Homeplug network extenders – security?

[slowhand]

Visible networks

I know this thread is old, but I cam across it doing some fact finding. Without repeating myself I've pasted below the question to Devolo.

By the way I've since been told that houses next to each other on the same phase electric (I'm told it's a 1 in 3 chance?) will see each others network.

"I use a pair of your dLAN 200 AVeasy adaptors, 1 unit is from the router to the mains and the 2nd unit is downstairs for the tv. All has been fine until yesterday when my neighbour (not joined to premises) told me he can see 3 of my pc’s, my printer and the tv on his network, he could not access them but could see them. He also stated that his internet connection had dropped in quality over the last 2 days. I to had been having problems for the last two days myself.

I went and looked on his pc and there were the pc’s on my network. I had a look in my router admin panel and there in the active device list were all his devices. We tried different scenarios and found that he could only see mine when his homeplug adaptor (don’t know the make) was connected to the mains. So I disconnected my adaptor from the router and he could no longer see my network.

My question is, is there any way we can get round this situation. Bandwidth looks like it will be an issue here as his devices are hijacking ip address from my network. I was under the impression that the fuse boxes cut out any chances of ‘seeing/joining’ any other networks.

Hope you can shed some light on this matter for us."

I'm awaiting a reply

[DaveB]

I know this thread is old, but I cam across it doing some fact finding. Without repeating myself I've pasted below the question to Devolo.

By the way I've since been told that houses next to each other on the same phase electric (I'm told it's a 1 in 3 chance?) will see each others network.

"I use a pair of your dLAN 200 AVeasy adaptors, 1 unit is from the router to the mains and the 2nd unit is downstairs for the tv. All has been fine until yesterday when my neighbour (not joined to premises) told me he can see 3 of my pc’s, my printer and the tv on his network, he could not access them but could see them. He also stated that his internet connection had dropped in quality over the last 2 days. I to had been having problems for the last two days myself.

I went and looked on his pc and there were the pc’s on my network. I had a look in my router admin panel and there in the active device list were all his devices. We tried different scenarios and found that he could only see mine when his homeplug adaptor (don’t know the make) was connected to the mains. So I disconnected my adaptor from the router and he could no longer see my network.

My question is, is there any way we can get round this situation. Bandwidth looks like it will be an issue here as his devices are hijacking ip address from my network. I was under the impression that the fuse boxes cut out any chances of ‘seeing/joining’ any other networks.

Hope you can shed some light on this matter for us."

I'm awaiting a reply

Did you push the button on your devolo units to turn on the built in security?

[vetran]

There is nothing the the meter to block high frequency.

One in 3 houses are on the same phase. 3 phases off the sub station and you get one of them per house.

Use the security on the mains transceivers!

[Sysman]

My question is, is there any way we can get round this situation. Bandwidth looks like it will be an issue here as his devices are hijacking ip address from my network. I was under the impression that the fuse boxes cut out any chances of ‘seeing/joining’ any other networks.

Have you tried putting your router and systems onto a different subnet?

Routers typically come with a default IP address of 192.168.1.1 and network mask of 255.255.255.0 which means that they talk to anything in the range 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.254, and if a system set up for DHCP asks for an address to be allocated, it will be in this range.

In other words, if both you and your neighbour are on the 192.168.1.x address ranges you will be able to see each other's systems. You could also end up with duplicate addresses between you, so no surprise if there are connectivity issues.

Pick another address range from the following address blocks, which are reserved for private use (e.g. behind a router):

10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.254
172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.254
192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.254

You are best off steering clear of the 192.168 range because everyone and his dog uses that. I am told that this can become especially problematic if you set up an VPN.

Once you have set your router to another address in one of the above ranges, make sure your PCs and telly are set to use that address as the gateway (and DHCP server). Note that when you change your router's IP address, it will probably reboot itself and you won't be able to see it until you change your PC as well (might need a PC reboot).


P.S. Not had my first coffee yet, so would appreciate it if someone could do a sanity check on what I've scrawled above.