Wifi security

Question

Niksrock Author

Level 1

0 points

Wifi security

I have imac & windows 7 PC & I am using iball baton extreme 150M wireless router,

I connect them both wirelessly to share files between them,

D drive on PC & internal mac drive on mac are shared,

whenever I connect them I get my pc name on sidebar of the finder window, meaning it is connected to my mac

but now suddenly I am getting different PC name under Shared title on sidebar, is this mean my network is hacked?

Is it possible that some one can hack my wifi and access to the shared drive on mac & copy paste data over wirelessly? I use WPA security for router

iMac

Posted on Sep 8, 2013 6:36 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Tesserax

Level 10

148,435 points

Sep 8, 2013 10:25 AM in response to Niksrock

Any computer connected to your network (wired or wireless) will show up in the Finder window under the SHARED category. Typically that is because they have a service, like file sharing, enabled which "announces" their presence.

Are you sure that it is a PC and not another type of networking device that you or someone else you know has added to the network recently? Have you tried connecting to it via Finder? That is, click on the suspect PC and see if you can connect to it.

Reply

Answer 2

Niksrock Author

Level 1

0 points

Sep 9, 2013 1:54 AM in response to Tesserax

Only me & my brother has acces to the router & he uses internet by his phone only,

the name under SHARED title was "vaibhav-HP" mens he has the hp pc, like I have when I connect my pc to mac - Niks-PC

&

when I clicked on to that name it didn't connect & naviagted me to the finder window showing my mac drives icon

Reply

Answer 3

Tesserax

Level 10

148,435 points

Sep 9, 2013 10:27 AM in response to Niksrock

Sorry, but I just want to be sure I understand. Are you saying that "vaibhav-HP" is your brother's HP computer?

Reply

Answer 4

Niksrock Author

Level 1

0 points

Sep 10, 2013 5:59 AM in response to Tesserax

my brother only acces internet through his phone & from past 3 days he is not even in town.

Reply

Answer 5

Tesserax

Level 10

148,435 points

Sep 10, 2013 8:21 AM in response to Niksrock

Try disabling, and then, re-enabling SMB networking on your Mac. Typically these "unknown" shared devices are Windows-based PCs.

To do so:

System Preferences > Sharing > File Sharing (On) > Options
Enable the option "Share fies and folders using SMB (Windows)" > Done
Options > Disable the option "Share files and folders using SMB (Windows) > Done
Click on File Sharing to disable it.

Reply

Answer 6

Niksrock Author

Level 1

0 points

Sep 10, 2013 1:02 PM in response to Tesserax

I did as you said, File sharing is completely disabled now, but still it appears under SHARED section,

I don't know whats happening,

when I click on that PC name, finder window says connecting & navigates me to the window showing all my mac drives & external drives & that PC name disappears,

aftersome time it appears again.

has someone hacked my network & accessing data on my mac?

& As you said these unknown devices are Windows-based PCs,

but how can it appear on my home wireless network without password?

Reply

Answer 7

Tesserax

Level 10

148,435 points

Sep 10, 2013 5:47 PM in response to Niksrock

One last suggestion for you to try: Move (not copy) the /Home/Library/Preferences/com.apple.sidebarlists.plist to the OS X Desktop. OS X will rebuilt it. Then relaunch the Finder.

Reply

Answer 8

Niksrock Author

Level 1

0 points

Sep 28, 2013 5:44 AM in response to Tesserax

Sorry for the late reply, I was away for some reason,

Ok I followed your given path but such file doesn't exist there....

also today suddenly I got message "Do you want to allow backburner incoming connections"

I thought Maya's backburner application doing it for some reason so I click allow,

but after that "ABC-347E24064CF (VNC Server)" was appearing under SHARED title in sidebar

I removed this from Security - Firewall - Advanced option,

but was there any possibility of intruder attack?

Message was edited by: Niksrock

Reply

Answer 9

Tesserax

Level 10

148,435 points

Sep 28, 2013 10:25 AM in response to Niksrock

Not sure why you could not find this file. I am using OS X Mountain Lion, but if you're not may explain it.

From the messages that you are getting it sounds more like that you (or someone else) has configured applications on one of the networked computers that communicate with other computers on the network by design and not the results of someone hacking into your network. Sorry I can't be of more assistance.

Reply