SMB on a hybrid lan with public IPs. Not a good idea?

Skotlex · Guru Joined: 13 Mar 2004 Posts: 309

I am questioning the level of security of my lan at my home. You see, there's three computers, all get their IP assigned via dhcpd by our ISP (because we all use a cable-modem), so these three machines have their own ips (which I have yet to see change, I think it's relatively safe to assume them static), but these ips at the same time are both public and internal for the lan. Now, the net mask given by my isp is slightly messed up (it includes 2 of the machines only), and because of that it's "hard" to separate the lan from the internet.

In my Gentoo machine I limit access to samba by setting up the firewall to only allow connections from the other two ips.
In the other two machines (both WinXP) I set up Sygate Personal Firewall. The problem is that in the options I had to set full file-sharing, and even though I added an advanced rule to permit everything from the other two machines, file-sharing just tends to not work most of the time. Sometimes neither of the machines likes to show up in my workgroup despite the three belonging to the same workgroup name! It's very annoying because I can't transfer files between these PCs without first disabling the firewall!

What should I do? I thought SMB was the way to go for sharing files in a hybrid LAN, but I fear the computer setup here is rather... exposed to attacks and the like, I was thinking I should just close down and disable file sharing via SMB. But if I do that, what should I use instead to share files? I was thinking of setting ftp servers on each of the machines to do transfers via that... does it sounds like the best option? I definitely doubt SMB will do the LAN any good on the long term....

curtis119 · Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2004 12:17 am Post subject:

smb is way complicated if you only want to do file shareing. An ftp server or rsync server would be much better. IMHO. there are several ftp servers you can try in portage. rsync uses ssh by default so it is proabably the way to go.
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mr sk · Apprentice Joined: 15 Jul 2004 Posts: 174 Location: Hollis

Why not buy a stack a 100 cds for 20bucks. haha. nah.

I would recommend using an ftp server, or upload the files to a internet host (extra slow VS home network).

Doesn't yourISP firewall (192.0.0.x is your homenetwork), how could someone attack your computer, unless via malicious sites, cross scripting or trojans.??

Not sure, I'd go w/FTP. 8)

Lajasha · Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2004 12:51 am Post subject:

As the other 2 have suggested FTP would be the way to go or possibly VPN since each box is using a public IP.

However, and correct me if there is a reason you don't do this, why not setup one of the boxes as a router or even by a router and then you can sit behind it and not have to worry about the Public ip / subnet mess you currently have?
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Skotlex · Guru Joined: 13 Mar 2004 Posts: 309