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Internet Security
By James C. Smith, JamesCSmith@Bigfoot.com
Director of NOCCC (North Orange County Computer Club- www.noccc.org)
Internet Security is becoming a hot topic these days. You need to make sure that your computer is safe from hackers on the Internet. Gibson Research’s web site has a great program called Shields Up that will analyze your computer and tell you how secure it is. This is done without buying any products and without installing any programs. All you need to do is visit
www.GRC.com and click on Shields Up. The web site will then analyze
your system over the Internet and tell you how secure your computer is. GRC also has information on firewall programs made by other companies. These programs can help make your computer more secure and can alert you to any hacker attempts.
The most important Internet security issue is “file sharing.” When you set up a local area network, you can use file sharing to access the files on another computer in your network. File sharing can also be used by a hacker to access files on your computer through the Internet. This can happen even if you do not have a local area network. This can also happen regardless of your type of Internet connection. “Network” file sharing can be accessed over a cable modem, a
DSL modem, and even on ordinary analog modems such as a 56k or 28.8k modem. File sharing is a feature that is included in Windows 95/98 to allow peer-to-peer networking. If you do not use a network, you should make sure file sharing is turned off. You can do this by opening the control panel, double clicking on “network” and then pressing the button that says File and Print Sharing. Make sure that box that says “I want to be able to give other access to my files” is not checked.
If you do have a LAN, and do want file sharing on, you will have to leave that box checked but do something else to make sure the file sharing is only available to your LAN and not the
Internet. For this to work, you need to use a protocol other than TCP/IP for your LAN. IPX and NetBEUI will both work. In the network control panel select the line that says TCP/IP -> Network Card. Click on the Properties button then select the tab called Bindings. Now you should see a list of network services such as File and Print Sharing for Microsoft Networks and Client for Microsoft Networks. Make sure the box is NOT checked for every one of the items in this list. They should all be blank. If a box is checked, it means that service is available to anyone on the Internet. When you press the OK button, a message should pop up saying, “You have not selected any drivers to bind with. Would you like to select one now?” Click NO. You do not want to bind any driver or services to the TCP/IP protocol. Those services should all be bound to another protocol such as IPX or NetBEUI so that they can only be accessed on the LAN and not from the Internet.
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