Seeing people's files through My Network Places

[QueHuong]

I'm living in a college dorm and I was just playing around with my computer and went into "My Network Places" and saw a bunch of links to other people's documents. I saw some have porn, some have pirated versions of Mathematica and Photoshop, etc. I know very little about networks so you guys have to spell it out for me. Why am I seeing their stuff? Are they trying to share their files or do they not realize that other ppl can get access to their files? How do I prevent others from seeing my hard drive full of p...uh..philosophy essays?

And quite often, I see my firewall popup asking me if I want to allow an incoming connection from someone at blahblah.college.uc. Why am I getting this messag and should I deny it everytime?

 

[SoylentGreen]

You should see the Alicia Silverstone movie.

 

[amdskip]

I take it you are on Windows XP or maybe 2k? XP autodetects things like this and some people are just too stupid and share everything they have and don't realize it. Check out your printers and see if there are extra ones listed. Print some gay pron off of them if you want something fun to do.

 

[Platypus]

Originally posted by: MindStorm
I'm living in a college dorm and I was just playing around with my computer and went into "My Network Places" and saw a bunch of links to other people's documents. I saw some have porn, some have pirated versions of Mathematica and Photoshop, etc. I know very little about networks so you guys have to spell it out for me. Why am I seeing their stuff? Are they trying to share their files or do they not realize that other ppl can get access to their files? How do I prevent others from seeing my hard drive full of p...uh..philosophy essays?

And quite often, I see my firewall popup asking me if I want to allow an incoming connection from someone at blahblah.college.uc. Why am I getting this messag and should I deny it everytime?

You are seeing files most likely because they are sharing files on the network.. As far as connections to your computer go, that should be an obvious no. Also block port 139 from your box and 23 if that is open.

 

[QueHuong]

Bump - I'd like to know more about this.

 

[EagleKeeper]

People will allow file sharing at the root of the drive, not realizing or caring that a specific directory should just be shared.
They also do not bother to put passwords on the sharing.

Lack of concern and not realizing that all sub-directories are also visible.
Many uniniated also think of their desktop as what could be visible to the outside world.

 

[Utterman]

Time to leech

 

[Evadman]

Originally posted by: Utterman
Time to leech

If you want to know more, ask in networking. Basicly, those poeple decided to make those files availabe to anyone on the network. you can do it too, but I suggest you do not.

 

[hungrypete]

try to delete anything you can find and if caught claim ignorance

painful lessons are remembered the longest