BT Homehub-Mac-Wireless security questions.
 

We have recently installed a BT Homehub to replace the old Voyager 100. Our iMac G4 is connected via the ethernet cable as the G4 does not have a wireless card. We might get a Macbook later next year and use the wireless facility then. My question is..... is the G4 secure to outside interference as it uses a wireless hub and is the hub itself secure ? I seem to have read about people sitting in their car and using a laptop and Joe Soaps' wireless connection as a freebie. Could someone do this to my connection and muck up the G4 ?
Hope that this makes sense.

Thanks

JBL

on a home router, the wired and wireless clients are in a sense on the same network (bridged) so someone connecting wirelessly can "see" a wired client,

so if i pull up outside your house and connect to your wireless network, I could "see" other computers on your network even if they were connected via ethernet cable

best of luck getting the home hub to work with wireless, I've had the misfortune of using one of these, worst router I have ever used.:(

for now if you're not using the wireless part of the router.....turn it off.

as standard the BT home hub uses WEP security, as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike, but better than nothing I suppose.

hope that clears it up a little, I (or other people on here) can elaborate greater if need be:)

If you don't have any of the options in the "Sharing" preference pane enabled on the Mac then it won't be seen by the outside world. If personal file sharing is enabled then someone would need to be hacking in via AFP and I doubt someone would really bother doing that as they are more likely to be trying to gain access to a PC and not expecting the computer to be a mac.
If you have windows sharing on then the other person may well "see" your machine.

If you are worried then you can either turn off those (or other options) or just turn on the firewall on the Mac.

The wireless connection, yes, someone could jump on it to get free access, and possibly see your machines, so adding some security to the wireless side of things would be good idea, even if it's only WEP which isn't very secure.

If you're not using the wireless bit, as said by mike, turn off that feature, and if you're really worried, disable any services in "sharing" on the mac you're not using and then as a last resort, turn on the mac's firewall. If you want to get really funky then you could install Flying Buttress which allows full configuration of the built in firewall but to be honest that's a bit of overkill.

I've had my suite of five macs, of various types, with both wired and wireless access, with publically accessible IP addresses and most of the sharing options enabled for the past six years and the only trouble I've seen is someone trying to access the machines via SMB, indicating someone is assuming the machine is a PC. They never did manage to get onto the machine though so it was more an annoyance than anything, and if I'd wanted I could have disabled windows sharing and/or turned on the firewall (or enabled the one on my router), but I left it as was and within a few hours the attacker had become bored and moved on.

The homehub supports wpa as well, I've set mine to use this.

i dont use my wireless connection but it does not tell me how to turn the wireless off in the user guide... BT home hub installed.....Anyone advise please

found this. Might be worth a read, especially reply 6 and the bit mentioning the hub can be found at http://192.168.1.254 so I'd guess if you point a web browser at that address you'll be able to enter the configuration interface for the hub and somewhere on there will be the option to turn off wireless.

I also found this pdf on the Bt Home Hub. Have a look at pages 20 and 21 as they detail how to change Hub settings, one of which I'm guessing is the ability to change if wireless is enabled.

Have been doing a bit more searching and found the following. The first page is a bit of a geek fest, going on about how to use a command line to telnet into your hom hub, but the second page does mention the wireless setup and where to find it, so that might be of help. I've not read all of it but there might be other options in there that could be of use to you or to others wanting a bit more control over the home hub as I'd not be surprised if the web interface does not allow you to do everything the home hub is capable of.

Gosh, thanks for all that. The parts that I can follow ( sorry, getting on a bit now !!!!) I have done and the Mac appears to be secure and in full stealth mode.

Cheers

JBL