Monitor Wireless Connection

I have a comcast broadband connection. Recently I purchased a d-link router and set everything up with stronger WPA encryption. An iMac G5, iBook, a PC laptop connect to it wirelessly, and an old pc, connect through ethernet. Only one computer ever does any bandwidth intensive work, the iMac. My problem is I sometimes find the connection slow, even when there's only 1 computer online. After seeing that there were 4 users connected to my iTunes Music Share (which i thought, can be only accessed by people on your own network, is this true?), i am thinking that someone may have access to my connection other than me.

So i've been trying to find a tool that tells me who is connected to my wireless connection and who isn't. So far i have been unsuccessful. I'm sure someone in aqua-soft already have dealt with this. So please help me find some sort of monitor.

Thanks

nabilanwar

#389874

First thing that comes in to my mind is to check the router's logs. You should see the ip addresses of people connected.

#389894

Set your router to only accept connections from specifc MAC (not Macinstosh) addresses.

WPA encryption is a joke and has been cracked for a long time now.

Also, I hope you changed the default password for your router as well.

Checking your router logs will be pointless as all the connections will appear to be internal anyway.

And last.. turn off iTunes Music Share. That thing broadcasts to anyone and everyone.

Nice idea, but badly implemented.

#390008

My router doesn't even support WPA, only WEP...it's totally pathetic .

-NC

#390070

i'm gonna set up the MAC address thing today. But i really dont understand how the itunes share thing can broadcast to someone outside my network. Does anyone have an explanation, just curious.

#390489

Unless you are specificaly blocking the port that iTunes is using, anyone can see it.

iTunes is a "chatty" program. It likes to announce it's presence when ever and where ever it can.

Reminds me of NetBIOS.

If you only want it to be available inside your network, block the iTunes sharing port at the router.

It uses TCP port 3689. Basicaly you need ot restrict this port from having access to the external network (your ISP).

#390703

in all honesty... how would i connect to my neighbors itunes library on another network? she's a friend who we commonly share music but we would like to share playlists and such... is there is common (legal) and ethical way?

#390751

I don't want to get into the legality of sharing, but you can share two iTunes libraries on different networks. Doing so would depend on your ISP.

What kind of, if any, port blocking do they perform and how are your internal networks setup?

Most routers come setup with a basic and very generic 192.168.x.x network setup.

All you have to do is establish the route (path), to you friends network via your ISP and you should be able to connect.

You will have a problem if you are both on different ISP's. It can be done, but the routing table will take a bit more expertise in setting up. You will also want to do something like setup a DMZ and then do port forwarding for the trusted inbound connection

For security reasons, I have my internal network configured as a non-routable 10.x.x.x network.

Any person trying to get in will get stuck in the DMZ area of my router as all unsolicted traffic gets sent there.

There's a bunch more things you can do, but not all routers/firewalls are the same and trying to explain this in a forum post would take too long.

The thing about iTunes sharing, is you are not actualy giving your friend the file.

You are merely streaming it.

#390761

hmm.. yea, ill have to read more up on it then...thanks

#390786

hmm.. yea, ill have to read more up on it then...thanks

Yea... I know I was about as clear as mud.

Reality is it can be done, you just have to understand how a network works.

I've sniffed my ISP's network and found all kinds of lovely things running on it... including a few iTunes shares. Be careful sniffing around though... some ISP don't like it and will boot you.

#390794

k, i guess i was just too paranoid about someone leeching off my connection. I monitored my access list through my router's tools, and i now know that it was only my computers that were accessing it. So it must have been downtimes.

Also, i have filtered my network access by MAC addresses as rjohnstone suggested. All is well. Thanks everyone!

#392656