Linus' House of IT: 15 cents please

[Andrea]

Originally Posted by Linus

Now, on why it changed. I have a question: does the router have wifi on it? And if it does, do you have a password on the wifi and have you changed the default administrator password? Most of the time these routers come with a default admin password and it's very possible that someone could have gotten into the router and changed those settings to use your router to surf.

It is EXTREMELY important to change the password on the router to something that is difficult and not related to anything you like (e.g., movies, tv shows, celebrities) or covet (e.g., kids, spouse, friends, family, furrkids). The password should NOT be less than 12 characters, have both lower and upper case, numbers and special characters (e.g., !@#$%^&*....)

Yes, it is on WiFi and yes, there is a password assigned by the internet provider. It is at least 15 characters long and has never been changed. Heck, I don't even know how to change it. I don't believe it has upper and lower case, or special characters.

If someone had changed the router password, how would I have been able to access the internet on my laptop and tablet? How would changing to No Proxy have allowed me internet access?

Thank you for the Proxy explanation. I don't think I need to be able to use a proxy but with NSA and such.....

[Linus]

Originally Posted by Andrea

Yes, it is on WiFi and yes, there is a password assigned by the internet provider. It is at least 15 characters long and has never been changed. Heck, I don't even know how to change it. I don't believe it has upper and lower case, or special characters.

If someone had changed the router password, how would I have been able to access the internet on my laptop and tablet? How would changing to No Proxy have allowed me internet access?

Thank you for the Proxy explanation. I don't think I need to be able to use a proxy but with NSA and such.....

The password I'm referring to is the administrator password, not the wifi one. I suspect that the router is at 192.168.1.1 and they usually have a default password. (something like admin/password) unless the ISP changed it.

And it's possible that someone changed it for their own purposes or accidentally selected the wrong option. If the admin password was never changed it's possible.

Oh.. and a proxy won't prevent the NSA from looking at your stuff. The only way to ensure that they don't see your stuff is to not surf the web or be online.

[Andrea]

Originally Posted by Linus

The password I'm referring to is the administrator password, not the wifi one. I suspect that the router is at 192.168.1.1 and they usually have a default password. (something like admin/password) unless the ISP changed it.

And it's possible that someone changed it for their own purposes or accidentally selected the wrong option. If the admin password was never changed it's possible.

Oh.. and a proxy won't prevent the NSA from looking at your stuff. The only way to ensure that they don't see your stuff is to not surf the web or be online.

No, I do not currently use an admin password. I will set one up though.

<waving to the NSA> Guess I will just continue not doing suspicious stuff. I mean, if I am not doing anything wrong, I have nothing to worry about. Right? /end sarcasm

Thanks again for the info, Linus. The check is in the mail.