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is someone stealing my bandwidth?

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Carol Haynes:
I may be wrong but even if someone "borrows" your wireless Internet access your ISP gets the traffic???
-PhilB66 (January 08, 2008, 03:17 AM)
--- End quote ---

True - but they will be using YOUR bandwidth via YOUR router to get to the ISP - so your own connection speed will degrade significantly - esp. if they are running something nefarious that uses a lot of bandwidth.

As already pointed out most ISPs will argue that YOU are responsible for what happens at your end of the phone line - even if it is not your computer and you don't know what is going on. The use of proper security is the only option these days in areas other than remote/rural areas where stealing bandwidth is unlikely. There have been plenty of cases of people being prosecuted for things that they inadvertently allowed to happen on their network. Ignorance is no defense in law.

Stoic Joker:
Have you tried restarting the router(s)? Some of them do get "moody" from time to time.

Have you tried using a hard cable to see if speed improves? It could just be a signal conflict with another device.

Have you tried the laptop in a different location (Work or friends connection)? It could just be broken.

Yes it's exciting to think you're being hacked... o_O ...But more often than not it's just some mundane hiccup.

f0dder:
Do you have a WiFi router used with a wireless network card (probably built-in), or do you have one of those WiMaxx connections? Ie., is the WiFi only for your local LAN, or do you have your *internet access* through WiFi?

The wireless-internet connections I've seen have always been oversold (which is scary considering that not so many people in .dk have adopted it), you can very clearly see the traffic impact when people get home from work...

If you have a "regular" internet connection and just a WiFi router/accesspoint, indeed be sure that WPA-SPK (not just WEP, ugh) protection is enabled. And a restart of the accesspoint can also help, like Stoic Joker said, it's amazing how unstable a lot of WiFi APs are >_<

Jammo the OrganizedFellow:
gggrrr ... ya know what it was?

We have a desktop and my wife left uTorrent on.
She had downloaded Steal This Film and left it on. Plus I had to uninstall stupid Limewire - againnn!

Carol Haynes:
That'll do it! But at least it isn't anything too sinister (hopefully).

I use UK BBC iplayer and Channel 4 On-Demand. Both use the Kontiki client to share downloaded files with other users but they are so heavy that surfing the internet crawls at dial up speed on fairly fast broadband. The only solution is to move the files once they are downloaded so that they can't be shared - unlocker is useful for this!

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