Wireless access

hey guys,
Im a bit stuck...
i tried a bit of war driving just to see what was out there the other day and was blown away with how many ap's i picked up... esp ones that were without encryption and left at their default ssid's.

anyway, heres the question. I picked up an ap of a neighbour, unknown vendor (i use net stumbler for info) ssid of Network and non wep.

I have xp, and in my systray (or notification aream whatever) i got the network connection icon indicating i had made a conection. Now , all i want to do is connect to the net to DL a linux distro cos i only have dialup. BUT, i couldnt. i couldny get an ip addy, only an "automatic private address".... no good. I have my laptop set up for dhcp and my alternate config for thje private thingie above. Im stuck. could anyone tell me point me in the right direction as to obtain an ip addy from this network?

any help would be greatly apprieciated.

thx all who reply.

Quicksilver.

Perhaps he does not have DHCP enabled. He could be using internal IP addressing and just manually assign the IP's to the systems.

I don't know about the laws elsewhere, but what you are attempting is illegal here in the United States.

I have an Idea, and I'll bet it's a lot easier than any thing involved in getting onto their inet:

goto that distros website and ORDER THE CDs!!

It shouldn't be more than like 30 bucks and you know it's worth it.
If there is a flaw in this plan based on where you live (country), nevermind.

I would indeed check the laws regarding this before attempting it. again, it's worth paying for a good linux setup :D

If your sure it's not illegal, I would recommend doing some research to find out what type of AP it is and determine it's default IP by going to the support page on thier website. Then set your settings to the same subnet, using the AP as your gateway if it's a router. If all else fails, use a scanner and look for anything in the 192.168.* and 10.0.* subnets. As for DNSs there are a lot of public ones out there. For example 198.82.165.50 and 204.117.214.10.

Another good idea: Call up your neighbors and ask them if you can use their network to download something directly related to your computer education :D That way you'll probably make some freinds and maybe even a client who'll pay to have you work on their network/computers if they ever go down.

hope it helps, and don't do anything stupid. I can think of plenty simple social engineering tactics that would work as well, but that would just be wrong.

You can buy one of those linux handbooks from a newsagency for about $10. Usually comes with a distro on them.

Your neighbour is either very smart and has MAC Address filtering on or you are using a PDA.... why a PDA.....Firmware is the key..........

Don't try to steal other people's sh!t!!!!!

Buy your own access.

That's my advice!

Have fun..