Hi Rick, I wanted to give you an update. I was over in building 221 on the first floor in A/D-wings chasing down (literally) these NEC manufactured devices. I wasn't able to get into some rooms that seem to have the strongest signal of the MAC addresses. But, we have a list of MAC addresses that will need a little more research. What may have happened is, your laptop was trying to connect to the device with the SSID when the ADHOC device came within vicinity of your laptop. This has been a known issue and is sometimes known as the "Free Public WiFi" AD-Hoc issue. It affects both Windows and Apple wireless machines although, it seems to be a more common occurrence in a Window machine than in a Apple machine. The symptom usually occurs when the wireless profile is used in its default state. In order to stop this from occurring you can do a couple of configuration changes to your Wireless profile: If you're a Windows user: * In the Advanced settings of Wireless Network Connection properties ("Advanced" button on "Wireless Networks" tab), choose "Access Point (infrastructure) networks only". The default is "Any available network" and this is not safe. * Turn off "Automatic Connection" to preferred networks in the Wireless Network Connection properties so your network reads "On Demand". This will prevent your computer connecting to unsafe networks that have the same name as your home or office network. If you're a Mac user: * In Network Preferences, choose By Default, join "Preferred Networks" and edit your preferred network SSID's to include only trusted sources. * Click "Options," and ensure "Ask before joining an open network" is selected. Check the "Require Administrator Password to change networks" box, and deselect the option to automatically add new networks to the preferred list. Hope the tips help and if it happens again please let me know. Thanks You, Nick -----Original Message----- From: Rick Bradshaw [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, November 14, 2008 11:19 AM To: [email protected] Cc: MCS Core IT Admins; Rackow, Eugene A. Subject: random AP causing issues -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 2 times today, I have seen an AP pop up on wireless which is some crazy long random string. Similar to AD7388DKS78WSD37DSDASK. When this happens I stay associated with my AP but I lose all signal. I wanted to report this as it feels like some type of attack since the SSID is so strange I doubt it is just someone who forgot to turn off connection sharing. Rick -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFJHbL7davihOKkCCERArkjAKCYHbkm67Hoi/AicDxXN/Z/bXkLaQCgoGxJ 3cxpmDc98ks8Sen2clj6ip0= =vj0c -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----