Neighbors Showing on My Wireless Network

[g-paw]

Yesterday I discovered 2 of my neighbors are showing up on my wireless network. Today there were 2 more. I've disabled their access. One lives next door and I'm absolutely certain he's not hacking. Do not live in an apartment and all my neighbors can easily afford broadband so I don't think they're hacking. I have WPA security enabled, have an old wirelss card on one computer that I can't use WEP with. Also when I go into the properties of the other people, they all have either WEP, WPA, or TKIP enabled. I'm going to talk to my neighbor when he's back in town, he works for Microsoft so hope he may know what's happening. Anyone have any ideas of what is going on? This has just started in the last 2 days. If it were just one, I chalk it off to some neighborhood kid hacking but not 4 Thanks

 

[Rawkettz]

So you have WPA encryption enabled on your wireless router and 4 computers you don't recognize are connecting to the router?

Have you tried changing the login and password for you router and then changing the WPA Key, and restarting everything?

Also what brand/model of router do you have?

Rawket

 

[g-paw]

Haven't changed the password or login name, as I said I don't think I'm being hacked. I talked with my neighbor's wife yesterday, he's still out of town, and she said that they have run into this in the past and he said it was no big deal. He works for Microsoft and was doing security for them at one time so I'm hoping he has answer. The neighborhood I live in are all single family dwellings and if a strange car is parked with someone in it for more than 5 minutes, someone is calling the police. I'm using a ZyXEL x-550 router

 

[jsordiff]

If you havent yet figured out or resolved this problem with your neighbors showing up on your network it just may simply be that they were on it before you had security like when you were setting up the network if they had it setup on "connect to a wireless network when in range". If they were on it before you turned on the security then they will remain on it as long as want until you change it like this. turn off your wireless router and modem. hook up all the cables you need just to set up a network not a wireless network. then turn on your computer and your modem. do not turn on the wireless router yet. set up your regular (WIRED) network and make a very complicated password and if you include something like a mix of numbers like say just copasetic5974 instead do 6copa9set7ic4 and add something like a explamtion point or a period in the begining or end and it will be a powerfull password. Once you have that set up and you are online plug in a network cable from the modem to the wireless router. also if your have wireless on in your computer< turn that off and plug a network cable in from the wireless router direct to the computer. set up your new password in wep encription before you turn on the wireless to the router or comp. when youve got that encripted you can turn on your wireless stuff and once your connected to your network you can disconnect your network cable from your comp to your router and your neighbor should be gone for good. If he was there on the network from the begining before ou had a password like say when you set it up then he had access to it then and even if he wasnt home and his computer was set on connect automaticlly connect to wireless network when in range then he has access to your network even if he turns off his computer and you reset your pass word it wont matter cause he has the ip address and authority to be in there just like you do when your setting it up so try doing it without having on wireless that way when you turn it back on his computer will not be able to see the ip address.
i hope this helps you out if you havent already gotten help. it may also help you to understand if you put your wireless computer in his position and start from scratch on another computer and set up the other one to find and connect to a wireless unsecured network when its in range. take the other computer and connect and setup everything like you did in the begining the first time and when your done go to your other computer and see if its connected still even though it wasnt givin permission to access without a password. this is a flaw that i think microsoft needs to work on is that when someone is setting up a wireless network if they dont do it by wire first and then turn on the wireless then any computer close by has access for good no matter what encription you give it because they are in it before you encript it. let me know if this helps you?...