My Neighbour is Using a Ruckus Router to Attack me with Deauth packets

[simon_king_kjqd]

Hi All, 

My neighbour (a nursery business) isn't overly friendly (no idea why). Over the last year my wifi network and other neighbouring networks have been plagued with disconnects. Recently after many visits for the ISP to ascertained the issue they have identified that the Ruckus router used by the Nursery is being used to flood deauth packets to neighbouring AP's which I am fairly sure in the UK is illegal (why is this even a feature on your equipment!?). 

I have tried talking to them but they just refuse to even discuss the issue (it's possible they don't understand the issue). 

Any ideas on how I protect myself from people maliciously using your technology?
Protected management frame will work for some clients but not all, devices like my thermostat and doorbell will continue to be disconnected. 

Kind regards, 
Simon

[simon_king_kjqd]

In the UK and US this form of 'protection' is classed as Radio Jamming and illegal. So no, as much as I want to I am not sure doing it back is a good idea 😛 I will try going down the legal-assistance route first though.

My Wifi setup was originally a standard domestic ASUS router, using it as any home user would - no special settings. The router was returned as we first thought the D/C's were due to a faulty product. We are currently using the standard Plusnet router to please the Plusnet tech team who have been investigating these issues. So the mac address has changed but it didn't solve the issue - our wireless SSID has stayed the same though.

From what I have seen in the Ruckus set-up people can mark AP's as malicious manually so I assume this is why I have been subjected to the attack?

[netwizz]

By legal, I am not talking about suing them but rather that you might look for Ofcom, which appears it might be your FCC equivalent.  I would talk to the Nursery first; since, I doubt they are intentionally doing this as a personal attack on you; instead, someone probably saw a checkbox that said something like, "protect against rogue access points," and it sounded like a good idea..  Perhaps ask to speak with an IT person.  If I was their Network Administrator and got a call from a Home Owner who described the situation you do, I would immediately log-in and turn that feature off.  Most IT folks are reasonable.  Where you run into problems is when you run into that guy who needs approval from six different departments and change management before he will remedy the problem, or that guy who's job is not doing anything

If IT does not help, I would speak to someone at the management or executive level or write them.

Next, would be a complaint to your Government body that regulates the airwaves.  In the USA, that body is the FCC.  Although they have fined businesses like the Mariott for doing things like this, I am pretty sure it starts with a quick investigation and a sternly written letter.  In the UK supposedly Ofcom is your equivalent to the USA's FCC per an Internet search.  Ironically, enough the FCC utilizes a LOT of volunteers to do the independent investigations for them because they are very reliable and take their jobs extremely seriously.  For example, there are local volunteer Amateur Radio monitors.  If they see/hear abuse, they report the station's call-sign, date, time, etc.  What these folks have in common is many years of being licensed, involvement in their communities, attending field days, etc.  They basically warn someone and speak out about a problem, but if that does not fix it, they commonly fill out an FCC form where they make declarations as to what they witnessed or investigated.  Typically, it is a small group that sign it.  That is generally how this works in the USA.  A letter then goes out warning of possible enforcement action, and any further complaint or follow-up for the same violation not resolved usually involves a fine, which is contestable and/or negotiable.  The FCC is surprisingly fair as far as Government regulating bodies go.

Although it is hard to believe, a complaint of this nature would likely be investigated within 24 to 48 hours.  You might be surprised how helpful Ofcom might be using tax dollars to help you.

I hope that helps.

[simon_king_kjqd]

HI NETWizz, this is very helpful thank you. And pretty much all of what you described in the same in the UK but through Ofcom as you say. I will pay the nursery a visit as I agree I am not sure they know they are doing it, and hopefully, they will put me through to their system admin. Cheers!

[michael_brado]

As it is not an automatic feature, they definitely know they are doing it.
Explaining you are simply a friendly neighbor, and they need not fear you are trying to "hack" their network, is just as important as explaining that what they are doing *is* illegal, as you have equal rights to use unlicensed airspace. 
The nursery should use encryption/authentication on their WLAN(s), as usual wifi protection, and limit their coverage to just their property...