Switching from Router login to WinXP login

Hi everyone, I'm sure this question has been answered before, I don't quite know what to search for though.

Here is my story:
- Yesterday, I try logging into my ADSL account, but no luck. I thought, oh well, maybe it's a telkom problem, I'll try again today. Today, same thing, I phone telkom, they reckon that I've overused my 3GB telkom account by 20GB. (I honestly didn't know this was possible!?)
- I'm shocked, since I doubt I've used more than 1GB. I'm not at home during the day and really had very little time to use my line at all this month. (I usually end up using less than 3GB a month since I practically use it only for gaming every now and then)
- So I figured someone must've stolen my account details, this is the only explanation since I have no spyware running on my PC. So my brother tells me about router harvesting, he lends me his account, I do some googling and come up with this link: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/10/19/harvesting_passwords_from_dsl_routers/
- I figure, this must be what happened, unless someone at work physically stole it from a file on my notebook while I was away. So, now I'm worried that it's going to happen again, even after changing my account name.

It's a pitty, since my LAN was quite well protected behind NAT on the router. I have an oldish Planet ADSL modem which has the popular Conexant browser interface and internals. My question is, how do I change the modem so that instead of it dialing in directly, I dial in through my PC's instead? If someone knows, please explain it to me in laymans terms as I'm not such an ADSL boffen as some of you okes are. Any help will be greatly appreciated!

Why don't you change your router's admin password instead? You'd be exposing yourself to greater threats by connecting directly from your PC.

As long as you're not using the router's default password you should be fine (although make it as cryptic as possible just to be sure). There should also be an option to disable remote administration somewhere in the interface.

If it uses the conexant interface, under Admin Privilege is "Admin Level Username/Password" to set the user/pass and also "Misc Configuration" where u can disable wan access to your router

Thx for the comments guys. I managed to switch from using my router to using WinXP. I also thought about the security issues. But I'm so sick and tired of NAT when trying to host servers that its worth it running the connection from my PC. Also, I have a wireless routher through which they also might have accessed my network, but I guess I'll find out soon when the Telkom guys looks through their logs.

In the mean time, I'll just put my firewall to High Security mode. (Don't worry, I don't use the Windows standard firewall)

Maximus said:

Also, I have a wireless routher through which they also might have accessed my network

Click to expand...

So you have no idea if your wireless is secured ... sigh ... perhaps you should read up on WEP and WPA.

Maximus said:

Thx for the comments guys. I managed to switch from using my router to using WinXP. I also thought about the security issues. But I'm so sick and tired of NAT when trying to host servers that its worth it running the connection from my PC. Also, I have a wireless routher through which they also might have accessed my network, but I guess I'll find out soon when the Telkom guys looks through their logs.

In the mean time, I'll just put my firewall to High Security mode. (Don't worry, I don't use the Windows standard firewall)

Click to expand...

If you don't secure your router, you can do what you like on the pc side, you'll still be at risk.