This can't be right....can it?

[Cowie]

received a mail from idnet saying if i continued d/loading at my present rate i would have to pay an extra £11 a month(on the lite user 5Gb), on checking my usage now,i have d/loaded a gig.......... from where???
i haven't d/loaded a bean since i got the service last thursday,all that has been on is my xbox either myself or my daughter,surely to god that isn't taking my allowance up?

[Rik]

Hi Ian

It's impossible for us to say what has been using the bandwidth and when. There are a few possibilities which spring to mind. (1) You have an unsecured wireless network and someone is piggy-backing your connection, (2) You have malware on your computer, (3) Someone has spent a chunk of time on YouTube or similar.

I wouldn't have expected an Xbox to use much, but I'm not a gamer.

[Cowie]

Thanks Rik, but only use has been the xbox,i have a wireless router,i am hard wired to it tho,how can i make it secured?

[Rik]

Hi Ian

What router is it, we may be able to give you specific instructions?

In general terms, you need to log into the router's interface and either disable the wireless side or ensure that it's using WPA encryption with a strong key, 20-63 characters in length. Do not disable SSID broadcast, but do change the default SSID and, of course, the default password for the router.

[Cowie]

Rik,again thanks for the help,have been onto idnet support and they reckon someone is piggybacking off of my connnection,its a dlink 2640B wireless router,again,i feel bloody hopeless as most of what you said previous has gone over my head lol,so please bare with me,
1. i need to change my router password from the default which it is
2 SSID,i will find that in the router settings i presume,and change to ANOTHER password?
3 WPA encryption....now am totally lost 

[Rik]

Hi Ian

I have no experience with D-Link at all, but I'll have a Google in a minute and see if I can find anything. Do you have the manual?

1) Routers ship with a default login, eg admin/password on Netgears.

2) They ship with a default SSID, eg Netgear on Netgears.

Taken together, any hacker immediately knows how to access the router, so for this reason I recommend changing both from the default. When you change the SSID you don't need to create another password.

3) You can have up to four different settings, according to router. The default is usually no encryption, which means anyone in range can use your connection. The lowest level of encryption is WEP, but tbh this is so easily cracked that it's not worth considering. WPA is much more secure (with a strong key) and is effectively unbreakable. WPA2 is an updated version, but not all hardware supports it.

Of course, if you have no need for wireless, the quick solution is to turn it off.

[Cowie]

Ok Rik,its ok don't take time out to look mate thanks very much,i have the destruction booklet at home so will try and sort it then,only reason i went for wireless router was when my daughter comes over with the lappie am getting her for xmas,one thing,this key you refer to with WPA,is it a self producing one or like a password i give it

[Rik]

You create your own key, Ian, then enter it on the router and every machine that tries to connect (it only has to be done once, a bit like pairing on Bluetooth). I recommend an alpha-numeric key of 20+ characters, with a mixture of upper and lower case. You can create your own, or there are sites which will generate keys for you, eg

http://www.speedguide.net/wlan_key.php

[Cowie]

Top bloke thanks again mate

[Rik]

NP. Scream if you get stuck.