Network Connections

[Guest]

We have a small office network that had two specific network connections on
it. Last week a new network connection appeared. No one in the office claims
responsibility for this. If i click on the connection I get a dialog box that
asks for a username and password. How can I remove this connection. The
operating system is XP Pro and there is also a wireless router attached to
the system.

 

[Yves Leclerc]

You will need to understand how the secure your wireless network connection.
Someone in your neighbourhood is "piggy-backing" on your un-secured wireless
network.

 

[Steve Winograd [MVP]]

We have a small office network that had two specific network connections on
it. Last week a new network connection appeared. No one in the office claims
responsibility for this. If i click on the connection I get a dialog box that
asks for a username and password. How can I remove this connection. The
operating system is XP Pro and there is also a wireless router attached to
the system.

Please reply to this message in the news group (not by E-mail) with
more information to help other people understand the problem.

Where do you see this network connection? What is its name? What
type of connection is it?

Does it appear on one computer or on multiple computers?

The more details you give, the more likely it is that someone can
help.
--
Best Wishes,
Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking)

Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group
for everyone to see. I'm sorry, but I don't answer questions
addressed directly to me in E-mail or news groups.

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Program
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

 

[Guest]

You will need to understand how the secure your wireless network connection.
Someone in your neighbourhood is "piggy-backing" on your un-secured wireless
network.





My real need is to remove the connection the the person left behind. I can't seem to delete it. When I double click on the group I get a request for a username and a password.

Can you help with that????

Thanx

 

[Guest]

Please reply to this message in the news group (not by E-mail) with
more information to help other people understand the problem.

Where do you see this network connection? What is its name? What
type of connection is it?

Does it appear on one computer or on multiple computers?

The more details you give, the more likely it is that someone can
help.
--
Best Wishes,
Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking)

Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group
for everyone to see. I'm sorry, but I don't answer questions
addressed directly to me in E-mail or news groups.

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Program
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
The connection is seen in the network connections dialog box. I t appears as an item called "workgroup'. When I double click on the group I get a computer called CCRI-ova21vnfju. When I try to open the connection I get a dialog box asking me for a username and password. I really need to block access to this connection, or eliminate it entirely. I believe that someone is riding in on our wireless router

Ed

 

[Chuck]

Can you help with that????

Thanx

Here's what you should do. The details of how to do it are specific to
your router. Most routers have a built in web server used to configure it.

1) Disable SSID broadcast. If people don't know about your network, they
won't try to connect to it.

2) Turn on MAC filtering. Add the MAC addresses of all your wireless
devices into the filtering table and reboot the router. This will kick
off whoever's piggybacking and prevent them from getting back on.

3) Turn on WEP encryption and authentication in your router. This will
make it very difficult for anyone to sniff your wireless network
traffic. A 128 bit key will probably be sufficient. You'll need to copy
the key to the wireless devices. I would suggest doing it manually since
you don't know who might be sniffing the network.

WPA-PSK might be easier to implement than WEP for encryption and
authentication, but I've never tried it so I can't comment on it.

BTW you are not alone. In the last few days I decided to drive around
and see just how many wireless networks are not secured. About 75% of
the ones I found were wide open and worst of all, two of them were at
bank branches! That's scary. I'm glad I do not have any accounts at
either of the banks.

 

[Steve Winograd [MVP]]

The connection is seen in the network connections dialog box. I t appears as an
item called "workgroup'. When I double click on the group I get a computer called
CCRI-ova21vnfju. When I try to open the connection I get a dialog box asking me
for a username and password. I really need to block access to this connection, or
eliminate it entirely. I believe that someone is riding in on our wireless router

Ed

Thanks for the details. I'm a bit puzzled, because you say that the
undesired item appears in Network Connections. Workgroups and
computers don't appear in Network Connections. They appear in My
Network Places.

If it's in My Network Places, a possible explanation is that someone
connected an unknown computer to the network or renamed an old
computer.

To see if the computer is still connected, open a command prompt
window (Start | Run | cmd) and type this command:

ping CCRI-ova21vnfju

If the command gets four responses, the computer is still connected to
your network. If the command times out four times, the computer
probably isn't connected, and it should automatically disappear after
a while.

If your computers connect to the Internet, make sure that each one has
a firewall (hardware and/or software) to block access by other people
on the Internet.
--
Best Wishes,
Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking)

Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group
for everyone to see. I'm sorry, but I don't answer questions
addressed directly to me in E-mail or news groups.

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Program
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com