[pchelpers] Re: Question re broadband

Hi Scott,

Monday, November 5, 2007, 12:18:56 AM, you wrote:

S> My father wrote to me concerned that his neighbour could see who is
S> online (or on broadband) in the area, including him, and that he
S> could be open to potential hackers. He said that his neighbour has
S> done something to hide his broadband from other users. He has a DSL
S> connection, but no wireless connection. Could it be that the person
S> has got into the LAN network and can see who else is online - or is
S> this just nonsense. Is there a way to hide your broadband
S> connection from other users (apart from, of course, a firewall -
S> which he does have installed).

If the ISP is doing their job, no one can "see" anyone else on the
ISPs network. In the past, things used to be more open, but most ISPs
have blocked such capability (NETBEUI and broadcasts) for privacy and
security reasons, so that you would have to actively scan for other
computers, which is almost certainly a TOS violation.

Does your father have any concrete reason to believe that the neighbor
can "see" other people nearby on DSL?

Note that being able to see that there's is a computer online does not
mean being able to get "in" to it.


S> Just another question re routers and firewalls, if I have my
S> computer linked up to a wireless router, is this automatically
S> firewalled, or do I have to do anything to configure my router? I'm
S> also using a software firewall of course.

Yes and no. You almost certainly have a NAT router, as John says, but
that only protects you against people coming in via the internet. It
does not protect you against other people on the wireless router if
others have access to it, which can happen if your router is not
secured properly (or if you are inadvertently using someone else's
wireless router, which can happen very easily).

-- 
Scott.



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