How many wirless SSIDs can you pick up?

[NobleSavage]

I can see 12 and I'm in a normal neighborhood, not an apartment complex. I remember the good old days when mine was the only one.

 

[bilby]

It is pretty quiet around here; I can see three SSIDs, two of which use the BigPond default naming convention, and one on the Optus default naming convention.

My SSID is hidden; it is secured with WPA2-AES with a long, strong passphrase, the router firmware has had its default admin password replaced with another long, strong passphrase, and WiFi connections are limited to devices with whitelisted MAC addresses.

My neighbours probably don't know my WiFi is there; and if they did, it would require some serious effort to break into it - it would probably be easier to physically break into the house and connect an ethernet cable than to connect to my WiFi from outside.

Given that there is not much on my home network worth stealing, except the bandwidth itself, my security is probably serious overkill. It won't stop ASIO for long, if they want to throw a lot of resources at it; but to defeat casual bandwidth thieves, all you need to do is be less easy to target than the guy next door, who likely still has the default passwords for everything, and is quite possibly using WEP.

Most suburban WiFi nodes are installed and maintained by people who don't even know that security is a thing, much less how to implement it.

 

[NobleSavage]

It is pretty quiet around here; I can see three SSIDs, two of which use the BigPond default naming convention, and one on the Optus default naming convention.

My SSID is hidden; it is secured with WPA2-AES with a long, strong passphrase, the router firmware has had its default admin password replaced with another long, strong passphrase, and WiFi connections are limited to devices with whitelisted MAC addresses.

My neighbours probably don't know my WiFi is there; and if they did, it would require some serious effort to break into it - it would probably be easier to physically break into the house and connect an ethernet cable than to connect to my WiFi from outside.

Given that there is not much on my home network worth stealing, except the bandwidth itself, my security is probably serious overkill. It won't stop ASIO for long, if they want to throw a lot of resources at it; but to defeat casual bandwidth thieves, all you need to do is be less easy to target than the guy next door, who likely still has the default passwords for everything, and is quite possibly using WEP.

Most suburban WiFi nodes are installed and maintained by people who don't even know that security is a thing, much less how to implement it.

At one point I used IPcop firewall and locked down my WiFi and home network as tight as possible. When the fun wore out it became more of a hassle. Then I got the brilliant idea of replacing the firmware on the Linksys whatever and setting up a mesh network. That got old. If I find a chunk of free time I might do it again (build something for no good reason), but this time leave the WiFI wide open just to see what happens and watch the traffic. I need to look into the legal liability vs. plausible deniability factor.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

A guy in my neighborhood has one called FBISurveillanceVan.

 

[NobleSavage]

A guy in my neighborhood has one called FBISurveillanceVan.

Ok, this is a random coincidence, my father said he picked up that SSID at a truck stop. In that case I can get the joke, but in your case wouldn't someone in Canada know the FBI is a US agency?

 

[bilby]

There are some funny ones out there. One time at the footy, my phone picked up one called 'TellMyWiFiLoveHer'. I have also seen 'GetYaOwnWiFiYaMongrel', which I guess is an alternative approach to security.

 

[NobleSavage]

This is funny: http://mashable.com/2011/08/03/best-wi-fi-names/

I use the symbol for mine. Then a neighbor set his to

 

[barbos]

It is pretty quiet around here; I can see three SSIDs, two of which use the BigPond default naming convention, and one on the Optus default naming convention.

My SSID is hidden; it is secured with WPA2-AES with a long, strong passphrase, the router firmware has had its default admin password replaced with another long, strong passphrase, and WiFi connections are limited to devices with whitelisted MAC addresses.

My neighbours probably don't know my WiFi is there; and if they did, it would require some serious effort to break into it - it would probably be easier to physically break into the house and connect an ethernet cable than to connect to my WiFi from outside.

Given that there is not much on my home network worth stealing, except the bandwidth itself, my security is probably serious overkill. It won't stop ASIO for long, if they want to throw a lot of resources at it; but to defeat casual bandwidth thieves, all you need to do is be less easy to target than the guy next door, who likely still has the default passwords for everything, and is quite possibly using WEP.

Most suburban WiFi nodes are installed and maintained by people who don't even know that security is a thing, much less how to implement it.

"Hiding" SSID is absolutely pointless.
"Hidden" SSID does not mean your neighbours don't know your WiFi is there.
It just shows your WiFi has hidden SSID, and it does not take much effort to unhide it.

 

[NobleSavage]

It is pretty quiet around here; I can see three SSIDs, two of which use the BigPond default naming convention, and one on the Optus default naming convention.

