Network security using cygwin

[cyberuser0010]

Hi,

I'm located in a urban area with many wifi ssid available from my main location spot and I don't feel secure at all connecting in wireless mode to my own router. Those man-in-the-middle attacks do make me reluctant.

For this reason, from searching for tools to encrypt network data on the internet, I found cygwin ssh module. It first said it is used to connect to another computer using a tunnel or something like that.

As for now, I only have 1 computer. However, I wanted to give it a try as I know ssh makes connection more secured.

I installed the related module for cygwin, went through a configuration process and now I end up with a new login "user" in the name of privilege server. I remember having entered a few passwords (actually 2) in the cygwin ssh configuration process. So I use the first password from the process and I can log in on the Windows 7 desktop with default settings but I can access most applications from my main account.

Now I'd like to understand if this new privilege server makes my Windows session more secured and if it has an impact on the data I transmit on the Internet. If yes, please help me understand or explain me if there is something I can do from there to make my session more secured mainly using encryption.


Thanks,
Pascal

 

[chev65]

Windows 7 has a built in wireless security system known as WPA2-Enterprize which is even more secure than WPA-2. I haven't had to use WPA-E myself because WPA-2 is fairly secure as is but if you need another level of security then WPA-E is a good choice. They use this type of wireless network security on college campuses. The links below show you how to set it up.

Configuring Windows 7 to Use Encrypted (WPA-E) Wireless Services at UCSD

http://www.it.northwestern.edu/oncampus/wireless/wireless-connections/wireless-win7.html

 

[cyberuser0010]

Thanks, my ap using wpa2... now what about cygwin, can i get further security with it? i have a cygwin login account, what is it for, if i log in using this account and leave it active, can i connect to it from my usual account...

 

[chev65]

As long as you are using WPA-2 enterprise you won't need any third party wireless security.

I don't know anything about Cygwin sorry but you did ask about "Network" security in your original post.

Maybe the fact sheet from Cygwin will help.

From the Cygwin page> "As far as we know no one is working on a native 64 bit version of Cygwin."

http://www.cygwin.com/faq.html

 

[cyberuser0010]

wpa encryption works at network layer, I'd like encryption on application layer, if someone can read