Hi,

Last night some rather offensive porn suddenly printed off a networked printer and my wife found it this morning and was quite upset.

Nobody has admitted to looking at porn and their is nothing in any of the history logs on all four computers, including a read of the index.dat files.

Does anyone know of any latest spyware or virus that could do this? Virus checks using AVG reveal nothing, as did a spyware check using Spybot Seach & Destroy.

Any help would be appreciated.

Jon.

Do you have a wireless network, and is security enabled.

If the answer to Q1 is Yes, and the answer to Q2 no, then someone could have hopped onto your network and printed it out.

It is a wireless network, but the only think that's wireless is the xbox (everything else is hard wired). I have set that up on access control, so presumably nothing else can get through?

if you do have wireless then enable wpa enctyption, also hide your ssid on the router or change it from "netgear" for example to home or somthing non specific.

don't use mac address filtering and wep as its a joke and can be hacked within seconds.

there are other measures that can be taken, please ask and i we will help you.

"presumably nothing else can get through?"the 1st rule in security is not to assume something is secure

the most likely thing is that someone has logged on to your router and looked at connected clients.

then they simply scan the ip range for pc's and printers, thin instaled the driver for your shared printer.

to gain access to your access controlled network they would just have to sniff a few packets transmitted from the router to get a valid mac address, then clone it on to there pc.

not to say that i would ever do this of course

If you don't have access control then you are open to the whole world.

Laptop on your wireless is a definate possibility.

access control (mac address filtering) is very hackable.

This has happened to me on more than one occasion.

if you really want to give hackers a hard time turn off dhcp and go to static ip's. turn off ssid transmitting.

change the default ip range and use WPA2 with AES encryption.

I have a spare A4 picture frame if it's any help?

Just a thought, but is it definate that it was actually printed off on the printer? Could someone in the office (Prankster or malicious) have physically left it in the printer tray having been printed elsewhere?

I'm not saying it doesnt happen but really seems pointless of someone hacking into your wireless network simply to print a bit of a jazz mag off.

seems pointless of someone hacking into your wireless network simply to print a bit of a jazz mag off.

:iagree:

you don't think 12-13 year olds with the right tools downloaded would find it bloody hilarious?

you don't think 12-13 year olds with the right tools downloaded would find it bloody hilarious?

When I was 13 I was doing different things with Jazz mags, not printing them

That old chestnut?

but really seems pointless of someone hacking into your wireless network simply to print a bit of a jazz mag off.

I have read on several forums that some people do this as an 'amusing' way of informing someone their network is not properly secured.

Thanks for all your replies. It really has put my mind at rest. I've now gone totally hard wired and will use a hub or similar for the xbox in future.

Gilly, that will make no difference unless you turn the wireless off on the router.

Could i suggest looking how to at least secure your network with WPA/WEP 128.

Insturctions for this will be in the manual for the router.

HTH

Cheezemonkhai, the wireless is totally switched off now. The xbox does not support WPA which is why I was using access control, thinking it was secure.

I think wireless is more trouble than its worth.

My WIFI card on my laptop does not support WPA, but im using the WEP key to access the Wireless router.

Am i at risk from Printer Porn ?????????????????

Mluton,

Yes but only a little bit

Basically WEP is pretty useless, but it will be enough to convince most people it isn't worth the effort as they have to spend about 5 minutes playing around to break in, while you are sending traffic.

Cheezemonkhai, the wireless is totally switched off now. The xbox does not support WPA which is why I was using access control, thinking it was secure.

I think wireless is more trouble than its worth.

My parents have just got wireless, to secure it i have it seperated as an external device on the firewall, MAC filtering, WPA2 using a big AES key, hiding the SSID and all the usual security on top.

I wouldn't set it up as WEP was just that weak and the sort of data he was using wireless was a better option.

I use an orange livebox. i occationally check to see what is paired with it, so as long as i keep my eye on that i should be alright.

My uncle has had "Free Nextdoor Neighbour Internet" for 2 years now.

I wish someone would print me some free porn...