Re: Is it practicable to share an internet connection w/o setting up a network?

Siggie3 wrote:
Thank you guys for all your help. I think we will be going with
firewall & client isolation.
Bryant Smith wrote:

Siggie3 wrote:

I'm trying to share the internet connection from my cable modem with my
housemates. We already share the cable bill for TV, but until now I
was the only one who wanted the broadband cable internet so I've been
carring that part on my own.

Now that we would like to make the single connection available to each
of our computers, I'm in the funny position of trying to come up with a
way of doing that without linking our computers together. For pretty
good reason I'm more worried about my housemates accessing my files
than a random hacker on the internet, so I don't want to set up
something that makes my system any more vulnerable to them than it
would be if we lived in 3 seperate homes and had three seperate
interent connections. I'm also pretty worried about getting a virus or
two from them, since they are not careful what they download and were
always having problems with viruses before we got the house.

It really doesn;t matter if it is wired or not (but my landlord would
probably be happier if I don't drill any holes), so if it is cheaper
wired or is only available as a wired product that would work.

If it can be done wirelessly, is there some sort of system that can be
setup where each of three computers can have acces to the internet over
a single cable connection where it would be comparable to 3 guys who
didn't know each other sitting in a wifi hotspot?

If wired, could a single cable connection be setup so it is comparable
(without concer over loss of speed) to 3 next-door neighbors each
getting cable internet?

This may be a totally stupid question that anyone sould be able to
figure out. But from what I've been able to find out about routers,
it's not clear if I can use one just for internet sharing without some
sort of more involved networking. If possible, I'd rather not just set
up a network that doesn't allow file sharing but does share the
internet connection, as that would provide one more possible route into
my computer than us all simply being on the internet at the same time.
Because of the layout of the house, it is very likely that I would have
to have any router type hardware in a physically accessible spot.

Thank you for any one who can help me figure out how to do this.



You can set up a wireless router in Client Isolation mode. This blocks
traffic between wireless users. You will be separated from your house
mates and won't have to mess with any domain setting. I'm not sure if
all routers have this feature, but I'm pretty sure the Linksys WRT54
series does (or if you use a 3rd party firware you most definitely will
be able to enable it).

Also, like a previous poster mentioned, if you use a firewall to block
all traffic from the local network (most good firewalls allow you to set
address ranges in the blocking rules) your house mates will not be able
to access your computer (nor will their viruses).



I agree with Bryant. Linksys WRT54G allows users to isolate WiFi clients but I'm not really sure how effective it is. I only enabled client isolation but never really tested it. Double your security with a software firewall (Zonealarm free version does a great job) installed on your PC and set the security settings to HIGH. That's my current setup at home. I don't trust any other WiFi clients in my house. We ain't sharing anything other than internet connection thru DSL.

Since you live under the same roof, I think you should also be worried about physical access. I mean, what good is all of those suggestions if your housemate can just walk up to your computer, turn it on and use it. Be sure no one (other than yourself) can physically touch your PC. Have a bad ass dog sit next to it 24/7 :-)
.

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