Who is my ISP I popped in via wireless?

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What is the SSID/Network name that you connected to?

This will help determine if it's an ISP or a home system.

Normally, if you're picking up wireless in your house, it's within
about a 5 house radius from you. The stronger the signal, the closer
they are.

Chris
http://www.netsteady.cc

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janosvajda@gmail.com (jvajda) wrote in
news:1128022508.898531.69270@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com:

> Thanks, that seems logical. The SSID is SMC which is the name of a
> wireless hardware company, so the wireless I have picked up is
> named after the WiLAN card?

That's most likely the default SSID programmed into the access point
by the manufacturer which the owner hasn't bothered to change, which
is more evidence that it's a household installation.

If you really want to track this down, try running "ipconfig /all"
from a command prompt (you do appear to be running Windows XP).

Find the entry for your wireless adapter and you'll see several IP
addresses. The one labeled "IP Address" is the dynamic address
assigned to your PC and is probably not too useful. The one labled
"Default Gateway" is the address of the access point and most likely
will be a dynamic address too, and also won't be useful. On the off
chance that it's not a dynamic address, you can go to
http://www.ripe.net/ (I'm assuming that you're really in Hungary as
you appear to be) and enter the IP address into the "RIPE WHOIS
Database Search" to find out who owns that address. If there are
addresses in the "DNS Servers" field, you can do the same with those.

None of this is likely to be of much use in finding out which
individual owns the access point you've connected to, just the name
of the ISP he buys his service from.

--
Bert Hyman | St. Paul, MN | bert@iphouse.com

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janosvajda@gmail.com (jvajda) wrote in
news:1128026063.336672.281980@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:

> yes, I did that already and tried to find out the DNS server.
> ripe.net database could not be more specific.
> Is it possible, that the houshold access point owner I have been
> connected to realized my presence and could stop providing the
> internet access to my notebook's physical address. I am asking this
> because from one moment on I am not having internet although the
> wireless connection is still alive, but when I installed the DWL
> card to another notebook with the same setting, the internet is
> working again.

Access control on a per-system basis is done only by MAC address, so
far as I know, and the MAC address is a property of the network
interface. So, if your wireless card worked in another PC, something
else must have stopped your other machine from connecting.

Still, a disinterested outside observer might begin to think that
your interest in your neighbor's wirless connection is no longer so
innocent.

--
Bert Hyman | St. Paul, MN | bert@iphouse.com

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Since in wireless environment, MAC address equals physical address, you
are also saying that a user can be excluded from internet access by
prohibiting the PC (or notebook) physical address (MAC address). Is
this exactly what happened to me?