It’s very easy for some malicious software to give an attacker almost unrestricted access to your computer. Even before you notice there’s something wrong, the malware may have set up a backdoor that allows it to come back anytime. If you are infected with spyware or other types of malware, then there’s a possibility that your password can be silently captured by the intruder remotely.
How To Control Network Access?
If you want to control network access,
- First, identify the threats your users, computers, and devices could face from viruses, worms, spyware, keystroke loggers, Trojans, etc.
- Then use a combination of hardware and software technologies to mitigate those risks. You should also consider implementing an 802.1x authentication server.
In this section, we will focus on how to control network access by enabling certain security features. We’ll discuss why these features help control network access and explain the specific threats they help prevent or mitigate. Let’s get started.
Controlling Network Access With Security Center
The Security Center is new to Windows Vista, and it provides you with an at-a-glance status report of the overall security of your computer. You can quickly see if your virus protection software, firewall, automatic updates, antimalware scans, and other security settings are all enabled. It also includes quick links for changing these configurations or determining why they aren’t on.
Note that this is easy for home users but not recommended for business use since you can’t set up alerts for your entire Windows domain. You can find this setting under Change Settings > Check now.
Instead, I recommend using a Windows Vista machine on each workstation and Group Policy to control network access on each workstation.
Control Network Access With Windows Firewall
The new Windows Firewall with Advanced Security in windows vista can be used to block or allow traffic through your firewall based on an IP address, port number, application name, service name, group policy rules, IPSec security associations.
If you are using IPsec authentication for remote management, then you will also need to enable the following two registry keys under
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ System allows the local security policy editor to connect to your computer. You can set these values by using Group Policy. AllowUnencryptedTraffic = 0 AlwaysInstallElevated = 1 This is required because when you log on locally, the user profile isn’t loaded, so domain credentials aren’t available.
Also, keep in mind that when you browse files and folders on remote systems, the default option is ‘Credentials’ which means that your user credentials will be sent to the remote computer. However, you can use the Options menu in Remote Assistance if you want to send a blank password to connect without asking for credentials. I recommend disabling this unless you have a good reason not to.
Control Network Access With Windows Defender
Windows Defender helps protect your pc from viruses, spyware, rootkits, and trojans by using real-time protection. It monitors all processes running on your system and blocks any application that has been marked as malware. You can also schedule it to run when you aren’t using your computer to monitor in real-time, but I recommend using this for manual scans of specific files or folders. The following the different ways you can configure Windows Defender:
- On ( recommended )
- Off
- Not Configured ( leave it to Windows to decide, which means that Windows defender will run if your pc is not on a network and every time you restart your computer ).
Controlling Network Access With Group Policy
You can use the local group policy editor to control network access. This is also available in Domain Admin but not recommended. It’s suitable for testing purposes only. You should implement Windows Vista NAP instead. You can find this setting under Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Network > Network Connectivity Status Indicator. Note that if you are using a domain controller, it may be necessary to unlock these settings before they function properly by adding your user account to the local policy editor security group via gpedit.msc.
You can also configure these settings by using the local security policy editor. To do this,
- Open secpol from the start menu and navigate through Local policies\Security options.
- You will need to create a new mof file to edit any values that aren’t present in the list already.
To see more information about each of these settings, visit the Microsoft Technet website.
Benefits Of Network Access Control
- Network Access Control is meant to prevent unauthorized users from getting on your network or individual computers.
- Network Access Control helps protect both computer resources and user productivity by enforcing the principle of least privilege. This means that only authorized users may access specific resources within an organization.
- Men and women who are authorized must be granted just enough privileges to perform their jobs, but no more. Similarly, machines on the network should have just enough privileges to get their work done, but not more.
- Manageability and our increasingly mobile workforce are also reasons for controlling who has what level of network access at any given time.
Conclusion
Network Access Control is an integral security feature that prevents unauthorized users from getting access to your network or individual computers. Network Access is the right of a PC to connect directly to another network. Networking support is a significant part of any operating system and a critical component in all essential systems.
