Virus over LAN?

[spandexninja]

I'll be moving to a dorm with over 700 residents. I suspect that a lot of these people have viruses on their computers, and I know that there are a lot of programmers in this building (and maybe some of them are hackers).

Everyone in this building is on the same network. The building has network printers so UPnP is probably turned on.

I use Windows 8 (with Avast antivirus) and I always have my network set as "Public". What other measures can I take to make my computer more difficult to access over LAN and to reduce the chance of getting a virus over LAN?

 

[JackMDS]

Make sure that your computer Drives/Folder/Files system does not set to share, or if needed share minimum with secure Users/Password protection.

If you need to use printers that are UPnP dependent you can download and use this little free app.

http://www.grc.com/unpnp/unpnp.htm

It takes few sec. to switch UPnP On before you print, and few sec. to switch it Off after printing.

 

[imagoon]

UPnP doesn't generally have anything to do with printers.... In most large environments it is off or not even supported *it mostly exists for home routers where the people managing them may have issues tying shoes etc. Also even if uPNP is on, it is a router feature and has minimal to do with the OS your running. Just make sure you are patched and firewall is on and you should be ok.

 

[spandexninja]

Alright thanks for the tips. Sharing is already turned off by default right? I don't think anything on my laptop is set to share but I don't see any options for it (other than advanced sharing settings).

Is it safe to use airport Wifi as long as I set the connection to "Public"?