Thread: is ICS safe for sharing my connection?

Hi,

I have just got the 512kbps tata wimax connection. I have a desktop pc which is directly connected to the CPE. And I have a laptop which I wanted to share my connection with. [both are on windows XP]
After going through forums,I found that I could use my 2nd onboard LAN and a CAT5 cable to connect to the Laptop.
Then I ran the network setup wizard on my desktop pc [I chose the first option which says This computer connects directly to the internet. The other computers on my network connect to the internet through this computer.
Later,in the advanced properties of my connection, I disabled Allow other network users to control or disable the shared Internet connection.

Now I am able to access internet on my laptop aswell which I'm very happy about [no need to buy a router anymore]. But I am concerned about the safety of my desktop PC[which seems to be a mini server now?]. I just have the default windows firewall enabled and I'm thinking that by enabling ICS on my PC,I might have openedup a door for those who are on the wimax network [because my desktop pc is in their network aswell ?].

So,am I safe or not ? Are there any settings that I need to change to secure my network? or is my laptop the only computer which can access my pc ? is it safer if I buy a netgear router and connect my computers through it ?
please help clarify my doubt.

Thanks

All the PC's in tata max network are connected to your router(assuming that you have not changed the configuration in ur ROUTER/MODEM), so your laptop/PC is safe.

But in general,its good to have software firewall like commodo or Zone alarm, on the host PC

hey there are many free firewalls on the site check them out and download

thanks a lot guys,I will install a firewall