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Connecting to available network...

post #1 of 13
6/13/05 at 10:27am
Thread Starter 
Hey everyone,

the building where my studio is located appears to have an open network. I tried connecting to it yesterday, and even though it would say it was successful, I couldnt surf the web. Its like I was connected to the router but the modem itself wouldnt recognize the lappy and send it the internet data. Anyone know what I can do, short of finding out where the modem is and unplugging it then plugging it back in again? Not sure that would actually solve anything anyway...

I hear all the time on the site about people using their neighbors connection... this isnt quite like that but similar. How do you do this if you dont have physical access to the modem?

Thanks.
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post #2 of 13
6/13/05 at 11:30am
People please....
If you can afford a $1,300 laptop, you can afford to pay a basic DSL connection for as low as $20-30.
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post #3 of 13
6/13/05 at 11:38am
I think you asked this question before, a while ago. It was a then, and it's a now.

Bring down your firewall though or you have to do some sniffing.
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post #4 of 13
6/13/05 at 12:40pm
Did you try pinging anything, or checking your IP to see if you were "actually" connected and Windows wasn't telling you lies?
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post #5 of 13
6/13/05 at 4:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dinosaur
Hey everyone,

the building where my studio is located appears to have an open network. I tried connecting to it yesterday, and even though it would say it was successful, I couldnt surf the web. Its like I was connected to the router but the modem itself wouldnt recognize the lappy and send it the internet data. Anyone know what I can do, short of finding out where the modem is and unplugging it then plugging it back in again? Not sure that would actually solve anything anyway...

I hear all the time on the site about people using their neighbors connection... this isnt quite like that but similar. How do you do this if you dont have physical access to the modem?

Thanks.
here's a thought: order your own internet service.

ok, so there are stupid people out there that have open wireless networks.

if you aren't getting internet access, the modem could be unplugged/turned off, the person may just have a home wireless network with no internet, the person could have internet filters, etc., etc.

another thought you might consider is that people may have left their wireless open so other stupid people who don't want to pay for internet will log onto the network and open themselves up for snooping, spoofing, etc that way. so you have to consider whether your system is secured when going on someone else's network.

how is it not like "people using their neighbors connection... this isnt quite like that but similar"?
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post #6 of 13
6/13/05 at 8:09pm
I've had a similiar thing where I've detected and connected to my neighbours wireless network....but not internet access.....I think that in my case I detected one of the pcs in the network and not the router itself....when I had no internet access I would run an ipconfig /all from cmd prompt and have an ip address of 169.254.x.x but if I connected to the router and was able to seurf then my ip would be something like 192.168.x.x. Maybe you've connected to a pc and not a router?
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post #7 of 13
6/14/05 at 1:09am
Thread Starter 
Ummm... wow this has really become a hostile environment. I DO pay for internet access at my home. I have opened a small business in a building with a wireless network. All I asked was why I couldnt connect to it.

Before you ASSume anything you should probably know what you are talking about. Oh and for the poster who accused me of asking this earlier, I have never in my life posted such a thread. But thanks for reminding me why I dont bother with this site anymore.

Cheers.
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post #8 of 13
6/14/05 at 1:13am
Thread Starter 
Oh and I meant it is similar to people jacking in to their neighbors in the sense that I am trying to access a modem I dont have physical access to. It is different in the sense that I believe the network to be open access for tenants. I'll take it up with the owner and or realtor.
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post #9 of 13
6/15/05 at 8:49pm
I'm sorry if you thought my post was hostile....it wasn't meant to be and I apologise.
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post #10 of 13
6/16/05 at 10:30am
Quote:
Originally Posted by joncisco
I'm sorry if you thought my post was hostile....it wasn't meant to be and I apologise.
i dont think dinosaur was talking about you

he was talking to the guy that was saying he was stealing wireless connections
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post #11 of 13
6/16/05 at 10:36am
Next time you connect to the wi-fi network, type 'ipconfig' and show us the results. If your getting an 169.xxx.xxx.xxx address, something's wrong.
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post #12 of 13
6/16/05 at 11:37am
is it a secured network, you might need a wep key, on my router at least it seems like you are connected but then i get a popup saying i have limited or no connectivity, it was because i accidently used the wrong wep key when i got the laptop, you might be sol.
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post #13 of 13
6/16/05 at 11:56am
The most likely reason you can't connect to it is that it's secured through a method other than WEP/WPA. Either of those would prompt you for a network key. Organizations who don't need to encrypt data on their WLAN's or whose IT departments don't want to deal with the constant hassle of their users with portables screwing up the network key all the time will often use MAC filtering, ISA servers, and other infrastructure security strategies to keep people off their WLANs. A lot of home users will only set up MAC filtering as well.
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