Around Sept.1992, during Hurricane David (I believe), I was helping out my friends. "Warren" had been diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer, and with the aid of his wife and of Hospice, was home to die. In their bedroom was a tv that was tuned to The Weather Channel, playing constantly, 24/7.
While I was sitting next to a weakened Warren laying in his hospital bed, idly staring at the tv, he turns his gaze to me and with a smile asks, "Isnt weather great?" I agreed, "Yeah, Mother Nature's really cool", or something like that. Warren passed on not too long after that display of nature. That's just one of the many learning moments I received from that time, that good or bad, weather is great!
I just saw a local news story about a home retrofitted for one of our Wounded Warriors. It has.detachable wall mounted iPads that control everything in the home.
Well, I'm impressed that effort is being shown in the electric car 'movement', even if this isn't the best choice in re-charging.. We've come a long way since the 1990's when big oil killed off the EV1. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_EV1
And now that battery powered vehicles are becoming more main-stream, we can use oil when and where it's more useful (planes, trucking, remote power generating, etc.)
The World Wide Web has changed, and continues to, change the world. Change is inevitable, those who do not adapt stagnate. This life is getting better for many of the inhabitants of spaceship Earth, and I find it constantly amazing to be able to be a witness to history in the making. These changes happen both quickly and slowly in this time of great learning.
Just 40 years ago China was a strange and mysterious foreign country, closed off from the majority of the world. Today, more and more it's leaders are gradually dragged into this free(er) modern life, being forced to grant more and more human rights to it's people, and more truth is emerging thanks to a free press in other nations. Eventually spreading to all parts of the world. It makes me wonder what life will be like for humans on Earth in one or two centuries. It looks promising, thanks to instant communication via the W.W.W. That genie cannot be forced back into it's bottle, not permanently.
Now you just copied "NatasRevol's" post, though not exactly. Since "NatasRevol" in essence copied a pre-existing post, this court holds you blameless, hence no apology is necessary.
By doing this, you two just saved millions in lawyer's fees!
Good lord, I will be so glad when this election is over, so much lies and hatred... Can't get away from it even just reading a damn Slashdot article. My side is right, no mine is, blah blah blah. Stick a fork in me, I'm done.
It's been a few days since this story was posted. I'd spoken to my landlady about this issue, and hope to get her netgear router password protected soon. Today after resetting this OptimusV phone, wi-fi is working again, and the new wi-fi signal (that I suspect was blocking the phone and ICS tablet from receiving the wi-fi signal) is not active. This is a wi-fi hacking problem that would have happened no matter what device OS I use. Time will tell if this continues.
I lost my excellent/. karma since this story posted, I don't see why, but it's not the end of the world for me, I've survived worse tragedies in my life. Hey, it's Slashdot.:-)
Down the line, I'll be getting the needed detection programs available. I want to thank everyone on Slashdot who posted their helpful comments with this question, I've learned more than I knew before due to your help. I appreciate you good 'white hat' guys.
Thank you so much, one and (mostly) all. I've just spent a couple of hours re-reading the 240+ posts, many sceptical, many others have been most helpful. And over time, after I've been able to absorb it all, I'll be better able to defend my devices due to these replies.
Since the 80's computers have been a hobby for me, I stopped after learning Win98, then got this smartphone last December. To any/. 's who have railed about this story not belonging here, I'll respond with, "It got voted in." I was suprised to see it posted, and I appreciate the learned responses, I laughed aloud reading some others, and for those who felt it a waste of time, well, not to be too snarky here but, "Send me a bill!" You cannot deny it generated some lively conversation, and isn't that what Slashdot is partly liked for?
If/when I ever do get to the root of my phone issues, I will submit an update to/. . And it'll be an, "AHA! I was right!" post, or a, "You guys were right, I don't deserve such hi-tech." type post. Either way, it's been a real intesting time. Thank you to Timothy, for posting my story, afaik, every word of it is true. I'm exhausted from all this, thinking about just getting a new Android phone now...
I'll be seeing you all in another storyline, that is if I'm not outright banned after this. Peace and long life to you all. S.F.
Get root because anything else is like trying to plug a leaky dam with a band-aid.
Oh sure, the astroturfers will now come out of the woodwork to claim "buy product u$ele$$, it'll make unicorn farts!"
But those are just bogus claims because you cannot defend a box properly if you are not its administrator.
Of course, it's not for the faint of heart (newb) though
I've tried to root as I've gotten more familiar, used Android Forums step by step for the model phone. Gets hung up at the very last step, though, as if it were already rooted by something else... Thanks for your help, I'll be trying root again soon....
What's your argument for there needing to be some sort of correlation between disabling WIFI and that forcing an application to close? That doesn't happen. I can have Navigation open on my Android phone and turn off the GPS receiver. Navigation continues to run, alerting me to the fact that it is no longer talking to GPS satellites.
