The Network Security. Org

Most people who install a home network never delve inside the netherworld of security settings on their router. Who can blame them it's about as frightening as putting your hand in a shoebox full of rabid gerbils. Nevertheless, it's worth the effort if you know what you're doing.

That said, here are 10 router settings you can use to make your network more secure. For the purposes of this article, I used a popular router, the DLink DI524, to show you how to engage the features, because this router doesn't bite usually.

NTFS and share level permissions both affect the user's ability to access resources on a network, and you need a good understanding of both types to untangle and resolve certain access issues. These tips and best practices will help you avoid some typical problems.

Managing and troubleshooting permissions can be challenging, especially when everything looks like it should work. These tips and best practices will help you avoid some common problems.

IP addresses are the fundamental method for computers to identify themselves on most computer networks. Every computer (or other network device) connected to the Internet has an IP address. This tutorial explains the basics of finding, changing, and hiding (your) my IP addresses.

Inside IP Addresses
IP addresses are written in a notation using numbers separated by dots. This is called "dotted decimal" notation. Examples of IP addresses in dotted decimal notation are 10.0.0.1 and 192.168.0.1 although many millions of different IP addresses exist.

We talk a lot about testing for security vulnerabilities from a hacker's perspective but we must not forget about those rogue insiders that can do as much, if not more, damage. Sometimes we are cognizant of the insider threat but often look past issues that may be screaming "HELP, your data's being exploited!".

When performing your internal tests, be sure to add the following commonly overlooked weaknesses to your testing to-do list...

Got a sluggish network, but don't want to break the bank speeding it up? We've got free and relatively inexpensive help for you. While some of the steps we recommend might include minor hardware upgrades, they are far less expensive than large consulting contracts or "forklift-type" IT upgrades.

To get our tips, we've polled three networking specialists for their advice. They've come up with 17 tips, here's what they have to say.

Wireless hotspots are spreading across the UK, with blanket wifi zones now being rolled out in nine urban centres. Operators are promising wireless surfing at the touch of a button from the park, the bus or the street corner. So what does the wireless future have to offer and will it live up to the hype?

If you have ever worked as a consultant or even just helped out a friend with a computer problem, then you have probably been in a situation in which you sat down at an unfamiliar workstation and had to get an idea of how the system was configured prior to working on the problem. Although Windows XP's network configuration options are pretty straightforward, you usually can't get all of the particulars of a machine's network connectivity at a glance.

In Windows Vista though, Microsoft has made it a lot easier to quickly gather information about how a workstation is connected to a network through a new component called the Network Center.

What organizations would want their networks to be, if only they had all the money, time and expertise in the world, is hardly a mystery. Indeed, in a way, the ultimate network is really about nothing more than the Olympics' motto "citius, altius, fortius" rephrased as "faster, more efficient, more reliable." Just how you go about building this network, however, is another thing entirely.

Let's start right out with our Three Rules of Wireless Networking:

The three rules of Wireless Networking
1) It never goes as fast as they say it does
2) It never goes as far as they say it does
3) It never sets up as easily as they say it does

These Rules aren't intended to discourage you, but more to prepare you for a successful and satisfying wireless networking adventure. Let's dig into each of the Rules and see what's behind them.

An Internet Protocol (IP) address is a unique number that can identify each host (computers, routers, switches, etc.) on a network. When a host sends information to the IP address of a second receiving host it includes IP of origination, IP of destination and other information. Knowing the IP address of key network components such as routers, firewalls and servers, can be useful when troubleshooting network problems. Use of utilities like Ping or Trace Route can help isolate problem areas.

A security appliance? What does this do?
Well as you might imagine, it's an appliance - often a black or silver (techies may call it 'gun metal') box - which handles a lot of your security needs such as antivirus, anti-spam and content filtering. The various models work in different ways and address different issues in many cases - with varying degrees of integration and threat management - but the premise is basically the same.

And where would I put that?
The idea is that the appliance sits at the gateway and cleans data as it enters the enterprise, or passes across network borders.

In Part 1 of this series, I described the general approach to designing my new home's network, and how I generated my "drop list". Part 2 covered the design and material selection for the wall plates and central wiring panel. In this last installment, I'll cover some tips and tricks that I learned during the wiring process and how it all turned out.

In the last installment, I described the general approach to the project, my home's layout and how I generated my "drop list". This time I'm going to cover the design and material selection for the wall plates and central wiring panel. But first, I need to step back a bit to respond to this reader's question, which I had intended to cover in Part 1, but frankly, forgot to!

