Internet security advice please...

[The Dark Horse]

Hi all

I'm confused about how firewalls and routers work, can someone assist?

My PC is connected to the wireless router via an ethernet cable. When I play my PS3 I do that wirelessly as they are in different parts of the house.

My question is, would my PC be protected whilst the router is on and the PC is off? If someone got past the router security I assume the firewall on my PC wouldn't stop them, is that correct?

Also can viruses, trojans etc..etc... be put onto my PC via the PS3 when I'm playing online?

Any help appreciated. Thanks.

 

[johnelf]

Hi

Your pc will only get a virus, if it is turned on. Whilst off, it is completely safe.

you will get many different answers as to what is the best Anti virus software around, but any of the main systems will be fine, Norton Mcafee etc .

There are hardware firewalls that have built in AV protection too, whilst these are highly reliable, they come with a premium price tag £500 ish with £150 pa software support. www.fortinet.com

Good Luck

John

 

[rd9124]

My question is, would my PC be protected whilst the router is on and the PC is off?

If your PC was off then no one would would be able to access anything on it. When it is off it is not active in any way.

If someone got past the router security I assume the firewall on my PC wouldn't stop them, is that correct?

I think it would be very unlikely that someone could get past your Router firewall and PC firewall in this way. I assume you have a password set up to access your router wirelessly - if not it would be a good idea.

Also can viruses, trojans etc..etc... be put onto my PC via the PS3 when I'm playing online?

I don't think so but I could be wrong - maybe someone else might know. Just make sure you have anti virus and anti spyware up to date and scan regularly.

 

[EndlessWaves]

Also can viruses, trojans etc..etc... be put onto my PC via the PS3 when I'm playing online?

I would imagine it's possible in theory, a console is essentially just a limited PC so it should be able to spread the virus around a local network. However, the virus would have to be specifically written to run on the PS3 so it's probably not something to worry about.

While nothing can be read or written to desk when a PC is on (therefore a virus can't have any effect or even run itself) PCs do have the capability to be woken up over a network, this is usually called wake on lan and can be enabled/disabled in the bios (it's not used much so all modern PCs hopefully ship with it turned off by default).

 

[The Dark Horse]

If your PC was off then no one would would be able to access anything on it. When it is off it is not active in any way.



I think it would be very unlikely that someone could get past your Router firewall and PC firewall in this way. I assume you have a password set up to access your router wirelessly - if not it would be a good idea.



I don't think so but I could be wrong - maybe someone else might know. Just make sure you have anti virus and anti spyware up to date and scan regularly.

So if I use the internet with a wireless router that is connected by an ethernet cable is it still possible for someone to wirelessly connect to my PC at the same time?

 

[EndlessWaves]

So if I use the internet with a wireless router that is connected by an ethernet cable is it still possible for someone to wirelessly connect to my PC at the same time?

I would imagine that isn't possible, the wireless connection would probably have to be initiated from your PC.

However, both the PC, router and PS3 are likely to be set up as one network so someone could connect to your network (the router) wirelessly and then access your PC through it's ethernet cable.

 

[Miss Chief]

If you only connect to the router using cables you can turn the wireless off completely. This would certainly be the best way. If your SSID is hidden and you have a Shared Key password to access the router then unless someone spends time trying to brute force crack the key (or you're silly enough to tell them what it is) then anyone wanting to piggy-back on someone's wireless will almost certainly look elsewhere. My PC picks up 5 wireless connections although some of them have very low strength. Out of the 5, 2 are from Sky broadband with PSK access (next door neighbour and me) and 2 are completely unsecured!

Basically there's plenty of unsecured wireless access out there so unless someone has a need to try and connect through your wireless for some reason it's unlikely they'll go to the hassle.

A hardware Router firewall is very difficult to penetrate without some sort of software, a trojan or virus allowing access and modifying the firewall by opening specific ports. Keep your anti-virus and spyware scanners up to date and this sort of thing is unlikely to happen to you.

 

[Gow87]

Basically If you haven't secured your wireless, do so now or anyone and their dog could be using your connection. to do this open internet explorer and type

192.168.1.1 < d-link and most other brands
192.168.0.1 < netgear
192.168.2.1 < Belkin
192.168.1.254 < Billion and a few lesser known brands
10.0.0.2 < Zoom

for netgear Username = admin Password = password
for dlink and most brands User = admin Password = admin
for zoom User = admin Password = zoomadsl
Belkin has no generic password

Once inside look for wireless security settings and choose WPA-PSK
Then enter a nice long password you won't forget


As far as security i can recommend AntiVir as a good free antivirus (not a firewall) They also do a paid for version which is very good

And as far as commercially available "security packages" Kasperski is absolutley fantastic.

Norton and Mcaffee are getting more and more buggy/bloated with time. But bare in mind that these programs are deeply routed into your PC, they will slow things down a little.