PPPOE and LAN security?

Question

If I use PPPOE to connect to Internet and enable network discovery for public networks, do I open my shared folders to others? If only admin from ISP can see my folders i dont't like it :) I hate this, but I can't make my UnIndentified LAN connection as Home network because of strange Windows 7 limitations or my ignorance?

Edit This question should be on serverfault ;( This link can help to understand why I ask this question. I will update if any of solutions there work for me. http://serverfault.com/questions/9376/is-it-possible-to-change-an-unidentified-network-into-a-home-or-work-networ

Answer 1

Generally speaking, you should be connected to the internet service provider via a router or modem, not directly from your computer, unless you are using an old modem or one of a small few other devices.

If you go in to network and sharing centre, even if you can not change the location of the network, you should be able to manually disable file and print sharing.

I would highly advise you do this as it is really not a good idea to have this visible across the Internet, unless your ISP uses NAT or another method for sharing, this could be a big security risk.

Answer 2

One connects to the Internet via a router. The router creates a local network inside your home, and serves as a one-way door to the greater network which is the Internet. Your local computers are not on the Internet - it is the router that is on the Internet. There is no way for the ISP to use the router to access your local network and its shares. The router only allows inside-to-outside connections, and in any case the local computers have no Internet address and so are not visible on it.

Therefore, setting the local network to private is fine, since only computers on the local network can see it. You should, however, protect yourself from your neighbors, who can see your router, by taking some elementary steps which your ISP should have described.

If you use a modem rather than a router to connect to the Internet, the situation is quite different. In this case, you should protect yourself by turning off File and Printer Sharing (in Properties of network adapter).

You may also be able to Change the default profile for unidentified networks through the registry :

In regedit find :
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
and look for your NIC adapter and create a dword named *NdisDeviceType and modify the value from 0 to 1, then disable/enable the network adapter.

You also might try this :

1. In regedit, locate and then click the following registry subkey:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\{GUID}.
   Click the (GUID) subkey that corresponds to the network adapter.
2. On the Edit menu, select New, and then DWORD (32-bit) Value.
3. Rename it as DhcpConnEnableBcastFlagToggle, and press ENTER.
4. Right-click DhcpConnEnableBcastFlagToggle, and then click Modify.
5. In the Value data box, type 1 and click OK.
6. Close Registry Editor.

Answer 3

Because answer is written in comments: I went looking into protocols enabled for PPPOE connection (only ipv4 and ipv6). Because protocols 'Client for Microsoft networks' and 'File and printer sharing for Microsoft networks' are not enabled for PPPOE i assume that it is no security risk to enable Network discovery for public networks in my case.