Thread: protecting ext hard drive

Wireless is much harder to secure. I try to avoid it with my clients when possible but it is convenient.

Originally Posted by Rick

God I hate security.

Give me a program to write anyday, I don't care how many lines of code...just don't ask me to try and secure the machine it's going on. (:

A few of the guys I went to school with were all about security. We would sit in the lounge in our computer science building watching a packet sniffing program and reading people's aol chats that were on the unencrypted network.

I'm sure you have figured this out, but usually on the bottom of a device with a wireless network card there is a sticker with the MAC address on it.

If you are that worried about viruses I suggest building another NAS box. Just take an old PC, get some cheap SATA drives (4) for RAID 5 and install openfiler on the existing drive (or CF card as they are more reliable but you will need a CF card slot and at least a 2 GB CF card). You will also need a SATA RAID card.

Set up the hardware raid through the Controller GUI. Burn the Openfiler ISO files disk, shove it in the PC and go through the startup menu. Raid is a little tricker to setup but there is plenty of documentation on the Openfiler Forum. Carve up the disks and your done. You can also set up an OpenLDAP server if you are concerned about security.

You can use that box and your friends can use the standalone 500gb drive. When they are done, just wipe the drive and set it up as a replication device using openfilers replication software.

It is seriously easy to do and since it runs on linux the only thing that will it stop are some strategically placed bullets.

Also supports VMWare ESX if you want to use virtualization.

You can do all of this on the cheap if you use Ebay or Craigslist to buy your hardware. I got an old SATA raid card off of craigslist for 50 bucks. Had to update the firmware on it but that was not hard at all once I read some documentation from the vendor online.

Originally Posted by eessydo

If you are that worried about viruses I suggest building another NAS box. Just take an old PC, get some cheap SATA drives (4) for RAID 5 and install openfiler on the existing drive (or CF card as they are more reliable but you will need a CF card slot and at least a 2 GB CF card). You will also need a SATA RAID card.

Set up the hardware raid through the Controller GUI. Burn the Openfiler ISO files disk, shove it in the PC and go through the startup menu. Raid is a little tricker to setup but there is plenty of documentation on the Openfiler Forum. Carve up the disks and your done. You can also set up an OpenLDAP server if you are concerned about security.

You can use that box and your friends can use the standalone 500gb drive. When they are done, just wipe the drive and set it up as a replication device using openfilers replication software.

It is seriously easy to do and since it runs on linux the only thing that will it stop are some strategically placed bullets.

Also supports VMWare ESX if you want to use virtualization.

You can do all of this on the cheap if you use Ebay or Craigslist to buy your hardware. I got an old SATA raid card off of craigslist for 50 bucks. Had to update the firmware on it but that was not hard at all once I read some documentation from the vendor online.

I might have to look into that sometime when I need it.

This may not be helpful but the way I use my external hard drive is that I only have it plugged in to perform back-ups. The rest of the time, it's not plugged in so there's no way it can be infected. My PC has firewall software, virus scans, etc. but the only time I expose my external hard drive is to run back-ups which take a few hours once a month. The rest of the time, it's not in use.

Originally Posted by eessydo

If you are that worried about viruses I suggest building another NAS box. Just take an old PC, get some cheap SATA drives (4) for RAID 5 and install openfiler on the existing drive (or CF card as they are more reliable but you will need a CF card slot and at least a 2 GB CF card). You will also need a SATA RAID card.

Set up the hardware raid through the Controller GUI. Burn the Openfiler ISO files disk, shove it in the PC and go through the startup menu. Raid is a little tricker to setup but there is plenty of documentation on the Openfiler Forum. Carve up the disks and your done. You can also set up an OpenLDAP server if you are concerned about security.

You can use that box and your friends can use the standalone 500gb drive. When they are done, just wipe the drive and set it up as a replication device using openfilers replication software.

It is seriously easy to do and since it runs on linux the only thing that will it stop are some strategically placed bullets.

Also supports VMWare ESX if you want to use virtualization.

You can do all of this on the cheap if you use Ebay or Craigslist to buy your hardware. I got an old SATA raid card off of craigslist for 50 bucks. Had to update the firmware on it but that was not hard at all once I read some documentation from the vendor online.

Thanks, I'll keep all that in mind.

I am really not that concerened with the security, I think I am for the most part fairly secure. But I figure doesn't hurt to be overly secure.

Another qestion I have is does it really make a differance broadcasting your network name or not?

I keep it broadcasted for the ease of the people I allow to find the network and join but I really don't have to, then can just put in the network information without "seeing" the network.

I guess the main question would be on security, does it really make a differance with hackers patrolling if they can see the broadcasted network or do they have some nifty tools that can detect wireless networks whether you are broadcasting or not?

Originally Posted by OrangeHoof

This may not be helpful but the way I use my external hard drive is that I only have it plugged in to perform back-ups. The rest of the time, it's not plugged in so there's no way it can be infected. My PC has firewall software, virus scans, etc. but the only time I expose my external hard drive is to run back-ups which take a few hours once a month. The rest of the time, it's not in use.

Main reason I am using it on the network is so every can just store all thier music, videos, etc on it instead of taking valuable space on the computer.

I know on my laptop I have about 10 gigs free right now with no music or videos on it as i have a ton of large software development applications on it.

I have 48 gigs free on my desktop without the media and have all the applications on it too.

On my end i would rather have my machines only hold my valuabe tools and let all the "play" be on the ext drive.

I understand. Your needs are different than mine. I guess my primary point is that the best security for a external hard drive is - don't plug it in. But, as you've explained it, you'll need to come up with a hardware solution.