Your information can be viewed by others?

Question

When I was at school using my laptop and I connected to a network to be able to use the internet, a pop up message said "using this network... information can be viewed by others" or something like that, I understand it was an unsecured network but WHAT KIND OF INFORMATION ARE WE SENDING THAT CAN BE VIEWED BY OTHERS? I'm not clear with this, what can happened? please help

Answer 1

Actually when you connect to ANY network your computer becomes "visible" to that network. You need to check to see if any files or folders on your computer are "Shared" if so that folder will be visible to other users of the network. Windows XP comes setup with a "Shared Documents" folder so if anything is in that folder other network users can read the items in that folder.

You need to open "My Computer" look for any folders or other items that have a "Little Hand" under them -- that is a shared folder. You can also go to your network connections (from the control panel) open it, click on the "active" adapter on the general screen, then click on properties at the bottom. You will see several items listed on the next screen. One will probably be "File and Printer Sharing for Micro..."
You can Safely REMOVE that entry (assuming you do not need to share files) you can add it back latter. That will BLOCK all file shares from being visible or accessable from a network and help keep your computer protected.

Be sure you are running a good firewall when you access public networks and only allow computers you trust!

Answer 2

that happens to me too. maybe some information of whatever u do on the net gets sent.

Answer 3

if you type something in the webpage or click on something ....people can intercept the data your sending and see it on their computer