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I'm a complete Networking noob...

G

Gaard

Diamond Member
I thought "what can I do as long as I'm going to spend all day in front of the tube"? So I hooked up the 3 systems I have in the house to a wireless network last night/this morning. Now I'm starting to have reservations. All three have internet/printer/file sharing now, but I'm wondering what I can do about ensuring that nobody outside my house can access my computers. I don't want anyone getting any info I may have stashed somewhere on my drive.

Like I said, I'm a complete noob at this stuff.


Edit: 2/3 1:30
Ok, I click on START/MY NETWORK PLACES/View workgroup computers and I see an unknown computer - "Owner-35759caaf". When I doubleclick on this computer it says that I don't have the authority or something like that. I'm probably being paranoid, but does this mean anything other than he's closeby?

 
From the weakest to the strongest, Wireless security capacity is.

No Security
MAC______(Band Aid if nothing else is available).
WEP64____(Easy, to "Brake" by knowledgeable people).
WEP128___(A little Harder, but "Hackable" too).
WPA-PSK__(Very Hard to Brake ).
WPA-AES__(Not functionally Breakable)
WPA2____ (Not functionally Breakable).

Note 1: WPA-AES the the current entry level rendition of WPA2.

Note 2: If you use WinXP and did not updated it you would have to download the WPA2 patch from Microsoft. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/893357

The documentation of your Wireless devices (Wireless Router, and Wireless Computer's Card) should state the type of security that is available with your Wireless hardware.

All devices MUST be set to the same security level using the same pass phrase.
Therefore the security must be set according what ever is the best possible of one of the Wireless devices.
I.e. even if most of your system might be capable to be configured to the max. with WPA2, but one device is only capable to be configured to max . of WEP, to whole system must be configured to WEP.
If you need more good security and one device (like a Wireless card that can do WEP only) is holding better security for the whole Network, replace the device with a better one.

Setting Wireless Security - http://www.ezlan.net/Wireless_Security.html

Internet -Basic protection - http://www.ezlan.net/firewall.html
 
Ok, I click on START/MY NETWORK PLACES/View workgroup computers and I see an unknown computer - "Owner-35759caaf". When I doubleclick on this computer it says that I don't have the authority or something like that. I'm probably being paranoid, but does this mean anything other than he's closeby?

I'm looking in my Linksys manual now to see what kind of security I have/can have.
 
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