If you mean the arrow or the film strip, that tells you it is a video.

Well duh...I thought it showed how someone was getting on FaceBook. If they post from a cell phone, a little phone shows up.

I'm trying to figure out how the kid next door is getting online. They were...uh.."borrowing" our internet until this past weekend...and my son put a password on it! You would have thought we cut off their electricity!!

He posted Monday on Facebook...and I'm a bit curious how!!

CB.. did they actually come to you and complain? OMGosh!

Complain is a beg understatement! We were getting test message and they were coming out here!! Seriously..it's like WE turned off the power to the house! lmao The reason my son put a password on it was because he got an email from Comcast about illegally downloading downloading music! HE didn't do it...and I didn't do it..so???

He put a password on it Friday night around 11:30pm..and we both instantly got a text from the kid asking if he'd done something..because he got kicked off his PlayStation3...and couldn't get back on! Next day I started getting text from the Momma about it! Turns out they were also using our internet for their Magic Jack telephone!

Of all the nerve...........Some people just don't belong among the breathing.........

If you're using a router, most show a history of connections.

Passwords are very important to have on your wifi internet. I think it's hilarious that the neighbour and his family are livid with you for putting one on yours. You should hand them the bill for 50% of your internet that they've gotten free for.... how long?

Debby there is a a "rest of the story". In another post CB said they originally had an agreement to share the internet service. She thought they were no longer doing so until they got the note about the download.

The little cell phone symbol means "mobile web" was used to upload whatever the item is.

Wildchild is right! Probably a year or longer ago, they asked about using ours until they got theirs hooked up. I said OK! There was a new service that started up in this area that combined your phone and internet service and that's what they got! I knew they had it, because it showed up when I checked the connections. It was STILL showing up when all this happened. Stupid of me to assume they were still using their own service!:( I don't have a clue how long they've been using ours..and have no idea how to check!

be sure you not only put a very very strong password on your wireless network and make absoulutely certain it is set to WPA2 which is the strongest, but also you really need to go into your actual router settings and change the default username and password that comes with the router, that is really important because if anyone gets on your network and you have not done that they can use the default settings that come with the router and change the user name and password and lock you out of your OWN router and network! Should that ever happen immediately find the reset button on the router use a paper clip and reset to factory default and then set up again with new name and password.

Plus I highly suggest when people set up their router's wireless network SSID never use a name that someone can guess who that network belongs to, you do not want to broadcast that , do not use your last name for example or any name that people would associate with you and do not leave it as just the router brands name. Pick something unique to you and use that as the name of your network.

For example when I look at the available wifi networks around me that show in my list I see one that is my neighbors actual name so I know who it belongs to but another is Pandoras Box I have no idea who that one belongs to. Mine is also a generic term that no one would know but me.

You need to tell the little thief and his parents that what they have been doing is highly illegal and they can be reported for it and be made to pay for all the back usage they stole from the ISP so they really need to shut up the complaining plus of course the theft of copyrighted material has already been documented by your ISP. His doing that from your ISP connection can also get you in a lot of trouble so definitely nip all of that in the bud.

Securing your Wireless Network
National Cyber Alert System
Step-by-step, secure your home wireless network
a few links with good info.

and by all means WHEN you do this make absolutely certain you do write down all of these user names and passwords and keep them in a good secure location. If you lose or can not remember them later that can be a problem.

Thanks RavenCajun...I've passed those links to my son. He's the one around here that does all the tech stuff! I'm too "challanged"! lol

The links Ravencajun provides are helpful. But this is not theft. After all the kid didn't hack into the system. He was granted permission at one time and took it too far. Your neighbors don't sound like hackers, just people who felt entitled to what they got used to. But in this day and age encryption is extremely important to guard against unauthorized use.

I know you read my other post at the other site. Hopefully you will now be protected from further invasive behavior.

It sounds like you and the neighbors got along well at one time. Hopefully this can blow over at some point.

actually the theft was of copyrighted material he downloaded and the ISP contacted country baumpkin about. That is prosecutable. Many people have been sued over theft of downloaded music and videos. I am sure country bumpkin never gave permission for that kind of activity to happen under his name.

You're right, RavenCajun..At the time I gave the OK, the kid (he's not really a kid..he's 18yrs old) wasn't even living out there. It was only his Mom & her partner.

Remember back in the days when we had fountain pens ...

... some people were rathe skittish abot lending out their fountain pen!

May they want to use your car, next?

ole joyful

I remembered this post when I saw this article this morning. Very scary to think of what can happen if you don't protect your wireless connection.

