Tag: router

Mobile Hotspot, Smartphone or Router?

I am using a laptop with dual boot Windows and Ubuntu. In Addition I am having another Linux distro installed on a usb and using it only for certain things.

Generally speaking – If android devices are vulnerable in terms of privacy and security, does that mean that my linux will be vulnerable too if I use the Hotspot from android devices?

Does Mifi devices, all these jetpacks any better than a smartphone for security and privacy?

Getting a mifi, a good plan simcard and using a Linux distro on a usb should be better than, using my linux installed on the laptop alongside with windows, and using my android phone as a hotspot?

I have access to unlimited data from a broadband provider, but don’t have access to their hub3 device and can’t configure any settings and I think its very unsecured as it is now. So that’s whyt I am using mobile data for my laptop, thinking its more secure.

Getting a mifi, mobile simcard and using a Linux distro on a usb should be good idea?

Router is the problem?

So when i am adding a massive number of sites to GSA without fail my internet access is  stopped.  I have to go back in to the router settings. Save the settings  and  it is restored. What can i do to stop this problem?

Is there any way to hide my using the internet (or maximize privacy) when connected via router to other computers?

I shall begin my question with the remark that I am not tech savvy at all!

The problem is the following:

A cluster of computers (laptops, desktops, etc.) A, B, C, D… are all connected to the same router. Let’s say my computer is computer A and I am a guest at big brother Bob’s home, who owns the router and computers B, C, D…

Assuming Bob has no physical access to my computer but can access the other computers, is there a way to prevent Bob from knowing what I am doing on the internet, or even better, to completely hide from Bob that I used internet at all? (short of his contacting his ISP and demanding a report or something which would take a non-trivial amount of time and assuming I don’t download anything or watch HD videos which could show up as a sudden spike of consumption)

When it comes to hiding the names of websites I visit and internet searches, according to some research it seems like Tor does a good job in hiding it completely, even if the ISP is contacted. However, can Bob determine quickly (i.e. without contacting his ISP, using some cmd dark arts) that computer A has connected to a Tor node at all without physically accessing computer A? (Let’s say it’s not in the cluster anymore when Bob does his checks)

According to further research it seems to be impossible to get the internet history of all connected devices to a router without access to the devices, but I am unsure and opinions seem to vary somewhat.

TL;DR I’m basically looking for a way to make my internet usage as inconspicuous as possible during a very specific time period when indirectly connected to other computers via a router I don’t own, is using Tor the best thing I can do in this situation to maximize privacy?

Thank you.

WiFi Router, current status of security protocols?

I’m about to buy a new WiFi router tomorrow (probably) & I’m wondering what kind of security features I should choose (Like: AES, WPA2, DMZ, TKIP, SPI, …)

What is the current status of what is considered to be secure?

As I understand it, eg. WPA encryption was cracked MANY years ago, how is it with WPA2? Or AES? I also have an options for AES-128 bit, how is that?

I figuerd that this would be the best place to ask for the current security situation, instead of the old articles Google is offering me from 2011 😮

Thank you for any help.

For your convenience, this is a list of what the store is offering in terms of router security

  • 128-bit AES
  • AES
  • DMZ
  • NAT
  • SPI
  • TKIP
  • WEP
  • WPA
  • WPA-PSK
  • WPA2
  • WPA2-PSK

What type of activity at the WAN port of router can cause massive data uploads, when no devices are connected? [closed]

I have Airtel Broadband PPPoE connection with Public Dynamic IP assigned to my router Dlink DIR 615 (It’s old model and now discontinued). Intermittently I have noticed instances of unusually high uploads from my Internet account. For example in say 10 hours over 80 GB of data gets ‘uploaded’ and against that only a negligible say 100 MB of data gets ‘downloaded’ automatically when no device is connected to the router. I later verified this with data consumption charts available in my account.

I installed data loggers on my mobile phone and no unusual activity or data consumption found. No PC / Laptop connected to the router when it happens. Router is secure, very long complex password WPA2 and WPS disabled. Port & Address restricted firewall, PING on WAN is disabled The massive uploads happen even if I disabled WIFI which means whatever happens, must be at the WAN port.

I contacted ISP and they said is that the connection has physical port binding which means that if another LAN cable is taken out from the hub or whatever device they have at the common area in the apartment complex, no one else can get on to the internet even if they know my PPPoE user id/password. The access is bound to a particular physical port on the ISP’s device.

I am sure this is not a data logging error as whenever it happened, I could see the Internet LED rapidly glowing on the router, so it was for real.

It stops as soon as I reboot the router as it generally takes another Dynamic Public IP from the ISP.

Nothing much found in the router logs. Router does not seem to be able to differentiate between normal uploads/downloads and such instances of massive uploads.

See the screenshot for ISP chart. Yellow bar is upload and brown bar is download.

What kind of activity, if any, at the WAN port of the router can cause massive data uploads when no devices are connected to the router and even WiFi is disabled? From where this data is generated?

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Should the Router or Firewall Come First?

Network scenario…. I have a typical enterprise network meaning ISP>>>>Edge Router>>>>>Firewall|DMZ>>>>Switch>>>LAN.

I know there are several debates on the internet about what device comes first but based on a typical medium size office 500 people, what should come first in the network architecture, the firewall or the router. My thought was that the router should come first because the IOS firewall would be the first line of defense, then a Palo or Sonicwall for the firewall would come next to take whats left. Let mw know if you think im wrong.

A VPN Server On Router Versus A Machine?

So we have an OpenVPN Server running on a Synology File Server. We have SSH into the Synology to have custom certificate keys and a password for two factor authentication.

This is working well, and allows us to access the network remotely for files, printers etc. We are happy, BUT I noticed our router which is a Netgear Nighthawk has an OpenVPN server built into it with it’s own client certificate ready to download etc.

This got me wondering, are VPNs better or more secure running on the router itself versus a machine on the network? If you run a VPN on a machine even a Synology machine you run the risk of the machine turning off. Also, is it faster to have a VPN on the router itself to access the rest of the network versus a machine on the network, or are the speed differences negligible?

I’ve many times used Softether VPN for other network access which I like more, but unless the router has Open WRT I end up having to use a machine on the network running Softether. Does this matter?