laptop picking up strange signals

[idiot_savant]

hello honestly I'm a newbie when it comes to wi-fi. my laptop always picks up a very weak signal at night saying it was a linksys...but I noticed the column for vendor says "fake".....what could this mean?

 

[Blues]

first guess is gunna be someone with an ad-hoc setup on thier pc weather they know it or not.

 

[Bryce W]

Im assuming you are using NetStumbler. According to their forums, the Fake Vendor means:

It's what Netstumbler fills in when it sees an AP that it cannot determine the brand. This is due to either someone running FAKEAP or NS just doesn't have a match for the MAC prefix in the internal database.

 

[idiot_savant]

Im assuming you are using NetStumbler. According to their forums, the Fake Vendor means:

is it safe to connect?

 

[focuz]

If your using NetStumbler then in reality you don't own any of the signals. So technically you shouldn't connect to any. OK yeah right... Who am I kidding.

If it shows fake AP then it can't determine the brand or any other info on the AP, so I'm betting that their using some sort of protection to stop people from being able to connect. So even if you try I don't think the program will be able to connect, you should be able to give it a whirl.

 

[idiot_savant]

thanks for the info....

 

[Bryce W]

If those wireless networks aren't yours, don't connect.

 

[Blues]

If those wireless networks aren't yours, don't connect.

Yeah connecting to those wireless open the doors to many potential risks. One being legality in some areas it is illegal to connect to another persons wireless with out thier consent. There are also risks to your computers security and integrity when you connect to an unknown wi-fi. Knowing who's wi-fi it is still runs risks in that they may not have things configured properly or a compromised machine with in that network.

 

[wizy]

people have been arrested for stealing wifi.