Is it safe to connect?

[XeroLaw]

Hi. I'm new to the forums, so I hope this is ok as to where I'm posting and what I'm posting. I'm at my g/f mom's and they are using a Linksys WRT54G version 5 router. The computer I'm on right now is wired and they have one other upstairs via wi-fi. I want to know if I can take a computer I have and plug it into there router without anyone knowing and without leaving any trails. I'm not sure as to how the router is setup. Her mom is away for a few days and we are house sitting. We have dial-up and she has DSL so I want to bring my computer over to update it. I'm talking gigs of stuff I have to download, pretty much EVERYTHING for Win XP. She's just paranoid about every little thing with her computer and network, so I want to make sure it won't show up anywhere. I've never used this router before so I don't know if it builds anything like a MAC address list or something that could be system specific to me. Any help would be much appreciated. I won't be around for a little while, but will be able to check back later today.

Thanks,

[degsy]

Welcome :)

Routers have DHCP Client tables and logs and if enabled these will record activity.

[XeroLaw]

WOW! Ya'll don't play. I don't think I've ever had someone respond that fast before. Thanks for lettin' me know. I don't have access to the router & settings, so I really can't say what it does and doesn't have. J.W. though, what exactly would it log? I'm pretty sure they don't have it turned on. They're not the most tech-savvy ppl. They did have Best Buys Geek Squad to set it up. I know that doesn't really help or pertain to this really, but just an fyi.

Oh, and could/would it possibly make a difference if it was a router to a router to my pc?

[degsy]

If you don't have administrative access then you use it at your own risk. Without their permission it is simiar to piggybacking onto a neighbourhood wireless signal.

[renegade600]

its consider stealing of services in alot of places.. If she finds out through logs or whatever, you might be proscuted.

No matter if the person is tech savvy or not, there is always the possibility they will find out.

[XeroLaw]

Ok, let me clarify this. It's my girlfriend's mom's computer. Her mom and her husband are out of state for a few days and we are watching their house. She doesn't care if we use her computer. She won't care as long as nothing gets messed up, so basically what I want to know is if it will do anything to the network, and by thier knowledge of it I mean will it do anything like try to make me connect to their computer workgroup or anything like that. If not, then I'm fine. I just want to get my computer up-to-date. I can guarantee I WILL not get prosecuted. They are FAR from savvy too... And it's not really like piggybacking because I'm not trying to tap into someones connection that I know will be mad about it or that is illegal, it's more or less the fact that they think their network will get messed up or something. I've hooked up a router I have before and it didn't do anything when I plugged another computer into it other than allow it access to the internet.

[bAdWaYz]

The best bet would be just to wait till they come home. Then tell her you want to use the connection to grab all the windows updates for your computer because dial up is wayy to slow. Let her watch you plug the cat5 in from your computer into one of her routers LAN ports then start grabbing your updates. I know it seems silly to have a person be there but thats just how some folks are. If you use the network now she will be able to tell because as degsy said before the router will log traffic and it keeps a dhcp client table default is normally one week lease time. So it would be in the table for at least a week. Even if you used another router to connect to her router then your pc it would still show up. So the best thing is just wait and be up front and honest with her about what you want to do and why. Most likely she's been on dial up before so she will feel your pain.

[XeroLaw]

Ok. Well, thanks for the input. I do have a 300GB Ext. HDD with 80.3GB free. I just don't know if I can download everything as a seperate file and then install it. Like SP2, I don't know if I can dl it or if it can only be ordered on CD or directly installed. If I can download everything, then I'll just use my hard drive and won't worry about the rest.