If I live in an apartment building with provided wifi, which is an open network without a security key requirement, I suppose that isn't very secure, but using it would save me money - If I were to take my router, pull in the apartment's wifi, repeat the signal with my own ssid/pass - that would protect my computers connected to my router from others on the broader apartment's network, right? I have ddwrt firmware on the router and should be able to do this. One reason I ask is because I need to set up network sharing between a couple of my computers, and there's no way that I would do that if I were connected to the apartment's open network directly, but I figure any system connected to my router would be protected by it's NAT, regardless if my internet was originating from the apartment's open wifi Thoughts on this appreciated Secondary question: is it ok to operate a tower computer laying on it's side? I have a server micro-tower I need to fit into a tight space thanks
Yes NAT will protect your "internal" network. You should still protect your internet traffic though. You can use VPN to do all your internet activities. If you won't use it at least use https for all sites where you have to log in (and check that session is secured). Also I would not do online banking and similar on unsecured connection. AFAIK you can lay down your tower computer with no ill effects.
