How do I share my wifi with roaming strangers safely?

Question

I believe in sharing wifi with anyone, but would like to keep the one computer I use for my finances safe from intruders. I would also like to limit the amount a bandwidth I am sharing with strangers while allowing unlimited access to known computers. I have a WRT54G v4 wireless router. The computer I do my finances on is running Vista Ultimate and is connected to the router via CAT 5. All others connected via wifi. Is there a hacked firmware for the router which could accomplish this? Security for the one computer, and sharing my wifi are the two most important concerns. I would also prefer a solution that is both free, and doesn't limit who can share my wifi. (NO FON!)

Answer 1

Well this may sound a bit strange to some but it works and keeps those on the wifi off your wired system.. just add another router on the wired side for your "private" system. Then no one on the wireless has any access at all.

There are routers made that will isolate wireless from lan but the linksys you have isn't one of them.. You could try the DD-WRT firmware but I don't think wireless isolation is included
http://www.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv2/index.php

Just remember if ANYONE can connectm YOU are responsible for what they do while connected to your network connection! So keep an attorney handy.
Good Luck

Answer 2

There are a couple different firmwares for certain revisions of that router which would allow much more flexibility.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WRT54G#Third-party_firmware_projects
Unfortunately, mine isn't one that can utilize any of the custom linux-based firmwares. You would have to verify whether yours can take a third-party firmware. Check here: http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_Devices

However, I believe with the stock firmware you can set the wireless clients on a separate subnet/network which would provide some measure of security simply by having the ethernet and wifi on different networks. I haven't looked at the configuration options in quite a while, so don't quote me on that. ;-) If such a config is possible, as I believe it is, I would still probably put a firewall (some old 386/486 pc with a firewall distro of Linux on it) between the router and my local ethernet network. But being involved in the computer/network security field for several years, I'm somewhat on the paranoid side when it comes to security.
In any case, placing a properly configured firewall between the router and the local network would provide quite an acceptable level of security. As I said, my choice would be a dedicated pc (eg any old 386/486/Pentium) with two network cards running a firewall distro of Linux (eg IPCop).

You may also want to check this site, I'm not sure if there is anything applicable there:
http://wrt54ghacks.com/

Answer 3

Make sure your not sharing your files, that would be a give-away.

And if you don't have any valuble information (Social Security #, Credit Card Number, etc.), passing through the computer, then you have nothing to worry about.

In the case where you do have that, make any valuble information require a password to access, and make your cookies folder always require a password.

Answer 4

that sounds idealistic, but here is some food for thought. they load up limewire and down load some kiddie porn placed there as bait by law enforcement, and the download gets traced back to YOUR ip number. now YOU have some explaining to do, while the real creep is long gone. sharing is a BAD IDEA.

Answer 5

Build an 802.1x authentication server