# Police did something on my WLAN just now.  Is this usual?

## Daishi

OK, I'm almost positive that the county sherrif here was on my wlan just a few minutes ago.  It's freaking me out since I do a looooooooooooooooot of bittorrent (though it's all fansub anime).  Here's what happened...

I was doing my calculus homework, with all of my computers turned off, though my wireless router was on and connected to the cable connection.  I look out the window and the county sherrif car is pulled up infront of my drive way.  I saw him screwing around with his laptop, and I figured he was just checking plates.  But then all of a sudden my wireless router activity light goes on for about a minute.  Then the light went off all together, and the sherrif pulled away.  I'm really interested in what he was doing on my wlan, and if he was trying to see if I was doing anything illegal.  Is there any way to get the logs of what he was doing?  Isn't this an invasion of privacy or some such thing?  I have WEP set up on my wlan, and it should have been on, so if he really was on it then he must have gotten around that somehow.  Really curious..

-Fredric

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## P4r4N01d

An Uber-war driving sheriff - right on. 

Sounds like a coincidence to me - if his laptop is "wirelessed up" to his base, it would probably scan all networks until it hooked into his one and yours would have seen the activity - I wouldn't worry.

If he comes back, go out and knock on his window and say "Hello - can I help you with anything"... but since when has the downloading off the internet been a sheriff / state police problem ? ... now if there was a black van parked out the front ... I'd worry !!  :Smile: 

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## xbmodder

Actually FBI like officials will have sheriffs do some work for them. You into kiddy porn?

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## programgeek

Yeah, kiddy porn is likely the reason...  Your IP most likely may have been snatched whilst you were downloading...  Not very smart...

Your not going to get cops outside your house because you download anime, or "appz"... But yeah, it wasn't a normal cop, it was just one that heads up internet investigation.

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## zen_guerrilla

Secure your wlan with ipsec or openvpn & fsck da police  :Smile: .

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## P4r4N01d

 *xbmodder wrote:*   

> Actually FBI like officials will have sheriffs do some work for them. You into kiddy porn?

 

What in a marked up cruiser in the glow of a laptop from the front seat while parked outside the bad guys house .... I dont live in the States, but would your cops be that stupid ?

The work the FBI would probably get them to do would be for a bit local knowledge, cruise past the house and get some car numbers to see who is visiting. In the final stage, maybe help crash the door down and stay behind and clean up while the glory boys meet the press and parade their latest 15 year old Uber-terrorist and his collection of Simpsons avi's !!

Besides, if they suspect you of kiddie pron, the line would be tapped/logged at the ISP level not a cop and a laptop on your front lawn !! The first thing you would know is when they come crashing through the window at 4am in the morning - panic not young Jedi unless you have been a very naughty boy.

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## d_adams

I've always had my network set with MAC filtering turned on, as well as wep, but wep can be cracked pretty easy. MAC addresses are a little tougher though. Kinda hard to get in when you can't even connect to the router.  :Smile: 

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## zen_guerrilla

 *d_adams wrote:*   

> MAC addresses are a little tougher though.

 

Are you sure ? Less than five minutes with kismet to find a MAC of the ap or another host in the wlan,  'ifconfig wlan0 hw ether YOUR_MAC_ADDRESS', void11+airdump+aireplay & in =<10mins your wlan is down  :Smile: .

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## bigfunkymo

MAC address spoofing is the oldest trick in the book, sir.  MAC filtering provides you zero extra security.

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## Daishi

Thanks for the replies.  I think I'll take my tin foil hat off now..though I'm still worried about this.  I've heard plenty of stories of the mpaa planting illegal files on p2p networks, and then suing the hell out of people for downloading them.  The mpaa are also known for paying off cops to bust people who distribute movies (wasn't there a story on Slashdot a while ago about 2 cops admitting to taking money from the mpaa to bust some people?).  What if the cop logged onto my network, downloaded the Episode 3 torrent, and ran it for a few seconds so that it was on my isp logs that someone on my network was doing something illegal?  Then the cop gets to come back in a few days with his friends from the DoHS, bust through my door, arrest me, and get paid a couple grand from the mpaa for thwarting those evil terrorists plots for destroying freedom.

I don't even look at porn on my computers.  That's what preschools are for.

-Fredric

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## d_adams

Well that tears it, wireless is going bye-bye then. Thought I had it fairly secure with wep, mac filter and no ssid broadcast. Oh well, won't take that long to wire up 1 more room in the house.

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## zonk

depending on your card, you might be able to get WPA going. that's pretty secure.

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## bigfunkymo

WPA really isn't more secure than WEP, if you're using the pre-shared key method (most common).

best way to go is wep + vpn or just VPN.  Nobody is going to spend the time brute forcing a 2 kilobit encryption key ;)

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## zonk

that's true, you wouldn't want to go with pre-shared keys. but you don't have to.

either way, some encryption/protection is better than none. someone scanning around in a neighbourhood will take open APs over WEP APs over WPA APs.

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## whitesouls

 :Shocked:   :Shocked:   :Shocked:  dude...your in which country??? till the police are damn smart to come and hook into your wireless system...well in my country they are dumb... :Laughing: 

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## rounz

he wouldnt have any problems over here snooping around, way over half WLAN`s are left wide open with out of date firmware in an "its working ok out of the box dont touch it" kind of way

i partially blame router manufacters for doing "easy" setup guides, still - saves me some money rather than use gprs  :Smile: 

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## realsight

u should relocate your home from little village to town or something lol cu

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## Daishi

Heh, well I'm still not arrested, so I think they were just doing a routine check and not actually trying to target me specifically.  Just be aware that if you have a wireless lan be careful, and be secure.  No one likes being watched by big brother.

-Fredric

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## Dr_Stein

Maybe the Sheriff was trying to surf Slashdot while at work or something.  :Razz: 

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## bunder

put a buzzer strip in your driveway.  if anyone goes in your driveway, you'll know.  then chase down the bugger and ask him wtf he's doing on your property in the first place.   :Laughing: 

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## GNUtoo

 *Dr_Stein wrote:*   

> Maybe the Sheriff was trying to surf Slashdot while at work or something. 

 

or mabe he posted an e-mail who knows? mabe you could ask him...

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