Sometimes things are so simple I wonder why I didn’t think of that. Here is another tidbit I learn from the Security Now podcast over on the Twit Network.
I know that Vista asks you if you are connecting to a home, work or public wireless connection and adjusts its security settings accordingly. If you are using XP and connecting to a public WiFi one easy thing to do that helps your security profile is turn off Flie and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks on just the wireless connection.
For instance, at home I plug my laptop into the router with a cable most of the time. So on the Local Area Connection I want file and printer sharing turned on all the time.
However I often use my laptop at coffee shops where I’m on a network with a bunch of others (I believe Starbuck’s AT&T connection is this way too). If I left my file sharing on then everyone at the coffee shop would have access to my shared files and certain malware will take advantage of this.
So to disable just file and printer sharing for your wireless connection go to your Wireless Network Connection properties and uncheck “File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks”. The you’ll be a tad bit safer on public WiFi.