My SSID is hidden; it is secured with WPA2-AES with a long, strong passphrase, the router firmware has had its default admin password replaced with another long, strong passphrase, and WiFi connections are limited to devices with whitelisted MAC addresses.

My neighbours probably don't know my WiFi is there; and if they did, it would require some serious effort to break into it - it would probably be easier to physically break into the house and connect an ethernet cable than to connect to my WiFi from outside.

Given that there is not much on my home network worth stealing, except the bandwidth itself, my security is probably serious overkill. It won't stop ASIO for long, if they want to throw a lot of resources at it; but to defeat casual bandwidth thieves, all you need to do is be less easy to target than the guy next door, who likely still has the default passwords for everything, and is quite possibly using WEP.

Most suburban WiFi nodes are installed and maintained by people who don't even know that security is a thing, much less how to implement it.

"Hiding" SSID is absolutely pointless.
"Hidden" SSID does not mean your neighbours don't know your WiFi is there.
It just shows your WiFi has hidden SSID, and it does not take much effort to unhide it.

No arguing in the Lounge, please.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

A guy in my neighborhood has one called FBISurveillanceVan.

Ok, this is a random coincidence, my father said he picked up that SSID at a truck stop. In that case I can get the joke, but in your case wouldn't someone in Canada know the FBI is a US agency?

I take it by your response that you are unfamiliar with the Canadian education system.

 

[Underseer]

Right at the moment, six not counting my own.

One of my neighbors has a Wi-Fi network called "FBI Surveillance Van."

 

[Rhea]

Just us.

There's one house sort of across the street, but I'm not sure they even have electricity, let alone internet. The next house is 1/4 mile away (1200 feet or about 400 meters), and I've never seen a signal from them. If someone wanted to steal ours, they'd have to park within sight of the house, and as I mentioned to my husband, "my gun has a longer range than my WiFi, so it's secure."

 

[crazyfingers]

I see four but three are mine. Our family network, our Guest internet access, my wi-fi printer. My neighbor is a very weak signal.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

I'm seeing 7 as I write this. Two are my own (I have a repeater installed because my router is far from centrally located and doesn't provide good coverage where my wife used to use Skype.)

There's another with a good signal that I'm pretty sure is our neighbors to the east.

A generic "ASUS" and two miscellaneous ones. Sometimes I see one using the naming of CenturyLink's modems but I'm not seeing it at this moment.

There's also "MALWARE DOWNLOAD COMPLETE!"

A refresh shows only 6, but now with "Enterprise".

Thus I can conclude there are at least 9 that have enough signal that I can sometimes see the SSID. Only mine and the neighbor's would actually work, though. (The normal walls around here are stucco--and it's built with a wire mesh in the walls. Can you say "faraday cage"? Pretty much all you get from elsewhere is signals coming through the windows.)

 

[bigfield]

Two: mine and one neighbour's.

 

[TV and credit cards]

Ten besides mine. Vinyl clad condo living. I've got two, one I'm connected to and a 5Ghz one. Now I'm curious and I'm going to regret it.
I need a repeater. One of these days, I'll muster up the ambition to muck my way through that process. I get one, sometimes two bars in the back bedroom. My wireless is in the opposite corner of the house. Can't hardly blame the installer. My attic is a nightmare to walk in.
I've got WPA2-AES and a password I rarely get right on the first attempt. I learned strong password protection in the navy. They used to run tests on our passwords at work. If they cracked it, you played hell getting your access back. They never got me.

 

[dx713]

Three, but they're all from my ISP-supplied router/wireless/ADSL-modem.
(private, secured guest access point, open guest access point)

Given how far we are from the main road, I don't think enabling the guest access is doing much good to anyone, but doing so enables me to use others' guest access from the same ISP when I'm in town, e.g. in the doctor waiting room.

 

[bigfield]

I didn't even know one could set up a guest AP.

Not that I plan on letting any guests use my WLAN any time soon.

 

[Tigers!]

3 at my place incl. my own. The other 2 use the default passwords.
My neighbours are so generous why do I need to pay for bandwidth I sometimes wonder?

- - - Updated - - -

I take it by your response that you are unfamiliar with the Canadian education system.

Canada has an education system? I thought it was just wood cutting and killing each other at ice hockey.

 

[dx713]

I didn't even know one could set up a guest AP.

Not that I plan on letting any guests use my WLAN any time soon.

Here, it's enabled as a default in most big ISP supplied modem-routers. Part of their marketing scheme (come with us, leave it enabled, and you can connect from anywhere if there's another subscriber around).
I don't mind - or rather I didn't mind even when I was living closer to other houses. The system is set up so that your private access has bandwidth priority.

 

[bigfield]

I didn't even know one could set up a guest AP.

Not that I plan on letting any guests use my WLAN any time soon.