I clear the Cache in settings/applications in all categories possible to be sure. This clears any permissions I may have given to Maps, etc...
If not for Android Assistant, I wouldn't have been clued into the fact that it shows the WIFI is active, even though the phone OS itself says it's not active. No, I think it's a decent little app to have on android, gives lots of info to the device. If it's some kind of back door, than over a million people have it. Would've heard something about that by now. Thank you, all this info helps...
What if you take your phone in for a warranty exchange and get a different one of the same model at the dealer?
Also, I recall that a number of phones have cooked in cruft which turns on wifi, etc. to phone home and download more ads and other product placements. Is the OptimusV one of these? I haven't yet moved to an Android phone myself, but I have an Amazon Kindle Fire which periodically signs onto wifi to check for music and book purchases for me. Perhaps there's an application in your phone which is doing something similar.
Thanks for your post. Once you turn off/on these antenna based things (WI-FI, Bluetooth, 3G) programs from settings, nothing 'should' turn them on or off. I'm pretty careful about battery usage, and don't like advertisements popping up when playing games on it. The kindle fire I think (don't have one) is different, it's probably supposed to do that in it OS. It is primarily made to be a 'media consumption device'. While there are programs which will start others up, they wouldn't normally be able to turn on these 3 things when all else is turned off. Probably the Kindle will have settings to turn them off if you want to, but it's supposed to be hassle free. I'd learn more about it if I were a kindle owner. Sealed battery, location services probably...
Android apps can run as services and the visible app can be started for any reason by said services. You've leapt straight to the explanation of "I'm being hacked", and missed out the rational steps of actually identifying a hack. Paranoia isn't helping you.
I've learned that this spring. I know the difference when apps are activated via a google services program, and when I leave the wifi area with my phone, the pre-installed program "Where" becomes active, and it doesn't ever usually do that. I don't know about Poynt or some others. They can all be turned on at times, as if the launcher was force-stopped and reset every program to start. No, not normal behaviour for the OS, this I'm sure of...
Maybe he's being blocked because it's not his access point?
No, the wifi was part of the rent deal when I moved in at the start of the summer, never could use it until recently, stayed on 3g. Only very recently it's different. Another tenant got a new shiny tower computer, which he shouldn't be able to afford....
So you have two devices having problems connecting to your home access point, and you assume you need protection for your android devices? It sounds more like you need to fix a problem with your access point, in that it's stopped accepting connections. Maybe it's exhausted DHCP assignments for your devices, or your MAC addresses are being blocked - maybe because someone was trying to spoof them, maybe because of a bug in the access point.
Going from "my devices are having problems connecting to my access point at home only" to "help, hackers are attacking my android devices" is a bit of a stretch, isn't it?
And more of a stretch is how this got front page...
The Tablet is new, hasn't left my sight since I've gotten it, no chance of a hard wired usb hack, and it has the Android version Ice Cream Sandwich, 4.0.1... It's wifi works whenever I am away from this house I rent from. The phone was likely hacked this spring when I lived elsewhere. I left it behind and out of my posession for a few hours, some made up 'emergency repair' ruse was used. I've learned since to never let it out of your sight, and password protect or best use the tic-tac-toe board to safeguard it from being hard hacked.
I've used it a while ago, and my phone seems ok, not sure if it's thanks to Comodo or to myself rejecting to go into unknown sites. How about the rest of the community? How has Comodo worked for you?
Haven't tried that, yet. Thanks. Done a few others, they basically scan the installed apps on the device. This hack seems to go deeper. A scan app called X-Ray (I highly recommend getting it free from the Android PlayStore) has been the only one that picked up on actual problems, there's programs that I can't get off without rooting the device. Can't root the device after it's been properly hard-hacked via a usb cable connected to a computer device of some sort. Soft-hacks via over the air can be erased by doing a factory reset on android, I've learned.
So if I trolled your post you'd be the a target for a reason? Sometimes the reason is to see if something can be done. This idea that a crime needs motive beyond "just because" is nonsense. Especially when it comes to hacking. When I was a kid I use to phreak. I had no one to call long distance until I got involved with the phreaking culture. By today's standards it would be a solution looking for a problem. For me it was just something to do.
I've learned this had a definite reason, to monitor my whereabouts, and at times to also use the microphone to 'monitor' the room the phone is in. It's benign, I'm sure, from well-meaning people from my past who wish to remain in the background. I've known about it for quite some time, just lived with it, no other choice. I've gotten real sick of it happening all over again lately, so now it's kind of a 'quest', like Chevy Chase's character getting to Wally World. I'm getting good leads here from the responders.
I remember splicing some speaker wires together for a friend with scotch lock clips, and his (unknown at the time) bi-polar schizo wife tried to stab me because she said I was bugging their house.
