Safety in hotel hotspots

[jeff]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin (More info?)

When I travel with my laptop I sometimes link to the internet using the
hotel room's hotspot. I have ZoneAlarm and Antivirus on my laptop and
nothing is visible for my laptop in its "My Network\...." except

"Printers and Faxes" and
"Scheduled Tasks", which only contains a "Add Task wizard".

These two are visible only on the laptop itself, but do not appear when I
view the laptop on my home network. The only thing about the laptop that
appears elsewhere on my wireless home network is the laptop's name. Because,
"Printers and Faxes" and "Scheduled Tasks" are visible within the laptop's
"My Network" where nothing else of the laptop files is visible, I am not
sure it that means they are somehow shared on an open network which gives me
some concern.

Questions:
1. I never have any printers directly attached to my laptop (I print on
network printers at home). But I can find no way to _Un Share_ "Printers and
Faxes". Is it necessary to do so? How?

2. Same question concerning "Scheduled Tasks".

3. What else can I do to maintain security on my laptop when I use it to
link to open hotel hotspots?

Thanks.

--

Jeff Stevens
Email address deliberately false to avoid spam
jeff@stevens.com

 

[Malke]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin (More info?)

Jeff wrote:

> When I travel with my laptop I sometimes link to the internet using
> the hotel room's hotspot. I have ZoneAlarm and Antivirus on my laptop
> and nothing is visible for my laptop in its "My Network\...." except
>
> "Printers and Faxes" and
> "Scheduled Tasks", which only contains a "Add Task wizard".
>
> These two are visible only on the laptop itself, but do not appear
> when I
> view the laptop on my home network. The only thing about the laptop
> that appears elsewhere on my wireless home network is the laptop's
> name. Because, "Printers and Faxes" and "Scheduled Tasks" are visible
> within the laptop's "My Network" where nothing else of the laptop
> files is visible, I am not sure it that means they are somehow shared
> on an open network which gives me some concern.
>
> Questions:
> 1. I never have any printers directly attached to my laptop (I print
> on network printers at home). But I can find no way to _Un Share_
> "Printers and Faxes". Is it necessary to do so? How?
>
> 2. Same question concerning "Scheduled Tasks".
>
> 3. What else can I do to maintain security on my laptop when I use it
> to link to open hotel hotspots?
>
> Thanks.
>
Turn off File & Printer Sharing. From the Network Connections applet in
Control Panel, right-click on your Local Area Connection. You will be
able to uncheck the box next to File & Printer Sharing there. You can
turn it on again after you get back home.

Malke
--
MS MVP - Windows Shell/User
www.elephantboycomputers.com
In Memoriam - MVP Alex Nichol
The world is diminished without him.

 

[jeff]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin (More info?)

> Turn off File & Printer Sharing. From the Network Connections applet
> in Control Panel, right-click on your Local Area Connection. You will
> be able to uncheck the box next to File & Printer Sharing there. You
> can turn it on again after you get back home.

Thank you for replying. That makes sense.

Should I not be doing this in the Wireless Network Connections rather than
the Local Area Connections? What I described above was in my wireless setup
and my hotel connections are usually wireless.

--

Jeff Stevens
Email address deliberately false to avoid spam
jeff@stevens.com



Malke wrote:
> Jeff wrote:
>
>> When I travel with my laptop I sometimes link to the internet using
>> the hotel room's hotspot. I have ZoneAlarm and Antivirus on my laptop
>> and nothing is visible for my laptop in its "My Network\...." except
>>
>> "Printers and Faxes" and
>> "Scheduled Tasks", which only contains a "Add Task wizard".
>>
>> These two are visible only on the laptop itself, but do not appear
>> when I
>> view the laptop on my home network. The only thing about the laptop
>> that appears elsewhere on my wireless home network is the laptop's
>> name. Because, "Printers and Faxes" and "Scheduled Tasks" are visible
>> within the laptop's "My Network" where nothing else of the laptop
>> files is visible, I am not sure it that means they are somehow shared
>> on an open network which gives me some concern.
>>
>> Questions:
>> 1. I never have any printers directly attached to my laptop (I print
>> on network printers at home). But I can find no way to _Un Share_
>> "Printers and Faxes". Is it necessary to do so? How?
>>
>> 2. Same question concerning "Scheduled Tasks".
>>
>> 3. What else can I do to maintain security on my laptop when I use it
>> to link to open hotel hotspots?
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
> Turn off File & Printer Sharing. From the Network Connections applet
> in Control Panel, right-click on your Local Area Connection. You will
> be able to uncheck the box next to File & Printer Sharing there. You
> can turn it on again after you get back home.
>
> Malke

 

[Malke]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin (More info?)

Jeff wrote:

>> Turn off File & Printer Sharing. From the Network Connections applet
>> in Control Panel, right-click on your Local Area Connection. You will
>> be able to uncheck the box next to File & Printer Sharing there. You
>> can turn it on again after you get back home.
>
> Thank you for replying. That makes sense.
>
> Should I not be doing this in the Wireless Network Connections rather
> than the Local Area Connections? What I described above was in my
> wireless setup and my hotel connections are usually wireless.
>

Then do this on the wireless connection that shows up in Network
Connections. My laptop doesn't run Windows so I can't check for you,
but I believe the wireless network connection should show up in Network
Connections along with your ethernet adapter (and Bluetooth 1384 if you
have it).

Malke
--
MS MVP - Windows Shell/User
www.elephantboycomputers.com
In Memoriam - MVP Alex Nichol
The world is diminished without him.