[BearCavalry]

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen. Before making this thread I sent a PM to a few Administrators asking where the proper place would be, and Mr. Dsenette recommended the networking forum.
Here is the problem I am having:

My ISP which is Charter Communications (Booooo!!!), has sent me 3 e-mails saying that I have been caught downloading some films. Here is the part where I have a problem. I don't download things illegally. And the films mentioned in the 3 emails, I haven't even ever heard of them. All 3 times I called Charter and explained this to them, I don't know what these films even are, I never visit the websites where it says I downloaded them from, and they are nowhere to be found on my hard drives.

Now, I change my wireless network password every 1-2 months, it is always at least 15 characters, with capital and small letters, symbols, and numbers. My router has software that lets me monitor who is on my network, I know all the devices on my network. My guest network is Always turned off.

I haven't had house guests for nearly 6 months, and all the notices have come like within the last 30-40 days.

I don't know what to do. I do not want to get sued for something that I am not guilty of. What kinds of tests, software, scans can I use to see if someone is hijacking my networking and using bittorent?

This probably doesn't have anything to do with it, but I have Kaspersky Internet Security 2014, Malwarebytes, and Zeemana Anti-Logger. I do not use IE, I only use Chrome or Firefox.

Can someone assist me with this problem I am having?

Thank you so much

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Hi,

I can only provide some suggestions:

- if possible try to update you router wireless firmware because some of them can have security breaches;
- make sure your wireless is set to WPA2, my WPA2 password have 64 characters the max supported by the router;
- check the router configuration and disable WPS if possible;
- most routers allow you to restrict the wireless access to only authorized MAC Address enable that and add your devices to the allowed list;
- change the SSID of the wireless network to something else and disable the broadcast of the SSID on the router if possible (not bullet proof but it helps in some cases...)

Edited by SleepyDude, 18 February 2014 - 02:06 PM.

[SleepyDude]

Hi,

I can only provide some suggestions:

- if possible try to update you router wireless firmware because some of them can have security breaches;
- make sure your wireless is set to WPA2, my WPA2 password have 64 characters the max supported by the router;
- check the router configuration and disable WPS if possible;
- most routers allow you to restrict the wireless access to only authorized MAC Address enable that and add your devices to the allowed list;
- change the SSID of the wireless network to something else and disable the broadcast of the SSID on the router if possible (not bullet proof but it helps in some cases...)

Edited by SleepyDude, 18 February 2014 - 02:06 PM.

[dsenette]

also physically inspect all of the connection points...make sure nothing is plugged in to the network that you don't know about...go eyeball the charter box on the outside of your house and follow it out to the street and see if anything weird is out there.

[BearCavalry]

Hi,

I can only provide some suggestions:

- if possible try to update you router wireless firmware because some of them can have security breaches;
- make sure your wireless is set to WPA2, my WPA2 password have 64 characters the max supported by the router;
- check the router configuration and disable WPS if possible;
- most routers allow you to restrict the wireless access to only authorized MAC Address enable that and add your devices to the allowed list;
- change the SSID of the wireless network to something else and disable the broadcast of the SSID on the router if possible (not bullet proof but it helps in some cases...)

also physically inspect all of the connection points...make sure nothing is plugged in to the network that you don't know about...go eyeball the charter box on the outside of your house and follow it out to the street and see if anything weird is out there.

Thank you to both of you. I will try these things immediately. If anyone else has suggestions, please post them.

[BearCavalry]

- change the SSID of the wireless network to something else and disable the broadcast of the SSID on the router if possible (not bullet proof but it helps in some cases...)

Hello Mr. Dude. I am a little bit confused, isn't the SSID the name of my wireless network? Or am I completely misunderstanding SSID?

Also, I checked my cable box, I didn't see anything out of place, but then again, there is 5 feet of snow on top of it.

[SleepyDude]

- change the SSID of the wireless network to something else and disable the broadcast of the SSID on the router if possible (not bullet proof but it helps in some cases...)

Hello Mr. Dude. I am a little bit confused, isn't the SSID the name of my wireless network? Or am I completely misunderstanding SSID?

Yes it's the same.

Also, I checked my cable box, I didn't see anything out of place, but then again, there is 5 feet of snow on top of it.

[BearCavalry]

Sooo... if I turn off the SSID broadcast, won't that prevent my wireless devices from being able to connect? Sorry I don't know this.

[SleepyDude]

Sooo... if I turn off the SSID broadcast, won't that prevent my wireless devices from being able to connect? Sorry I don't know this.

Not really because you can create a a wireless connection manually and specify the SSID to connect or you can create a USB flash drive with the wireless setup to easily configure any computer running Windows Vista or above, tutorial here.
Another possibility is to associate all the devices and then disable the broadcast of the SSID.

Edited by SleepyDude, 20 February 2014 - 05:52 PM.