Serial Networking: Security Issues

The connection between Acorn and PC relies on Microsoft File & Print Sharing being binded to your Dial-Up Adapter. I have discovered that if you also use the Dial-Up Adapter to access the internet, your shared drives are accessible to anyone on the internet. (This is through the NetBIOS port, port 139). This means that hackers could place and remove files from your hard drive without you noticing.

The main security measure is to password protect all your shared drives. These passwords should preferably be combinations of letters and numbers, where the letters should be a mix of upper and lower case. This prevents hackers from cracking the password by inputting words from a dictionary list.

Through experimentation I have come up with what appears to be a solution, to this problem. I did this by setting up a second Dial-Up adapter, through network configuration. All my internet connections were setup before I installed the second adapter, and have the File & Print Sharing settings disabled. The serial network connection was set up after installing the second adapter, and has the File & Print Sharing settings enabled.The upshot of this is that, although port 139 is still open to the internet, my shared drives are not accessible. But when I'm connecting to my Acorn via the serial cable, I can still share files.

If you are interested in trying this two Dial-Up Adapter method you read can my step-by-step guide for it. If you have any further queries on this method email me:

webmaster@serial-networking.fsnet.co.uk

If you want a demonstration of how open your PC is on the internet, visit http://www.grc.com. This website has a utility called Shields Up, which probes your computer to see if any of the port are open for access. I was quite shocked by what the utility told me about my PC.