[k_bo]

Hello!!

Basicly, I'm moving to a new house, renting a room. Im here looking for any sugestions on how to protect myself when my computer connected to the network. There is a couple computer savey guys living there and not saying that anyone of them would, but what are some things I could do to keep them from getting to my personel files?

I know some basic things in windows that make yourself invisible to anyone else over the network which can stop and wondering person, but I am looking to make sure I can stop someone that is on a mission to open my computer.

Thanks in advance for any help I get.

[1002richards]

Are you going to be networked or are you just sharing internet access?
For instance, in this house there are 3 laptops and one PC all using the same router but none of them are networked, we can't see each other's folders, docs or even the name of another machine.

Could you just clarify what the setup will be so people can best advise you?

Thanks.
Richard

[k_bo]

We are just going to share the internet. I was just looking for a couple pointers to prevent a person of "know-how" from entering my computer.

as for set up, i know that they have a wireless router. i have a desktop that will be wired and a laptop that I use not that much that will be off their wireless.
both run window 7 pro. I'm not sure what machines they will have running in the house.

Like i said, I dont expect them to be the type of people that would but I just wanted to take a couple steps to help protect myself.

[Snagglegaster]

If you use the Network and Sharing Center to configure both your wired and wireless networks as Public networks, file sharing is automatically disabled. Generally, that's sufficient to block access to your computer over a network. But, worrying about network security doesn't mean a thing if your computers aren't secured with a strong password, and you can't limit physical access to the machines.

[lunarlander]

There are several things you can do for physical security.

1) install a dead bolt on your room door. Room doors generally open inwards toward the room, and the sliding bolt can be opened by inserting a credit card. A dead bolt is bettter.

2) put a password in the BIOS so that a password is required during boot. Although this is weak protection, it is one more obsticle.

3) Buy a usb stick if you don't have one. Insert it, and right click on Computer, choose Manage. Go to Disk Management. Right click on the USB drive, choose 'Change Drive Letter and Path'. Click 'Change' button. Make the USB drive label 'A'. Now run 'syskey', click on the Update button. Select 'Store startup key on floppy disk' Click OK button. The startup key will be written to your USB stick. The startup key contains the encryption key to decrypt Windows passwords for the system. When you boot your PC, you will be prompted for floppy A, insert the USB and click OK, then it will continue bootup. If you don't have the USB stick, the system won't boot. This is pretty good 2 factor authentication of sorts, what you have (the USB startup key) and what you know ( your long passphrase ).

4) Now for the Windows account password. Use a passphrase. For example the phrase "James T Kirk is the captain of the USS Enterprise 1701", using the first letters of each word, will give you "JTKitcotUSSE1701". Add some symbols and you will have "JTK!itcot?USSE1701" which is complex enough. Password length is very important, the longer the passphrase is, the longer it will take to crack. This kind of passphrase will foil dictionary attacks and make brute force attacks not worth while.

[k_bo]

Thanks ...

I like the usb "key." I will give that a try. That was all some good advice and exactly what I was looking for. My only worry would be that I dont loose the usb device. lol