Setting Up a Router:

[Pastor JW]

On Friday 02 October 2009 6:25:30 pm Andrew Farris wrote:
> On Fri, 2009-10-02 at 16:14 -0500, Kenneth Loafman wrote:
> > Colin Law wrote:
> > > 2009/10/2 Wade Smart <wadesmart at gmail.com>:
> > >> Do NOT setup mac filtering or encryption until you have your computers
> > >> working.
> > >
> > > But _do_ set up encryption after you have it working or your
> > > neighbours and passers by will steal your bandwidth.
> >
> > It's worse than that... someone could use your bandwidth for something
> > illegal, then comes the police taking all of your computer equipment and
> > holding it until they can be sure that you did not post kiddie-porn or
> > threats to officials, or any number of things.
>
> Even if this DID happen, you'd have a helluvalot easier time convincing
> somebody that it wasn't you doing it if you have an unencrypted
> connection and somebody used it, as opposed to if you had a passworded,
> encrypted, mac-filtered setup, and somebody still broke in, eh?

Well no. as I have had a computer impounded by the Feds back 30 or so years 
ago (The Inner Circle has been around for a very long time!! Back to early 
C-64 and even a couple years before that!), proving you took reasonable 
precautions goes a long ways in proving your innocence, at least your 
inability to be charged for wrong doing!  I however, never had anything on my 
machine that was illegal.   Mine was a 50 meg BBS harddrive on an early Amiga 
1000 which they failed to break into yet they also failed to ever return it 
to me.  I even offered to take them through the harddrive but they wouldn't 
trust me to do so.  It is also why the state thinks you should only use 
windoze as they can easily get your info off of that file system without your 
help.  I had a replacement Amiga back on-line in twenty minutes after they 
left but it was expensive in those days and I had to use an alternate 
location in a different state with a day old back-up.  

> I just did away with the wireless in my home and set up a solid
> hard-wired connection for every computer in the house, and then some...
> Now I just wish I had a spare 'puter to set up between the switch and
> the modem to act as a firewall, and a filter (the modem has it's own
> firewall, but I'm not convinced of it's security...)

Wireless should be a convenience for yourself in your home not for others.  
Exclusion based on MAC addresses is a quick and easy way to do just that.  
You can also add encryption but it slows your access down thereby interfering 
with your access more than deterring others.  Ubuntu comes with a reasonable 
firewall and you can harden it as you see fit to suit your circumstances.  
Most people coming from windoze are way more paranoid than real world Linux 
users need to be as they think they "know" the dangers of operating with 
windoze and all the "virus protection" one needs to buy on top of the 
original cost of the OS in order to be safe... Propaganda goes a long way if 
you can also drive the fear machine!!


-- 
73 de N7PSV aka Pastor JW <n><   PDGA# 35276
http://the-inner-circle.org  _Registered Kubuntu User: #27403
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_original_inner_circle
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