Here is a link that might be useful: Unprotected wi-fi

Thanks Paula!!! The neighbors that were using mine have moved. I have since heard they were also "borrowing" electricity from the Power Co.!

I solved my very slow internet by locking the wifi. I couldn't figure out why I was having such problems, so I tried that as a last resort! After I did it, I immediately had super fast speed again.
It was amazing how in less than a week I saw the Comcast truck at 3 houses, one on each side of us and one across the street.

paula that is a great article, hopefully people will realize just how important it is to change the default user name and password on the router itself and also use a super strong non sense password on the wireless network with WPA2 settings.
I preach this repeatedly but sometimes it takes this kind of article to hammer in the seriousness of doing so.
And if you think or know someone has been piggybacking on your wifi be sure you change every password you use with your pc including the admin password to windows, you have no idea what info of yours they may have been stealing.

One day I went to log on to my wifi and in the list of detected networks was a BANK nearby and it was NOT secured, now that is something scary to see.

Hi black-feathered cajun (derivative of the word "Acadian", the former home area of French-speakers kicked out of eastern Canada after the conquest)

I'd love to have heard the message that you gave to that bank!

By the way - the picture or graphic that was placed by CB at her originial message on this thread was not visible to me today - don't remember whether it was on the first occasion that I visited.

ole joyful

Hi CB,

Maybe you could recommend to the irate neighbours that, should they plan to rob a bank, you'd appreciate it if they don't take you along uninvited for the ride.

ole joyful

how do you check to see if someone is using it. Mine is protected by a password, but would still like to know.

RavenCajun...can you explain how to "change the default user name and password on the router itself and also use a super strong non sense password on the wireless network with WPA2 settings" and the Admin Password? My son may have already done this..but I want to make sure!

it depends on your actual router brand it should have given the instructions in their manual on how to do that but I can help .
In general all routers come with a default user name and password, say you have a linksys router you would type in a specific number in the address bar of your browser which would take you directly to the settings area of your router for linksys it is the following URL: http://192.168.1.1/
you would first see the page asking for user name and password the default for it is generally admin for the password and you can leave the user name blank or use admin for it also, that is what I am talking about when I say to be sure you change that because as you can see every single person that owns a linksys will have that same user name and password so getting access to one that has not been changed would be very easy we all know the info, that info is readily available on google. This link shows you what I am referring to.
Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G Broadband Router

About the WPA2 settings for wifi at this point in time it is the most secure method available on most routers, In the set up you are able to select which type of security you want to use that would be the one to select.
In that link I posted above since it is older they mention WEP that was the old one that WPA2 replaced so you would not want to use WEP is is not nearly as secure.(most routers will have a drop down list of several choices you will want the WPA2 personal)

{{gwi:1612907}}

They also mention MAC address filtering that is one more way to add security but it is easily spoofed these days so I don't usually bother with doing that. (MAC address has nothing to do with a mac computer by the way, all computers have a MAC address)

I personally also like to change the default SSID which is the name you will see when you look at the list of wifi networks it is what your network is called, do not use a real name for this you want to use something that would not direct someone to your home simply by seeing the name of the SSID, so if your name is Jones do not name the SSID Jones or anything like that, for example in my list of my neighbors I see one called Pandoras Box, one called BlueBird, and one with my neighbor Harry's actual name, I know that wifi is my neighbor Harry but the others no idea who they belong to. You can also set it not to broadcast so no one would even be able to see it but that is very easy to defeat with some free programs so best just to use a good name and not bother with that.

Most of the routers today will come with software that leads you through all these steps easily one at a time, the important thing to remember is WRITE DOWN these usernames and passwords they are very important especially the really long one that will be your wifi network password, I recommend taping them to the router itself, under it but do not block the vents. You need that wifi password for anyone that comes to visit you and wants to use your wifi network or any device you may want to add to your wifi network.
You have the option of allowing it to generate your passphrase for wifi I always do that, it is not something I can possibly remember so I make sure I have it written down in locations I can find it when I need it.

The admin password I mentioned is the password to your admin account on your actual pc. I set up limited user guest accounts for people that come over to my house to visit and may need to use the pc, no one ever uses my admin account but me.
That would be in your windows settings under accounts where you can create new accounts and set and change passwords.

Thank you SO much,RavenCajun!!!!

you are very welcome most routers are quite similar in how to set up, and as I said just a quick google of the brand name of the router along with default password will give the info needed usually.

In fact this is a pdf file list of most name brand routers and the pertinent info
List of default Router Admin Passwords and Default Router IP ...

Default Password List

router password

and this link tells you how to run a simple command to get the IP url info
A List of Common Default Router IP Addresses