need to secure/spy on wireless guest...

  • Thread starter Thread starter crwng
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crwng

We have an unexpected house guest staying with us who has a laptop and
wireless card. He wants to use our network (ok, well, actually I went
downstairs 10 min. after he arrived and he had already started using it
without asking), and I'm willing to allow it. But, I need a sensible
way to check on what he's doing and to keep him from doing unwanted
things.

I know my way around WiFi and have a good handle on networking, but
before I start devising my master plan, I thought I'd see if anyone
else out there has had this situation occur before and if you had an
efficient and easy way to go about it. The last thing I want to do is
leave a packet sniffer running all day and then go through GBs of log
files after work. I also don't want to buy surfcontrol filtering and
monitoring software for what is otherwise a very trusted setup (my kids
don't use the internet at all as they are too young).

Thanks!
 
The best thing would be to tell your guest to not mess things up.


If that doesn't work, you can:
- change your access point router to only provide X number of ip adresses
(mainly for your computers) or if it is possible only provide ip addresses
based on legit MAC addresses.

- change your share folders on your computers so that he does not have
access to them or put the logs on those shares to see who connects to them.

- use a sniffer but this can be taken as the other way around (you trying to
read his stuff)

hope this helps,
RT
 
Thanks! The shares I have set up are pretty much secure (i.e., for some
weird reason they just don't work...something I'm troubleshooting at
the moment). And since he only has one laptop, I'm not too worried
about the number of IPs he uses. I've already noted his machine name
and MAC address so that I can check the router logs, which pretty much
only tell me when he connects and for how long.

The main thing I'm concerned about though is what kinds of web sites
he's visiting. I don't mean to be racist or to be perpetuating
stereotypes, but he's a young Arab student for whom I have no history
or background. "Not that there's anything wrong with that...", but I
also don't know what kinds of sites he's into or even if he's just a
script kiddie looking for free access to mess around on other people's
networks via mine.

Know of any good freeware "Net Nanny" type software that will snitch on
him if he goes to questionable sites or that will show me a brief
history of what he did visit?
 
Depending on your router, you might be able to set it up to forward you the
logs of all sites going to and coming from.

I have a linksys router (this is not wireless) and I can get all the web
pages that my kids go to as well as all the incoming connections. I cannot
see the packets but for that there are plenty of sniffers.

Hope this helps,
Rafael
 
actually I went downstairs 10 min. after he arrived and he had already
started using it without asking
Click to expand...

That implies that you have NO wireless security turned on! Otherwise he
would not have been able too without your pass-phase. You have more to worry
about then your guess.
 
Actually, I had meant to edit that part before sending it. He had
already started trying to connect, but when I came downstairs he was
just at the point of wanting the key. I hadn't even known he was
trying to connect at all prior to that, so it was a surprise to me. I
definitely have WEP turned on.
 
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