Network and Internet Activity

[idontknowtech]

I'm on a computer that is connected wirelessly to our in home router. Can people in my home see my internet activity (like the web pages I visit etc.)? If so, what can I do to stop this.

 

[Ste]

Yes, if they have specific devices they can "sniff" wireless network traffic. Especially if its an un secured, un encrypted network.
Enable WPA or WPA2 in the options page of your router.

 

[idontknowtech]

thanks for responding. Can you be a bit more specific about what to do? Wouldnt there be a program of some sort that I can download off the web? And, why would it save all of the network traffic? There would eventually be tons of it.

 

[Ste]

Do you want to protect your network or do you want to sniff someone elses?


Goto the website of you routers manufacturer and download the manual. Follow the instructions layed out to enable WPA or WPA2 in your routers setup page.

 

[idontknowtech]

I just don't want anybody sniffing my computer. I have no reason to sniff somebody elses and think that doing so is highly unethical.

 

[Ethereal_Dragon]

Depending on what type of router you have, there may or may not be activity logging abilities in the router that show webpages visited.

They could also log into your computer and view browser history or cookies if they aren't cleared.

 

[idontknowtech]

we have a dlink 802.11g - does this one do that? I also was looking into anonymizer.com. They seem to have a service that protects this. Anyone have any experience with them?

 

[Ethereal_Dragon]

You gave us the router maker, and the wireless standard it uses.... we would need to see the model number to determine that...

for instance, my D-Link Network attached storage device is a D-Link DNS-323... DNS-323 is the model number.

Can't tell you have anonymizer.... not familiar with it. I don't use proxies.

 

[idontknowtech]

thanks for responding. It's dlink's DI-524 Wireless Router.