My wife and I recently concluded a two-year home design and construction odyssey and finally moved into our new home. We found the process to be exciting, exhausting, frustrating and nerve-wracking, but the end result to be immensely satisfying. As you might guess, among my responsibilities in this project was figuring out what to do about our new home's data, phone and multimedia distribution.

Now I have great news for anyone who has been waiting for easier wireless networking. Thanks to new technology available in Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), you can set up a secure wireless network without worrying about complicated network configuration issues. Networking and consumer electronics devices are now available that include the Microsoft Windows Connect Now (WCN) technology. WCN lets you transport network settings from a Windows-based PC to networked devices in your home using a USB flash drive.

In this column, I demonstrate how to build a complete and secure wireless network from scratch. You'll need a computer running Windows XP SP2, a USB flash drive, and devices that support Windows Connect Now.

Properly synchronizing your network with a consistent and accurate time source is very important. However, it's not enough to simply synchronize the time on your network devices?this effort should extend all the way to the desktop. In this edition of Security Solutions, Mike Mullins discusses how to synchronize time throughout an entire Windows network.

Wireless technology gives us the flexibility, range and mobility to live, work and think differently. It also opens up a vast range of tasty new hack possibilities, 100 of which are explored in the second edition of Wireless Hacks, by Rob Flickenger and Roger Weeks. Completely revised and updated, Wireless Hacks includes over 30 brand new hacks, major overhauls of over 30 more, and timely adjustments and touchups to dozens of others introduced in the first edition.

The Bluetooth wireless standard is a great way to get computers and gadgets talking to each other. Here's how to set it up on Windows XP.

Every day of the year, I get a bunch of e-mails from people trying to solve network problems. And while I love to help, I'd like even more to show folks how to solve any problem on their own. So it occurred to me that I've slowly learned that there are a bit over two dozen "rules of network troubleshooting." I then put together a 90 minute talk on it, and I've had the chance to do that talk for audiences of up to a thousand people to good reception but as always, I can't get everywhere, so what follows is some of that talk.

My intention here isn't to reveal any hidden Registry entries or point you to some heretofore-secret $40,000 network diagnostic device. No, I just want to offer what's worked for me in solving network troubles. I'm sure some of this will be simply a reminder of what you've already learned, but I find, at least in my case, that it's all too easy to forget a rule and have to re-learn it, painfully!

Windows XP Service Pack 2 has a lot of nifty new features, and one of the best is the wizard that helps you configure your wireless network. You need a USB flash drive or a USB flash card reader, and a free USB port on every computer attached to the wireless network.

If your wireless broadband router, wireless access point, or other wireless base station has a USB port and it supports Windows Smart Network Key, you're in luck: The wizard can configure your entire network in a matter of minutes. If your router doesn't support WSNK, not to worry ? entering the requisite codes by hand is pretty easy.
Setting up the network

Here's how to get your wireless network secure....

While wireless technology can be more convenient for end users, bringing the technology into a facility can pose challenges for facility executives. Building material selection, for example, can inhibit the transmission of wireless signals. Access points are often installed in difficult-to-reach places to prevent tampering. Avoiding five common mistakes can help a wireless installation proceed smoothly, regardless of project size.

Several community wireless and networking specialists have just completed a free, downloadable book designed to instruct people in remote corners of the world on how to build their own Internet connections using wireless gear. While the book itself is noteworthy in that it offers a resource that could have a strong impact on the livelihood of people in remote areas, equally interesting is the way in which it is being distributed.

Last time because it never hurts to review the basics every now and then David Davis offered a list of five things every administrator needs to know about Cisco networking. This time, he adds five more things to the list. No matter how long you've been working on networks, it never hurts to review the basics every now and then even seasoned administrators sometimes need a refresher.

Like much in life, there are levels of routing and switching that can be accomplished with minimal effort to establish simple connectivity, and then there are more advanced levels, achieved through careful tuning and consideration that result in a work of art. If designing optimized networks is something you aspire to, then one of the most important things you can do is put some thought into how you want traffic to flow through the network. To do that, consider some of these questions, which you can use as part of a checklist when you design a network.....

Thousands of different home network layouts exist. Fortunately, most are small variations on a basic set of common designs. This gallery contains network diagrams for each of the common designs of wireless, wired and hybrid home networks. Each network diagram includes a description of the pros and cons of that particular layout as well as tips for building it.