Here, it's enabled as a default in most big ISP supplied modem-routers. Part of their marketing scheme (come with us, leave it enabled, and you can connect from anywhere if there's another subscriber around).
I don't mind - or rather I didn't mind even when I was living closer to other houses. The system is set up so that your private access has bandwidth priority.

Commies.

 

[Mumbles]

20, not including my own. I live in an apartment, though. An additional two are mine.

ETA: actually, apparently, 33.

 

[Rhea]

No way I'm letting others on my internet. We only get 15GB per month so even when my son's friends come over, we unplug it so they don't all stream stuff that uses up our allotment.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

I didn't even know one could set up a guest AP.

Not that I plan on letting any guests use my WLAN any time soon.

It depends on the ISP.

- - - Updated - - -

No way I'm letting others on my internet. We only get 15GB per month so even when my son's friends come over, we unplug it so they don't all stream stuff that uses up our allotment.

15gb?! Horrors! I'm very close to the 300gb allotment we get here (but only a couple of days left in the cycle.)

 

[Underseer]

It depends on the ISP.

No, it depends on the router, although most people rent their router from the ISP for reasons I can't fathom.

 

[crazyfingers]

When we got our new router I was glad to learn it had a Guest connection. We give the Guest password to visitors. I have no idea what our data limit is. My wife would have said something if we ever went over as she does the bills.

 

[Rhea]

No way I'm letting others on my internet. We only get 15GB per month so even when my son's friends come over, we unplug it so they don't all stream stuff that uses up our allotment.

15gb?! Horrors! I'm very close to the 300gb allotment we get here (but only a couple of days left in the cycle.)

Yeah, that's why when people post videos without a description of what's in it, I'm all, yeah, you need to work harder than that.

 

[bilby]

When we got our new router I was glad to learn it had a Guest connection. We give the Guest password to visitors. I have no idea what our data limit is. My wife would have said something if we ever went over as she does the bills.

The main reason to have a guest connection for me is that it allows visitors to access the 'net, without giving them access (even in principle) to modify the router settings, or to connect to the other machines on the LAN.

I only turn it on when we have someone staying over; It is an additional incentive for the young lady who looks after our animals when we are away, that she gets free internet during her stay.

 

[Archimedes]

It depends on the ISP.

No, it depends on the router, although most people rent their router from the ISP for reasons I can't fathom.

Really? Aren't you involved in IT?

Most people sign up for a DSL broadband account, wait until the router is delivered, plug it in, follow the installation instructions and are done with it. Do you really not understand why most people don't purchase and setup their own home Internet routers?

The answer is: Most people are entirely unaware that that's a thing that can be done and don't have a clue why that's a thing they even should consider doing, if they were aware of the possibility.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

It depends on the ISP.

No, it depends on the router, although most people rent their router from the ISP for reasons I can't fathom.

Routers can have guest access but you don't get the shared guest access unless your ISP supports it.

 

[barbos]

No, it depends on the router, although most people rent their router from the ISP for reasons I can't fathom.

Routers can have guest access but you don't get the shared guest access unless your ISP supports it.

what is "shared guest access"? how is that different from "guest access"?

 

[dx713]

It depends on the ISP.

No, it depends on the router, although most people rent their router from the ISP for reasons I can't fathom.

Because it's free and already here?

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Routers can have guest access but you don't get the shared guest access unless your ISP supports it.

what is "shared guest access"? how is that different from "guest access"?

Any subscriber can use your WiFi, you can use any other subscriber's WiFi. It only connects out to the internet, you can't see their computer(s). Some ISPs offer this as a service so you have much more access to WiFi.

 

[barbos]

what is "shared guest access"? how is that different from "guest access"?

Any subscriber can use your WiFi, you can use any other subscriber's WiFi. It only connects out to the internet, you can't see their computer(s). Some ISPs offer this as a service so you have much more access to WiFi.

I see, you can't disable it.

 

[C_Mucius_Scaevola]

25, including my own. I live in a very busy part of Amsterdam.

Only one of them is unsecured (not mine).

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Any subscriber can use your WiFi, you can use any other subscriber's WiFi. It only connects out to the internet, you can't see their computer(s). Some ISPs offer this as a service so you have much more access to WiFi.

I see, you can't disable it.

No--it's something you can turn on and off. The usual pattern is if you turn it off you can't use other's guest access.

 

[barbos]

I see, you can't disable it.

No--it's something you can turn on and off. The usual pattern is if you turn it off you can't use other's guest access.

I understand that, I even know how to circumvent that.

 

[Draconis]

Strangest thing with my wireless on this computer is that when it's got 5 bars, it's slower than when it's 4. Perhaps it's running harder to keep up?