Geeks- is it possible for a router to have a virus?

There's nothing stopping it, it's just highly unlikely. If you have to ask, your router probably isn't a large enough target to be worthy of one.

Routers are more likely to be hacked (via default admin username/pw) and modified to allow all traffic in or to forward traffic somewhere else, or store the traffic for later perusal, rather than putting a virus on it.

Plus they usually run something other than windows so the virus writers usually won't target it in the first place.

I commandeered one of my neighbor's routers with default user/pass. They didn't have any WEP or WPA running, though.

I didn't do anything nefarious, however. I just put a clamp down on anyone who was running P2P crap. Sometimes there would be 20 clients running off it.

Thanks guys. I'm visiting my parents- my dad had been complaining of his website visits being detoured. I thought it was his computer, but when I'm on his wifi, my iPhone, iPad, and computer do the same thing.

Sounds like his router's DNS got hijacked. One (possible) solution is to find out his ISP's DNS servers and manually enter them into the router's configuration.

Change the router admin user/pass.

Might be more involved than that, but I've never had to solve this problem, would have to read about it.

What I would do: hold down the hard reset button for 5+ secs (on my linksys you need a pin to get at it), which should wipe out everything and restore it to defaults. Though sometimes you may need a password (for the ISP) to restore it, and that can be found by viewing the html source on the password page (at least on my linksys).

Then viist http://192.168.0.1 and if you see the router's config page, start locking it down, by at least setting a password on it, then taking a look at firewall options.

Thanks guys. I really appreciate it since I didn't know where to start. I'll give it a shot when I'm back at the house and we'll see how it goes.

Good idea to do that ^^. It resets router to factory defaults.
Router's admin page might also be 192.168.1.1, 192.168.15.1 or a few others - check specific router's documentation.

I reset the router and nothing works now. I can't get online...

If you didn't try matt's tip:

and your folks don't have the necessary info handy, some phone support fun may be in order.

I'm so glad my ISPs (Comcast and Clear) let routers work right out of the box.

I reset the router and used the router setup CD. It says that there's no network connection. WTF?!

Hmmm.

CD won't configure your router to work with your ISP unless possibly it has your ISPs name on it. If it has your router's manufacturer's name on it, then it won't do what you need it to do.

Connect computer directly to modem. Do you get internet then? If so, then it's all router problems.

Try the old standby:

1. Disconnect all cables from router (including power)
2. Disconnect power from modem. Wait 20 seconds.
3. Plug in modem power.
4. Wait 20 seconds to make sure Modem's fully booted.
5. Reconnect router to modem.
6. Reconnect power to router.
7. Wait a bit 'til router fully boots and negotiates a connection.
8. Plug a computer into router to check for internet.
9. If you have internet then try out the wireless via a laptop, or whathaveyou.

Probably should have asked these first:

What kind of internet do they have DSL/Cable/4G/etc?
What is their ISP.
What is their router's make and model?

/\ this worked.

:hug:

Writing a Sinatra app to scrape DSB (Denmark's Amtrak) page to get train arrival data, starting to enjoy some of the Ruby constructs. Still not convinced of it being better than Python, but Heroku is cheap

If my youngest son ever got on BF he would "win" this thread as the geekiest of the geeks. Yesterday driving back from St. Augustine on Florida State Route 207 he saw a level crossing with two gates each direction and in addition included pedestrian gates. For him this was the "Holy Grail" of railroad crossing crap. He went on and on about a similar crossing somewhere in Massachusetts or some other such place.

I heard a rumor that Verizon is going to get the iPhone in 2011. Is that happening?

You're as likely to get a solid answer from a crystal ball as you are asking here.

Crap. I thought this thread might help sorting out the noise.

Probably.

Somehow an XP install (from original media) was giving me a CRC-check error during install! I think the CD-rom drive is bad, especially considering it was about halfway done with the install. Weird.

So now attempting to put Win7 on a laptop from 2004-5, it's gonna be a tight squeeze. Network boot/install is humming along, but taking forever! Crossing fingers that a) it install and b) runs ok. The poor machine is only ~1GHz, 1GB of ram, it's gonna be a tight squeeze.

My Crystal/Eight Ball Answer: As sure as sure can be

A couple of recent good pc things for me in the last 24 hours:
1) Found some old Office 2003 cds ("old" interface before Msoft created the gotta-click-a-ton version of Office), loaded it up on Windows 7 and it is working fine thus far;
2) One thing that has driven me crazy is the lack of right click on the Mac mouse; and, their somewhat new magic mouse is a hassle to open for cleaning the dirt off the scroller. So -- and yes, I realize that I am way behind on this one -- I plugged in a Dell mouse into my iMac and, voila, right click!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now, if Apple can create the "delete stuff to the right" key (without me having to do fn + delete), I won't have much left to complain about on the Mac. (I'm ready for someone here to tell me that I can reprogram a key and how to do it -- I am all ears.)

Ctrl+click is a right-click on our macbook, does that work?

Indeed! Good to know. I could probably adapt. But, I find the right click more convenient. Although, on my macbook, on which I do not use a mouse, that will be handy!!! Thanks. (Another thing: I love the pointer on my Thinkpad. I would be thrilled if Apple would introduce a macbook with a pointer. I prefer it over the pad.)

I read that by Feb Verizon should have iPhone.

Check out Europe. They have ridiculously cool things like that too, but now you need to include bike lanes in the mix. Similarly the traffic light situation can be crazy because at least in Holland they like putting dotted lines to guide you through the intersections. All those left turns, for cars and bikes, dotted lanes drawn out, lights with walkers, cyclist, and "normal" for the cars...

As a kid I loved all that organization and clarity. You knew exactly where your lane had to go and when. If you were in the wrong lane, tough luck.

cdr

I was the last person to post here? Shame on you all.

Just got 2.5 TB of drive space (2TB external, 500GB laptop) in the mail today. Right after I ordered another 2TB (2x1TB) internal drives, two AMD3 CPU/MB combos (one single core + cheapo MB, one triple with ASUS Evo MB to unlock the 4th core), 2x4GB RAM for the triple, 2x2GB RAM for the single, some misc fans and stuff. This will freshen up the three main machines I use, increase the Windows laptop storage (the 2.5TB was for just the laptop, back up and 2nd drive).

I've decided against buying a new Mac (need the Firewire port which I don't have). I'm going to borrow one for 6 weeks.

I did discover that I had 2x300GB drives in one machine, not 2x1TB drives like I thought. Formatting the second 1.5 TB drive tonight (the first I did yesterday and it finished sometime today).

With the 2TB drive for the HP, 1TB drive for the Mac, I hope to have enough room to save all my helmet cam clips.

Next round, maybe in the summer or the fall, will be the Mac. I may buy another one for the Firewire port but regardless I'll need two more external drives for backup.

Oh and I decided to get a stethoscope also while poking around the different sites. And a BP cuff. Heh.

cdr

My next task: produce an Android map tile server. Yeah, that shouldn't be any problem between my flights out to support "customer" demos and stroking all the management status reports for everyone. IRAD projects are really fun when they start, but when they start to become products, the transition is not smooth (requirements ramp up about six months before resources).

^^ Oy!

Two Finger Right Click

1Understand you can only do this if you have a mac laptop.
2Take two of your fingers (forefinger and the middlefinger). Spread them about two centimeters apart and put them on the trackpad.
3That should work.