Disable printer sharing for computers not in my network?

Question

Disable printer sharing for computers not in my network?

I am living in a dorm and somebody keeps printing to my shared printer connected to the base station. I have a WPA key which I randomly picked numbers,letters,and symbols and MAC filtering enabled. I have no real way of testing if the printer is publicly accessable as my roomate and noone i know has a wireless card. I also have all the boxes unchecked in the "base station options/ wan ethernet port tab" of admin utility. Does anyone know if there is a way to prevent someone from printing to my shared printer who is not connected to my network? Is there something I'm missing?

Also, as a question not related to printer sharing, my computer will frequently (once every other day) not automatticallly reconnect to my network after waking from sleep in the morning. I have all the security options enabled, tried changing the interference robustness on and off and it seems to make no diff, reduced the network range to reduce interference from the 3 other wlan networks around, and changed the channels around. It didnt do it in my house, but now that I'm in a dorm, Im thinking this is inherent to having alot of other networks around, but there must be a solution?

Posted on Sep 14, 2005 3:38 PM

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Answer 1

Henry B.

Level 9

78,731 points

Sep 14, 2005 4:54 PM in response to Alexander Reeser

There are two possibilities:

1. your Base Station is connected to the dorm's network via its ethernet LAN port and/or you have "Distribute IP addresses" disabled on the Base Station (a setting found under the Network tab of the Airport Admin Utility). If this is the case - you may be doing this to allow file and iTunes sharing with other computers on the campus network. If that is the case, your printer is also shared on the campus network and you won't be able to block just that.

2. You have enabled the setting to "enable remote printer access" (a setting found in the Airport Admin Utility -> Base Station Options -> WAN Ethernet Port -> Enable remote printer access). If this is the case - disable this setting.

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Answer 2

iFelix

Level 8

35,167 points

Sep 15, 2005 2:12 AM in response to Alexander Reeser

] my computer will frequently (once every other day) not automatticallly reconnect to my network after waking from sleep in the morning.

The reason is probably due to the additional network and because you have said:
] I have all the security options enabled,

MAC filtering and non-broadcast SSID can cause this kind of issue especially in a crowded area. There may also be a hidden wireless network broadcasting on your channel which will also cause similar issues.

A wireless network is still broadcasting and therefore detectable regardless of whether you broadcast the SSID (closed network) or not.

As for MAC address access control, if you are having problems connecting it is usually down to this and as MAC addresses are sent unecrypted can be read and spoofed and therefore do not add any security.

Unfortunately "Closed" networks, MAC access control lists, and reduction in transmission power are all more "feel good" security rather than real security. All these various approaches are dated and mistakenly lead to overconfidence.

As you have WPA enabled, I would disable MAC filtering and broadcast your SSID.

WPA is virtually uncrackable and therefore you do not need to worry about hiding your network.

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Answer 3

Sep 15, 2005 3:32 PM in response to Alexander Reeser

Hmm... You guys about hit the nail on the head about my settings. I do actually have ditribute IP DISABLED. I do broadcast my SSID though. I think that reducing the wireless range (which I have done) will at least reduce the amount of people who will be physically able to print to my shared printer. One thing i realized yesterday is that when I put my cpu to sleep, I leave iTunes running. So i tried quitting iTunes before sleeping. When i restarted, it connected directly to my network automattically 3 times in a row. And then when I put it to sleep with iTunes running... i had to manually connect, sometimes with it saying "error joining the network." I'm thinking it has something to do with the sharing feature since I would do the same thing at home with no problems, and there is alot of shared music in this subnet.

Do you think MAC filtering is entirely useless? I thought that it added some security, but I suppose it might just be redundant.

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Answer 4

iFelix

Level 8

35,167 points

Sep 16, 2005 12:45 AM in response to Alexander Reeser

It does sound like the iTunes sharing is causing the issue.
] Do you think MAC filtering is entirely useless? I thought that it added some security, but I suppose it might just be redundant.

It use to be useful, but MAC address access control is really no longer a real option when it comes to wireless security.

The problem arises as the MAC addresses are sent unencrypted and therefore can be picked up and read by a determined hacker.

Not only that with many ethernet devices you can now very easily change the MAC address to a different one, so making it very easy to spoof the Mac address and fool a wireless base station into believing that you are an authenticated client.

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