0

I am using Windows 7 64-bit Professional and my Desktop-PC is directly connected to a TP-Link WR841N wireless router which I mainly use to get wifi on my phone.

Before I purchased the wireless router, the internet cable from the ISP directly connected to my PC and I was able to see and access other users computers when I entered "Network" from "My Computer".

Those computers belonged to other users from my ISP who probably share the same IP range as I do.

After connecting the wireless router my PC address has become 192.168.0.XX and I cannot see any of those other computers from "Network" or by typing \\Computername

How can I get back access to other users PC like I used to while using the wireless router?

Improve this question
5
  • 1
    completely unacceptable and probably illegal, depending on jurisdiction.
    – Frank Thomas
    Commented Sep 19, 2014 at 14:18
  • 1
    I'd love to know which ISP didn't think that one through... on second thoughts... I probably wouldn't - major can of worms.
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Sep 19, 2014 at 14:26
  • I'm sure what you are trying to do is against the "Terms of Service" of your ISP at the very least. In most places it's probably illegal as well.
    – DavidPostill ♦
    Commented Sep 19, 2014 at 14:33
  • 2
    First off, change ISPs, it sounds like your ISP is not competent enough to be able to isolate its users from each other. Who knows what other surprises could be found on their network.
    – heavyd
    Commented Sep 19, 2014 at 14:55
  • The ISP's in my city allows file sharing between users. I don't know why they do it. May be they don't know how to isolate it's users. Our internet laws are a bit different from other countries. It isn't illegal as long as we are not sharing anything illegally here. That is why I was asking the question.
    – Rubab
    Commented Sep 20, 2014 at 6:17

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

Before I purchased the wireless router, the internet cable from the ISP directly connected to my PC and I was able to see and access other users computers when I entered "Network" from "My Computer".

This is a bad thing for a lot of reasons:

  • First, very likely any of these users can do the same to you unless you've locked file sharing down on your own PC.

  • It sounds like the ISP's equipment is allowing broadcast traffic to propagate from users to within its network. This consumes bandwidth that could be used to transit Internet traffic instead.

  • Furthermore, if they are not filtering DHCP ports, a misconfigured DHCP server could wreak havoc among all visible users on that subnet.

  • ARP spoofing attacks are possible which could allow a machine to impersonate another server or site you are trying to get to.

Also note that unless you've secured permission from these people to access their systems, you are probably still committing a crime (IANAL though) even if it's easily accessible. I would recommend you not do this.

So keep your router, do not enable an external web interface to it, and enable all its firewall functions, to protect yourself.

Assuming you have permission to access another system on this ISP that you can see, and that you know for a fact it's not against your ISPs ToS, what I would do is get a 10/100Mbit hub, connect your ISP ethernet cable to it, and connect your router's WAN port to it. You can then connect another system to another port in the hub when you want to access other computers on the ISP, but systems behind your router will be protected from this mess. Don't do something silly like connect this back to a free LAN port on your router. Keep it physically separate.

Improve this answer
1
  • The ISP's in my city allows file sharing between users. I don't know why they do it. May be they don't know how to isolate it's users. Our internet laws are a bit different from other countries. It isn't illegal as long as we are not sharing anything illegally here. That is why I was asking the question.
    – Rubab
    Commented Sep 20, 2014 at 6:16

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .