WiFi security - eaves dropping
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WiFi security - eaves dropping
18-08-2011 7:01 PM
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A friend of mine is involved in a nasty family legal case. She lives in a house alone since her husband died, and the family are trying to get her out. Her husband's business was conducted from an office in the grounds of her house, and her stepson now controls the business. All the utilities were always managed by the business, including her own telephone in the house, which has an extension in the office in the grounds.
She knows that her stepson listens in to her private conversations from the office, which means that she does not dare to talk to her solicitor on the landline. She has bought a PAYG mobile phone for that purpose, but the signal is very poor due to the rural location, and so a mobile phone is not a practical solution to the problem.
One answer would be to instal her own private telephone line in the house, but again there would be logistical problems and BT would almost certainly run it along the existing cable serving the house and office, which would make it easy to tap into.
The only alternative that she has come up with is to use Skype which works well. Her computer is connected to broadband with WiFi of course, and now she is becoming nervous that her Skype conversations could be hacked into. I have tried to re-assure her that it would be technically difficult as her Skype is password protected, as of course is her router. There is a distinct possibility that her stepson may know the password for the BT Home Hub router, although it is very unlikely.
So I have the following questions :
1. Can anyone tell me how to access a BT Home Hub router in order to change the password please ? - step by step instructions that I could pass on to her from anyone who has a BT Home Hub would be most appreciated. She is not in the least computer literate, and unfortunately I live far too far away to be able to do it for her. I am not personlly familiar with a BT router as I have a LinkSys, but the principles must be the same.
2. Similarly, how would she turn off the broadcast router's name ?
3. Would anyone without much computer expertise be able to hack into her laptop through the WiFi connection, if they managed somehow to log onto the router ? There is of course correspondence and emails with her solicitor on the laptop. I have told her at least to turn the router off when she is not accessing the internet, but it is inconvenient, and I would hope that her laptop is reasonably secure. I do not know whether she has a firewall, but if not, I will sort out Zone Alarm for her.
4. What about Skype security ? Could anyone eavesdrop in reality ?
I am hoping that she has just been watching too many spies thrillers on TV and that there is no real threat, but I do sympathise because it cannot be easy having to live looking over your shoulder like that.
Any comments would be appreciated.
Re: WiFi security - eaves dropping
18-08-2011 7:47 PM
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Quote from: shermans There is a distinct possibility that her stepson may know the password for the BT Home Hub router, although it is very unlikely.
If you didn't change the default SSID and key, then it can be much easier for someone to determine the key: http://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php/topic,1937.0.html
Quote from: shermans 2. Similarly, how would she turn off the broadcast router's name ?
This doesn't really add any security.
Re: WiFi security - eaves dropping
18-08-2011 8:44 PM
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A encrypted wireless signal is no longer encrypted when it reaches the phone line.
"In The Beginning Was The Word, And The Word Was Aardvark."
Re: WiFi security - eaves dropping
18-08-2011 8:53 PM
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Re: WiFi security - eaves dropping
18-08-2011 9:19 PM
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Here's the detail https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA31/Does-Skype-use-encryption
Re: WiFi security - eaves dropping
18-08-2011 9:29 PM
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Re: WiFi security - eaves dropping
19-08-2011 8:33 AM
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Re: WiFi security - eaves dropping
19-08-2011 8:43 AM
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Quote from: shermans 4. What about Skype security ? Could anyone eavesdrop in reality ?
As the saying goes, you choose your friends but you cant choose your family. Very sad to hear about this, it sounds a horrible situation.
Unless they have access to some very very expensive equipment, and a licence from the government allowing you to own that equipment, I would say with some certainty that they would have no means to eavesdrop on a call made using Skype.
Use Skype, it is secure as AlaricAdair suggests.
3Mb FTTC
https://portal.plus.net/my.html?action=data_transfer_speed
Re: WiFi security - eaves dropping
19-08-2011 8:53 AM
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Quote from: shermans he may have not changed the SSID because it looks like the BT default SSID.
There isn't a BT default SSID. The SSID will be BTHomeHub-wxyz where wxyz can be a number of letter of either case. In addition by default there will be another network called BTFON and another called BTOpenzone. Both offer public WiFi access but should be completely isolated from the private network.
Quote from: shermans I assume that a BT router is accessed with http://192.168.1.1 as usual
No, it's 192.168.1.254 . The user name is admin and the password is on the side of the router but you are forced to change the password on first login. This means that this password is probably unknown. The only way around this would be a reset. This would not disrupt internet access but would reset the wireless passkey if it has been changed.
Re: WiFi security - eaves dropping
19-08-2011 10:01 AM
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Quote from: godsell4 Unless they have access to some very very expensive equipment, and a licence from the government allowing you to own that equipment, I would say with some certainty that they would have no means to eavesdrop on a call made using Skype.
I imagine bugging her house would be much simpler and cheaper!
Re: WiFi security - eaves dropping
19-08-2011 2:45 PM
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Sounds like a horrible situation to be in.. families are horrible things to each other sometimes aren't they.
Re: WiFi security - eaves dropping
19-08-2011 4:28 PM
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Re: WiFi security - eaves dropping
19-08-2011 5:03 PM
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Quote from: shermans One answer would be to instal her own private telephone line in the house, but again there would be logistical problems and BT would almost certainly run it along the existing cable serving the house and office, which would make it easy to tap into.
Anyone tapping into a phone line without court authority, is committing a crime under the Telecommunications Act.
Re: WiFi security - eaves dropping
19-08-2011 5:40 PM
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Re: WiFi security - eaves dropping
19-08-2011 8:45 PM
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Doesn't the router show what has connected to it? My Thomson TG585v7 does.
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