Consider yourself a home network power-user? Well, step up and take a look at the set of networking tools available from Network Magic Labs, an offshoot of Pure Networks (via NetworkGarage). The developers of Network Magic released the Lab to showcase ideas they have that are not quite ready for prime-time, but are useable prototypes that could develop into full blown products. The developers want all the feedback, positive and negative, that they can get on these products.

As society and technology change, it's becoming common for homes to have more than one computer. When an existing computer is a few years old, parents will often take advantage of today's lower prices, purchase a new computer, and pass the old one down to the kids.

Suddenly, there's a need for a home network, so all computers in the house can share an files, printers and an Internet connection.

Besides giving away an Xbox 360, I'm also tinkering around with the integration between the Xbox 360 Media Center Extender solution and its integration with the Media Center Edition of Windows XP. Before you tune out because you don't game or because you don't currently have a Media Center, keep in mind this is the future of Windows.

When Windows Vista rolls around at the end of this year, one major focus of will be on integrating your whole entertainment experience with your computer. In general, home entertainment means something to do with television. In my estimation, Microsoft comes as close to getting it right this time as is conceivable.

An oft-asked question in networking classes is "why can't we just put everyone on the same subnet and stop worrying about routing?" The reason is very simple. Every time someone needs to talk, be it to a router or another host, they have to send an ARP request. Also, there are broadcast packets that aren't necessarily limited to ARP, which everyone hears. When there are only 255 devices on a /24 subnet, the amount of broadcast packets is fairly limited. It is important to keep this number low, because every time a packet destined for a specific host or a broadcast address is seen, the host must handle the packet.

A hardware interrupt is created, and the kernel of the operating system must read enough of the packet to determine whether or not it cares about it.

Networks don't work without addresses: Whenever you are sending something, you need to specify where it should go and where it came from. To be an effective network engineer or administrator, you need to understand IP addresses backward and forward: you need to be able to think on your feet.

If something breaks, likely as not some address assignment has been screwed up. And spotting the problem quickly is likely to be the difference between being the hero, or the guy who "takes a long time to fix the problem." Before covering subnetting in the next Networking 101 installment, we'd like to thoroughly explore IP addresses in their primal form. This is crucial to understanding subnets.

A network router is a small plastic and metal box that allows you build a home network simply. The home router serves as the core or "centerpiece" device of the network to which computers, printers and other devices can be connected. Networking with a router helps you to (for example):

* share files between computers
* share an Internet connection between computers
* share a printer
* connect your game console or other home entertainment equipment to the Internet

Many folks setting up wireless home networks rush through the job to get their Internet connectivity working as quickly as possible. That's totally understandable. It's also quite risky as numerous security problems can result. Today's Wi-Fi products don't always help the situation as configuring their security features can be slow and non-intuitive. The recommendations below summarize the steps you should take, in order to importance, to improve the security of your home wireless LAN.

Computers without networks are hard to imagine these days, but they did once exist as islands of capability. Sneakernet was the norm - life was hard. With the LAN, and eventually the Internet, the power and convenience of networking became integral to the computing experience. A computer off the net - at work or at home - isn't that useful anymore. Going back would be unthinkable.

Equally unthinkable is the current state of home entertainment systems, which still adheres firmly to the islands-of-capability model. Even with innovations such as high-definition TV (HDTV), Dolby digital, DTS, THX and 5.1-channel sound, consumers still buy individual components and place them where they are used - usually duplicating boxes and functions in multiple locations. Components include digital video recorders (DVR); receivers; DVD players and recorders; VCRs (still useful in some cases); set-top boxes (always cleverly designed to never fit on top of the TV set); and assorted switches, TVs, projectors and speakers. And lots of wire - shielded RCA cables, speaker cables, proprietary vendor device control interconnections, USB 2.0, IEEE 1394 (aka Firewire), as well as cables for VGA, digital video input and HDMI video.

Like most Wire readers, I've read plenty of technical books in order to understand network administration. So let's be honest: too many technical authors write in ponderous, dry, academic sentences, stuffed with self-importance. Worse, they give you the airy-fairy theory of how things are supposed to work, not the practical version everyone actually lives by. So when No Starch Press claimed that their 1600-page encyclopedic reference, The TCP/IP Guide, would be "comprehensive" yet "personal" and "user-friendly," I felt both interested and skeptical.

