Neigbhours Router on my WIFI...!!

[#1]

HI
I have been on the 250Gb 80/20 for many years now, and in general has been rock solid 70Mb DL and about 13 UL until the last few months. I noticed a slight drop of DL by 4-6Mb but upload reported as 3-4Mb only and replonse on browsing slower then I am used to.
Everytime I see an engineer at the local cab I always take a deep breath as I know they always cause issues with neighbours connections as I know many on my estate and hear horror storys and Last week I saw the BT van again !!
Since last week my dL and ul have been sprurious at best with ping drops all the time although the main ping is around 19ms does fluctuate and drop on cabled or WIFI.
Over the weekend I thought I would have time to sort this out.  Working in IT for 25 years I am qualified in networking amongst other things so know what I am doing with routers etc.
My obseravtion completely puzzled me though and maybe someone can explain this!!!
I was on wifi connected to my 2.4Ghz section of the network and i types in 192.168.1.1 for my router as usual (netgear) and I landed evenutally at a TALK TALK router login page!!! WTF!!!
Using the "usual" login I can access the router and look around at everything, connecting at 40Mbs DL etc (not like mine) connected devices etc.  How the hell is this happening, My connection on my laptop is showing my WIFI SID I confirm this on the NIC settings etc in windows!!
I have never even click on the neighbours TALK TALK SID to even attempt to access let allow have the Network keep to be part of the network....how does this happen? I havent hacked anything before you ask etc.
Can there be some kind of mix up at the cab? a slice went wrong or something? Thats the part I am unsure of in the chain of connection.. local stuff no problem.
The reason I ask is at the end of last month my 250Gb down limit was breached the first time in 4 years!!! The most I have done before has been 200Gb so could my neighbour be merged with my connection and using my dl limit?
I have now had to change to the unlimited Plus net as Its about the breach again... although I have found out that it wont change until bill date on the 24th so will get charged loads
Anyone experieced this?

[#2]

Are you using any powerline networking devices?
http://community.plus.net/blog/2012/03/15/powerline-adapters-make-sure-you-use-encryption/

[#3]

Quote from: Akeap

Working in IT for 25 years I am qualified in networking amongst other things so know what I am doing with routers etc. ... I was on wifi connected to my 2.4Ghz section of the network and i types in 192.168.1.1 for my router as usual (netgear) and I landed evenutally at a TALK TALK router login page!!! WTF!!!

Why are you still using the default (192.168.1.0) network? The first things I do when setting up a router are to change the LAN network address and admin password (and name, if possible) and to disable wireless. Then I can deal with all the other changes in slower time and in order of importance.
Phil

[#4]

Quote from: Akeap

Working in IT for 25 years I am qualified in networking amongst other things so know what I am doing with routers etc. Can there be some kind of mix up at the cab? a slice went wrong or something?

You tell us! You're the one who's been in IT for 25 years and is qualified in networking 
On a serious note, your router doesn't automatically update its firmware does it? - Maybe it's accidentally got a TT firmware installed?
As for two routers on the same connection, would that even be possible? - They'd have to sync somehow and share the same line / login / everything...

[#5]

It sounds like its you that's on your Neighbours WiFi.
Try this;

ping -t 192.168.1.1

And unplug your router. If the ping's stop its your router. If they carry on responding, you're on your neighbours!!

[#6]

See reply 1!!!!
This has cropped up many times before.

[#7]

In case the above doesn't shed any light there is one possibility
Is the router you use TR69 enabled as the way TalkTalk validate is only against the line so in theory they could take over the router if something is screwed up in the cab
I loaned a Plusnet supplied router to a TalkTalk customer to try and sort a problem and it connected and validated instantly and when I got it back I had to do a hard reset to be able to do anything with it as they had changed the login credentials
One way to check is to try a tracert and report back

[#8]

Quote from: PeeGee

Quote from: Akeap Working in IT for 25 years I am qualified in networking amongst other things so know what I am doing with routers etc. ... I was on wifi connected to my 2.4Ghz section of the network and i types in 192.168.1.1 for my router as usual (netgear) and I landed evenutally at a TALK TALK router login page!!! WTF!!! Why are you still using the default (192.168.1.0) network? The first things I do when setting up a router are to change the LAN network address and admin password (and name, if possible) and to disable wireless. Then I can deal with all the other changes in slower time and in order of importance. Phil

Why bother changing the ip address scheme?  Make no difference as In only have about 20 devices, not like I need a different IP Class..... password is changed ... whey would you disable wireless makes most of the point of using a home network defunct... I hardwire things than need it like NAS/Streaming box to allow throughput.

[#9]

Quote from: 7up

Quote from: Akeap Working in IT for 25 years I am qualified in networking amongst other things so know what I am doing with routers etc. Can there be some kind of mix up at the cab? a slice went wrong or something? You tell us! You're the one who's been in IT for 25 years and is qualified in networking  On a serious note, your router doesn't automatically update its firmware does it? - Maybe it's accidentally got a TT firmware installed? As for two routers on the same connection, would that even be possible? - They'd have to sync somehow and share the same line / login / everything...

I don't know about the telephone system configuration, but on the inside of DMZ inwards not a problem...
No firmware is netgear only and not updated automatically as I bought the router independantly.
Yes the only way they could be on the same "line" is a problem at cab or some kind of merge wirelessly...but they dont have my wifi key and I dont have theirs.  But a post above mentioned powerline kits, I have had some solwise units for about 3 years although they lock up now and again so swapped out with TP link ones about 2 months ago.
I did power them down just in case when investigating but I dont think the TT page stopped coming up I did, but by that point I had tried quite a lot of things and it might.  Will test further.

[#10]

If you turn off your router can you still log into that router page?
With your router turned off, does your SSID disappear?

[#11]

OP - Do you live in a flat or terraced/semi-detached house?

[#12]

Quote from: Akeap

Why bother changing the ip address scheme?  Make no difference as In only have about 20 devices, not like I need a different IP Class..... password is changed ... whey would you disable wireless makes most of the point of using a home network defunct... I hardwire things than need it like NAS/Streaming box to allow throughput.

Because I rarely use defaults for anything.
Because I rarely use wireless, so availability is not urgent and disabling it prevents use before any proper security is set up. Once reasonably secure it can be turned on again, with WPS disabled.
I also do not use the router for DHCP/DNS services as a local system is far more flexible.
I admit I may, however, be conditioned by 30 years covering hardware/software/support/networking/fibre, including required use of "silicon on sapphire" devices, followed by 8 years of IT support in a school environment - so why make things easy for others.
Phil

[#13]

Quote from: PeeGee

Because I rarely use defaults for anything.

and thats how it should be.
Incidentally I do recall having a similar problem to you once where i had another ISPs page come up on a connection to a website of all things. No idea what caused it but it only happened two or three times that day and then it went away. I just assumed at the time that it was  related to one of their own hosted websites (if they offer that?) eg a bandwidth overrun but with a wrong error page.