Rogue Shared Computer

Question

Rogue Shared Computer

on my friend's airport express based network with relatively tight security (hidden network id, difficult password, WAP2 Personal), a rogue computer seems to be popping up. There are 2 known computers on the network, my Macbook Pro and my friend's Macbook. Both are updated completely. The other computer showing up in the shared section in the Finder sidebar has is marked as a PC Server. It's name is mac001b63[...] . The number matches the mac id of my friend's Macbook's ethernet port. Nothing is connected to that ethernet port. We are both connected to the network wirelessly. Airport utility is showing that only our two computer are connected to the network. When we disconnect my friend's computer from the network, the unknown computer disappears, then reappears at a later time. there is a printer connected to the airport express as well. anybody have this happen to them? anybody know what to do about it? is there a way to find out more about the "computer" when it comes back again?

15" MBP 2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 3GB SDRAM 256MB VRAM x1600, Mac OS X (10.5.5)

Posted on Nov 2, 2008 11:43 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Nov 2, 2008 4:45 PM in response to Aleksandr Pasechnik

Does your friend have Windows Sharing (Share files and folders using SMB) enabled under File Sharing - Options?

Matt

Message was edited by: Matt Clifton

Reply

Answer 2

Nov 2, 2008 4:48 PM in response to Matt Clifton

well, the File Sharing was enabled in the System Preferences->Sharing screen. turning it off seems to make the odd-ness go away.

Reply

Answer 3

Nov 2, 2008 4:49 PM in response to Matt Clifton

is there a way to make this not happen? this seems like a bug. especially since we can't connect to that "computer"

Reply

Answer 4

Nov 2, 2008 5:04 PM in response to Aleksandr Pasechnik

What you describe sounds specifically like the SMB sharing, which is used to be compatible with Windows computers, and can be found under Options. If you don't need it, turn it off.

In fact, if you don't use file sharing at all, turn File Sharing off completely, but certainly turn off SMB if you don't need to connect with Windows computers.

Matt

Reply

Answer 5

Nov 2, 2008 5:10 PM in response to Matt Clifton

it doesnt seem like its an SMB problem. Windows file sharing is turned off in the options, and the odd computer is still hanging around whenever you turn on file sharing. i guess its not really an issue, but it would be nice to find a way to make it disappear.

Reply

Answer 6

j.v.

Level 5

4,155 points

Nov 2, 2008 7:21 PM in response to Aleksandr Pasechnik

Is your friend running Parallels, BootCamp, VirtualBox, etc.?

Reply

Answer 7

Nov 2, 2008 7:53 PM in response to j.v.

none of the above. i have vmware on my computer, but its not my mac id thats showing up.

Reply

Answer 8

Jan 6, 2009 5:45 PM in response to Aleksandr Pasechnik

Had the same thing, two computers called "delu" and "eddie pc" showed up after updating my MacBook to 10.5.6 (maybe it was not immediately after though). I turned off all the other visible wireless connections, no luck. Turned on and off the folder sharing, maybe that updated something? Also set your Security preference -> Firewall to "essential services only".
Don't know which, but trying all of them seemed to work.
Reversing any of the choices doesn't bring back these unknown servers, so I'm happy.

Reply