Bluetooth security

[Teegate]

All,

Toady when I arrived home my wife had purchased a headset for her cell phone and was attempting to connect to the phone. It was quite comical at first, but then I became annoyed. Not at her but at my ignorance on something that is bothering me now.

While trying to connect using Bluetooth in her phone, my name was showing up in her phone as the only available device. My full name! So after some discussion we decided it had to be my computer showing up; however, they said it was showing up before I arrived home. I turned my computer on when I arrived home, so in my mind with it off it was not my computer causing this.

Time after time we tried to get her device to show up with frustrating results, and we could not stop my name from showing up either. So she decided to return to where it was purchased and ask for help. In one second he had removed my name and her device was then available, and he informed them it was absolutely my computer causing the problem.

So, if you have a computer with Bluetooth, your name is/maybe being transmitted from it, apparently even when it is off. If anyone is nearby and checking for devices they can get your name. Obviously, that may not be true for everyone since maybe there is a way to block that from occurring that I don’t know about.

So my question is, what can be done to stop this? Boyd? Ben? I know I could change my name in my computer since Apple computers actually have a name in them. The phone has a stealth mode feature to keep it’s name from being captured by other, but I have not played with that yet.


Guy

 

[Boyd]

Very interersting Guy. I just bonded my old headset with my new phone and it was straightforward, but my laptop was probably too far away in another room to be detected.

Was your computer "asleep" or actually shut down? I think that Bluetooth is able to turn on all by itself, and in fact this is something the FAA was concerned about (activating spontaneously during a flight) when the standard was under discussion. Not sure how that turned out actually.

Will have to give it a try when my PowerBook and cell phone are in the same room and see what happens. When I first got a bluetooth phone, one day it beeped when I was pulling out of a Wawa parking lot and said some device wanted to bond with it. I don't know if someone was intentionally trying to hack my phone from another car or what, but it scared me a little! Never happened again thankfully.

 

[Teegate]

When I walked in the door they were all in the living room trying to get the device to connect. I walked to my computer and turned it on. I walked back into the room and they were all quiet because it was checking for devices, and after a few second my name came up. They were not surprised to see it and complained they had been getting that, so Bluetooth had to be on when my computer was off as far as I can see. Unless at some point before that my wife hit the Connectivity button and it found my computer then. The man at the store said it was stuck in there so no matter where she went my computer name was showing up. Even at the store.

In any event, I turned Bluetooth off in my computer. Jessica checked hers since she needs to keep it on, and her computer is named Mac Mac Mac. So her name will never show up anywhere.

Guy

 

[bobpbx]

There are a few guys at work that wear those full time, in the hallways, in the bathroom...wherever. That is not for me. Call me old-fashioned. I'll remain unbodily disconnected.

 

[Boyd]

I have bluetooth turned off on my laptop, and I just checked - The cell phone can't see it. Didn't try activating bluetooth and turning off the computer yet.

I have a bluetooth headset which I got two years ago and have hardly used. I agree, it's ridiculous to walk around with one of those. I just got mine to use in the car, but the volume level is kind of low for that and it also picks up a lot of car noise so I rarely use it.