I am not in control of the network,l what do I need to do ?

[Trawler Scott]

I am on a boat receiving mainly 1 signal from the marina office but occassionaly I pick up another . The person running the network, can he mess with my computer or look at my files ? How can I protect my stuff ?
Thanks
Scott

[golfnut]

Try Zonealarm from www.zonelabs.com

It will also notify you if someone attempts to access files on your computer.

Greg

[eric1328]

When using public wireless networks it's best to disable all shared folders on your PC, use a firewall, and if you're able to, use VPN access.

[M/Q]

The best approach is often the most complicated one as well. Since it is not your network you have no control over what it does. You need to protect your end.

I never use my computer to directly connect to a foreign network if at all possible. I have a travel wireless router that I use to isolate my notebook when I go to any of my clients. It allows me to be completely isolated from their system. I might suggest the same for you. If this is a boat, it would be very easy to setup a bridge device that captures the marina wireless signal and have it connected via an Ethernet cable to another wired or wireless router on your boat. If you do not move the computer a wired router is fine. If you move around the boat get a wireless router and you will have your own little network on the boat. I would use 11a if you made the choice for a wireless router.

What the router does is totally isolate you from the marina network. Also 11a will cut down on interference as well as limit the number of nodes that can detect you. The use of a software firewall on the computer is still a good idea as well as a good AV application and making sure your computer is up to date patch-wise. Actually patching is the most important.

[sniper]

Hey Trawler,

I'd say that you need not worry about the other networks in the vicinity if you are mentioning that your wireless client adapter sees multiple infrastructure networks around. Typically the source signal(marina) should have something unique, like a particular ssid and if it's secure by using wep or wpa etc. then that's good. It depends on your profile on the client side, if it's been configured with the appropriate credentials just to talk to marina's signal then nobody can intrude as you'd never ever connect to this unknown network. A vulnerability in this case would be if you possess a profile to accept connection with a broadcast ssid or no ssid & no security at all.

So I guess it depends on the client's side wether to connect to one network or not. Only after this step will it be possible for someone to access files in your pc and more. So if the first mistake's on your side then you gotta have those file shares disabled, vpn, firewalls n stuff.

Hope this helps.