Wifi spots protection

Someone was trying to explain something to me about disabling or turning off file/folder sharing when I'm in wifi spot such as an internet cafe or airport because its not safe. I didn't know what he talking about as I've never done that but now I'm curious. Does anyone know what he could possibly being talking about?

Thanks,
Wy

Wyman

"Wyman" <> wrote in message
news:%...

> Someone was trying to explain something to me about disabling or turning
off
> file/folder sharing when I'm in wifi spot such as an internet cafe or
airport because its
> not safe. I didn't know what he talking about as I've never done that but
now I'm
> curious. Does anyone know what he could possibly being talking about?

If a wireless network is not protected against
intruders, anyone with a wireless modem who
is within range can piggyback into the network to
get free ISP services. When wireless networks
were new, not many owners bothered about this.

2. You and I can set / Network Properties on our
PCs to enable or disable File Sharing (with or without
password to get access.) If your PC is connected to
anyone else's wireless network and your folders are
set to Share with any user, then someone unknown
to you can read (and possibly alter) your files.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

Don Phillipson

take a look at
http://digitalmediaphile.wordpress.c...way-from-home/

On Sun, 27 Apr 2008 13:49:21 -0500, "Wyman" <>
wrote:

>Someone was trying to explain something to me about disabling or turning off file/folder sharing when I'm in wifi spot such as an internet cafe or airport because its not safe. I didn't know what he talking about as I've never done that but now I'm curious. Does anyone know what he could possibly being talking about?
>
>Thanks,
>Wy
--

Barb Bowman
MS-MVP
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/e...ts/bowman.mspx
http://blogs.digitalmediaphile.com/barb/

Barb Bowman

In addition to the others suggestions I have some general guidance for both
Vista and XP at the end of this page that may be of interest...

http://theillustratednetwork.mvps.or...sSecurity.html

--

Al Jarvi (MS-MVP Windows - Desktop User Experience)

Please post *ALL* questions and replies to the news group for the
mutual benefit of all of us...
The MS-MVP Program - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights...
How to ask a question
http://support.microsoft.com/KB/555375

"Wyman" <> wrote in message
news:%...
Someone was trying to explain something to me about disabling or turning off
file/folder sharing when I'm in wifi spot such as an internet cafe or
airport because its not safe. I didn't know what he talking about as I've
never done that but now I'm curious. Does anyone know what he could
possibly being talking about?

Thanks,
Wy

Sooner Al [MVP]

Wyman wrote:
> Someone was trying to explain something to me about disabling or turning
> off file/folder sharing when I'm in wifi spot such as an internet cafe
> or airport because its not safe. I didn't know what he talking about as
> I've never done that but now I'm curious. Does anyone know what he
> could possibly being talking about?
>
> Thanks,
> Wy
>

In a home network, either wireless or wired, each of the clients is
connected to a router. Ignoring user account names and passwords on the
client computers and other security provisions afforded by NTFS, if
"file and printer sharing" is enabled on each of the clients, all of the
clients connected to the router can share files and printers with each
other. That's one of the main reasons, in addition to sharing an
Internet connection, that people set up home networks.

Routers designed for hotspots (publicly accessible networks) usually are
configured to isolate the clients from one another. This is because the
point of these installations is *only* to share an Internet connection,
and *not* to share resources between connected clients.

If the router at a wifi hotspot is *not* configured to isolate clients,
then each of the connected clients can "see" the others. Whether someone
in such a situation can actually access files on someone else's computer
depends in part on whether file and printer sharing is enabled on the
"target" computer (see the many threads in this NG and in
microsoft.public.windowsxp.network_web for complaints about "why can't I
share files"). However, if file and printer sharing on the "target"
computer is disabled, it makes it that much harder for someone to gain
access to its files.

--
Lem -- MS-MVP

To the moon and back with 2K words of RAM and 36K words of ROM.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer
http://history.nasa.gov/afj/compessay.htm

Lem

"Lem" <> schreef in bericht
news:...
> Wyman wrote:
> > Someone was trying to explain something to me about disabling or turning
> > off file/folder sharing when I'm in wifi spot such as an internet cafe
> > or airport because its not safe. I didn't know what he talking about as
> > I've never done that but now I'm curious. Does anyone know what he
> > could possibly being talking about?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Wy
> >
>
> In a home network, either wireless or wired, each of the clients is
> connected to a router. Ignoring user account names and passwords on the
> client computers and other security provisions afforded by NTFS, if
> "file and printer sharing" is enabled on each of the clients, all of the
> clients connected to the router can share files and printers with each
> other. That's one of the main reasons, in addition to sharing an
> Internet connection, that people set up home networks.
>
> Routers designed for hotspots (publicly accessible networks) usually are
> configured to isolate the clients from one another. This is because the
> point of these installations is *only* to share an Internet connection,
> and *not* to share resources between connected clients.
>
> If the router at a wifi hotspot is *not* configured to isolate clients,
> then each of the connected clients can "see" the others. Whether someone
> in such a situation can actually access files on someone else's computer
> depends in part on whether file and printer sharing is enabled on the
> "target" computer (see the many threads in this NG and in
> microsoft.public.windowsxp.network_web for complaints about "why can't I
> share files"). However, if file and printer sharing on the "target"
> computer is disabled, it makes it that much harder for someone to gain
> access to its files.


And I assume here you mean only to the shared files?



--
regards,

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