home computer vs. work computer security

Thanks in advance for your help.

Here is my situation. I do business consulting for a company that
sent me a router and laptop to get on their network and use when doing
their work. I already have a home computer I do other work on. So,
what they told me to do is hook my modem into the router they sent me
and then to my home computer and the computer they gave me. So I did
that.

My questions is, can they using their network and router, find out
what websites I have visted on my home computer. Or find out what
other work I am doing on my home computer? Does their router record
what websites I have visted on my home computer or what emails I have
sent out for other work?

Thanks

 

I don't think that this is any sinister plot. It sounds like they sent you
a basic router to split your personal internet connection between more than
one computer (i.e. your personal computer and their laptop) at the same
time. You'll then use their laptop/software to establish a VPN connection
via your personal internet connection into their end network. That's what I
do with my work laptop. Without doing extra configuring, I don't believe
that your personal computer and their laptop will see each other behind the
router (you can hook everything up and check this out for yourself).

- Chuck

 

Chuck, thanks, I don't think there is a sinister plot either. I just
want to know if they have any way of knowing what my surfing records
are on my home computer. You know, what if I visit sites on my home
computer that they don't deem acceptable? Or if I am doing research
for another client? Can they find this out? Can their router send my
surfing records to their laptop and then back to their network? By no
means am I doing anything sinister either, I just value my privacy.

Thanks

 

Let me first say that I'm definitely no expert here. Is there any possible
way for the laptop/router provider to find out what you do on your personal
system -- I wouldn't say that anything is 100% impossible, but I don't think
that this is very likely. If anything is going to monitor you, I don't
believe that it would be the router. If anything, it would probably be the
laptop running some kind of software to read files from your personal
computer or log all network activity behind the router and ship it back to
the laptop/router provider. If you don't configure the two computers to see
each other on the network behind the router (or if you actively block those
communications), I don't think that there would be an issue with file
reading. I'd guess that network activity monitoring would still be
possible.

I understand your concern about privacy as I value mine also. While I can't
say with 100% certainty that my employer doesn't somehow monitor my private
computer, my gut feeling is that I don't have a problem. I only use one of
my computers at a time and I only have the laptop plugged into my router
when I'm using it (for no reason other than that's how I use my setup).
Some ideas that I can think of to possibly help prevent monitoring:

1) Buy and use your own router. You can get basic wired routers pretty
cheap ($20) after rebates. This would eliminate the possibility of their
router doing any monitoring.
2) Don't use your personal computer and laptop at the same time.
3) Disconnect the laptop from the router when you're using your personal
computer. This would prevent the laptop from transferring files to/from
your personal computer in real-time or monitoring your network traffic.
4) Disconnect your personal computer from the router when you're using the
laptop.
5) Install a firewall on your personal computer and block all
communications to/from the laptop. This should prevent any file transfers
between your personal computer and the laptop. However, network traffic
monitoring behind the router might still be possible.

Like I said, these are just my random non-expert thoughts for you to
consider (and there are probably better ideas than mine). Since that's the
extent of my knowledge (or lack there of), you're on your own. Good Luck.

- Chuck

 

Thanks Chuck. I have a firewall on my home computer. They are on at
the same time during the day, but if I am using my home computer, it
is going through their network, is it?

 

Okay, so it would be extremely difficult to get the surfing records of
my home computer off their router?? I do all that VPN stuff you
talked about.

 

Yes.

- Chuck