How do I mess with someone on my wireless network?

[chrisuk]

You won't like this:

Let's be honest, no matter what advice is given here, the OP will do nothing... most giving the advice would do nothing, it's easy typing on a keyboard, those giving the advice don't have to live with the consequences... the OP does. I won't even explain why the OP will do nothing, you know why, and he knows why. It's not the brother-in-law that needs to change, and even if he did change, someone else would soon take his place.


If you let things like this happen, you are being bullied; I'd guess it's not the first time, and it won't be the last. Life is much shorter than you realise, before you know it you're an old man/woman, don't waste the time you have, stand up for yourself and what you know to be right, nobody else will do it for you. But... don't build this up in your head into more than it is, it's not life-threatening, it's an irritation that you can easily stop with a few words spoken to your brother-in-law... you'll feel so much better afterwards (or he'll punch you and you'll get sympathy from your family, who'll then see him for what he is... win win )

[samriggs]

You won't like this:
or he'll punch you and you'll get sympathy from your family, who'll then see him for what he is... win win

I'm one of the few that has been in this situation more then a few times and dealt with it, my own harsh way by showing them the door.
But it's not easy.
I love your logic though

Just to get the OP some percentages on how much folks actually do something, when I was younger, I use to try and help street people get off the street, I would take them in, feed them clothe them and get them jobs to get them off the street and get them on their on way, soon as it got to the job they would last a day or less then a week then quit.
In all those I tried to help get started and off the streets only 1 went further.
Which is why I deal with it the way I do now.

[jimallyn]

when I was younger, I use to try and help street people get off the street, I would take them in, feed them clothe them and get them jobs to get them off the street and get them on their on way, soon as it got to the job they would last a day or less then a week then quit.

Many (most?) street people have mental illnesses and are not capable of living the way we might want them to. I usually introduce myself, shake their hand, chat with them for a few minutes, then give them a few bucks and move on. I also have the addresses and phone numbers of all the shelters and such in my phone in case they need that info.

[samriggs]

Many (most?) street people have mental illnesses and are not capable of living the way we might want them to. I usually introduce myself, shake their hand, chat with them for a few minutes, then give them a few bucks and move on. I also have the addresses and phone numbers of all the shelters and such in my phone in case they need that info.

It's true some do have an illness but not the ones I took in, they were just lazy and didn't want to work, most of the ones I met had no illness at all except the fact they wanted to float through life on someone else's dime.
The ones that did have an illness due to drugs, booze or just life in general, got cash or a meal or whatever was needed, but to be honest those are ones that rarely asked for any help at all, if they were still addicts then no cash was given but meals instead, why add to what is crippling them already.
I was on the street when I was younger for a bit which is why I sort of understood them and tried to help but alas most of it was in vain.
You can lead a horse to water but......
So as a former street person, I might be crazy at times but no mental illness although the wife might argue that point sometimes
I also used to do a street ministry in the past, I usually found street folks more honest then most and down to earth which seems opposite to what most think.
But most being mentally ill I have to disagree with that, most I knew it was just a matter a choice more then anything else.
The ones I took in wanted a chance to get ahead and off the streets, but in the end, like a bad habit, they went back because they didn't have work on the streets, although that can be argued a lot and most didn't stay in shelters due to the violence, robberies and lice and fleas, they all had their own spots in the streets.

But back to the OP concern, which is not a street person but someone just living off of his dime, a hard boot might be needed to get that system working like normal again

[BG405]

Depending on where the router is in relation to the garage, you might be able to sufficiently weaken the WiFi signals to & from that direction using the screen from the door of a scrap microwave oven. I haven't tested this yet but it's an idea I have for screening my WiFi signals from neighbouring properties when I put the router in its new location.

Note this might block the signal altogether (but shouldn't negatively affect coverage where it is needed, might even improve it) or indeed might not (but should) work so you'll need to experiment a bit with a laptop, tablet, cell phone or whatever to determine the affected zone and resulting WiFi performance (or lack thereof). I assume you just want to reduce performance (intermittently?) or introduce drop-outs which will have the desired effect on his online gaming. In which case the screen could be placed there whenever you feel like it; no need to modify any router settings.

Another idea is to set up MAC filtering on your router to exclude his machines, then set up a spare machine to provide a second network with the same SSID & password, but with ONLY his machines allowed via MAC filtering. Turn off "broadcast" on the router so his machines won't see & try to attach to it, power it off then activate the second network, wait a bit, turn the router back on. Then you can monitor traffic & redirect any undesirable content to an error page ... or one stating that internet access has been blocked due to excess usage and a payment is required to reactivate. I'm sure routing tables can be set up for this.

I've been thinking of setting up a spare machine to provide "guest" WiFi access (friends use it) so when I do, I'll probably be able to help more with this sort of thing. In my case it's to provide a better signal, though, with Wireless N instead of just B/G.

[jimallyn]

Depending on where the router is in relation to the garage, you might be able to sufficiently weaken the WiFi signals to & from that direction using the screen from the door of a scrap microwave oven.

No need to use a microwave oven door screen. There's nothing special about it, and a piece of aluminum foil will do just fine. Or metal screen like you might use for your doors and windows to let the air in but keep the bugs out.

[Pierre]

if you can work out their MAC address - then just block that ..

or even just change the WiFi code every other day ..

just do what ever is needed to resolve the immediate situation.