PC sharing & security between them on a wireless network

Hi guys, I gave my Gateway notebook (which has XP on it), to my GF's kid for a graduation present yesterday.

I bought a new notebook case gave him my "old" Targus case & also gave him my deskjet 952C printer since I can't use it & didn't want to toss it.

BTW, he was ecstatic to say the least!

Anyway, that said, I set up the notebook so he could connect to my wireless network instead of me running a new ethernet cable to his room.

By habit, I always give myself full access when I set things up.

Something made me wake up in the middle of the night & made me ask myself, "did I set it up so he can connect to & see my notebook as well"?

So I ask you guys, what should I look for far as settings on his, or my notebook so while he's connected he won't see or be able to access my notebook?

I'm running an HP with Vista & I use a Linksys WRT300N router.

Thanks.

 

Scan his IP, go into the router management page and give him limited access (this worked for me when I wanted to amke it so my dad couldn't see what I was doing)!!!

 

Turn off sharing on your NB, Set your or his to a different network group. Make sure his login name is different than what is on your NB. If the same it may allow access if the PW are the same.

Some router allow you to have Private Networks. This may be listed as Client Privacy, this keeps clients from seeing each others PC's.

 

Won't his IP be the same as mine since he's using the same network? Or is there a different IP for his PC?

I have sharing off.

I didn't know I could have groups, will look into that one.

There is no login setup on the GW NB, it boots directly to windows & I've got the wireless setup to automatically connect & the only PW is the one to my network & the network name.

 

You need not worry, I don't think as you described.
Your router assign a different IP address to a computer through its DHCP server, therefore each computer will have a unique IP within your set IP range, usually 192.168.1.x, for a wifi access, unless your router has Static IP by MAC address, it does not make sense to set static IP to a wifi notebook as he will have to change the IP back and forth everytime he connects to a public access point. (normal cheap sub 100 dollar router won't have it unless you flash with 3rd party firmware) Therefore you won't know his IP address for sure everytime.
That said, you won't be able to block his ip address for accessing your notebook, however, he won't be able to access anyway if you have a password on your notebook. Even if your firewall allows him see your notebook, when he tried to access your files, windows will prompt him for user name and a password of the remote machine, in this case your laptop. *IF* the user name and password on his machine is different from yours, which you have confirmed is(different).

It's not that easy to "hack" someone's computer, specially if you don't even have sharing on. If you don't believe it, you can TRY to hack you laptop using that one you gave him, you won't see a single file shared that you can download.

Edit: by the way, you do have your administrator account password protected right, that's the first step I would do if I were to hack yours.

 

Good point on the Admin PW, Most persons totally forget about the admin password. Which on a XP pc you must boot into safe mode to gain access to the admin account.

Most all routers have a DHCP log, wired and wireless. You can see who is connecting by MAC address and PC name. And who has attempted to access/hack into your wireless. So you can add schedules and block sites. But remember if you need to block site the router is not the correct place to do it.