New Internet service -- some simple (?) advice?

I hit heavy pre-holiday traffic slowdowns on I-90 Sunday across Snoqualmie Pass, but the WSDOT traffic maps shows no repeat today.

I suppose some of it could repeat this coming Sunday.

 

You say "only OTA" as if you have something bad. Today's OTA is not the OTA of old you remember. Digital OTA sends a very high resolution picture with no compression applied to the signal. Cable has good bandwidth until they cram all those extra channels into the same size pipe so they have to compress it. A digital OTA signal will beat cable or satellite and a lot of streaming content much of the time. Tie that good OTA signal to a good TV screen and you're set.

My OTA reception here is just as sharp as 1080p BluRay on my 4K TV. Don't knock OTA.

 

This is why the password should be changed. Anyone with the knowhow can drive around like you did with their laptop and brute force a bunch of stock passwords that netgear uses and bam they are in!!!

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But how many stock passwords are there? The one that was on my netgear router had a three digit number; that's a thousand versions for just that one password. The handshaking before checking the password takes time on its own. it number low enough that someone could test them all while slowly driving by, or will they have to park, and possibly be noticed?

 

But "stock" contradicts the "unique individually assigned password" claim. If each unit has a unique password, then a hacker needs the full factory list of passwords assigned to every unit, a list as long as the total number of units manufactured.

Though not Netgear, the factory password on my unit is a random-looking string of 26 alphanumeric characters. While the algorithm used to generate it was likely not truly random, it seems unlikely that a full password list is short enough for an ordinary driveby brute force attack from a known master list.

 

The Verizon unit had the random characters. Netgear uses a phrase that the typical user has a chance of remembering.

 

[emphasis added]

While OTA signals can be very good, even they are compressed. The HD raw video ~500Mb/s bitrate must be compressed in order to fit the FCC-permitted OTA channel bandwidth.

While I've been out of that loop a long time, a quick refresher finds the OTA ATSC channel bandwidth as 19.39 Mb/s. DVDs can do about 10 MB/s, regular Blu-Ray 36-48 MB/s, and Ultra Blu-Ray of 128 Mb/s for 4K.

I'm not a cable subscriber, so haven't had to deal with their often narrower pipes.

 

They would be parked and with todays programs they can even do it with an android phone. Thats what could and can happen but will it happen to you, who knows?

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I said stock but meaning default passwords from netgear are leaked and used in this very manner. I could do if I went to his house as a proof of concept.

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This still contradicts the earlier claim of each individual unit having its own unique password from the factory.

Is the leaked list tens of millions of items long?

 

Yes and a program runs through it in minutes until it cracks it and gets in.

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Don't get wrapped around the axle on the security thing, but do consider changing (and hiding) the SSID and change the router [sic] password.....because it's written down somewhere else besides the side of your box....and it IS (usually) written down on the side of your box.
You'd be surprised at how many people put those things in a home office by a window.....

The big kids are getting away from special characters, numbers, and capitalization - all of which only make your password more likely to be written down.
If you jam two or more disassociated words together (sometimes called a passphrase) it will create a password that's long enough to prevent brute-force methods (easily) but easy to remember.
example:
iusedtohaveafootballbat

Also....if they ask some security questions (what was your first car?) it's best NOT to tell them about that 1956 Hudson Wasp.
I always use try to use only one or two non-related words for security questions:
example:
Where did you meet your wife?
footballbat
Don't make it harder than it has to be though, because if you're in a non-urban setting (like I used to be) then folks parking within WiFi slurping distance stick out a little and bear investigation.

...and if you're a city-slicker then you're in the herd.
The slime-balls are going to pick a slower gazelle.


Besides.....most of the jackwaddery occurs from your ISP-out and your ISP DOES COLLECT info on you.
ALL of it.

K.I.S.S.

 

Uh, what's a router and what's a modem. OK. not quite that ignorant. But, all I have is DSL and I also have no password for my box. But someone would really have to fight to get in range of my system....
kris

 

Those wolves might have smart collars.

 

IF......you are using a wireless connection (WiFi) then you really should enable a password.
Once each of your devices "knows" the password they will not ask you for it again.

If you have WiFi turned off and are using only a wired connection........then you are good to go.

 

Sam's right.
Even if it's hundreds of yards to the street, and you have a pack of inquisitive pooches in the front yard, it would not be impossible to pick off your signal with a specialized antenna.

You should also strongly consider changing the SSID since some of these will reveal the make and model of wireless access point [router] you are using.

Have some fun with it.
I names one of mine something like
"DOJ-surv-121"

 

One of mine is "Connecting" . . . . . guaranteed to confuse the unwashed.

I saw a lot of very interesting and "NSFW" SSID's back when I was war driving.

 

We already know that a non-trespassing snoop is going to need to do it from more than a thousand yards away. And that 'street' seems likely to be a very low traffic dead-end road, not an anonymous through-traffic street. So the snoop will need a 20-ish dBi antenna and/or a lot of power. And maybe some latency adjustments in the router itself.

I left my dad's wifi access point without a password because the nearest line-of-sight attack, from a non-trespassing non-suspicious location, is over two thousand yards distant. A few homes are closer, but over an obstructing ridge. And this is in a place much more populated than where Kris has hinted at being.

Now if I get around to putting in a wifi weather monitoring station (for Weather Underground) out in a field where it needs service from a long range flat panel antenna, then I definitely will turn on the password protection.