Is Your Computer Secure?

Make sure that files on your computer are not accessible via a public network. A friend of mine gets his Internet access via the local area network in his apartment complex. Because of the way his neighbor's computer was set up, he found that he could easily read her e-mail. Similarly, many home users attached to cable modems learn the hard way that the contents of their computers are accessible to other cable modem subscribers. To foil this sort of intrusion, make sure that you're not sharing your computer files with strangers on your network. To disable file sharing across the network in Windows 95/98, go to Control Panel/ Network Properties/ File and Print Sharing. Make sure "I want to be able to give others access to my files" is unchecked. If you need to share files, make sure to follow the Help file directions to protect file-sharing access with a password.