Can other computer files be seen with an access point?

[DarkDubzs]

So im looking into connect a router to another router and most of what i see is connecting them via LAN-LAN, which makes the second router an access point. I was reading THIS and it says (under "Use a Second Router as an Access Point">"C: Connect the Two Routers with a Cat-5 Cable") "Since everything is part of the same home network, all your shared folders, music libraries, photos, and other files will be accessible from all computers and mobile devices that are connected to the network."

Does that mean that if i am on my pc, connected to the (second router) access point, will people connected to the first router be able to see what is on my pc, like the files and stuff under my documents or on my desktop?

What if i do LAN(first router) to WAN (second router)?

 

[Liger88]

Pretty much. The second router would be acting as a "dumb" switch with an access point attached. If you configured it correctly that is. Meaning, the LAN to LAN connection between Router Main to Router AP would all be on the same subnet/network because both LAN's would be getting their IP from the Router Main's DHCP pool (how it works).

People often wonder why not connect WAN to LAN and the reason for that isn't any fundamental limit. It's nothing more than an Ethernet switchport in reality. The main problem is on consumer gear it's often very difficult to do with their firmware and even custom firmware that gives you full control of the port it can be a PITA if you don't have a firm grasp on networking.

Basically with WAN to LAN the limitations are:

1) Stock Firmware
2) Alternative Firmware supporting full configuration of the WAN port
3) User knowledge

As far as people seeing you. So long as you have Network Discovery turned on anyone in the same subnet as you on the same LAN will be visible and you will be to them. Securing this from unauthorized access is fairly easy if sharing was absolutely necessary in this environment. Of course the big problem would be in a network you don't trust. Again it can be secured, but lots of times I'm assuming you don't want yourself visible at all for either attack surface reasons or privacy concerns.

Disabling Network Discovery should eliminate this and manually typing in known IP addresses of clients should serve you just fine. It's just a newer Windows feature to making file sharing and basic home networking easier for the uninformed.

 

[DarkDubzs]

Pretty much. The second router would be acting as a "dumb" switch with an access point attached. If you configured it correctly that is. Meaning, the LAN to LAN connection between Router Main to Router AP would all be on the same subnet/network because both LAN's would be getting their IP from the Router Main's DHCP pool (how it works).

People often wonder why not connect WAN to LAN and the reason for that isn't any fundamental limit. It's nothing more than an Ethernet switchport in reality. The main problem is on consumer gear it's often very difficult to do with their firmware and even custom firmware that gives you full control of the port it can be a PITA if you don't have a firm grasp on networking.

Basically with WAN to LAN the limitations are:

1) Stock Firmware
2) Alternative Firmware supporting full configuration of the WAN port
3) User knowledge

As far as people seeing you. So long as you have Network Discovery turned on anyone in the same subnet as you on the same LAN will be visible and you will be to them. Securing this from unauthorized access is fairly easy if sharing was absolutely necessary in this environment. Of course the big problem would be in a network you don't trust. Again it can be secured, but lots of times I'm assuming you don't want yourself visible at all for either attack surface reasons or privacy concerns.

Disabling Network Discovery should eliminate this and manually typing in known IP addresses of clients should serve you just fine. It's just a newer Windows feature to making file sharing and basic home networking easier for the uninformed.

Well the thing is, im gonna be with my uncle and aunts house and i will be in their guest house, its far enough to get a very weak wifi signal or none at all, so im going to use my own router. Im only gonna be there for a couple of months. Im just trying to find a way to use the secondary router i will be using and connect it to their main router. I dont want them to be able to see my internet activity or browser histories or be able to acces the data on my hardwired pc or wireless connected devices like my ipod touch or xbox.
What would be the best thing to do in this scenario?

Im not going to be flashing the router or changing its firmware. Nothing too crazy or advanced.

 

[Liger88]

Well the thing is, im gonna be with my uncle and aunts house and i will be in their guest house, its far enough to get a very weak wifi signal or none at all, so im going to use my own router. Im only gonna be there for a couple of months. Im just trying to find a way to use the secondary router i will be using and connect it to their main router. I dont want them to be able to see my internet activity or browser histories or be able to acces the data on my hardwired pc or wireless connected devices like my ipod touch or xbox.
What would be the best thing to do in this scenario?

Im not going to be flashing the router or changing its firmware. Nothing too crazy or advanced.

Well most consumer grade routers don't support the ability of even so much as logging traffic of anyone connected, let alone what they're downloading at any given moment. Those are really advanced features found mostly in business grade equipment. Even if you flashed your router to get some heavy functionality with something like DD-WRT that kind of monitoring isn't possible.

But preventing yourself from being accessed or visible on the LAN while you're there isn't that difficult.

The problem lies with the fact it isn't your gear. You don't really have control over your traffic and are kind of submitting yourself to your Uncle if he was technically inclined to be Big Brother. Again it's way overrated as far as what a normal home network can do regarding monitoring of the network. The functionality just isn't there most of the time and so long as you're tied to his device you're submitting all your traffic to his router.

 

[DarkDubzs]

But preventing yourself from being accessed or visible on the LAN while you're there isn't that difficult.

The problem lies with the fact it isn't your gear. You don't really have control over your traffic and are kind of submitting yourself to your Uncle if he was technically inclined to be Big Brother. Again it's way overrated as far as what a normal home network can do regarding monitoring of the network. The functionality just isn't there most of the time and so long as you're tied to his device you're submitting all your traffic to his router.

Right, that is true, but ive read that if two routers are LAN-LAN, the computers connected to router 1 can literally see and access the data like files and programs and pictures on the computers connected to router 2. Is this true? I dont think my aunt and uncle are very tech savvy, but if all they have to do to see my computer data (not network data or traffic) is just click under network or documents in Windows Explorer ▼(image below), then thats a huge no-no, per say lol.

 

[Liger88]

That's why I mentioned these settings which can be found here:

That should do it. Even if you leave on network discovery like I do, the second setting should completely block people. Turning off both should do the trick from the Windows GUI front. In fact if you click on your machine that's listed in those settings, which usually shows up, it'll show you anything you're sharing. If any files and folders are being shared you can right click and unshare them.

Even if they see you, you wont be sharing anything anyways. It would be basically a name tag to say someone is on the network but there is nothing there for you to access. Leave 'em both on, but disable any shared folders/files Windows may automatically be sharing, leave one on and the other off, or both off. Those are the three options that'll lock that down from worst to best.

 

[DarkDubzs]

That's why I mentioned these settings which can be found here:

That should do it. Even if you leave on network discovery like I do, the second setting should completely block people. Turning off both should do the trick from the Windows GUI front. In fact if you click on your machine that's listed in those settings, which usually shows up, it'll show you anything you're sharing. If any files and folders are being shared you can right click and unshare them.

Even if they see you, you wont be sharing anything anyways. It would be basically a name tag to say someone is on the network but there is nothing there for you to access. Leave 'em both on, but disable any shared folders/files Windows may automatically be sharing, leave one on and the other off, or both off. Those are the three options that'll lock that down from worst to best.

Well then ill probably do LAN to LAN and turn both off, looking at it, theyre already set to off lol. Any other advice for LAN to LAN configuration or any other info at all?