buzz_ny
June 23rd, 2002, 04:00 PM
There is a moderate security risk to WinMX you may want to consider for your setup. When someone is browsing your files, they can choose the "Show Full Path" option and see the whole path of the file on your hard drive.
You may want to put your shared files in a folder in the root directory, or some other directory that provides no useful information in the Browse function.
The risk is that for some OSs, like Windows2000, the default is to require users to log in and store files in a folder with a path like this:
C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\My Music\
So someone could find out your local username and your IP address, may be some potential online threat. And if your username is your real name, that may be something you'd rather not have happen too.
Frankly, that feature seems of such limited use I'm not sure it justifies the risks. The use would be, if your stuff is in folders, someone can browse by folder rather than by filename. The problem is, only experts will know and use that, while lots of newbies may cause trouble for themselves.
You may want to put your shared files in a folder in the root directory, or some other directory that provides no useful information in the Browse function.
The risk is that for some OSs, like Windows2000, the default is to require users to log in and store files in a folder with a path like this:
C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\My Music\
So someone could find out your local username and your IP address, may be some potential online threat. And if your username is your real name, that may be something you'd rather not have happen too.
Frankly, that feature seems of such limited use I'm not sure it justifies the risks. The use would be, if your stuff is in folders, someone can browse by folder rather than by filename. The problem is, only experts will know and use that, while lots of newbies may cause trouble for themselves.