Acronyms needed (i.e., what is VPN service?)

[techwatcher]

Well, coopshah, you're right: My router does not include wireless connections. The hackers upstairs are getting into my PC somehow while I am not physically connected to the cable modem, and the router has no known wireless capability; neither does the old IBM NetVista. I know: it seems impossible, but it's happening.

Today I've come back to the library again to check this thread and post. The router (purchased a few years ago, used, on Ebay) is a Linksys Broadband Router with 2 phone ports, Model RT31F2 (assuming I read the tiny print correctly).

The PC does not have known bluetooth capability, either, but sometimes when I shut down the system recently, both SDPD & HCID (iirc) shut down -- as seen in the shutdown report messages. So, sometimes I remove the bluetooth directory in /etc/, but that doesn't seem to shut them out, either.

I'm typing this from the library. When I tried earlier (last week)
to get to http://192.168.1.1, that site would not come up. I haven't turned on this PC at home since then, because I think now they're trying to frame me. (My cable modem was plugged in when I got home Friday afternoon; that's not how I left it.)

Please be careful if you live in an apartment building. There are obviously some hacking capabilities we don't understand yet. If anyone can point me to more services I can shut down, I'd appreciate it.

[coopstah13]

what you should do is disconnect the internet connection from the router and then reset the router to the default settings, there should be a button on it somewhere that you can push in for like 10 seconds and it resets to the factory defaults, then while still keeping the internet disconnected you should navigate to the router setup page and first change the administrator password, then you can set up everything else, i don't really understand how they could be getting into your network, but start from here.

[techwatcher]

while still keeping the internet disconnected you should navigate to the router setup page

Thanks, I'll definitely try this. At first it made no sense, but then I realized the router thinks it is connected, or listing eth0 says it's up and broadcasting to this address.

don't really understand how they could be getting into your network

Me, neither. I wouldn't have believed it myself if I weren't living with it....

[techwatcher]

I just left an update, but decided to delete it... Different things are still happening, and I can't currently get online from home at all (IPTABLES, which I haven't set, are completely messed up [iptables -L]; I don't know a quick way to clear it, and of course have no storage). I could still use some help; planning to call EFF with many new technical details this afternoon. I need a lawyer or something, to enforce my right to be online (if nothing else). *sigh*