Wireless network questions

[California]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Should I share the hard drives on both machines? Is that safe to do? Any disadvantages )</font>

In my opinion only a single folder named 'Shared' should be visible on each network participant. This is to limit the damage a remote user can do.

Way back in the Novell / Win 3.0 era (1989?) I saw a misconfiguration on the secretary's pc lead to her trashing all the folders on a central network server when she intended only to move files. She had been given universal access to everything. Somehow her mouse cursor became 'sticky' and pulled whole folders around then left them within other folders randomly wherever she stopped moving the mouse. After she discovered this, she demonstrated it to everyone who offered to help her. Total chaos.

After watching that mess I've never designated an entire drive Shared.

And preventing access by uninvited intruders is another whole subject, I'm sure covered in the Norton documentation.

 

[MikePA]

<font color="blue"> I configured Norton firewall to allow the network and still stay on. Anyone know if that is the correct thing to do. </font>
Since ZoneAlarm allows it, I assume Norton allows you to define trusted IP addresses. If so, only allow them access.

 

[beagdog]

Glad you got it going. I should have mentioned that in my first post to you, check and disable any firewalls you had running then try to make it work. Oh well, sometimes the easiest things to do are the most difficult to think about. I think you now have more than that 40 hours of networking experience! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Sharing your drives would be up to you. My personal preference on my home network is to share everything so I have access to any PC from any other PC. Now some will argue the security of that, and if you're in a business environment, sharing should be very limited. In my case, I'm the only one with access and I have hardware and software firewalls installed so the convenience of having full access is worth the minute risk involved.

 

[Donnyj]

If you share everything in your home network on all your computers, is there any risk of someone coming in through the internet and accessing everything on your computers? If I have the Norton firewall up and configured to accept the other laptop like I have now, would that still protect me from outside access? I would like to share everything on both computers, but I'm not sure if I'm protected.

 

[riptides]

If your connected to the internet, there will always be the chance you - <ul type="square"> get something you don't want
loose something you have
misinterpret something of interest [/list]

-Mike Z. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[beagdog]

My opinion, and thats all this is, is that if you have critically sensitive information on any of your PC's or if you aren't running a hardware firewall in conjunction with your software firewall (Norton in your case), I wouldn't share everything on every drive. If you don't have anything terribly sensitive, and you are running router behind your internet connection, I wouldn't hesitate (and don't) for a minute to share everything.

Remember, just my opinion, and worth about what you paid for it. I'm sure you'll get more opinions that are exactly opposite of mine.

 

[zapper]

Thanks Guys I've had a wireless network for over a year now and could figure out how to print wirelessly. Following your guidelines I now have it working. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[beagdog]

Glad Donnyj's struggles helped someone else out. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif I'm sure he was about to throw the darned thing away and start over. These things are amazing when they work right, but they can sure be intimidating when they don't. I've trashed and rebuilt enough of them over the years that they don't intimidate anymore. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[ejtaylor822]

Congratulations DonnyJ! Glad you got it working.

The firewall was question #5 (in my laundry list – sorry for the umpteen questions) on my original post. However, from what you were describing I would not have pursued as it just did not sound like a firewall issue. Glad others were helping you out and you got it working. I was really thinking it was a wireless config issue.

Beagdog said that "you'll probably get more opinions that are exactly opposite of mine" – not the case with me - I agree with the statements that have been made. If you are behind a router/firewall should be good to share. One thing I would add though, I would not share entire drives. A hacker who gets on your wireless network will try to map drive names and common folder names (Documents and Settings, Program Files, Windows, WINXP, etc.).

Also, when directories are shared I hide them. This can be done by appending a "$" (dollar sign) to the end of the share name (ie, \hostname\sharename$). That way if someone gets on your wireless, they can't scan the network and map available shares. Of course, you now have to remember all your share names, but, I think it’s worth the extra level of security. (along with MAC address filtering – Yes, I am **** about security – it’s not my fault though I am a technology analyst in the healthcare (insurance) industry and this is always a “hot topic”).

Congratulations again. You should now be eligible for some kind of ceritification. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Donnyj]

I can save alot on haircuts now.....since I don't have much hair left to cut. I pulled it all out. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif I like trying new things like this. In my opinion it is the only way to learn. I guess that is why I got into the automotive field. I like to figure out what makes things work. I'm not bashful about asking for help though. Thanks again to everyone who contributed. Hopefully some who were thinking about doing something like this have learned some things as well. I think I'm going to share just certain folders between the 2 computers. Last thing I need is my wife deleting or moving files around. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif Take care everyone and thanks again.