A question about Router, DMZ, and Packets.

I

isolder

Registered
Here at my apartment my roommates and I are running on a linksys router. I have a cable going from the router to a hub, which both my laptop and my pc are connected to. The two roommate's comps are connected to the router.

Right now, my roommate's computer is setup as the DMZ.




This seems like a dumb question.. but..


Since his comp is set up as DMZ, could he intercept the packets coming to and from all the computers?
 
First, Yes I believe he could get any packets you send.
Second, I know DMZ is a windoze 2000 term for firewall. Isn't his computer useless as a firewall since it's inside the router - or is his server sharing the connection with other computers?
I hope your real firewall is your router in this case.
 
ok, correct me if i'm wrong, but DMZ is actually the absence of the firewall. to be able to host certain online games, i have to enable my computer as dmz for that period of time. otherwise the firewall blocks the ports that are required to host.

i don't see how the dmz computer could get any packets if you are all hooked directly into the router. each transmission to each machine is routed to the correct computer from there and his pc shouldn't be recieving any of your data stream.
 
As I understood it, when set as DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) your computer is treated as if it is directly connected to the internet (ie all port requests that hit the router are sent to your computer, the opposite of a firewall).

It goes Cable Modem>Router>Individual computers.

My router Is the firewall. Still though, I wonder if that as a DMZ computer is set to be the computer to route port requests (this is how it can be a server) it could somehow intercept packets before they actually go to the other individual computers, even though it is connected no differently than the other computers to the router.
 
Yes, just reiterating what already has been said: a DMZ ("DeMilitarized Zone") is one computer that is set to be wide-open to the internet. It is used so that outsiders can access that computer through the router -- if that computer is NOT in the DMZ, if someone tries to access that computer from the outside, all they can see is the router. The DMZ lets that one computer "shine through" the router and be accessible from the outside.

For example, you can probably play Quake just fine on any machine connected to the router. However, if you wanted to HOST a game, you would have to either: a) be the one computer in the DMZ, or b) set up port forwarding, which lets certain packets of information coming in on certain ports to be directed to an IP address (a computer) connected to the router.

I don't think that the computer in the DMZ can see any packets coming in or out from other computers on the router, unless the computer in the DMZ is working as an internet sharing computer. If the sharing of the internet is done through that computer, YES, they can see packets coming in/out. If the ROUTER is doing the internet sharing, then NO, the DMZ computer cannot see packets coming in/out.

Ask your roommate if he's running anything like IIS or if his computer is doing the internet sharing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top