Unidentified Computer in our networks shared

Hello,

We have a couple of macs and windows in our house.

Just tonight I have notice on all our macs that a shared computer: "new-host-3" comes up as a PC.

THinking it was one of our windows computer I turned them all off and unplugged them from the network to make sure, but it did not go a way.

Just yesterday we purchased a new Macbook pro and a wireless printer. I set the wireless printer up so it's accessible on the network, would this have any thing to do with it? The only thing this is happening while the printer is unplugged. It also cannot be the new macbook because it is separately appearing in the list.

I tried unplugging my modem, then plugging it back in. The unidentified computer went away and just all our computers were listed, but then suddenly it showed up again?

What could this be? I am really worried it is a hacker, is that possible?

Thanks
John

Sounds like you have an uninvited guest on your wireless network. Are you using any form of security?

cwa107 said:

Sounds like you have an uninvited guest on your wireless network. Are you using any form of security?

Click to expand...

Yes, WEP, no way any average joe could get on.

That's why I am worried, could some genius hacker get on through the internet? Now that I think about it, I turned off a firewall in one of my windows yesterday, could they get through through there?

AHHH! I am so worried!! How much info could they get?


Thanks
John

This used to happen to me as well, and I actually posted on here about it because I feared the same thing you do. Someone told me it was my printer, so I haven't really worried too much about it. I haven't seen it in a long time either.

RobW said:

This used to happen to me as well, and I actually posted on here about it because I feared the same thing you do. Someone told me it was my printer, so I haven't really worried too much about it. I haven't seen it in a long time either.

Click to expand...

Alright, thanks for the info.

The weird thing is my printer is unplugged and it is still happening, would that be the same for you?

Any one else have any other info?

Thanks,
John

My XBox shows up on my network as a new-host. Do you have an XBox in your house?

Actually WEP is not the most secure of passwords and is fairly easy to hack. Try using a WPA and changing the password. I agree with cwa. Sounds like someone from another household is using your network.

Actually, it sounds to me like it's your printer and that's the default name your DHCP enabled router is giving the printer since it probably doesn't have a host name.

For non MulticastDNS or Bonjour hosts, entries in the Finder Sidebar tend to stay around for longer periods of time.

You could always verify this by checking your router to see what IP it has given your printer via your DHCP clients table and then map that back against the device. Again, this would be my guess given the generic host name but it never hurts to check.

Since it goes away when you turn off the modem and it disappears, Let me ask you this. Is this DSL or Cable? Is the modem plugged into a Wireless router? If so I am almost 100% sure it's someone from the outside as unplugging a DSL modem from a router would not affect the printer as the router should be handing out the DHCP address's.

WEP can be hacked by someone with any knowledge and WiFi Sniffer in sometimes 5 minutes or less. Use WPA or WPA2.

laxexquis said:

Yes, WEP, no way any average joe could get on.

Click to expand...

You are mistaken. WEP is dead, has been for the better part of 5 years now. Any idiot with 60 seconds on their hands and a bit of Google searching can break WEP.

Switch your encryption to WPA and see if the interloper goes away.

Hello everyone.

Thanks for all the replies.

First of all, I do have an Xbox in my house, but it was not turned on at the time, though it is connected to the network.

Second, it is DSL, by Verizon. The DSL modem is wireless and them I have an ethernet wire going out to a router that splits to my xbox and the wired computers. I see your idea that if I unplug the modem the printer should still be there, the only thing is that the modem is also the wireless router all in one piece.

Frankly, I have no clue how to change it to WPA, as I had it all set up by verizon. I'm not very good at working with networks.

Let me just run one more thing by you.

I am not positive, but last night while messing around, it seemed that the "new-host-3" appear only when we had the new Macbook pro connected to the network. FIrst eh macbook pro would appear then the new-host would appear. This macbook was the computer used to put the printer on the network, but keep in mind the printer is not plugged in.

Let me also ask, is it possible for some oveer the internet to get to our network? It is highly unlikely that this is a surrounding household as I live in a rural area with houses fair apart and the only one I would think is close enough already has their own wifi that I would use before I got my own.

Thanks again for all your thoughts.

John

I have a PS3 on my network as well, so that may be what is showing up.

laxexquis said:

Frankly, I have no clue how to change it to WPA, as I had it all set up by verizon. I'm not very good at working with networks.

