Internet over a wireless network

[dantec]

I was wondering, lets say I have a wireless network, and you guys come in the near vincinity and browse sites on it... supposing i leave you free access.

Is there any way in which i can see the sites you guys are browsing from my local network ?

And lets say i'm routing things through a browser, is there any trace of internet sites ?

Finally, could your ISP see the sites you are going through..?

 

[MacManDan]

It depends on your router, I would say. My wireless Netgear router has the ability to log websites that computers have logged on to (and block websites that I specify), and email that log to me at scheduled times. It could tell me the IP the computer was using while connected, its Media Access Control address (MAC hardware address), and its computer name. etc etc..

If consumer routers can do this, I would say that it's more than likely that ISPs could do the same thing. However, check their privacy issues or call them up to see if they are "spying" on you. That information should be freely available to you, I would say.

 

[dantec]

Anyone got any info on a Lucent one ? (Not rebranded by Apple, an authentic lucent)

 

[Lanbrown]

The routers that the ISP's use do not log where people go. Too much processing power would be used to handle that task and it would have to stored off the router. Your typical router that an ISP or Enterprise would use looks at the destination address, compares that with it's routing table, then looks at the filters that are setup if any and then sends the packet on or drops it. It does this for every packet that comes in. You can set filters up that restrict access to certain addresses, address ranges or port numbers. HTTP is port 80, telnet is 23, etc. There are tools that can accomplish that task though.

As for home, yes, they typically provide more tools then an Enterprise or ISP router would have. There is no difference in an ISP or Enterprise router. So large companies have the same router a medium sized ISP would. Backbone providers have the largest routers that are made, as they have the bandwidth that could use the power they provide.

An ISP can use a Sniffer to capture packets. They can either capture packets going from Host A to Host B or from Host A to anybody, or anybody to anybody. These have storage limitations and speed issues. You can capture the whole packet, partial packets or just the header. The header will show the source and destination only. The whole packet is exactly what was sent. These are typically used for troubleshooting problems; either connectivity issues or to see who is a bandwidth hog. To use one of these on a LAN, it either needs to be plugged into a hub or a managed switch where you can set one port to be a span port. On the WAN side, you need physical access to the circuit, the proper cable and adapter. This allows traffic to pass through unaffected and it captures what is sent. With fast connections, it is not hard to fill a buffer up with LAN or WAN traffic. Capturing a specific machine is more ideal then everyone.

As for as home. Yes and no about seeing what sites they access. If you are talking about Internet sites, it depends. If they are going to a proxy, you will not see what site they are going to, the proxy knows though. If no proxy is used, and the router supports logging, the yes, as long as the buffer doesn’t get filled, then older entries will get overwritten.

If you really wanted to monitor what people access, setup a proxy server and only let it access the Internet. Then you could use the logging features to see what they access.

How are you routing things through a browser? or did you mean router?

 

[dantec]

Just paranoid that someone is overlooking what i do on the net...

 

[Lanbrown]

Depending on the net connection, that may or may not be possible. If your net connection is in a switched environment, then no, someone cannot. If it is in a non-switched environment, then people on the same network can. Once you are off that network, they need physical access to monitor what you are doing.