Re: XP networking without NetBIOS or Active Directory

From: Steven L Umbach (n9rou_at_no-spam.ameritech.net)
Date: 04/01/04 

Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2004 23:07:51 -0600

You can disable nebios over tcp/ip if you do not have any applications that
rely on it nor care to use My Network Places to browse for network
resources. I am not sure how much it will secure your network and from who
in your case. The biggest vulnerability to netbios is from the internet for
which you are going to need a firewall anyhow. The firewall would be the
biggest item to use to implement security followed by virus protection that
also scans emails, keeping current with critical updates, and using complex
passwords along with enabling auditing of logon events and having a password
lockout policy. There is certainly much more you can do to secure your
Windows machines beyond that, but that is a good start. Refer to the links
below for more help on securing your XP/2003 computers. --- Steve

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/topics/hardsys/tcg/tcgch00.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/tools/mbsahome.mspx

"v8625" <v8625@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:7c6d0c8e.0403311943.5eecec1f@posting.google.com...
> Need to network a few XP machines, Windows 2003 (standalone) server
> and a Linux box (obviously needs Samba to talk to Windows). Setting up
> Active Directory would require setting up a domain, a DNS server and
> all that other good stuff that I am actually trying to avoid because
> some of the machines, including Windows server, can be powered down at
> times.
> I would also like to keep things secure and block all NetBIOS traffic
> on ports 135-139. Sufficient networking can be had with "NET USE" or
> by running \\hostname\sharename in Windows Start>Run. I would still
> keep port 445 for Samba.
> 1. Does it make sense?
> 2. Is there anything else I could do to improve
> security/reliability/performance?

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