[u-u] Suggestions for stopping occasional spurious use of commercial wi-fi

[D'Arcy Cain]

On 9/16/18 1:45 PM, David Collier-Brown wrote:
> I have a Rogers-supplied router and cable modem package, which twice has
> shown significant usage when I was out, once with the original unit and
> once with their replacement Cisco.  That makes me suspicious of the
> current state of authentication for wi-fi schemes (and I use the term
> "schemes" advisedly: they used to horribly leaky (;-))
> 
> What's a good approach? I have considered
> 
>   * MAC address lists,

That's what I use.  The only issue is that you have to add them in
manually.  Not as convenient when your friend comes over and wants to
connect to your wifi.  It would be nice if there was a way to see a list
of who is trying to connect so that you can at least cut and paste the
address.  Perhaps something with the DHCP logs assuming that you are
doing the DHCP on an actual computer instead of some off the shelf router.

>   * no wi-fi (strictly wired doesn't work with solid concrete walls),

It also doesn't work with your phone, tablet, etc.

>   * a second router with a more secure protocol (/is/ there such a
>     protocol? And will my wife's Mac speak it?))

I run mine on a BSD box which gives me much more control.  Actually, I
have two wifi cards and two ethernet cards so that I can get my Internet
from a wire (usually from a DSL modem in bridge mode) or from a wifi
hotspot.  Useful when you live in a trailer and have no fixed address.
I then serve the wired network from the other ethernet and the wifi
network from the other wifi card.

-- 
D'Arcy J.M. Cain <darcy at druid.net>         |  Democracy is three wolves
http://www.druid.net/darcy/                |  and a sheep voting on
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