Reply to: Question for the Experts: Home PC Network

[gingerjedi]

Although this site is specifically for the BT Voyager 205 router, you'll find lots of useful information about port forwarding and stealth as well as examples of how to do this.

http://corz.org/comms/hardware/route...ter.how-to.php

Or try this site http://portforward.com/ it has just about everything you would ever need for almost every router and instructions for thousands of applications that require port forwarding.

[milanbenes]

things to keep in mind

has anyone got any experience of media extenders ?

idea is to have all films on a server and then media extender between the network and the tv enabling films from the server to be viewed on a standard tv

anyone got experience with this kind of setup ?

Milan.

[DaveB]

And as per a post I made a few weeks ago, disable the firewall software on the PCs as this may cause problems with file sharing.


The firewall software in the router is more than adequate.

I'd have to disagree with this. Defense in depth is important. But then I'm paranoid anyway.

Configure the local PC firewalls to allow traffic from the local subnet and file sharing will work fine.

And turn off Ping reponse on the router as well. If the skiddies can't see you they can't attack you

[milanbenes]

thanks Dave and Cliphead

Milan.

[ratewhore]

lol - the irony...

[Cliphead]

Although this site is specifically for the BT Voyager 205 router, you'll find lots of useful information about port forwarding and stealth as well as examples of how to do this.

http://corz.org/comms/hardware/route...ter.how-to.php

[DaveB]

Network Address Translation

It allows your local network to have it's own range if IP addresses, usually referred to as a private address range and usually in the range 192.168.0.1-255.

Your Router/ADSL Modem/Whatever will have it's own public address assigned by your ISP. This is the address the "rest of the world" see's when your PC's access the internet. When a private PC tries to talk to the internet the NAT service tracks the local IP address and subsitutes it for the Public address that the router has. The router then opens the connection to the destination requested and keeps track of it. When traffic comes back, eg in response to clicking on a link to view a web page the router recieves the data, the NAT service figures out which local address it needs to go to and subsititutes the correct local address and the data is sent onto the PC.

Originally developed as a way of extending the IP4 address range by allowing multiple disparate networks to use the same IP addresses, it also provides a nice additional security feature since no-one outside your network can access your PC's without you either setting up explicit rules on the router - called port forwarding - or a local PC first requesting a connection and allowing access.

Very simplified explanation but thats the gist of it. For all the gory details have a read of the original RFC

[milanbenes]

what's NAT ?

sorry, I'll crawl back in my hole

Milan.

[Sockpuppet]

Its also worth noting that NAT will do a very good job of protecting your computers by making them inaccessable to the outside world unless they request the info (a virus scanner for anti trojans) or you tell the router to forward the port to them.

Genius.

[sparklelard]

And as per a post I made a few weeks ago, disable the firewall software on the PCs as this may cause problems with file sharing.


The firewall software in the router is more than adequate.

I have BT Total Broadband. It has 2 x Cat 5, a USB and wireless connection points, all protected by the inbuilt firewall.

It also has a telephone socket for VOIP. I use BT Talk and I get no charges if used after 6pm or weekends to 01 numbers. Brilliant for a second line.

[milanbenes]

thanks very much,

Milan.

[chubba]

Totally agree with the prawn. Telephone line connects to ADSL Modem / Router and this patches out to individual PCs on the network or if you have more than the standard 4 cat5 connections these routers come with then you can plug one of them into a switch.

The modem / router will have inbuilt firewall and acts as DHCP server so all PCs that connect to it will be protected from nasties via the firewall and will also be assigned an IP within a group so filesharing becomes easy.

The to share files use one of the PCs elsewhere in the house as the media / backup server or pop one in the room with the router.

Easy peasy.

[DimPrawn]

Modern cheap routers have a built in Firewall that appears to use embedded Linux. Why waste 60-100w on electricity for a firewall using a PC when a £80 dedicated router will have one built in that uses bugger all power?

E.g. http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=486

[milanbenes]

Vauxhall,

you said,

'Normally your firewall would have two network cards. One would connect direct to the internet router, and the other would connect to your LAN - i.e. into the hub. ',


instead of one pc with two networks cards is it better to have a real cheap pc as the firewall and then that one connected to the main server and then the connection to the hub

therefore really isolating the main server from the firewall, is this a DMZ ?

Thanks,

Milan.

[milanbenes]

thanks vauxhall, useful info,

house has two network cables in every room all coming back to one central point, i guess there will be a patch panel for all these network cables ?

or based upon the following scenario what will I need to do :

Scenario:

house has two network cables in every room all coming back to one central point/cupboard

internet connection terminates in the same cupboard



What to do now to setup a home network connected to the internet and secured ?


Thanks,

Milan.