How do i find out if my imac is using my neighbour's wireless router?

i am new to macs.... when i bought my imac computer the sales person told me to enjoy my new computer and to call if any problems. He said to just plug it in and it will work with my existing wireless network ( i have two pc s as well using a wireless dell router). And he was right. Just plug it in. Amazing. No having to configure things,install things.....NOTHING ..(..Steve Jobs is my hero...and Bill Gates?...Boo,hiss and so on)
My question is this....how do i know that my computer is actually using my router and not one of my neighbor's wireless router on the road that i live on? ...the reason i ask this is that on rare occasions i cannot connect to the internet or i get disconnected....
mac   Mac OS 9.2.x  

Hello and Welcome to Apple Discussions. 
If you go to the Airport Menu (or  Apple Menu > System Preferences... > Network if you haven't enabled the Airport menu ) you can see the SSID of the wireless network you are connected to.
If you are connected to your neighbour's network then he is showing poor practice in allowing his network to be unprotected. If your iMac has connected to your network without you entering the password the you are standing in to danger as you have an unprotected network too. Here are some reasons why you should protect your Wireless Network:
Bandwidth. If all your other neighbours decide not to pay for broadband Internet they get to use yours for free.
War Drivers. These a people in a car with a Wireless enabled laptop drive around looking for unprotected networks.
Your Network. Access to the files on your computer.
Criminal Activity. Your Internet Service Provider assigns you an IP address whilst you are on the Internet. If someone perpetrates a crime; spamming, illegal documents etc whilst "borrowing" your network you will be implicated and it will be difficult to prove this data wasn't passed through your computers.
So here's what you need to do now:
Change your SSID (from "Dell54g" or whatever it is right now). Nothing screams unprotected network like a default named SSID.
In your Router deselect "broadcast SSID" - this means that it's harder to find.
Unable WEP, WPA or WPA2 encryption to your network. A password will be required to access it from all you computers (but on the Mac at least you'll only need to enter it once the Mac will save it in you Keychain and reenter it everytime your Mac needs Wireless access).
Enable your Firewall in the router. This limits the use of certain ports. You should also check the the Mac's firewall ( Apple Menu > System Preferences... > Sharing > Firewall > ) has the more advanced features in use such as "Firewall Logging" and "Stealth Mode". Unfortunately your Windows machines don't have this feature.
Enable MAC blocking. Whilst it's easy to spoof a MAC address, so it shouldn't be used a primary security method, it will help. A MAC address is a worldwide unique hardware number in the form 00 00 00 00 00 00 that every piece of network hardware has (so your iMac has 3 MAC addresses (Ethernet, Firewire and Airport) and your PCs will also have multiple MAC addresses too - you can find them in  Apple Menu > About this Mac... > More Info...). Enter these MAC Addresses into your Dell router and then the router will only talk to devices which match that hardware address.
So the bottom line; right now I would be very concerned about the security of your wireless network. Whilst your Mac is probably safe because of how robust OS X is with it's own Firewall and Unix style Admin, your PCs are wide open to abuse right now.
I'm sure that my reply raises more questions than answers so feel free to come back to us.
kind regards
mrtotes

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