Internet Leechers?

[Celegorm]

But it will take a while to guess a correct MAC address right?

Nope, just a matter of seconds. For a lab in school, we used a network scanner (similar to wireshark) to monitor wireless traffic. The app could find a network and pull in any data attempting to reach that access point even when we were not connected to it. The source and destination MAC addresses on the packet are not encrypted. How easy it is to spoof your MAC to match one that is allow, varies based on the OS you are using. It was pretty easy on back-track linux.


That said, I doubt the OP's neighbors are smart enough to work this out but it's still surprisingly simple.

 

[unijabnx2000]

if his neighbor can break his password for the wifi, then he probably knows how to spoof mac addresses.

 

[threadmark]

I do believe that technically breaking an encoded password to use a wireless internet connection is illegal.

It's not illegal to break through an encrypted password on a router; however, it is illegal to steal. Braking into a router to steal bandwidth or ghost online so the service provider cant monitor access is very much illegal. The main issue is that people do this to access seedy porn sites deemed illegal and or hack other computers to remain anonymous. Unfortunately traffic that may be black listed by the service provider/government like child porn sites could be accessed from your router and would make you look the culprit. My question is, how do you know your neighbors are the hackers..? if there is an issue with your router and you are sure your neighbors are to blame, why would you if you have, go online and start talking on forums through your gateway. If there is an issue, go to the service provider if they provided the router and they will help you with it or forward you to the manufacturer to fix it. when choosing a password for the router, choose a hexadecimal password. When packets are captured the information is binary, so trying to cipher an encryption to find binary in binary is too difficult for most.
TM

 

[henrydoown]

I faced same problem with my wifi but now i set password in my wifi.