Ignore network extenders

[salimoneus]

Possible on a rooted 4.2.2 Jellybean Droid Mini to disable all connections to network extenders?

My phone periodically connects to a neighbor's extender and it's actually worse than the normal crappy connection I get from the house.

I'm hoping there is a database setting or some config I can tweak to disable that. I can't believe that they would design these things so that I have no control whatsoever in regards to how my phone connects to the network. This seems like a major security issue to me.

 

[dookie.]

Your neighbor can lock down the extender, but I don't think you can control it (speaking as a long time extender user).

 

[salimoneus]

Your neighbor can lock down the extender, but I don't think you can control it (speaking as a long time extender user).

This is basically what a Verizon rep told me, but I find it hard to believe that my phone just gets routed to any old extender in the area, without my consent or authorization. I have no idea who is running it or what hardware they may have, and what they are doing with my data. If this is true I find this quite disturbing.

 

[huskers15]

This is basically what a Verizon rep told me, but I find it hard to believe that my phone just gets routed to any old extender in the area, without my consent or authorization. I have no idea who is running it or what hardware they may have, and what they are doing with my data. If this is true I find this quite disturbing.

At&t network extender lets you authorize who should use the extender or not. I wish verizon did the same with their extender. I believe you are out of luck in this situation.

 

[dookie.]

At&t network extender lets you authorize who should use the extender or not. I wish verizon did the same with their extender. I believe you are out of luck in this situation.

Read 2 posts back. Verizon does exactly this.

The extender is as locked down as anything else (yes, I'm familiar with the 2 year old, now patched, vulnerability reports). As far as your phone is concerned, it's just another tower, though you will see an icon and hear a tone indicating you're on an extender. I don't find it shocking (or worrisome) that my phone will connect to one. Seen this? http://money.cnn.com/2015/07/27/technology/android-text-hack/

I leave mine open, as a service to whoever might be in need here (wifi not so much), not that it reaches much beyond my property anyway. Tower coverage is terrible, the many guests / service providers certainly appreciate it, and I don't want to have to deal with maintaining an access list. Sure, they use a little of my broadband...but I have 300mbit to share.

 

[salimoneus]

Read 2 posts back. Verizon does exactly this.

The extender is as locked down as anything else (yes, I'm familiar with the 2 year old, now patched, vulnerability reports). As far as your phone is concerned, it's just another tower, though you will see an icon and hear a tone indicating you're on an extender. I don't find it shocking (or worrisome) that my phone will connect to one. Seen this?

I leave mine open, as a service to whoever might be in need here (wifi not so much), not that it reaches much beyond my property anyway. Tower coverage is terrible, the many guests / service providers certainly appreciate it, and I don't want to have to deal with maintaining an access list. Sure, they use a little of my broadband...but I have 300mbit to share.

I can appreciate your desire to keep your extender open to share with anyone who might need it, but in reality you are not so much sharing but rather forcing everyone within the proximity to use your network. There's a big difference between the two.

I've also heard that the extenders can only be setup to use a "white list" which gives priority to particular phones, but still allows anyone else to connect if there is available bandwidth. I hope this is incorrect, because at least I would have some recourse with the neighbor who might be able to "lock down" his extender.

But my issue isn't really with extenders in general, or whether or not they can be "locked down". My issue is with the fact that I have absolutely no control over how my phone connects to the system. I have no say if my phone connects through a complete stranger's private hardware, and is routed through that stranger's internet connection. That just doesn't sit well with me at all, regardless of how many experts claim it to be safe.

The critical missing piece here is the ability for me to disable or enable connecting to extenders from the phone itself. The phone knows it's using an extender, that's what the little house icon above my signal bars means, so it should be able to control that. Hopefully that missing piece exists, maybe the setting is just buried in a database table or something.

 

[UDPGuy]

I can appreciate your desire to keep your extender open to share with anyone who might need it, but in reality you are not so much sharing but rather forcing everyone within the proximity to use your network. There's a big difference between the two.

I've also heard that the extenders can only be setup to use a "white list" which gives priority to particular phones, but still allows anyone else to connect if there is available bandwidth. I hope this is incorrect, because at least I would have some recourse with the neighbor who might be able to "lock down" his extender.

But my issue isn't really with extenders in general, or whether or not they can be "locked down". My issue is with the fact that I have absolutely no control over how my phone connects to the system. I have no say if my phone connects through a complete stranger's private hardware, and is routed through that stranger's internet connection. That just doesn't sit well with me at all, regardless of how many experts claim it to be safe.

The critical missing piece here is the ability for me to disable or enable connecting to extenders from the phone itself. The phone knows it's using an extender, that's what the little house icon above my signal bars means, so it should be able to control that. Hopefully that missing piece exists, maybe the setting is just buried in a database table or something.

I feel you, but all it is, is a mini Verizon tower. Literally all it is.

Posted via Nexus 6 with unlimited international data via AT&T