Manufacturers really aren't doing many of the home users any favours. Devices are sold with worse than lame default settings in the guise of usability. Personally I think that many manufacturers are underestimating the capacity of people to follow instructions, but then I guess Heinz Ketchup does have on the instructions "put on food", so maybe I’m wrong. Manufacturers could make things easier for us and many of them kind of do. We now have external hard drives where the backup is a push of a button (even my mother knows how to drive that one) and many of the network devices come with one button configuration settings to secure the network. Personally I've had limited success with this, but maybe I'm buttonny challenged. I know that your home network is as secure as you can possibly make it, but alas your neighbour’s, cousin, brother, parent, grandparent, etc, network is not up to the same specs. It has been or will be used in the future to spread evil such as Zeus, Stuxnet and even Kevin’s favourite, slammer. Securing the PC helps, but you do need to secure the network as well.
Now unless you want to be the extended family’s internet helpdesk (might be the only way you get to see them) I suggest that you write down down basic instructions for them, or set things up so they never have to touch it again. |
Mark 391 Posts ISC Handler Oct 11th 2010 |
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Oct 11th 2010 1 decade ago |
All this is fine as long as you have only IPv4 service, when you get IPv6 service, even through a 6to4, then everything gets its own global address and is not any longer behind any firewall in most contemporary routers.
Also when all sorts of people want access to things in your home e.g. the guy who maintains your heating system, then things get interesting - how to block unneeded access and allow access for those who need it? Welcome to the next level. |
Sten 4 Posts |
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Oct 3rd 2010 1 decade ago |
another suggestion: change the default IP configuration (e.g. router IP, network etc.)
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gebhard 7 Posts |
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Oct 4th 2010 1 decade ago |
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