[Qathe]

Hello all, I'm new here, and fairly new to computers. I have an HP Pavilion g7-1219wm laptop, and there is a wireless system in the house (AT&T u-verse). Is there any way to make sure no one else on this network can access either browsing history or emails? Or can the system administrator pretty much access anything? I use the "InPrivate Browsing" tab under "Tools" for everything now, and think I took my computer off of file sharing. Is there anything else I can do or is anything I do over this wireless system pretty much open? I have a bunch of roommates that cannot be trusted.

For what I do online to be completely out of their reach is the only way to go to a public computer, change all email and website passwords, and do anything of a sensitive nature online there?

Thanks

Cathy

[LiveBrianD]

If you want to make sure others don't get into your stuff, the worst thing you can do is use a public computer. Instead, go into the router's configuration (usually you type http://192.168.1.1 into your web browser) and make sure you set a password on the wireless connection, preferably using WPA2-AES, so that bad guys can't connect to your network (obviously, if you don't tell your roommates the password they'll get pissed, and this won't stop them from doing nefarious things, but it will stop the random guy parked in front of your house from getting onto your wireless connection).

Use HTTPS on websites wherever possible, as it prevents people from eavesdropping on what you're doing (ex. gmail does it by default, hotmail can be set to do it and you can get to it that way manually by typing the address with https:// instead of http://, ditto for facebook, etc). If you're using http while doing stuff like email or facebook, people can use firesheep to get into your session and cause problems for you (ex. make fake posts on FB, look through your email etc). NOTE: Many sites use HTTPS when you sign in, but do NOT during the actual session. This means that your login cookie is being sent unencrypted and and can be stolen by others (they can't get your actual login info though, which was sent when you signed in, since that typically uses https). If the site you're using isn't supported by that, someone can use something like Wireshark to see what you're doing, but that's a big pain and most people won't bother. Basically, use HTTPS and you're safe. By the way, private/incognito browsing mode will only prevent others from looking at your browsing history on the actual computer. This will NOT affect the ability for others to track what you're doing over the network, if you don't do that with https.

Also, I'm assuming you have Windows 7. When you originally connected to the network, it was a good idea to tell windows the network was 'public' (not work or home), since that way things like file and printer sharing, as well as Homegroup (an easy way in win7 to share documents and printers) are disabled by default. If not, click the network icon in the taskbar (which either looks like a few bars, if you use wireless, or a little screen with a cable to the left of it), and network and sharing center. Under 'view your active networks', it will say the type, home/work/public, and it will be a blue link. Click on that, and change it to public. The other option is to, in network and sharing center, click 'change advanced sharing settings' to the left, and manually block things like file and printer sharing.

Finally, put a password on your computer if you haven't already (and no, something like 'password', '12345', or your name doesn't count).

[david2001]

wow thanks for sharing,it is really helpful

[coastie65]

Clicking the public option is not recommended as it does leave your computer vulnerable. You can set it up to automatically delete your browsing history when you sign out. In Windows 7 Click START---->CONTROL PANEL---->INTERNET OPTIONS In Internet Options, click settings in Browsing History, then at the bottom set it to keep the History to " 0 " and it will not keep any history of your browsing.

This post has been edited by coastie65: 30 March 2012 - 12:16 PM

[Qathe]

OK, thank you for the information. On that last post, how would clicking the "public" option make the computer more vulnerable?

[coastie65]

Qathe, on 30 March 2012 - 03:58 PM, said:

OK, thank you for the information. On that last post, how would clicking the "public" option make the computer more vulnerable?

The public option is generally used in situations such as Internet cafes and the like ( Hot spots at Airports and such ). Those places are know for safe internet surfing as my neighbor found out. In retrospect, the pubic option may offer a bit more protection ( I need to look into that ), but I have never used it as I have several computers around here and it always seems like a file I want is on one I'm not on. With the home networking, it is a simople matter to get the file I want.

[LiveBrianD]

coastie65, on 30 March 2012 - 05:34 PM, said:

Qathe, on 30 March 2012 - 03:58 PM, said:

OK, thank you for the information. On that last post, how would clicking the "public" option make the computer more vulnerable?

The public option is generally used in situations such as Internet cafes and the like ( Hot spots at Airports and such ). Those places are know for safe internet surfing as my neighbor found out. In retrospect, the pubic option may offer a bit more protection ( I need to look into that ), but I have never used it as I have several computers around here and it always seems like a file I want is on one I'm not on. With the home networking, it is a simople matter to get the file I want.

Let me clarify. I'm saying that public wireless networks aren't a good idea when you're doing sensitive things (ex. banking). I said that telling Windows your network is public is a good idea because that automatically disables network file sharing, just to help make sure your roommates can't look at shared files on your machine.

[coastie65]

LiveBrianD, on 30 March 2012 - 07:47 PM, said:

coastie65, on 30 March 2012 - 05:34 PM, said:

Qathe, on 30 March 2012 - 03:58 PM, said:

OK, thank you for the information. On that last post, how would clicking the "public" option make the computer more vulnerable?

The public option is generally used in situations such as Internet cafes and the like ( Hot spots at Airports and such ). Those places are know for safe internet surfing as my neighbor found out. In retrospect, the pubic option may offer a bit more protection ( I need to look into that ), but I have never used it as I have several computers around here and it always seems like a file I want is on one I'm not on. With the home networking, it is a simople matter to get the file I want.

Let me clarify. I'm saying that public wireless networks aren't a good idea when you're doing sensitive things (ex. banking). I said that telling Windows your network is public is a good idea because that automatically disables network file sharing, just to help make sure your roommates can't look at shared files on your machine.

Good point. Not a problem here as it is just me, and as i said, sometimes the files I want are somewhere else, so file sharing is helpful.