Wireless Network & External HD

I currently have Cable internet service and a desktop. I recently purchased a laptop with a 802.11a/b/g/n card in it. I have ordered the D-Link DIR 655 wireless router to send signals to my laptop.

Am I correct to assume that everything I need to keep people from being able to get internet from my wireless connection will come with the router?

Since I am going wireless I can only imagine there is a greater chance for someone to get into my system than there was before being hard wired. Are there any special programs or firewalls I should look into.

Lastly I use an external hard drive to store all of my photos and personal files on. Since the D-Link 655 has a USB port on the back could I plug the external hard drive into the router and access it and store things on it from both my desktop and laptop?

 

The disc that you will run first will help you set up the wireless network and inform you on how to secure it. The USB port is for windows connect now technology so it will not work for an external drive. You can connect the drive to your desktop and share it over your LAN. Hope this helps

 

Thanks for the help.

I was looking at it seems that this router:

http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Sate...nksys/Common/VisitorWrapper&lid=4351239789B01

has a storage link which should allow me to hook the external HD directly to it and access it from my laptop, desktop, and over the net if I am not mistaken. Am I reading it right?

Mainly I am trying to get my external HD away from all of my computers. I have structured wiring in the house and everything is in a lockable cabinet inside of a closet, I figure if I can mount the external HD there it would be alot less likely to be stolen if a break in were to ever take place.

 

That would work!

 

As far as Firewalls I prefer to run a personal FW on the NB, since it will not always be connected to you network. I like Comodo - the +defense(disabled), Install just the basic. I ran a test years ago on how good SPI FW routers were. Over a 6mo period I did not have a single entry in the log, so they work pretty good. But I do not allow P2P and torrent, of the dark side of the www. If you visit those, run every thing you can.

Most ISP provide a free AV and FW from one of the majors. I just don't like the resources that Symantic consumes.

 

Well I managed to get my order changed from the DLink to the Linksys router so now I can hook my external HD to it.

I will get the Comodo firewall and run it on the laptop as suggested. What should I do about the desktop and the external HD that will be connected to the wireless router? I guess I could use Comodo on the desktop but how easily would someone else be able to access the external HD that is connected to the router?

I have been reading as much as I can and it seems that I can run WPA 2 to secure the router, does that mean without the charecter string I use in the WPA 2 setup someone will not be able to access my router?

I also keep seeing something about MAC filtering which seems that you can make a list on the router setup that will only allow certian MAC addresses to access it.

What I am trying to do is secure my router so that neighbors ect.. aren't able to access it, yet still make it easy if for example a friend or family member comes over with a laptop and wants to access my router.

I do not do any P2P or torrent type things on my computers so there really is no worry for me there.

 

The MAC filter is nice, but it is not the easiest thing to add someone quickly unless you are somewhat aware of how to log into your router and change settings. It is a lot easier to add someone to a WPA secured network. I don't have a secondary firewall and I don't really have any problems. Either way even with a secondary firewall I don't think that would help your external HD because it will be infront of the secondary firewall not behind it.

 

I was reading through the routers info and it has an SPI firewall in the router. Couldn't I use the SPI firewall to protect my external HD, desktop, and my laptop since the router will be before them. Then use Comodo on the laptop to protect it when I am not at the house?

 

Yes, It would be protected by that firewall, but not by any secondary that is on your desktop/laptop

 

I know alot of these questions are probably elementary for most of you guys but I appreciate the help.

For now my game plan will be to use the WPA, MAC Filtering, and the SPI firewall. The only people I could ever thing of having to add to my network would be my brother or my in-laws when they come into town, or maybe if I get another laptop in the house. So I think MAC filtering would be easy to use as once I set up my brother or inlaws once they will be good to go from then on.

I will run the SPI firewall on the router to protect the external HD, desktop, and laptop when at home, then as suggested use Comodo on the laptop for times when I am using someone elses network away from home.

Will my network be pretty secure from anyone getting into it and accessing files on my network and being able to use my wireless to access the net?

Will the SPI firewall have any problems allowing my Xbox 360 to play online?

Also will the SPI firewall slow down my internet connection?

 

I think your network will be fine........... plenty of protection. You cai also turn off your ssid after you get your network set up

sp1 fw will not slow down your connection......