home network security

November 21st, 2008
  • How secure is my wireless home network? Can a skillful teenage computer user monitor my activity and/or gain access to my password protected computer? I've got cable internet service distributed to several computers in the house via a Linksys wireless network. Both the cable modem and Linksys hub are attached to the teen's computer. I am not asking about neighbors/etc intercepting the signal.


  • Hi bosco, What sort of encryption are you using? If your wireless signals are encrypted your wireless connection is no less secure than someone who listens to a network feed through a wire. What Linksys hardware in specific are you using? What operating system? How is your computer password protected? Are you sharing any drives on the password protected computer? tisme-ga


  • not sure what type of encryption, but since he was the one who set the network up, (and since he has access to all of the "pipes", wired and wireless) I don't know that it matters. Linksys BEFW 11S4. Several computers, PC and Mac, with Windows 98, XP, and OSX. Normal passwords provided with the OS, but he had access to everything in order to configure the network. My (maybe naive) question is, could he be monitoring (or recording) my activity on the computer?


  • Hello bosco, The person could certainly be monitoring the activity on your computer. I don’t think for you this is a wireless issue as much as a network security issue. Also just because the person has access to wires running to your computer does not mean they have access to it, just that they could have. On the Windows XP computer it would be possible to set up reasonable security but probably not unbreakable security if the teen is skilled enough. Even if I was to walk you through how to secure your LAN, it could be possible that there are already programs installed that would undermine this. For example, your internet history on a Windows XP computer is installed at: C:Documents and Settings*your login name*Local SettingsHistory If your C: is shared on your network, all a person would have to do is type in \*computername*cdocuments and settingsloginnamelocal settingshistory to get your complete internet history. Similarly, \computernamecdocuments and settingsloginnamedesktop would show what files are on your desktop All your files and folders could be shared on your network in a similar way which would make it easy to gain access to them from another computer on your network. To disable this, you can follow the instructions here: http://help.earthlink.net/techsupport/xmldocs/windows_XP/5877.help.html It is also possible to control a computer remotely, even through the internet! To gain access to your computer over the internet someone would have to have set up a program or make you install a nasty program (via email or other means). But if someone has access to the computer directly, there are countless ways to keep tabs on a user. There are programs available that will make screenshots of the computer screen at certain intervals and transfer them to another computer for storing. There are similar programs that will capture every key typed while Windows is running and store them on a different computer. Also files that are deleted from your computer can be recovered (which is why government agencies smash and burn hard drives when they are finished with them). Securing your computer at this point would involve making sure that there are no such programs installed at the moment. The easiest way to do this would probably be to completely format your hard drive and reinstall Windows XP and then secure everything. I am not sure how important this is to you, but then you should install a security program such as McAffee Internet Security. http://www.mcafee.com/myapps/is5/default.asp Even if you were not to reformat your computer, this program would catch any network connections to your computer. I use this program myself and always get a warning when any strange program attempts to send out information from my computer or if someone tries to access my computer. You can then permit or deny that the information be transmitted. It gives the ip address of the computer that is attempting to make contact (with which you could figure out which computer on the network or who on the internet it is and what time it happened at). If you do buy this program, you would probably find a better deal in a retail store depending on where you are. It comes with a VirusScan, Firewall, Spyware/Adware Protection and other useful things. It is also probably the easiest Internet Security Software to use, but you will certainly find other products as well at a computer store near you. I hope that you find this answer useful and informative. If you need any clarifications please let me know and I will do my best to further assist you. tisme-ga Search Strategy: disable file sharing windows xp ://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=disable+file+sharing+windows+xp


  • certainly a good answer. if I could follow up one last time... a) the security software programs that you mentioned are all for Windows. Any ideas for Apple? and b) again for Apple, would there be any logs anywhere that might enable me to discover attempts to access/monitor? thanks


  • btw, no shared drives (so far as I know)


  • Hi bosco, What operating system is the computer running? In response to B) I do not think there would be any logs that show network connections by default, but after installing a security program you should be able to capture all future attempts. Hopefully I will find a program for you but I would need to know what operating system you are running first. tisme-ga


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