Now that I have spent two weeks perusing this massive doorstop, I'm here to tell you: this book is the Real Deal. It surpasses the old standard, TCP/IP Illustrated, to become the new Gold Standard. It is All That and a Bag of Chips. Super-sized. Did I mention, I love this book? Let me count the ways.

While operating a wireless network at home can be rewarding and useful, you must take care to secure your wireless network and protect your bandwidth, systems, and files. Various other documents in this site mention the importance of certain safeguards. This document contains suggestions on how to close your network to outside access and reduce the chances of intrusion by outside parties. The goal of home network security is to make it more difficult to detect, access, and use resources on your network. By employing multiple levels of protection, you can prevent many common attacks.

Following these tips will help close up common vulnerabilities and provide basic security for your home network by discouraging amateur hackers, but it will not deter advanced intruders.

Computers without networks are hard to imagine these days, but they did once exist as islands of capability. Sneakernet was the norm - life was hard. With the LAN, and eventually the Internet, the power and convenience of networking became integral to the computing experience. A computer off the net - at work or at home - isn't that useful anymore. Going back would be unthinkable.

Equally unthinkable is the current state of home entertainment systems, which still adheres firmly to the islands-of-capability model. Even with innovations such as high-definition TV (HDTV), Dolby digital, DTS, THX and 5.1-channel sound, consumers still buy individual components and place them where they are used - usually duplicating boxes and functions in multiple locations. Components include digital video recorders (DVR); receivers; DVD players and recorders; VCRs (still useful in some cases); set-top boxes (always cleverly designed to never fit on top of the TV set); and assorted switches, TVs, projectors and speakers. And lots of wire - shielded RCA cables, speaker cables, proprietary vendor device control interconnections, USB 2.0, IEEE 1394 (aka Firewire), as well as cables for VGA, digital video input and HDMI video.

Nothing could be easier than setting up a wireless network: You drop by the local big box electronics retailer, buy a $60 wireless router and plug it into any free Ethernet drop in your office. Voila! Not so fast. "You can set up a wireless network at home like that, but not in the enterprise," Forrester Research analyst Ellen Daley says. "These are networks, they need to be planned and designed. That takes time, but once everything is planned and designed you can set it up in ten minutes."

The ease of deploying wireless is one of the technology's main attractions, but it is in constant tension with both the reality of enterprise networking and the other, more significant benefits of the technology. "Wireless networking has a broad appeal in most industries, but it goes particularly deep in some verticals, like health care, manufacturing and retail," Daley says. "The perceived benefits are improved communication, productivity and accuracy in manufacturing, as well as time-saving."

Network security is a complicated subject, historically only tackled by well-trained and experienced experts. However, as more and more people become ``wired'', an increasing number of people need to understand the basics of security in a networked world. This document was written with the basic computer user and information systems manager in mind, explaining the concepts needed to read through the hype in the marketplace and understand risks and how to deal with them.

Some history of networking is included, as well as an introduction to TCP/IP and internetworking . We go on to consider risk management, network threats, firewalls, and more special-purpose secure networking devices.

This is not intended to be a ``frequently asked questions'' reference, nor is it a ``hands-on'' document describing how to accomplish specific functionality. It is hoped that the reader will have a wider perspective on security in general, and better understand how to reduce and manage risk personally, at home, and in the workplace.

With the advent of computer networks has come the logical need to manage them. It is simply not practical to be continually running from workstation to server back to workstation to verify all is well. Well that is where the Simple Network Management Protocol comes into play. The SNMP protocol came into existence in the late 1980?s due to the requirement of having to manage ever growing networks, and the need to verify certain conditions being experienced on those networks. As I have mentioned before, most of the protocols seen in the TCP/IP suite follow the client/server model. This protocol is no different except for a minor syntax distinction; it follows the client/manager model.

Everybody has gotten hacked one way or another when dealing with computers. When I ran across the idea of a honeypot and what exactly it was I became intrigued with the idea of actually getting back at these mysterious hackers. I want to build a honeypot, put it on my home network, and see what I can attract. I will build a honeypot and put it out for business. I researched what the ideal computer set up would be and built one. I will discuss the computer, how to build one, and what my results were.

In the technology driven world we live in, the value guarding of information is crucial. The ability to guard this information has become of the highest importance and an art form. With that said, as a network administrator you have to be prepared to protect your network and the information on your network with extreme and sometimes diverse measures. One of these measures is a honeypot. With a honeypot, hackers are actually allowed in to your network to a certain degree and then the ability to block them out becomes a reality by checking your logs to see who and how they are doing it.

