Windows 7: Increase my security on a shared internet connection

My current set up is as follows.

I pay my neighbor a to share his internet connection. He uses WEP. I think this is because he has a nintendo or some such that does not support WPA. There is a little bit of a language barrier.

I just put together a couple of machines, and if/when I need to connect them to the internet, I just do it through the wireless cards in them and connect to his Linksys WRT54G Router

What I would like to do is network my machines together so that I can share files between them, and backup between them and all that good stuff. I would also like it if my neighbor could not share files with me. Or even see what computers I have, what folders are shared, etc. I am just a little paranoid, as his network is definitely the low-hanging fruit in my area. Every other router in range is WPA or WPA2 protected, so if someone were to try to hack into someone else's wifi, it would be his.

What is the best way to protect my computers from my neighbor and potentially malicious hackers? I have a WRT54G V2.0 (currently running Tomato 1.27 firmware) as well as a Microsoft MN-700 Router. My place is small, so wiring in my apartment is an option, but maintaining security and wireless would be sweet, for my smartphone and friends with laptops.



Also, my neighbor understandably doesn't want to give me access to his router, is there a way to check to see if he has any ports forwarded, if I were going to access my computer from the Web?

Please forgive my ignorance, and feel free to point me at any faqs or pre-existing threads I missed. And thanks in advance!

Use your WRT54G to connect to your neighbor's Internet connection, but you'd need to buy an Access Point that's capable of connecting as a client... But you'd need an access point. Here's my idea:

Your LAN [Wired/Wifi using WPA2/WPA] --> [LAN/Wifi]WRT54G[WAN]-->An Access Point(client mode)-->Your neighbor's Net.

This way you can "pretend" as if your neighbor's Network is an "ISP", and you are "firewalling" your self off his network...

zzz2496

Wonderful.

My WRT54G running Tomato can be set up as a client, now just to figure out how to do that! Assuming I can get my WRT54G in client mode, I am guessing I could then run ethernet from it's LAN port to the WAN port of my old microsoft router? And have that serve as my wifi/wired network?

So far this has been a very immersive experience. I am fairly computer savvy, but subnetting and valid IP ranges are a thing I have not delved into yet.

One of the things that has been bothering me is that whenever I switch from finding help on the web to setting up and playing with my router is having to disable my wifi card to access the router, and having to disable my router to access the wifi. It is kind of a pain. Is there any good way to simplify or speed up this process?

Hmm, so you want to do this:

Your LAN(wired)--> [LAN]Microsoft Router[WAN]--> [LAN]WRT54G[Wifi Client mode bridge] --> Neighbor's Net.

Is that what you want? Here's what I'm thinking... If your WRT54G goes into client mode, you can't use it as a "Hot spot", you'd need to connect to your neighbor's Wifi network to connect, which will defeat the purpose... If your old Microsoft router doesn't have Wifi, then I don't think you can connect to your "secure LAN" over wifi, since the WRT54G is acting as a client... I think you'd be better off buying an Access point and use that as a wifi client to connect to your neighbor's net and use the WRT54G as the router...

zzz2496

Thanks for the quick replies. The microsoft MN-700 is a wireless router, albeit an older one that doesn't have great windows 7 support. Would that me a problem?

My LAN [Wired/Wifi using WPA2/WPA] --> [LAN/Wifi]MN-700[WAN] --> [LAN] WRT54G [set up as a client] --> My neighbor's Net.

The linksys is a versatile router from my understanding, with lots of different firmwares having been written for it. So that should be able to do any of the fancy stuff I need. The MN-700 should do fine for basic wireless [or wired] routing needs.

The firmware I am using right now on the linksys is a little spotty on documentation, so I think I will switch to DD-wrt nd follow these instructions.

Client Mode - DD-WRT Wiki

The knowledge that I could set up a router as a client, and make my computer or possibly another router think of it as my ISP is clutch.

I don't think so, it should work fine...
Ahh, that's great... I thought the MS router doesn't have Wifi, so... Your plan is sound, go ahead and do it then
Learning new things everyday

zzz2496

Actually If you have access to his internet....then you have access to his router.
unless he really put a secured password on his router.

by him giving you his WEP, that gives access to his network.

Unless he has a router that is only giving you internet as a "Guest"

find your Gateway and open his router up like that.

you can look at his settings without him knowing. Yes, that would be invasion of privacy if he had already told you no.
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another thing you can do is ask him to give you the DMZ rights to the router and use your router to set up your own ports.

iF YOUR APARTment isn't too inclosed. Maybe you can do a Port to Port hard wire... So it would be Lan 4 to your WAN port on your router and he will give you the DMZ grounds and that way you can set up your own security there using yuor own router.

if you can't do that then you would need an access point to catch the signal and translate it.

First: DMZ

Second: unless the OP knows what the username/password combination - I don't think he can access his neighbor's router admin interface...

zzz2496

Edit: Boy I type fast today

By the way, acurasd - the neighbor's router is WRT54G, the web interface is not available through Wifi connection...

zzz2496

Yeah i tried to fix the DMZ not the DMQ, guess i forgot to save... My bad.

I use to have that router and I could access it with no problem.

Yeah i know... when i tried to fix the DMZ thingy, i mentioned the uer name and password for the router.

That is why i am thinking if he could just run a direct line.. hard wire it to another router into the WAN port, have that 2nd router take a STATIC IP and then the first router would give that static IP the DMZ, so that the OP could set up his own ports.

I am not really sure of his geographical location from one access point to another.

Slideshows would be great.