Help on securing network

[Marcin541]

How does microsoft's network work? Is it unsecure if i leave it on? I heard somewhere its very unsecure, is that true? Also, i have bought the new mcafee, it has a program that lets me put a password on my network, would it be better i use that?

[Swimmer]

Microsoft's network... I am assuming that you are talking about Print/File sharing?  It is unsecure unless you secure it.. For the most part if you implement it on an XP Pro machine all client will be asked to authenticate before being able to see any files or use any printers. 

It is true that it is unsecure if it is not set up correctly...  Back when broadband first rolled out it was possible to go into My Network places, click view networks, and pretty much see anyone who had File/Print sharing enabled and was directly connected.  Since the popularity of routers, this problem has pretty much disappeared and the ISPs have taken steps to prevent this type of hole.

As far as mcafee.. I think you can put a password on the network.. but the only computer that will respect it will be computer running mcafee.. Trend Micro had a feature for wifi.. in which it would monitor the traffic on the network to alert the "admin" of possible breakins.  However, there were so many false positives that it was hard to administrate a wlan with computer running anything else other than Trend Micro.  Ever time a computer would use the network an alert would be sent out about a possible breakin attempt.