Asus Router/Network Security Question...

[billyk]

A family member just moved into an apartment in an older row home. I purchased a modem and Asus router for him, and he connected it up and it didn't work. When I went over to troubleshoot, the landlord had an Ethernet cable running into his apartment, and my son had that connected to the modem.

When I saw that it was an Ethernet cable, not an ISP cable connection, I just connected it directly to the Asus router and it worked perfectly. Since the landlord offers "internet connectivity" at a low price point to all three apartments in this house, I'll guess that they have a cable inbound from an ISP, connected to their router, and 3 Ethernet cables that run to each of the three apartments in the house.

With WPA2 security set on the router, and a strong router password, it's likely that his wireless is fairly well secured. But what about the Ethernet connection back to the shared modem behind the router? What security risk is there at that level in the network. If there is risk, how can we mitigate that risk?

Thanks in advance for your help!
-bjk

 

[cptnoblivious]

If you have even the slightest bit of concern, run a VPN that tunnels through / past the landlords equipment.

If you don't want to go that far, at least run DoT (i.e. DNS over TLS) to encrypt the DNS queries. In that case, if the landlord wants to, they could still see all the sites that are visited, though not their content if the sit uses HTTPS.

I'd VPN out myself.

 

[Tech9]

Reselling residential Internet lines is a violation of terms and conditions for many ISPs.

- potential privacy issue for the tenant, tech savvy owner can log online activity
- potential liability issue for the owner, reckless tenant may bring law enforcement home

My advice - get your own Internet connection, if possible. Cheaper is not always better.

 

[CaptainSTX]

A family member just moved into an apartment in an older row home. I purchased a modem and Asus router for him, and he connected it up and it didn't work. When I went over to troubleshoot, the landlord had an Ethernet cable running into his apartment, and my son had that connected to the modem.

When I saw that it was an Ethernet cable, not an ISP cable connection, I just connected it directly to the Asus router and it worked perfectly. Since the landlord offers "internet connectivity" at a low price point to all three apartments in this house, I'll guess that they have a cable inbound from an ISP, connected to their router, and 3 Ethernet cables that run to each of the three apartments in the house.

With WPA2 security set on the router, and a strong router password, it's likely that his wireless is fairly well secured. But what about the Ethernet connection back to the shared modem behind the router? What security risk is there at that level in the network. If there is risk, how can we mitigate that risk?

Thanks in advance for your help!
-bjk

Since your son is double NATed behind landlord's router as long as son's router uses a different subnet even Ethernet connected devices have some protection. For additional protection follow Tech9's recommendations. One additional level of protection could be added by buying an inexpensive smart switch and attaching it to a port on the router and then setting up VLANs.

The landlord might be at bigger risk as the upstream devices on the double NATed LANs can see devices on his LAN.

The best solution for everyone might be if the landlord installed the smart switch behind his router and put each of his tennants on a separate VLAN.

 

[follower]

A family member just moved into an apartment in an older row home. I purchased a modem and Asus router for him, and he connected it up and it didn't work. When I went over to troubleshoot, the landlord had an Ethernet cable running into his apartment, and my son had that connected to the modem.

When I saw that it was an Ethernet cable, not an ISP cable connection, I just connected it directly to the Asus router and it worked perfectly. Since the landlord offers "internet connectivity" at a low price point to all three apartments in this house, I'll guess that they have a cable inbound from an ISP, connected to their router, and 3 Ethernet cables that run to each of the three apartments in the house.

With WPA2 security set on the router, and a strong router password, it's likely that his wireless is fairly well secured. But what about the Ethernet connection back to the shared modem behind the router? What security risk is there at that level in the network. If there is risk, how can we mitigate that risk?

Thanks in advance for your help!
-bjk

There is a risk. His landlord may cut your son's UTP cable.

 

[billyk]

Thanks to everyone who replied here!