Like big businesses, many households now have several computers running on a single network. But the methods used by corporations to make files and programs accessible from computer to computer are probably not something most people want to try at home. In many cases, companies keep their computers in sync by using centralized servers to store information, an approach that may be too much bother for home users. And software designed for corporate use is usually priced for corporate budgets.

If you have more than one computer connected at home, then you have a home network. Home networks make it easier to share Internet access, files, printers, and more. Unfortunately, networks also make it easier for hackers, viruses, and worms to intrude on your privacy. Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) contains a number of improvements that help protect your security, especially on a home network. Read on to find out more about how your new or existing home network will be protected.

If you own multiple PCs, you have probably thought about how great it would be if your computers could talk to each other. With your computers connected, you could:

* Share a single printer between computers
* Share a single Internet connection among all the computers in your home
* Access shared files such as photographs, MP3s, spreadsheets and documents on any computer in the house
* Play games that allow multiple users at different computers
* Send the output of a device like a DVD player or Webcam to your other
computer(s)

In this article, we'll look at all of the different methods you can use to create a home network. Be sure to read the companion articles about power-line networking, wireless networking and phone-line networking. This specialized information, including our own experiences with different networking solutions, can help you decide which method is right for your home.

At the moment, wireless networking appears to be the easiest and one of the least expensive options. You can buy an 802.11b or 802.11g access point, connect it to your cable modem or DSL modem in a few minutes, and have all your computers talking on a network very quickly. See How WiFi Works for details.

One of the most basic processes on a network is that of assigning IP addresses to network clients. Although there are many different types of DHCP servers that can do the job, you can configure Windows Server 2003 to act as a DHCP server. In this article, I will show you how. Years ago, I used to be a network administrator for an organization that had some rather odd security policies in place. One of the existing policies when I got there was that all computers had to be assigned a static IP address. DHCP servers were forbidden for security reasons. The result was a maintenance nightmare. Obviously, some servers have a legitimate need for static IP addresses, but usually it is perfectly acceptable for workstations to use dynamic IP addresses. Generally speaking, using static IP addresses on workstations is only truly feasible on small networks. Unfortunately, the network that I spoke of a moment ago was anything but small. It had 25,000 workstations.

Internet emails are designed to carry the IP address of the computer from which the email was sent. This IP address is stored in an email header delivered to the recipient along with the message. Email headers can be thought of like envelopes for postal mail. They contain the electronic equivalent of addressing and postmarks that reflect the routing of mail from source to destination.

Many people have never seen an email header, because modern email clients by default often hide the headers from view. However, headers are always delivered along with the message contents. Most email clients provide an option to enable display of these headers if desired.

A typical home network router possesses two IP addresses, one for the internal home (LAN) and one for the external Internet (WAN) connection. How can you find the router IP addresses?

The internal, LAN-IP address is normally set to a default, private number. Linksys routers, for example, use 192.168.1.1 for their internal IP address. D-Link and Netgear routers typically use 192.168.0.1. Some US Robotics routers use 192.168.123.254, and some SMC routers use 192.168.2.1. No matter the brand of router, its default internal IP address should be provided in documentation. Administrators often have the option to change this IP address during router setup. In any case, however, the private LAN-IP address remains fixed once set. It can be viewed from the router's administrative console.

This article walks you through creating an FTP site that users can anonymously upload files to, but can't list or retrieve any files that have been uploaded. The article also discusses uses for such sites in a corporate environment. FTP is one of the oldest Internet protocols and still one of the most useful. In olden days, businesses would transfer information by couriers on horseback carrying leather pouches filled with documents. Now most business documents are electronic and are sent over the Internet instead, and while email is often a good way of doing this, some electronic documents are unsuitable for email such as documents too large to serve as attachments or documents that must be submitted anonymously such as surveys. As a result, many businesses still find need for running FTP servers for uploading and downloading large files.

One interesting scenario is when you want customers, clients or business partners to be able to upload files anonymously to your server but not be able to see or download files that others may have uploaded. Such a scenario is often called a ?drop box? because it operates like those physical boxes with slots on top that customers can use to fill out satisfaction surveys and drop them in as they leave your store. It?s fairly straightforward to set up such an environment using the FTP service component of Internet Information Services (IIS), and that?s what this article is about.