DSL Gateway (how secure is it?)

Hello All,

Recently i installed a 256kb WiLL connection at home. The receiver is a Wireless gateway from Dlink, DI713P. It gets the dinamic IP from the ISP and internally assign IP´s for the boxes i have connected (2). Covering around 100 square meters.

Well, my point is, how secure this kind of connection is? I understood that the only visible host for the internet is the gateway and as it generates addresses for the internal PC´s, they are not "saw" to the external network. Is it correct?
Are there ways to get into it? Should i consider to setup a proxy and/or software firewall?
This is what is called NAT?

Thank you for you feedback!

You are correct in that the setup is running nat. Based on IP address, you will only have 1 global IP. This however doesn't mean that your two machines behind it can't be distinguished by MAC address, OS/ Browser configuration, etc.

Forgive me, but I'm not all that familiar w/ wireless network access points, does yours include Firewall/ port forwarding? If it is forwarding ports it would probably be adviseable to have firewall installed to keep your ports secured.

If someone w/ more information on wireless setups can elaborate, please do so as I would be interested to know more of them.


Regards.

I have the dl714 wireless access point, and yes, it does have a built in firewall. I have it configured on my network and have several machines sitting behind it with an IDS running as well. I rarely if ever see attacks come through the gateway to my internal network, and it seems to do a pretty good job for what I use it for. However, it all depends what you are trying to protect. If you have lots of confidential information on your systems, I would probably investigate something else to complement it.

If you are like me and keep all confidential data secured on a separate segment (mine is protectedby a Checkpoint firewall) and use your machines just for simple stuff, I would say it is sufficient. It does lack some capability for hosting however because it cannot be configured very easily to allow non-standard services like SSH to your internal network.

Oki, i was reading the manuals and i will try to setup the firewall this weekend. Mostly i have just home stuff, my important things i keep at the office and i use Securemorte to access it over internet (a check point tool).
The issue came as that i want to setup a Linux box with Email server for the family plus some FTP and Web so all the family can "network" together. We are all living in different countries.

How is the apache tool that comes with Linux?