Dad Is Messing Up Network!

[radguy]

we have a wireless network at our house connected to a cable modem. also there are 3 computers hooked up to this network. 2 of them are connected to a power outlet connected to the switch, as well as the router and the modem. the wireless router has 128-bit hex encrpytion that i set-up, yet everynight before he goes to bed, he turns of the switch, turning offf the power to the modem, router, and the two computers, which is basically the same as unplugging them every single day. he says its to stop people from using our network and accesing our shared files. Couldnt this damage the hardware of any of the devices in any way? i have to walk up to the switch and turn it on to get the internet in my room too. please respond ASAP and thanks for any replies.

 

[radguy]

well what i want to do is to convince my dad to not hook up the modem and router to the switch, because he keeps the switch turned off all the time. i kno our connection is safe and im not worried about people using it, and ya we have firewalls on each computer..... having the things connected to the switch complicates things because i cant have internet in my room unless the switch is turned on, and then i have to wait for the modem to do it's bootup(check the connections) and for the router to start up

 

[ekÆsine]

i would say that your father is a bit paranoid. you do not need to cut off power to anything. everytime you do that you would lose all settings to your router i think. at the very least put the router and modem on its own power separate of the computers so they are always on.

 

[gruntwerk]

Are you saying that he turns off the power to the computers without shutting them down first... that will eventually cause problems with the computers...
as much of a pain as it is, enable passwords on the shared folders and that will make him more cumfy....

 

[shemcomputers]

I agree with "gruntwerk" turning the power off without properly shutting down the system will eventually cause problems. At one time probably when your dad first got a personal computer...early 80's. The thing to do was to shut the computer off every day...not for security...but just to conserve energy and hardware performance. But since then, computers and technology has evolved drastically. It now makes more sense to leave everything running and reboot the computer at least once a week. The hardware nowadays can handle that, but back then the hardware wasn't as stable as today's technology. Plus, you don't want to shut everything down you want to make sure that your security is up to par. You can learn how to secure your system better if you monitor it's performance and logs during idle times.

 

[radguy]

ekÆsine,

i hooked it up to a different power supply and he found out and started freaking out.

 

[gruntwerk]

Ya know, my grandmother STILL "prefers" the backseat of the car...Some things you just cant fight...
If its power usage that he's concerned about see :

http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegroup/folding/faq.html#misc.power

 

[Shakie]

It sounds to me like the father is worrying about someone outside of the house using the Internet connection through your wireless network. (He's been watching too much TechTV, huh...)

Enable WEP. Make sure you actually read how to do this and get it configured. Should take care of the problem.

 

[radguy]

WEP is enabled at 128-bit and he knows that!

 

[Shakie]

Oh, sorry, I guess I didn't read the post good enough.

Does he know what WEP is? Explain to him if not and if you can.