Disconnect Wireless Router At Night?

[Bulldog]

At the risk of making myself look paranoid:

My cable modem has a "Standby" button, which severs the connection between the modem and my wireless router while maintaining the connection between the modem and my ISP.

I have gotten into the habit of pressing the Standby button at night, so that no one will be able to use my internet connection while I'm sleeping. (I also shut down my computer.) In the morning I reconnect my router to the internet.

Is this a justifiable course of action? I wouldn't want someone to think "Let's download a pirated movie while he's sleeping."

Thanks for your candid advice.

 

[thiggins]

Not paranoid at all. That's what the button is there for.

 

[Bulldog]

Thank you.

 

[Fuzzilla]

Hi Bulldog,

You aren't the only one. Whenever I am away from the PC for a decent amount of time I put my modem in standby. When I'm away for extended periods of time I unplug the router as well.
FWIW, when turning the modem and/or router on remember to allow the router time to benchmark the connection before accessing the net. For me this is about 30 seconds.

 

[Bulldog]

Fuzzilla, Tim:

I neglected to mention that my router is protected with WPA2-AES and a really strong password. Doesn't an interloper need to know my password in order to connect to the internet through my router?

As an experiment, I tried to connect to other password-protected networks in my neighborhood, and I was asked for the password every time.

All the same: If I am going to be away from home overnight or longer, I always power off my computers and put the cable modem on Standby.

 

[bigclaw]

Hmm, I can't afford to do that as I use an SSH-tunneled proxy on my router to tunnel my web browsing at remote locations all the time, especially when I'm out of town. In that regard, I'm more paranoid than you. I hope WPA2-AES is really strong enough to prevent hacks going into my network, or at least strong enough for them to pick a neighboring router instead.

Actually I'm curious as to how unplugging the router at night yields a significant security improvement in general. What's to prevent the hacker from hacking into your network during daytime, unless of course hackers in your neighborhood tend to be predominantly night owls...

 

[thiggins]

WPA and WPA2 (and PSK VPN for that matter) are only as strong as the passwords that you use. Simple passwords are easily guessed by simple dictionary attacks.

 

[thiggins]

Actually I'm curious as to how unplugging the router at night yields a significant security improvement in general. What's to prevent the hacker from hacking into your network during daytime, unless of course hackers in your neighborhood tend to be predominantly night owls...

The thought is that you would be using the system during the day and more apt to notice any unusual activity.

It's not really a day/night issue. It's more monitored / unmonitored.

 

[bigclaw]

The thought is that you would be using the system during the day and more apt to notice any unusual activity.

That's a valid point.

On the other hand, one has to carefully ponder whether an intrusion during the day really will be notified, or is it just a false sense of security that if somebody is awake in the house, nobody will break in.

• Do you routinely inspect access logs (if any) or wireless client list to notice unusual clients at daytime?
• Do you only get concerned when the browsing speed is unusually sluggish, which may not be the case even if your network is compromised?
• Do you use a strong encryption scheme, know what a strong encryption key is, and periodically change it?
• Do you have a router that lends itself to better protection? For example, my router's firmware allows one to disable access to its admin page from a wireless connection.

Turning the router off at night definitely reduces the likelihood of successful hacker attacks; I'm not disputing that. I'm just thinking out loud how much of a reduction we're talking about. Other aspects listed above have a far greater impact on security in general.

Sorry, I didn't intend to write this much; I'm just genuinely interested in home network security.

 

[Bulldog]

For now, WPA2/AES with a strong password is uncrackable, barring social engineering. Tomorrow? Who knows. Anything software can be exploited. Not to boast, but I use a 63-character totally random password that I got from Steve Gibson's "Ultra High Security Password Generator" (https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm - there are other equally secure password generators on the web.)

Putting my cable modem on Standby removes all doubts, of course, but having uncrackable encryption means that nobody down the street or in a car parked outside can join my network.

You can always see what's connected to your network by accessing the router's configuration settings. There's probably third-party software out there that will tell you when someone is trying to join your network. But if you're uncrackable, and there are easier fish to fry in your neighborhood (e.g., using WEP or no encryption at all), as there almost invariably are, you don't have to worry.

SmallNetBuilder is my number one source of information, without which I wouldn't have had the confidence to go wireless. Thank you Tim!

 

[thiggins]

• Do you routinely inspect access logs (if any) or wireless client list to notice unusual clients at daytime?
• Do you only get concerned when the browsing speed is unusually sluggish, which may not be the case even if your network is compromised?
• Do you use a strong encryption scheme, know what a strong encryption key is, and periodically change it?
• Do you have a router that lends itself to better protection? For example, my router's firmware allows one to disable access to its admin page from a wireless connection.

In my case, I am in a suburban area with multiple-acre lots, lots of trees and low traffic. So I would notice anyone sitting outside. I am also on the net 8-10 hours a day and notice changes in network responsiveness right away.

So my approach to wireless security is very simple: WPA/WPA2 with a moderately-strong keyphrase.

I focus my security efforts on mitigating the constant hack attempts on the SNB server!

 

[Fuzzilla]

I occasionaly check logs, do not sweat the rare slowdowns, use strong encryption schemes, and disable wireless when not in use (The TEW-633GR has a physical switch.

 

[bigclaw]

I focus my security efforts on mitigating the constant hack attempts on the SNB server!

I'm not familiar with SNB servers. Did you mean SMB? My file servers are only accessible through VPN or the SSH tunnel. To establish an SSH tunnel with my network, one cannot use password logins and must use public key authentication with a non-trivial passphrase.

I love Putty!

 

[thiggins]

I'm not familiar with SNB servers. Did you mean SMB?

SNB = SmallNetBuilder