Re: motel networking security

From: Lars M. Hansen (badnews@hansenonline.net)
Date: 03/24/03 

From: Lars M. Hansen <badnews@hansenonline.net>
Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2003 15:53:21 GMT

On Mon, 24 Mar 2003 13:35:43 GMT, Libero spoketh

>Hi all,
>
>My family owns a small motel and we're thinking of adding cable access in
>rooms for guests as well as our office computers. My question is about
>security. Obviously we want the office computers to be absolutely separate
>and secure from the guests computers. Would it be better to bring in 2
>separate cable lines and modems for each network or is a router/firewall
>good enough? If a router is good enough, any suggestions on a particular
>piece of hardware?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Libero
>

Consider something like this:

  internet
      |
      |
  Firewall #1
      |
      |--- Motel guest LAN
      |
  Firewall #2
      |
      |--- Motel office LAN

That'll secure your office LAN from the guest's network. I recommend
going with something more high-end than the simple broadband routers.
Check out the Nexland PRO series. They cost a little more, but they are
also more secure.

Also, get a real switch in between Firewall #1 and Firewall #2. Look for
a second-hand Cisco 2900 on eBay. They're fairly easy to configure for a
single subnet, and it prevents motel guests from sniffing packets on the
LAN.

Lars M. Hansen
http://www.hansenonline.net
(replace 'badnews' with 'news' in e-mail address)

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