Can someone access personal files on my machine and upload it on net

[kuul13]

Hello,

At home I have wireless network - comcast internet service provider, netgear router and 3 laptops. The internet is protected with WEP. I want to know, if it ispossible for anyone outside the network to access my laptops and share the personal files on internet?

I use P2P torrent sites often on one of the machines, can that open the channel for outside people to access all three machines that I have? And can they upload any file from my machine without my knowledge?

Just connecting to a website or on internet, opens the door for others to get into my harddrive to access important video/photos?

Please guide me on how can i secure my personal data.. or if I am already secured?

 

[Emerald]

The internet is protected with WEP. I want to know, if it is possible for anyone outside the network to access my laptops and share the personal files on internet?

The simple answer is YES. In theory someone can sit outside watching your traffic over WEP and eventually figure out your Key. To up the security I would use WPA or WPA2. they are newer standards.

I use P2P torrent sites often on one of the machines, can that open the channel for outside people to access all three machines that I have? And can they upload any file from my machine without my knowledge?

From what I understand the torrent software itself is not dangerous but what might be included in the file that you are downloading and opening. If it includes a Trojan which opens a backdoor to the computer then YES.

Just connecting to a website or on internet, opens the door for others to get into my harddrive to access important video/photos?

The simple answer is YES; however, only if the site you access will run a malicious script. You could use a site adviser plugin/add-on for your browser which should warn you ahead of times.

Please guide me on how can i secure my personal data.. or if I am already secured?

Change your wireless protocol to WPA or WPA2, careful browsing practices, and make sure your security softwares like virus and malware protection is up to date.

 

[kuul13]

Thanks Emerald. I will try to change my wireless protocol to WPA today itself. I have sensitive data only in one laptop (say A). I don't download anything on this laptop. Only I watch online movies (sometime) otherwise I just use it to browse know sites. I have P2P sites running on other laptop (say B). It downloads the files and I can see download/upload rate there. Not sure what it uploads?

So "A" is protected if I change the wireless security to WPA? And, can someone on B access A. And how easy it is to access? What can I do to restrict accessing and uploading of my files?

 

[Catsrules]

Thanks Emerald. I will try to change my wireless protocol to WPA today itself. I have sensitive data only in one laptop (say A). I don't download anything on this laptop. Only I watch online movies (sometime) otherwise I just use it to browse know sites. I have P2P sites running on other laptop (say B). It downloads the files and I can see download/upload rate there. Not sure what it uploads?

You are uploading parts of what ever file your are or have downloaded, that is what P2P does, your are also downloading parts of files off other peoples computers as well. That is what make P2P and torrents so cool your can download the file off multiple computers at once. So you don't need a giante expencive server with expencive interent when your have thousands of small computes, all with separate internet connections

So "A" is protected if I change the wireless security to WPA? And, can someone on B access A. And how easy it is to access? What can I do to restrict accessing and uploading of my files?

It is better protected then it was. If you don't share files on laptop, I would make sure your file sharing is turned off.
Also turn it off when not in use, it is hard to hack in to some thing that is turned off

 

[kuul13]

You are uploading parts of what ever file your are or have downloaded, that is what P2P does, your are also downloading parts of files off other peoples computers as well. That is what make P2P and torrents so cool your can download the file off multiple computers at once. So you don't need a giante expencive server with expencive interent when your have thousands of small computes, all with separate internet connections


It is better protected then it was. If you don't share files on laptop, I would make sure your file sharing is turned off.
Also turn it off when not in use, it is hard to hack in to some thing that is turned off

Thanks CatsRules.. but how to turn off file sharing on a folder/files? I never enables or turned on the file sharing on my laptop.

In P2P, I download files that I want and that is displayed on the website. But during downloads, can my files be uploaded automatically? without my knowledge?

I know these questions are stupid but I want to understand how it works and how am i protected.

 

[Catsrules]

Thanks CatsRules.. but how to turn off file sharing on a folder/files? I never enables or turned on the file sharing on my laptop.

What OS do your have on the laptop?

In P2P, I download files that I want and that is displayed on the website. But during downloads, can my files be uploaded automatically? without my knowledge?

They can only access the p2p files you have downloaded, as far as I know. That is only if the P2P software is running, and if the file is at the location where the program downloaded it to. If you deleted it or move it some where else they can't access it.

 

[kuul13]

What OS do your have on the laptop?


They can only access the p2p files you have downloaded, as far as I know. That is only if the P2P software is running, and if the file is at the location where the program downloaded it to. If you deleted it or move it some where else they can't access it.

My OS is Windows 7 on the laptop that have my personal files and the other laptop that i use for P2P has Win XP.

Thanks for your confirmation that they can't access other files than the downloaded one. That means that they can't even access my other laptop . I am sure, watching online movies from unsecured sites can also not access files and can't be uploaded to web.

 

[elel]

In P2P, I download files that I want and that is displayed on the website. But during downloads, can my files be uploaded automatically? without my knowledge?

When running bittorent, any file that you download with it will be automatically uploaded by the client to other people who are downloading the torrent. It is nice to let the torrent client do this, because the reason that you were able to download the file in the first place was other people uploading it to you. That's how bittorrent works; you download the file to get it, and you upload it to keep the torrent going.

As far as loosing non-torrent data through the bittorrent client, don't worry as long as you are using a mainline client such as Bittorrent or uTorrent or transmission. I have heard of at least one smaller or 'off brand' client installing spyware on your system which sent data back to the client's creator. I believe that the one which did this was designed specifically to let you download from a torrent without uploading anything (a practice known as 'leaching' because you are sucking speed away from other users without contributing anything back) and so if you are automatically uploading data, I'm pretty sure that you don't have the bad client.

 

[Catsrules]

My OS is Windows 7 on the laptop that have my personal files and the other laptop that i use for P2P has Win XP.

To if you want to be even more protected make sure you laptop is set so it thinks your home network is public, this will make it so people can't see your laptop on your local network, and file sharing will be turned off on your laptop. To see if your network is set to public, go to your wireless icon by your clock, and click on that tell a menu pops up and click on network and sharing settings, you should have a window and it should show your connected to a network. It has three options home work or public, if that network isn't on public you want to change it. I am not at a computer right now so I can't do a step by step from here. So hopfuly you can figure it out from here

Thanks for your confirmation that they can't access other files than the downloaded one. That means that they can't even access my other laptop . I am sure, watching online movies from unsecured sites can also not access files and can't be uploaded to web.

Correct

 

[kuul13]

Best answer selected by kuul13.