The Spain Forums

Lee

This came to my own attention after a simple request got refused by our service provider and to be honest I am not best pleased

The request being to have access to the router supplied by the service provider.

All I asked for was the administrator name and password to be able to access the box and was bluntly turned down with the excuse being, that from time to time they need to remotely access the box and make alterations. They use the same details for every box that they supply to customers and it would mess them up by having to make the changes requested.

We like many in Spain, use the wireless internet and telephone, which a lot of people use who can not get internet or telephone via a land line.

Your computer will plug into a box, via a lead looking similar but not the same as a telephone lead

A simple test to find out if you have a router is to visit the following address 192.168.1.1

With an internet explorer window open, click file, then click open and put that into the box. You should then see a new box open asking for administrator name along with password

From this box you can control several bits of your internet connection. You can add a lot of extra internet security along with changing your network wireless access code. The code is normally recommended to be changed at regular intervals, to stop prying eyes on your network along with people, from using your connection for free if they are that way inclined

By them having remote access to your network or PC, the paranoia can kick in and in my opinion its well worth taking further measures to secure your network or PC from them.

To put it in simple terms

If some one wants to enter my house, they ring the door bell and I let them in, or they phone ahead and I leave the gate open. But no one enters my property without first letting me know

These guys can enter at any time they want, they have a key and you never gave it to them

They can also add extra keys and you have no idea who they have given them to, or they have even done it. They can see your password to your network and if so wanted, sit out side with a laptop and snoop around your PC

At the same time, would you give the people who supply your internet, your credit or bank card and ask then to alter your pin numbers down the bank?

What happens if they get hacked, the hacker can then hit every internet connection they look after

Up until moving to Spain, I have always operated my own networks, with every door coming in from outside well and truly locked, to be honest, the Spanish internet scares the crap out of me with this system

All I can advise is to get a good firewall and lock it down as much as you can

If the above has freaked you out, trust me, it did me when I discovered just how venerable you can be in the hands of someone you don't know

__________________

marmun

Who is the provider and what is the make/model of the router?

Lee

The router we were supplied with is a Linksys 54gl
From the digging I have been doing on the router, they can allocate bandwidth from it, along with baring users from certain functions, ie file sharing along with uploading and downloading of certain file types

I wont name the provider until I get round to changing to a new one, which is still a few weeks off, as my office area on the house is being built

From enquiries I made, it seems to be a regular thing in Spain.

We found our provider suddenly not understanding English when asked for the router information. Then coming out with every excuse not to give out the admin name and password

Its a chance I'm willing to take, paying for a new install etc, rather than stick with someone who seems to think that the average person has no idea of the security implications of what they are doing

__________________

marmun

I think that model has a reset button and then the userid/password reverts to the default factory setting.

This is a list of the defaults settings for most routers.

[Only Registered Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register]

Lee

I tried the reset button at the weekend trying to get into it to alter the wireless access password, it wipes the whole lot, not just reseting the password

We ended up having to take the router down the suppliers office to have it all set up again and thats when they refused to give out the access codes.

I have heard of someone else having the same or similar problems in Spain.
They class it as a managed internet connection

My biggest bug bear personally is finding one day software works, then suddenly it stops.
One case here is the weather station. It used to send data at 3 minute intervals to my web site, updating all the dials and conditions. All was working fine. Then suddenly errors appeared for no reason it all stops.
In the past it would be straight forward problem solving, either this end with corrupted data or the host end. Now you have outside fiddling, so you have a three way problem. Is it here, is it the server or is it the internet provider, seeing data transmissions and stopping it with out asking why or what, just assuming its something dodgy going on and not being able to check and see what they have done.

If they are monitoring connections like that, what else are they snooping round looking at. You don't know when or why they are watching

But this proves they are tracking what you do, well in my case it does
Hence now I have my own router in place with the fire wall locked down

If you have access to the router they supply, you can grant permissions to what PC's can access your network along with monitoring for unsolicited or malicious connections, again by them not giving out the admin details, your in their hands as far as that security being set up, if it is even set up

__________________