My Services

[thenry]

Hello fellow Virgin Media users,

Right, I live in a flat at the top, theres 2 tennants beneath me and I suspect somethings going on. The tennants directly beneath me are accessing services from Virgin for free or on my behalf. I spoke to Virgin last week and the lady told me my modem may of been a victim of some sort of fraud so they come out and fit a new one. I've always turnt my services off when not in use, considering the current climate its a must to save the pennies but it seems like when i turn my services off the tennants beneath me can access services, I'm not crazy I have my suspicions, one being them throwing fits when i turn my computer on or the tv, its happened more than afew times so it made me think. the guys a junkie, theres no point me asking whats going on because their getting one over me by accessing services i'm paying for, not many if any would admit that. I now leave my modem on even though my PC is off, will this make a difference? I have a WebSTAR EPC2100R2, the cable and power lights stay solid when the system is on or off and the PC & data - send & receive flashing when the system is on. For the past few days I've taken interest in this so I've kept an eye on my modem and system, its been fine but yesterday and today when booting up my local area connection took a little while to connect, it had a explanation mark on the icon in taskbar on desktop, this happened when my old modem was in when they got use of the broadband while mine was off. The guy who come and put in the modem said the cable line is separate but I know for a fact their still accessing what I'm paying for. I can't really afford to keep my pc running all day every day, can someone please help me out. Many thanks in advance

[Kymmy]

If they do have a cloned modem it doesn't mean to say that your MAC is cloned, neither will it effect your download limits

[Sephiroth]

There's only one way the fraud you describe can work IMO which requires three combinations:

1 A previous VM cable circuit to the flat below that is still connected at the street box

2 A cable modem in the flat below of the same type as yours

3 A cloned MAC address in the modem the same as yours

Is that likely?

[thenry]

they changed the modem to make sure the mac address and other things such as modem serial etc. are not copied, maybe you could tell me more. as for cloned modem, who knows the guys a junkie con artist it wouldn't surprise me, can't virgin do something about it? something must be going on because when i boot up my system or tv they start throwing fits trust me this isn't a coincidence, i really want to knock him out although i've come close to, my excuse, this, isn't really good enough to avoid me getting screwd by the feds and truthly i'm not prepared to get a criminal record for him. please guys some advice to stop this please. why can't virgin stop signals going into the flat? i'm above them so everytime i boot up does it play with their cable wall port?

[Peter_]

If they had cloned your MAC address then you would not be able to get online when their modem was powered up and viceversa if your modem was on they could not get online.

They cannot connect to your modem from an external source unless you have a wireless network and they have managed to hack your password.

If you have a router I would change the network name and use a longer and more secure password to prevent them having access to your network.

A router password can be up to 63 characters long and you can download wireless router password generators.

[thenry]

i have no wireless mate, its a stand alone pc wired up to a modem. i have comodo set up, tried to turn everything off within the system that force microsoft to send out a wireless point! i'm running vista, i used blackviper to turn services off and grc to scan ports, everything came back stealth.

[webcrawler2050]

The tennants directly beneath me are accessing services from Virgin for free or on my behalfHow'd you come to this conclusion?

one being them throwing fits when i turn my computer on or the tv

Can you provide more information, for this.

I'm not sure whats going on here but I don't think anything "illegal" is going on but I could be wrong

[Peter_]

i have no wireless mate, its a stand alone pc wired up to a modem. i have comodo set up, tried to turn everything off within the system that force microsoft to send out a wireless point! i'm running vista, i used blackviper to turn services off and grc to scan ports, everything came back stealth.
Well they are not using your connection whatsoever as the has to be either a physical connection on your side of the modem or a wireless connection.

As they have neither the is nothing to worry about as they are not on your connection.

[thenry]

trust me mate, its hard to believe. hes a grown man, junkie which spends all his money on whatever rocks his boat then expects to access free internet/services all sorts whatever he can get his hands on but the funny thing is hes never comforted me. what been said by yourself and the lady at virgin was, if i'm on he can't use it but when im off he can, the little issue i've had getting online when booting up might be because hes using the line again some how. i need virgin to block all signals going to the wall port in the flat if thats at all possible. the guy who come and fit my new modem said every wall port will have a signal? why

[Peter_]

Once again it is not possible for him to use your connection as you have a cable coming into your property that then goes into your modem.

That modem is provisioned on your account and no one elses account.

So you state that you have no router and that you connect via ethernet directly to your computer.

If the above is correct then it is physically impossible that he is using your connection.

He has probably bought an illegal modem from Ebay and is obtaining broadband illegally but not your broadband.

As I said above if he had managed to clone your MAC address then he would be on the internet and you would not be until he switched the modem off.

To get broadband from your connection he would need to have an ethernet cable in your modem.

[webcrawler2050]

trust me mate, its hard to believe. hes a grown man, junkie which spends all his money on whatever rocks his boat then expects to access free internet/services all sorts whatever he can get his hands on but the funny thing is hes never comforted me. what been said by yourself and the lady at virgin was, if i'm on he can't use it but when im off he can, the little issue i've had getting online when booting up might be because hes using the line again some how. i need virgin to block all signals going to the wall port in the flat if thats at all possible. the guy who come and fit my new modem said every wall port will have a signal? why

I dont see anything "wierd" going on... maybe you being a little paranoid..

[thenry]

i'm not being paranoid webcrawler2050 mate, something is going on, its might be illegal modem as moldova said, can it affect his modem or anything else he has when i boot up my services? it just makes me curious because its gone on for a while, when i turn on my services he throws fits when before i do its silent, and my pc doesn't make much noise. what do i do? can virgin do something about this ?

[Peter_]

If he has an illegal modem it cannot affect your connection and you switching on your modem and pc will have no effect on him.

Quite often as a temporary fix 2 neighbours will be temporarily linked to the same cable if the is a fault while repairs are carried out.

One could be on 20Mb and the neighbour may have our size S 2Mb package, but as both modems are correctly provisioned on the network then they will only receive the broadband package they are paying for.

He is not using your connection as it is NOT POSSIBLE.

[thenry]

ok. is it worth contacting virgin and making sure they have everything right in the cabinets, and lines coming into the flats?

[Peter_]

ok. is it worth contacting virgin and making sure they have everything right in the cabinets, and lines coming into the flats?
Just report that you think someone is obtaining services illegally and give them the address.

They are not stealing your services, they are stealing Virgins if they are not paying for them.

[thenry]

ok, thank you all, reps to all nice 1 thanks again

[Peter_]

ok, thank you all, reps to all nice 1 thanks again
No problem it is good to suspicious and question what is going on.;)

[thenry]

quick question,

I've got comodo firewall setup and normally in my "active connections" I have a svchost connection to 255.255...... it normally stays there locked in my firewall but for the past few days it hasn't been there, or it has when booting but then disappears after a while... could anyone explain what its for, and if theres an error when it disappears? thank you

[Ignitionnet]

Let me Google that for you. (http://lmgtfy.com/?q=svchost)

Third match down is as good as any - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svchost