Network neighborhood new workgroups showing up

[eddds40]

Have 2 pc's hooked together with a hub, both running win 98, one with ZA. One with no fire wall, connected to dsl on both. security was set to low on the one that had zone alarm . Recently new work groups & users showing up in Network Neighborhood. Some of them are reconised as being from this area. Some not.
They are not accesible as one machine is to the other,although can see file folders on some. My ? is has some one Hacked into machine and set them up to connect and send out info? I have now added password protection to the 2 pc's hard drives, not sure if it is to late or not. Someone please reply with some answers to my ? Thank's

[MiseryQ]

That's interesting...
I've also never thought of that... I have a FTP site that I visited once in my Network Places...

I do'nt know if if was a "hacker" but if you have your DSL modem plugged into a HUB that's not a good thing... It can share your files... A router is different and wo'nt do the same...

-edit- I just rooted around the site that's in M.N.P. and I do'nt see any trace of MY folders being shared...
You might root around the folders that should in yours and see just what they are... Then delete them... Also did they show up on you firewalled or other computer?!?
I've heard of this happening to wireless hubs too...

[Tuttle]

It sounds like those PCs and workgroups you're seeing are just other PCs used by other customers on your ISP. Put a firewall on both PCs to block file and print sharing (NetBIOS) traffic to/from the Internet, and install the NetBEUI protocol on your machines to do local sharing.

[MiseryQ]

Originally posted by Tuttle
It sounds like those PCs and workgroups you're seeing are just other PCs used by other customers on your ISP.

Is it that easy to access others files?!?
Can those workgroups and the unsecured shares on his computer be seen by others without a password?!?

I heard it was a big hole to have a modem plugged into a hub but did'nt think it was that easy...

If it is I would suggest buying a router...
Even a 486 with two NICS running Smoothwall before the hub...

[Tuttle]

Originally posted by MiseryQ

Is it that easy to access others files?!?
Can those workgroups and the unsecured shares on his computer be seen by others without a password?!?

Yes and yes. Up to a certain point in an ISP's network, a customer is potentially in the same broadcast domain as a bunch of other customers. That means NetBIOS broadcasts over TCP/IP will find those other customers' computers, and even if you're on the other side of the world you can potentially run something like "\\127.0.0.1" to target a specific machine. This is why people suggest not using TCP/IP for file sharing and/or having a personal firewall...

For what it's worth, there is no way to secure a share with a password in Win95/98/ME - the passwords can be cracked in seconds due to a vulnerability in the authentication routines. If you don't want it world-readable or world-writeable, don't share it. Windows NT/2000/XP does a better job in that regard, but there's still no point in having your shares publicly accessible.

[MiseryQ]

Crash course...

Is using TCP/IP sharing safe with a router?!?

[alphanumeric]

I have a router, but I still bind File and print Sharing to NetBeui only. Beter safe than hacked.

[Tuttle]

A NAT router (ie you have one public IP address and your workstations have private IP addresses) will block file & print sharing traffic unless you forward ports 137-139 to one of the machines.