I'm not schizo, nor bi-polar, nor anything else but a 6+ year ex-beer drinker. The doctor's all say I'm much better now! (sarcasm)
Slashdot Mirror
While I was sitting next to a weakened Warren laying in his hospital bed, idly staring at the tv, he turns his gaze to me and with a smile asks, "Isnt weather great?" I agreed, "Yeah, Mother Nature's really cool", or something like that. Warren passed on not too long after that display of nature. That's just one of the many learning moments I received from that time, that good or bad, weather is great!
Until the iYacht 2 comes out next year...
...and of course you'll need the proprietary 'dock' connector. (ducks)
I just saw a local news story about a home retrofitted for one of our Wounded Warriors. It has.detachable wall mounted iPads that control everything in the home.
Meanwhile, an idea begins to form in Skynet's AI....
And now that battery powered vehicles are becoming more main-stream, we can use oil when and where it's more useful (planes, trucking, remote power generating, etc.)
How many chicken were squeezed to death before he got the machine working?
Mistakes were made...
Just 40 years ago China was a strange and mysterious foreign country, closed off from the majority of the world. Today, more and more it's leaders are gradually dragged into this free(er) modern life, being forced to grant more and more human rights to it's people, and more truth is emerging thanks to a free press in other nations. Eventually spreading to all parts of the world. It makes me wonder what life will be like for humans on Earth in one or two centuries. It looks promising, thanks to instant communication via the W.W.W. That genie cannot be forced back into it's bottle, not permanently.
By doing this, you two just saved millions in lawyer's fees!
Good lord, I will be so glad when this election is over, so much lies and hatred... Can't get away from it even just reading a damn Slashdot article. My side is right, no mine is, blah blah blah. Stick a fork in me, I'm done.
I lost my excellent /. karma since this story posted, I don't see why, but it's not the end of the world for me, I've survived worse tragedies in my life. Hey, it's Slashdot. :-)
Down the line, I'll be getting the needed detection programs available. I want to thank everyone on Slashdot who posted their helpful comments with this question, I've learned more than I knew before due to your help. I appreciate you good 'white hat' guys.
PCWorlds 13 Surface RT Alternatives http://www.pcworld.com/article/2012091/13-new-windows-machines-that-arent-surface-rt.html
DailyTech's "Microsoft Surface Review RoundUp" http://www.dailytech.com/Microsoft+Surface+Review+RoundUp/article29019.htm
http://www.treknews.net/2012/08/20/william-windom-dies-at-88/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?nomobile=1&v=9djuORzi9rU
Since the 80's computers have been a hobby for me, I stopped after learning Win98, then got this smartphone last December. To any /. 's who have railed about this story not belonging here, I'll respond with, "It got voted in." I was suprised to see it posted, and I appreciate the learned responses, I laughed aloud reading some others, and for those who felt it a waste of time, well, not to be too snarky here but, "Send me a bill!" You cannot deny it generated some lively conversation, and isn't that what Slashdot is partly liked for?
If/when I ever do get to the root of my phone issues, I will submit an update to /. . And it'll be an, "AHA! I was right!" post, or a, "You guys were right, I don't deserve such hi-tech." type post. Either way, it's been a real intesting time. Thank you to Timothy, for posting my story, afaik, every word of it is true. I'm exhausted from all this, thinking about just getting a new Android phone now...
I'll be seeing you all in another storyline, that is if I'm not outright banned after this. Peace and long life to you all. S.F.
Get root because anything else is like trying to plug a leaky dam with a band-aid.
Oh sure, the astroturfers will now come out of the woodwork to claim "buy product u$ele$$, it'll make unicorn farts!"
But those are just bogus claims because you cannot defend a box properly if you are not its administrator.
Of course, it's not for the faint of heart (newb) though
I've tried to root as I've gotten more familiar, used Android Forums step by step for the model phone. Gets hung up at the very last step, though, as if it were already rooted by something else... Thanks for your help, I'll be trying root again soon....
What's your argument for there needing to be some sort of correlation between disabling WIFI and that forcing an application to close? That doesn't happen. I can have Navigation open on my Android phone and turn off the GPS receiver. Navigation continues to run, alerting me to the fact that it is no longer talking to GPS satellites.
I clear the Cache in settings/applications in all categories possible to be sure. This clears any permissions I may have given to Maps, etc...
If not for Android Assistant, I wouldn't have been clued into the fact that it shows the WIFI is active, even though the phone OS itself says it's not active. No, I think it's a decent little app to have on android, gives lots of info to the device. If it's some kind of back door, than over a million people have it. Would've heard something about that by now. Thank you, all this info helps...
Hi Submitter,
Posting anon since I'm at the office.
What if you take your phone in for a warranty exchange and get a different one of the same model at the dealer?
