How safe is sharing folders in a home network?

I have small wireless network at home. 3 PCs connect to a wireless router, which connects to the internet. Now I want to share some folders on one computer, so I can access the files from another one.

How safe is it to do that? Is it possible to access my shared folders over the internet?

By the way, the router has a built in hardware firewall and all PCs have Norton Internet Security 2008 installed.

 

So long as your wireless network is password protected, it should be fine, correct?

(someone smarter wanna correct me on that??)

 

You should be fine as long as the WiFi is encrypted. Use WEP if possible - WPA 128bit can be cracked in under 3 minutes.

Edit: oopth, got WEP and WPA in a muddle.

 

My wireless configuration software advised my to use "WPA2 and WPA (PSK)" for encryption. I have no idea how safe it is. Is it safer than WEP?

 

Your mistaken, WEP is the older encryption which can be easily cracked. WPA is much stronger.

 

you mixed them up. WPA is better than WEP.

 

Sharing can be safe, just make sure you are required to login to the shared pc. Doing so adds another level of security. If you have not done so, you will be required to add a firewall rule for your subnet. You did change the default subnet, did you?????? As well as changing the admin password on the router .....

 

You're assuming that he has XP Pro or other MS operating systems that have more than Simple file sharing.

Changing the default subnet doesn't help, it's as bad as hiding the SSID. It's one of those if someone's already in it's just buying you less than a second. It's not even a slow down if DHCP is enabled.

The most important point is to use strong wireless encryption, a good firewall on the router and if you can set proper file permissions that require users to log on.

 

I'm not that much concerned about my wireless network. It's WPA encrypted and I doubt that a hacker will drive to my house and try hacking my little network.

I'm more concerned about someone gaining access via internet. I disabled the simple file sharing in windows and tried to give permission only to certain user. The problem is, that I can't choose users from other computers. I'm really having trouble to grasp this whole concept of users, etc...

 

WPA2 with AES instead of TKIP is preferrable. I suspect AES will have a longer life than TKIP, but you never know....

 

As far as outsiders tring to break in. Make sure you have your SPI Firewall active and have the routers set so you do not have remote admin. Then run a FW on each machine, allowing your local subnet. With out going to a FW appliance that is about all you can do.

If you are just using needing a simple NAS, and you have an old pc laying around. Take a look a WarFTP, works on latency OS's. Set it up and turn file sharing off on all of your PC's. WarFTP is a FTP Server that is a free program.

Another one is FreeNAS it is still in beta but works rather good. All of the problems with RAID hardware.

With these FTP servers if you you can set your router up to point to the FTP server. That way you can have external access if needed. As with anything these days if you set it up for outside access it will get pounded with hackers 24/7 trying to get in. There are ways around this, just change the port to something above the 1024 to 65535. Most all of the scanners only scan the lower ports.

 

Sorry blue, I'm just too noobish to really understand what you said.

My router has a built-in firewall. Is it gonna protect from outside access?

I really just wanna share files between my laptop and my desktop PC. Is there safe and easy way to do that?

 

Filesharing is pretty easy to do. The router has a (Stateful Packet Inspection or SPI firewall) that will prevent inbound hacks, but the software firewall on the machines is another added layer of defense; in my opinion it is often overkill. The point is that the SPI firewall does not prevent OUTBOUND traffic -- i.e. if your machine got hijaacked.

What does this all mean? Your router will protect you to a certain extent from inbound baddies, but if your machines get hijaacked due to a virus or other malware there is no outbound protection hence the software firewall.

Finally, this is what they call a mulitlayered security approach. Not a bad thing, but might be overkill. For sharing files if you google it -- it is a real easy thing to do. If you need help we're here. In my opinion generally filesharing behind a router's firewall is secure enough.

 

if your files are that "sensitive" using an external hard drive or flash drive might be a better option

 

Would it be safer if I connect the two PCs directly via crossover ethernet cable?

 

Potentially yes, but not really worth it. I would just use the networking wizards in VISTA or XP, and you should be fine with your SPI firewall built into your router. Just make sure the firewall is on, and your Antivirus is up to date on all of your machines.

 

Actually it is sort of worth it because I would get like 20 times the transfer speed. (54Mbps vs 1Gbps) I'm gonna buy a crossover cable tomorrow and see how it works.

Thanks for all the advise guys!