How should i set everything up here.

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dtess17

2[H]4U
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Feb 7, 2005
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Ok so here is my situation. I'm back from college and now have all my stuff in one place. i have like 4 computers I need to find a way to make this all work. i want to find a good solution to getting everyone online.
To start the cable modem is in my room. i just picked up a linksys wrt54gs wireless router for cheap online. I've just been using it to keep both my my machines online in my room. basically not even using the wireless at this point.

My mother has a computer i built for her last year. She has just kept it in my room while i've been away, but i want my back to myself so i want her comp out of my room. Her room is on the other side of the house, and i don't want to have to run cables all across the house.I will have two desktops in my room for myself. I might get a laptop sometime in the future.Also my step father is planning on having a PC here too. I'm not sure if he will have a laptop or a desktop. But he will likely be making a room up in the attic for whatever he ends up doing.

So right now we are dealing with two computers in my room which are just regular desktops that i planned on just keeping wired. My mothers desktop which is across the house which will likely have to be wireless, and my step fathers desktop or laptop which will also have to be wireless. Down the road i might also pick up a laptop.

I think i remember reading that having a wired and wireless network is a bad idea. So what should i do here? I'm pretty much a noob when it comes to any type of networking. I've never had to deal with it before.

i wouldn't mind having the two computers in my room linked up so i can swap files between them. Also my mother and step father don't really pay much attention to what they are doing and i am constantly having to remove adware or spyware and sometimes a virus, how can i keep my stuff safe from them too?


thanks.
 
Mixing wired and wireless will work just fine. Get wireless PCI cards for your parents PCs. Don't let them be administrators of the boxes they use and that will help a lot. You could also use Windows Defender on the machines as well.
 
dtess17 said:
So having them wireless in no way puts my wired machines at risk?
Click to expand...

It "can"..depending on how you set it up. If you don't run security on your wireless, someone can jump onto your LAN. May or may not be a security risk. Depends...do you leave your Administrator passwords blank? Do you have full open file shares using simple file sharing? Or locked down with accounts and NTFS? Even if they just hop on and use your internet without trying to grind into your PCs..if their PC is infected with a trojan or worm that can spread across networks...you're at risk.

If you live in a close area...higher risk, if you live out in the sticks where nobody is close enough to pickup your wireless..less risk.
 
well i don't live out in the sticks. mid size town, but yeah there are houses all around me.

i really don't have any file sharing set up...really i have nothing set up at the moment.
i'm rebuilding two systems, and the one i am typing on now will be sold off...so i will be starting with a clean slate.

one of the computers will be used to be my general use/storage machine
the other is mainly for gaming/entertainment.
i'd like to link these two up...i really don't care about my step dads and mom's computer i just want to let them onto the net. and make sure they don't fuck up any of my stuff.

i just wanna make sure everything is all safe and secure on my end. Whatever i need to do i shall.
 
First things you need to do once the router and network is in place is to:

1: Change the admin password to the router.
2: change the default IP
3: setup some kind of encryption on the wireless network.
4: turn off DHCP and use a static IP scheme

Once you get the machines in place do this:

1: set administrator password on all the machines
2: give the parents limited user accounts

That is about as secure as you will get it, unless you want to use NTFS permissions, which can get really detailed.
 
dtess17 said:
well i don't live out in the sticks. mid size town, but yeah there are houses all around me.

i really don't have any file sharing set up...really i have nothing set up at the moment.
i'm rebuilding two systems, and the one i am typing on now will be sold off...so i will be starting with a clean slate.

one of the computers will be used to be my general use/storage machine
the other is mainly for gaming/entertainment.
i'd like to link these two up...i really don't care about my step dads and mom's computer i just want to let them onto the net. and make sure they don't fuck up any of my stuff.

i just wanna make sure everything is all safe and secure on my end. Whatever i need to do i shall.
Click to expand...

The two computers that will be for your use, set up your shares, and only allow access to them with your account. Make sure that the username and password of the user match on the two machines. Secondly, using some kind of firewall, deny access from your parent's IP's to your two IP's.
 
dtess17 said:
steps 2-4....might need some help pn that.
Click to expand...

Step 2: (refer to thumnail under this paragraph) To change the default IP in your router, just go the main setup page after you login, and scroll down until you see "Network Setup" and "Router IP". The router IP is going to be 192.168.1.1. You need to change it to something like 192.168.1.254.


Step 3: (refer to photo linked here) Choose WEP from the drop down menu and then select "128 bits 26 hex digits" for the "WEP Encryption". Enter a passphrase into the "Passphrase" field and click "Generate" to generate the corresponding HEX keys. Distribute key 1 to your users as the WEP key for your network.

Step 4: http://www.portforward.com/networking/static-xp.htm

To turn off DHCP, look at this photo; down at the bottom:
http://www.columbia.edu/acis/access/oncampus/linksys01.jpg

See where it says "DHCP Server"? Click the "Disable" radio button
 
ah now that is the type of help i need.
should come in very handy. Thank you

hopefully i'll have the rest of the stuff i ordered by next monday. Then the fun begins.
 
ah wow i forgot about this thread...never got around to this project...i should set stuff up soon.
 
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