Software Removal Tool, and all say that my PC's are clean. Any
advice much appreciated, thanks much.

--

 

[Neil Howie]

Sounds to my amateurish mind that your wireless router is the problem.

You should be able to log in to the router and set it up for MAC address
filtering. Enable this, then add the MAC addresses of all your own
computers and no-one else can get access to your internet connecton even
if they can see it. This applies to any Windows version.

The MAC addresses are printed on the interface cards, but you can use
winipcfg for Win 98 or ipconfig from a command prompt for Win XP/NT/2000
to get the addresses.

Hope this helps and if I got it wrong, someone else will put it right

Regards

--
Neil

Anti-spam - Domain is really oakleaf # idps ~ co + uk (change symbols to
dots)


| Hi, sorry if I found the wrong place to post this, can't really find a
group
| that exactly fits.
|
| I do have XP Pro on one machine, and XP MCE 2005 on my other.
|
| I have Adelphia cable, who contracts with Giganews to provide Usenet.
You're
| allowed 5 GB usage a month, anything over, you're banned until the
next
| month. Lately, I only been making a trading a limited number of text
posts,
| no binaries. Last month, four days after the new cycle started, I got
an
| email from Adelphia that I used more than 15 GB (300+ % of the allowed
| amount), and that I was banned until the next month's cycle.
|
| After several calls to Adelphia, they finally let me change my user
account
| name, so I could again have access to the newsgroups without waiting
almost
| a month. I check my usage stats at least twice a day now to make sure
| everything is OK. I checked the night before last, and it said I used
less
| than 1%, which seemed right. Yesterday when I got up, all of a sudden
my
| usage jumped to 36%, almost 2 GB. I was sleeping all night, and did
not have
| any application going that would be downloading from Usenet, and I
live
| alone, so no one else used my PC's. I do use Outlook Express, for
email and
| Usenet, and often leave that open to view new email. I also leave my
PC on
| and connected to the Internet overnight. I was also running a
Shoutcast
| server, and I shut that down immediately upon seeing someone was using
my
| Usenet account again. I also have a cable modem, and a router, as I
have a
| VOIP phone and the other PC hooked in via Ethernet cable.
|
| The router is also "wireless B", and I had the wireless component
active,
| but it never informed me anyone else was connecting. I use a Belkin
wireless
| USB network adaptor on an older PC I have in my garage.
|
| Wondering if any of the above, or something I may not be aware of, let
| someone have access to my newsgroup accounts? I find nothing else
being
| touch, not my email, nor any files or sensitive info that I can see,
just my
| Usenet usage?
|
| I'm just trying to figure how to make the wireless more secure, but my
| garage PC has 98SE and I can't see how to set any authorization or
passwords
| with my router. So for now, I disabled the wireless. Can someone else
be
| breaking into my Usenet account some other way as nothing else seems
to be
| touched? I ran several virus and malware scans, as well as Window's
| Malicious Software Removal Tool, and all say that my PC's are clean.
Any
| advice much appreciated, thanks much.
|
| --
|
|
|

 

[Margaret Wilson]

Sounds to my amateurish mind that your wireless router is the problem.

You should be able to log in to the router and set it up for MAC address
filtering. Enable this, then add the MAC addresses of all your own
computers and no-one else can get access to your internet connecton even
if they can see it. This applies to any Windows version.

The MAC addresses are printed on the interface cards, but you can use
winipcfg for Win 98 or ipconfig from a command prompt for Win XP/NT/2000
to get the addresses.

MAC address filtering alone is not sufficient security for a wireless
LAN. In addition, I would use at least WEP, and preferably WPA or WPA2
if your hardware supports it. That said, I have Comcast HSI, and like
Adelphia, Comcast uses Giganews to provide Usenet access to users. When
I set up my newsreader, I had to specify my user ID and password, so
authentication is required. Assuming Adelphia does the same, this would
mean not only would someone have to first break into your wireless LAN,
they'd also need to be runnning some sort of remote access software
(such as VNC). Either that, or they'd need physical access to one of
your pre-configured (ID and password saved) machines, or they'd have had
to have figured out your new ID and password overnight. The only other
option I can think of is that someone is accessing the wireless LAN and
has somehow managed to install a keylogger, thus gaining access to the
OP's new ID and password. But if scans show the machines have not been
compromised, I can't see how wireless access alone would give an
intruder access to your news account. If Adelphia works like Comcast,
they'd also have access to your email. Are you noticing anything
strange there? If not, I'm wondering if Adelphia/Giganews' usenet
counter is not functioning correctly.

Hope this helps you track down the problem.

Regards,

Margaret