The Perils of Wireless

This piece coming to you from the Cranky Liberal (yea, Republican or Democrat we all share the same compuer problems). It would seem Cranky had a modern day Watergate at his house this weekend. If only Nixon had this capability back then. Without further delay here is what Cranky has to say about wireless networking and your check book.

I’m a computer guy by trade. I know, I know, with my brilliant and insightful political analysis, you probably thought I worked for some huge think tank - but alas, so far I still have to work a real job to earn a living. Anyhow, I’m a computer guy, or more precisely a network engineer. I build networks, design security etc for a living. I solve hugely complex problems on a daily basis, some of which actually involve computer and networks. Because of this, I get really frustrated when I can’t get my own home network running properly. This weekend I was beyond frustrated - I was downright Cranky.

My home is wireless to the extreme. My computers network is wireless, my phones are wireless, my surround sound speakers are wireless. Hell even my headset for my Xbox is wireless. Aside from the fact that my brain is slowly being cooked from all the radio signals bouncing around my living room, the system works great. Or I should say did work great.

A few days ago I notices that my computers kept losing their connection to the network. It would reappear in a few seconds, but it was rather odd. I checked and rechecked everything. I rebooted all the devices (yes, that still fixes 90% of your problems) but it kept happening. The only thing I could think of was a hardware problem on the router. One quick trip to the store and $59.00 later I thought the problem was fixed.

When will I learn people, when will I learn?

I struggled for a few hours trying to get the router working. Every time I think I had it fixed, it would go start it’s maddening Up-Down, Up-Down routine again. Of course having my 4 year old try to discuss the intricacies of a Power Ranger plot while I’m trying to solve “Really Hard Daddy Problems” didn’t exactly make it easier. I was really starting to get pissed off when I noticed two things:

1. One of my neighbors had a new wireless network.

2. It had a REALLY strong signal (almost as strong as the router in my house).

Now, being the helpful neighbor I am, I took a look at their new wireless network. Amazingly, it wasn’t a secure network. In fact, it was completely wide open just inviting the neighbors to jump on and enjoy it. Which I did. Man they have a fast connection.

What they don’t have is any common sense. They hadn’t changed the password on the router. I know that because I logged into it using the default “password”. From there I was able to see how many computers were on their home network (2), what their names were, and how to access them. Even more amazing, when I tried to access the living room computer, I was able to see that my neighbor had his printer shared (an HP Deskjet 610) and his D: drive shared for all of us to look at. How friendly this guy must be to share his .mp3 collection (not to mention his Quicken files) with the world.

I really could have been a jerk and “fixed” the problem myself by turning his router into mush and changing the password (he could have reset it people, I’m not that mean) - but I didn’t. Instead I decided to send my neighbor a friendly little note telling him I was on his network, browsing his computer. I mentioned he may want to secure his rather LOUD wireless network (and gave him some hints) on how to do it. Then I printed it out to his printer (no name of course).

That wireless network was down within the hour. Can you imagine the look on Dad’s face when he saw that? I hope I scared the crap out of him. Maybe if this sounds like your house, I’ve scared the crap out of you too. When you play with wireless, you need to know what your doing, or the guy checking out your computer may not be as nice as I was.

Oh and after all that, I think my problem was an overloaded wall outlet and bad power. Once I fixed that everything seemed to be OK.

Go figure