My neighbours’ media devices

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I’m using a wireless-connected Windows 10 laptop with Bluetooth turned on. I clicked on Connect in the Action Center and didn’t recognise the device that showed. It turns out that it’s my neighbour’s TV.

I checked in Settings > Devices > Bluetooth & other devices and there were a number of media devices listed which I didn’t recognise:

It looks like my neighbours’ media devices… ‘cos none of them are mine.

I started removing them from the list then thought ‘I wonder where this list is stored’.

It turned out that they are stored within the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\SWD\DAFUPnPProvider

I was a bit surprised to find that along with the FriendlyName (which is displayed in Connect and Settings) was each device’s IP address, port used and filepath to a upnp.org schema file in XML format.

For example:

A quick Google suggests I might be able to turn this TV off using curl (see a third of the way down the page under IRCC /sony/IRCC), if the device’s default password hasn’t been changed. (I wouldn’t dream of doing this, of course.)

Can you see similar details?

 

 

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rexr

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Are your neighbor’s devices connected to your router, or are you connected to your neighbor’s router?  Is this intentional?  Is there a password set on the wifi network?

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gtd12345 wrote:

Are your neighbor’s devices connected to your router, or are you connected to your neighbor’s router? Is this intentional? Is there a password set on the wifi network?

Q1. Are your neighbor’s devices connected to your router?
No.

Q2. Are you connected to your neighbor’s router?
No.

Q3. Is this intentional?
If you mean is it intentional of Windows 10 then yes, apparently. My Wi-Fi network uses a class A private IP address range of 10.20.xxx.xxx whilst my neighbours’ Wi-Fi networks all apparently use the more standard class C private IP address range of 192.168.xxx.xxx. It appears that Windows 10’s ‘Connect’ scan for available media devices is promiscuous and searches both class A and C private address IP ranges.

Q4. Is there a password set on the wifi network?
Yes. My own Wi-Fi network has a quite long and (hopefully) complex password set and Windows 10 shows all 6 neighbouring Wi-Fi networks (including a Sony Bravia TV) are apparently secured, although I have no idea whether the Sony Bravia TV is using a default password.

 

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geekdom

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And can your neighbor see your devices and your router?

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geekdom wrote:

And can your neighbor see your devices and your router?

It depends what you mean by ‘see’. No doubt they can see my Wi-Fi SSIDs as hiding them is, IMO, false protection.

If they are using Windows 10 with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth enabled then they may wonder about other media devices appearing in Windows 10’s ‘Connect’ list. However, my media devices are hard-wired so wouldn’t appear on anyone elses ‘Connect’ list.

I’m guessing it’s a combination of uPnP and DNLA that media devices are so inherently ‘visible’. I just wasn’t expecting the amount of detail available to turn up in my laptop’s registry. 🙂

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geekdom

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Just six? I’m envious!

In ~15 seconds of scanning with LinSSID (Linux clone of InSSIDer), I get 44 SSIDs from where I sit at my desk:

If I let it scan for more time, say five minutes, it gets up to ~75 (counting all that have appeared during that time, even if they no longer are detected). That’s on both the 2.4 and 5GHz bands combined. Two of those 44 to 75 are mine, one in each frequency. As you can see, 2.4 GHz is quite a mess, so it’s only used if the device isn’t 5 GHz capable.

At certain times of day, using Bluetooth (which uses the 2.4 GHz band, of course) to stream audio from my laptop to my desktop 3 feet away is hopeless. I’ve used multiple devices as the source and the sink to rule out a malfunction with one of them.

This is in a single family house in a regular neighborhood, not in a high density setting like an apartment building!

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All the id info in the reg and when it comes to Settings > Devices you are in the dark as to what device is yours especially if a neighbor has the same device. A sloppy way to do things IMHO.
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wavy wrote:

All the id info in the reg and when it comes to Settings > Devices you are in the dark as to what device is yours especially if a neighbor has the same device. A sloppy way to do things IMHO.

I agree. A friend has a holiday caravan in a managed residential park. The caravans all have fitted smart TVs… and they are all identical make/models, with over a dozen within Wi-Fi range.

She gave up trying to work out which was her TV and now uses a long HDMI cable instead of ‘casting’ via Wi-Fi.

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https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/hackers-are-running-your-smart-home/

This is One way to hack your network.

You could block any outsiders from your router/network by allowing only your SSID devices.

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Blocking devices doesn’t work because you can forge MAC addresses etc. Stick to proper passwords and turn off UPNP.

cheers, Paul

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This thread is about Apples and Oranges. WiFi and Bluetooth have nothing to do with each other. Yes, both are wireless protocols, but that’s it. Ok, they may also share a radio frequency band, but still, Apples and Oranges. What this shows is that when Bluetooth is not needed it should be turned off. That said, a very interesting find.

 

Get up to speed on router security at RouterSecurity.org and Defensive Computing at DefensiveComputingChecklist.com

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[Rick Corbett]

It’s about ‘automatic device discovery’. I thought AskWoody readers may be interested in how much data Windows 10 captures from the airwaves, irrespective of which radio is used…

Windows 10 itself doesn’t appear to differentiate… they’re both just radios according to enumeration in:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\SWD\RADIO

 

• This reply was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by Rick Corbett.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by Rick Corbett.

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