Neighborhood networks

I leave my Airport on 24/7, and have not had any problems whatsoever. Everything works as advertised. When I access Airport via the symbol on the menu bar (up in the top right corner near Spotlight), I am shown my available networks with a small lock icon next to each. A check mark appears to the left of the network I am currently using.

Occasionally when I go to this same menu, however, I briefly see a couple of the networks that my neighbors are using! I can't access these networks even if I wanted to, they don't show lock icons, nor are they checked, but they do show up on the menu for a second -- and then disappear. I recognize one network because it has the name of my neighbor in the network name. Their network name is not showing as I am typing this, but I did see it for a second when I was waking my computer from sleep.

Anything I should be concerned about, or is this situtation considered normal?

24" 2.4 GHz iMac Aluminum, 2 GB RAM., Mac OS X (10.5.2), MacBook Pro 15", Airport Extreme, iPod 3G Nano, LaCie 500GB Porsche

Posted on Mar 10, 2008 7:47 PM

23 replies

Kort

Level 3

828 points

Mar 13, 2008 10:27 AM in response to Duane

FWIW, I consider myself fairly computer/Mac savy. I am a newbie to wireless, but can reason things out. Now there is one network in my neighborhood I can access and piggy back to get internet access if I wanted to. (I don't) But there are others that I can see, but not access and have no idea how to access. And others that appear and that disappear just as quickly (iStumbler). Perhaps someone with more know how could infiltrate them, but I would not consider that person your average Joe.

Just an opinion, but I believe any form of security methodolgy can act as a deterent to the casual snooper.

Duane

Level 10

124,293 points

Mar 13, 2008 10:41 AM in response to Kort

The casual snooper is unlikely to cause you any great problems so it probably doesn't matter if they gain access or not.

The reason you secure your network is to stop the ones intent on gaining access and causing damage. These people will have (at a minimum) done a quick Google search, read 5 minutes worth of information, loaded 2 or 3 utilities, and are out hunting bear. These people are not going to be affected by hidden/closed networks nor MAC address filtering.

Mar 14, 2008 5:21 AM in response to Duane

Duane,

Then we agree to disagree and there is nothing wrong with that. Times change and so does technology. I read my original post again and I must apologize to you as it looks like I am attacking you. What I meant by it was to add on rather than attack you because the bottom line is that your advice was sound for locking a wireless network.

Will

Duane

Level 10

124,293 points

Mar 12, 2008 7:31 AM in response to Kort

Configure your wireless base station to use wireless encryption and select WPA2. For the password, enter a long non-dictionary value.

Duane

Level 10

124,293 points

Mar 13, 2008 6:19 AM in response to Duane

Checkout Steve Riley on Security " Myth vs. reality: Wireless SSIDs" and
" Disabling SSID broadcasts and wireless MAC address filtering".

Kort

Level 3

828 points

Mar 13, 2008 6:38 AM in response to William Potere

Thanks for that link William.

Mar 13, 2008 7:12 AM in response to Kort

You are welcome Kort...

Kort

Level 3

828 points

Mar 13, 2008 7:47 AM in response to William Potere

My thanks to both of you, it has been enlightening to hear both sides of this issue.
~Kort

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Neighborhood networks