Thread: Media Center/Networking in Vista

I bought my wife a laptop for Christmas and it has Vista on it (gasp!). Since I've been on leave, I started fiddling with networking between our computers and discovered Media Center in the process. Overall I'm quite happy with it and somewhat surprised at Microsoft for having a fairly nice product.

My question is about networking. Unfortunately, I live in an apartment complex, so there are quite a few other people on the physical network, but I'm also behind my own router. Is the sharing between computers, my xbox, and the media center functions restricted to my private network, or can people outside my private network access my goodies?

I used to be so up on this stuff, now I feel like a lost child

You have to shield your private network. With a password and/or making it invisible to lurkers. There are plenty of programs for this.

Usually when you buy a router you can turn on a variety of security measures and encryption routines. Without security if its a wireless network anyone can access it and with a little ability can get in your computer to do what mischief he wants.