Click to expand...

You definitely want to change that. It should be as simple as opening a browser and typing 192.168.1.1 into the address bar. Verizon's tech support should be able to walk you through it. It should NOT have been set to WEP.

WPA as suggested with a strong password of say a minimum of four numeric and four letters in random order makes it almost impossible to crack.

WPA is also getting old...the new WPA2 is going to standardized on most broadband companies soon. As you guys mentioned, WEP can take less than 1 minute to brake into. WPA/2 is A LOT harder and time consuming. We have WPA2-PSK with our modem. I thought that someone had gotten in one time, but I had completely forgotten about my iphones wireless...stupid me.

It's probably easier to call your service provider to change the password so the chance of messing it up won't be there.

idrinorbarsaku said:

WPA is also getting old...the new WPA2 is going to standardized on most broadband companies soon. As you guys mentioned, WEP can take less than 1 minute to brake into. WPA/2 is A LOT harder and time consuming. We have WPA2-PSK with our modem. I thought that someone had gotten in one time, but I had completely forgotten about my iphones wireless...stupid me.

It's probably easier to call your service provider to change the password so the chance of messing it up won't be there.

Click to expand...

WPA with a complex password is very difficult to crack - and even then, as I understand it, it's only partially open. You pretty much have to do a brute force attack at the moment. Of course, methods are always evolving, but for the average person, the presence of WPA alone is enough to deter the casual hacker. Now, if you were a government agency or a company with valuable data, that might be worth attempting.

'New host' appearing in server window

Yep. I have the same thing. I had my home hard wired with CAT5, and used a Linksys WRT54G router. But recently I added three iPhones, which required enabling WiFi (I had gone into the Linksys and shut WiFi off). After enabling WiFi, I still did not have any issues.... UNTIL recently I upgraded my DSL account to Verizon. They said they didn't want me to use my Linksys router anymore. So they gave me the Verizon FIOS router. With this, I took out my Linksys, and everything else pretty much stayed the same. I set up my iPhones with the Verizon router. It was then I noticed another "host". I noticed if I clicked on it, I could not mount the host like I could the other computers in my network. It had me logged on as a guest by default, but there was no way for me to transfer files or to log into it. I'm thinking it's just possible my system is seeing the new Verizon router as a server in my system. It shows up as a PC device, but using 'get info' tells me virtually nothing. I guess I could ask Verizon tech support if I can stay on hold without dying of old age. Maybe someday... Also, one thing I did not do was to change my router user name and password. I did do that on my Linksys router. Anyone who has a router password of 'admin' should change the password to something else. Why? Apparently, a Javascript malware bug can install a DNS virus into your router, re-routing traffic. All you need to do to defeat the Java bug is change your password. Even 'admin1' would do it. Verizon FIOS routers come out of the box with no user name and use the router serial number as a password. You can add a user name, which will provide security, or change the router password, or both. Also, make sure your WiFi has a password. When Verizon came and installed my router, it did have a password for WiFi by default. My Linksys router did not, but is was easy to add one. Getting back to New-host-1 or whatever, I'm not sure you have to worry about that. So far nothing bad has happened to my machine, its been several days. Mine says 'new-host-3'. Still looking into it... I'm thinking the other possibility is that it may be my own iPhone, which might show up when it picks up WiFi off the router.

Make sure you have your encryption set to WPA or WPA2 on the Verizon wireless router (which incidentally, is an outdated piece of crap - Verizon recommended removing your WRT54G only because their techs don't have enough knowledge to make both devices work together). Verizon enables WEP by default, which is absolutely useless - you may as well have no security setup at all.

What I would recommend is to just configure your WRT54G to use a different subnet (it's probably setup to use 192.168.0.0 - set it to use 192.168.2.0). Then, go into the Verizon router and disable the wireless radio. Simply plug an Ethernet cable into one of the four ports on the back of the DSL modem and run it to the Internet port of the WRT54G. Then, reconnect your wireless devices to the WRT54G and you should be good to go (just make sure that you're using WPA or better).

Agreed completely with CWA! That is what I would do also if I were you.

Just out of curiosity which WRT54g is is? Is it just a G or GL? The GL with Linux firmware is still my favorite G Wireless router of all time.

WPA2 all the way if you have that selection which you should.