Unsecured Wireless: The Driver becomes the Hunted?

I've been enjoying my new Toshiba Tecra M1 laptop. This evening I was
experimenting with one of its powerful components, its Centrino
wireless card. I live in a condominium complex which is also adjacent
to an industrial estate. When I went war driving in my living room I
found at least a few networks, including one or two which were
unsecured. From these I got an IP address and could surf the internet
happily.

As I was browsing "My Network Places" I remarked on the large number
of computers exposed to me. It started me wondering, "is my laptop
secure in this environment? Am I falling for a honeypot by using this
network?" Really, I don't know. I need to figure out "how do I secure
my XP client computer from Shadow of Death when I am using a
randomly-discovered wireless network" ?

Is it as simple as just turning on my firewall? Is there something I
should do to hide the very existence of my client PC on that network?
What else should I be concerned about?

I sort of know the answer, yes, there are lots of things to worry
about. Anyone want to suggest the few fixes and precautions that stem
eighty-percent of the danger?

Don't abuse it and you will have the access for a long time.

I know nothing about XP except that many people hate it for hardware
compatibilty and you are forever linked to MS now.

"Michael Slater" <black-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) om...
> I've been enjoying my new Toshiba Tecra M1 laptop. This evening I was
> experimenting with one of its powerful components, its Centrino
> wireless card. I live in a condominium complex which is also adjacent
> to an industrial estate. When I went war driving in my living room I
> found at least a few networks, including one or two which were
> unsecured. From these I got an IP address and could surf the internet
> happily.
>
> As I was browsing "My Network Places" I remarked on the large number
> of computers exposed to me. It started me wondering, "is my laptop
> secure in this environment? Am I falling for a honeypot by using this
> network?" Really, I don't know. I need to figure out "how do I secure
> my XP client computer from Shadow of Death when I am using a
> randomly-discovered wireless network" ?
>
> Is it as simple as just turning on my firewall? Is there something I
> should do to hide the very existence of my client PC on that network?
> What else should I be concerned about?
>
> I sort of know the answer, yes, there are lots of things to worry
> about. Anyone want to suggest the few fixes and precautions that stem
> eighty-percent of the danger?

You need to turn on the firewall for your wireless connection. That should
stop anyone else on a wireless LAN from accessing your computer. If you
leave the firewall turned off, you are VERY much at risk.

Mike Schumann

"Michael Slater" <black-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) om...
> I've been enjoying my new Toshiba Tecra M1 laptop. This evening I was
> experimenting with one of its powerful components, its Centrino
> wireless card. I live in a condominium complex which is also adjacent
> to an industrial estate. When I went war driving in my living room I
> found at least a few networks, including one or two which were
> unsecured. From these I got an IP address and could surf the internet
> happily.
>
> As I was browsing "My Network Places" I remarked on the large number
> of computers exposed to me. It started me wondering, "is my laptop
> secure in this environment? Am I falling for a honeypot by using this
> network?" Really, I don't know. I need to figure out "how do I secure
> my XP client computer from Shadow of Death when I am using a
> randomly-discovered wireless network" ?
>
> Is it as simple as just turning on my firewall? Is there something I
> should do to hide the very existence of my client PC on that network?
> What else should I be concerned about?
>
> I sort of know the answer, yes, there are lots of things to worry
> about. Anyone want to suggest the few fixes and precautions that stem
> eighty-percent of the danger?

Michael,

I, too, have been pretty concerned about exposure, though I am on a suburban
street with houses paced apart from each other. My signal can be picked up
from my neighbor's house (both his garage and office) and from as far away
as my front sidewalk.

As an interim solution, I have used a second router, a subnet, I guess,
wired to my primary router. The second router broadcasts the wireless
signal but its network is different from my primary machines and they can't
be viewed by anyone using the wireless signal.

--Ray

"Michael Slater" <black-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) om...
> I've been enjoying my new Toshiba Tecra M1 laptop. This evening I was
> experimenting with one of its powerful components, its Centrino
> wireless card. I live in a condominium complex which is also adjacent
> to an industrial estate. When I went war driving in my living room I
> found at least a few networks, including one or two which were
> unsecured. From these I got an IP address and could surf the internet
> happily.
>
> As I was browsing "My Network Places" I remarked on the large number
> of computers exposed to me. It started me wondering, "is my laptop
> secure in this environment? Am I falling for a honeypot by using this
> network?" Really, I don't know. I need to figure out "how do I secure
> my XP client computer from Shadow of Death when I am using a
> randomly-discovered wireless network" ?
>
> Is it as simple as just turning on my firewall? Is there something I
> should do to hide the very existence of my client PC on that network?
> What else should I be concerned about?
>
> I sort of know the answer, yes, there are lots of things to worry
> about. Anyone want to suggest the few fixes and precautions that stem
> eighty-percent of the danger?

1. Turn on encryption protocols - either WPA which is best, or WEP. Change
your keywords regularly and make them non dictionary words.

2. Turn on MAC address filtering on your AP.

3. Get behind a firewall

>I've been enjoying my new Toshiba Tecra M1 laptop. This evening I was
>experimenting with one of its powerful components, its Centrino
>wireless card. I live in a condominium complex which is also adjacent
>to an industrial estate. When I went war driving in my living room I
>found at least a few networks, including one or two which were
>unsecured. From these I got an IP address and could surf the internet
>happily.
>
>As I was browsing "My Network Places" I remarked on the large number
>of computers exposed to me. It started me wondering, "is my laptop
>secure in this environment? Am I falling for a honeypot by using this
>network?" Really, I don't know. I need to figure out "how do I secure
>my XP client computer from Shadow of Death when I am using a
>randomly-discovered wireless network" ?
>
>Is it as simple as just turning on my firewall? Is there something I
>should do to hide the very existence of my client PC on that network?
>What else should I be concerned about?
>
>I sort of know the answer, yes, there are lots of things to worry
>about. Anyone want to suggest the few fixes and precautions that stem
>eighty-percent of the danger?

Mike Schumann wrote:

> You need to turn on the firewall for your wireless connection. That
> should
> stop anyone else on a wireless LAN from accessing your computer. If you
> leave the firewall turned off, you are VERY much at risk.
>

On some wireless "routers", the firewall protects against the wan (internet)
side and leaves the wireless side wide open. I have my wireless outside of
my home network and use a vpn to gain access.

--

Fundamentalism is fundamentally wrong.

To reply to this message, replace everything to the left of "@" with
james.knott.

On Fri, 02 Jan 2004 13:32:08 GMT, James Knott <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>Mike Schumann wrote:
>
>> You need to turn on the firewall for your wireless connection. That
>> should
>> stop anyone else on a wireless LAN from accessing your computer. If you
>> leave the firewall turned off, you are VERY much at risk.
>>
>
>On some wireless "routers", the firewall protects against the wan (internet)
>side and leaves the wireless side wide open. I have my wireless outside of
>my home network and use a vpn to gain access.

He's looking at it from the other side, and needs something like Zone
Alarm on his laptop to stop the users of the other wireless network
hacking *him*.

--
Niall