Also, I recall that a number of phones have cooked in cruft which turns on wifi, etc. to phone home and download more ads and other product placements. Is the OptimusV one of these? I haven't yet moved to an Android phone myself, but I have an Amazon Kindle Fire which periodically signs onto wifi to check for music and book purchases for me. Perhaps there's an application in your phone which is doing something similar.
Thanks for your post. Once you turn off/on these antenna based things (WI-FI, Bluetooth, 3G) programs from settings, nothing 'should' turn them on or off. I'm pretty careful about battery usage, and don't like advertisements popping up when playing games on it. The kindle fire I think (don't have one) is different, it's probably supposed to do that in it OS. It is primarily made to be a 'media consumption device'. While there are programs which will start others up, they wouldn't normally be able to turn on these 3 things when all else is turned off. Probably the Kindle will have settings to turn them off if you want to, but it's supposed to be hassle free. I'd learn more about it if I were a kindle owner. Sealed battery, location services probably...
Try downgrading to another phone (for example, the Nokia 3390B). It texts and calls like you would expect, and I've never had an issue with hackers.
Thanks. Sometimes I've wished for a 'dumbphone' again...
Android apps can run as services and the visible app can be started for any reason by said services. You've leapt straight to the explanation of "I'm being hacked", and missed out the rational steps of actually identifying a hack. Paranoia isn't helping you.
I've learned that this spring. I know the difference when apps are activated via a google services program, and when I leave the wifi area with my phone, the pre-installed program "Where" becomes active, and it doesn't ever usually do that. I don't know about Poynt or some others. They can all be turned on at times, as if the launcher was force-stopped and reset every program to start. No, not normal behaviour for the OS, this I'm sure of...
Maybe he's being blocked because it's not his access point?
No, the wifi was part of the rent deal when I moved in at the start of the summer, never could use it until recently, stayed on 3g. Only very recently it's different. Another tenant got a new shiny tower computer, which he shouldn't be able to afford....
So you have two devices having problems connecting to your home access point, and you assume you need protection for your android devices? It sounds more like you need to fix a problem with your access point, in that it's stopped accepting connections. Maybe it's exhausted DHCP assignments for your devices, or your MAC addresses are being blocked - maybe because someone was trying to spoof them, maybe because of a bug in the access point.
Going from "my devices are having problems connecting to my access point at home only" to "help, hackers are attacking my android devices" is a bit of a stretch, isn't it?
And more of a stretch is how this got front page...
The Tablet is new, hasn't left my sight since I've gotten it, no chance of a hard wired usb hack, and it has the Android version Ice Cream Sandwich, 4.0.1 ... It's wifi works whenever I am away from this house I rent from. The phone was likely hacked this spring when I lived elsewhere. I left it behind and out of my posession for a few hours, some made up 'emergency repair' ruse was used. I've learned since to never let it out of your sight, and password protect or best use the tic-tac-toe board to safeguard it from being hard hacked.
I've used it a while ago, and my phone seems ok, not sure if it's thanks to Comodo or to myself rejecting to go into unknown sites. How about the rest of the community? How has Comodo worked for you?
Check: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.comodo.pimsecure&hl=es
Haven't tried that, yet. Thanks. Done a few others, they basically scan the installed apps on the device. This hack seems to go deeper. A scan app called X-Ray (I highly recommend getting it free from the Android PlayStore) has been the only one that picked up on actual problems, there's programs that I can't get off without rooting the device. Can't root the device after it's been properly hard-hacked via a usb cable connected to a computer device of some sort. Soft-hacks via over the air can be erased by doing a factory reset on android, I've learned.
You aren't being hacked, the owner of the wifi in your house is fed up with you skanking his wifi and blocking you. How did this get posted?
Not in this case, Wifi was part of the deal when I first rented. But thanks for playing!
So if I trolled your post you'd be the a target for a reason? Sometimes the reason is to see if something can be done. This idea that a crime needs motive beyond "just because" is nonsense. Especially when it comes to hacking. When I was a kid I use to phreak. I had no one to call long distance until I got involved with the phreaking culture. By today's standards it would be a solution looking for a problem. For me it was just something to do.
I've learned this had a definite reason, to monitor my whereabouts, and at times to also use the microphone to 'monitor' the room the phone is in. It's benign, I'm sure, from well-meaning people from my past who wish to remain in the background. I've known about it for quite some time, just lived with it, no other choice. I've gotten real sick of it happening all over again lately, so now it's kind of a 'quest', like Chevy Chase's character getting to Wally World. I'm getting good leads here from the responders.
I remember splicing some speaker wires together for a friend with scotch lock clips, and his (unknown at the time) bi-polar schizo wife tried to stab me because she said I was bugging their house.
I'm not schizo, nor bi-polar, nor anything else but a 6+ year ex-beer drinker. The doctor's all say I'm much better now! (sarcasm)