Curious: how was canon wireless printer able to connect to router without password?

[#1]

Can someone from Verizon or this community explain how my canon wireless printer was able to connect (get onto) to my wi-fi network w/o a password?

During printer setup, I selected the Wireless Lan Connection option on the printer's display panel.

Wondering -- if my printer can do this, what prevents other devices and computer from connecting to my router in the same way?

Do I need to enable more security on my router?

Thanks -

J-

[#2]

---

@ChrisJa109 wrote:

Can someone from Verizon or this community explain how my canon wireless printer was able to connect (get onto) to my wi-fi network w/o a password?

During printer setup, I selected the Wireless Lan Connection option on the printer's display panel.

Wondering -- if my printer can do this, what prevents other devices and computer from connecting to my router in the same way?

Do I need to enable more security on my router?

Thanks -

J-

---

I have a Brother printer that did the same thing. They just attach to the device via the MAC address. Nothing to worry about with other devices.

[#3]

If you were doing this wirelessly it should not be able to do so.  Mine wasn't.  I had to enter the passkey.

[#4]

---

TNS_2 wrote:

If you were doing this wirelessly it should not be able to do so.  Mine wasn't.  I had to enter the passkey.

---

He probably set it up through his computer like I did on mine. When you run the printer software it finds the printer on the network and attaches to it by the mac address without having to enter anything. If he did it on the printer itself it should have asked for the key.

[#5]

Most printer driver software will program the printer by taking the network credentials from your PC, and inputting it into the printer, when you select the wireless option. Perhaps this is what happened?

[#6]

Hi. Thanks for all the replies. The printer was never physically connected to the computer at any time. I had set up the printer before I installed any printer software on the computer. And I am pretty certain that the printer, during its setup, found the router and added itself before I began the install on the computer.

Next time I do an install like this I will pay more attention to exactly what is happening when.

I do think this is something we must understand as it was just reported the other day that intelligence agencies will be or are using connected devices for surveillance.

Thank you.