MAMEWorld Forums - The Loony Bin - Firewall security question

> > > I live on base. On the 7th floor of a housing tower on base. I have no worries of
> anybody within reach of my network having any kind of knowledge on the matter, let
> alone the tools...

You may want to ask around they may have rules one what you have to do anyway. Military installations are a bit more strict on what you can/cant do. They may require you to do it anyway even though there isnt another computer within 20 miles.

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>
> > Anyone can be a script kiddy - don't need to understand anything to use an attack
> kit.
>
>
> Anyone [could] be a script kiddie. Always: how paranoid do you want to be? If you're
> worried about it, don't ask here. Research it, see what you need to do, and what you
> want to put your time into doing.

Why *not* set it up? Seriously. It is trivial to setup. Pick a passphrase from your favorite movie as the password write it as a sticky note on top of the router if you are afraid you will forget it. You are spending more time NOT setting it up than setting it up.

When I first setup my network there was maybe 1 other wirelese network in the whole neighborhood. Now there are at least 30 that I can see from the comfort of my couch. 3 are wep and 2 unencrypted at least the rest are wpa2. Its not like the houses are close to each other either. I can see more if I go upstairs.

Do a network scan and see if there are any others hanging out there. The built in windows one usually stinks in doing that. Get something like inssider or one of the many open source ones.

However, if you are dead set on doing what he is talking about set the thing up as a router/bridge and not a nat device (which is the default). Most of them let you do that. It really depends on the wireless router you bought. Usually it will be something like 'firewall off' or 'nat off' or both. If you do not care about the firewall it is easy enough to turn off in windows. Linux you just turn off the service and set it to not start up again. Just remember you will want some sort of firewall upstream if you plug it into the internet. You will also need real IP's for the real internet not something most isp's will come off these days unless you are talking ipv6 then they dont mind giving you a /64. Unless you are using static assignment or some other device being the dhcp server.

Now *IF* you follow my advice and actually do this be prepared to reinstall your computer. Assume it *will* get rooted. Setting up the security is trivial. I 'trust' my neighbors not to do anything. But do I trust say their grandson who is visiting for a couple of weeks and found out about war driving last week and is really bored? Not really.