Chromebook on a network

Community Forums/General Help/Chromebook on a network

mkg(Posted 2013) [#1]
A little advice please. Bear with me as I'm pretty clueless re this sort of thing.

A friend's daughter is coming to see me to discuss her college project. It would be helpful if she brought her laptop - which is a chromebook. My worry is about having it on our home wireless network; I'm always a little paranoid about allowing other people's devices on our network for fear of viruses, malware, etc. I'm especially concerned as she would not know anything about avoiding risk of viruses, etc. when using the internet.

So my questions are: is there a real risk? Is there less of a risk with a chromebook? Am I being unnecessarily paranoid?


Derron(Posted 2013) [#2]
You could spend her an own "network" - or "expose" her chromebook directly to the internet while she is there.

First option is eg. done through giving her solo access to a second wlan access point with a differing IP setting (yours is 192.168.0.x while she gets 192.168.1.x).

If you own something like a Fritz!box you can just create a "guest account" which allows accessing the internet but not your local network.

Other routers call it "virtual interfaces".
So if your SSID is "mkg-WLAN" the second one could be "mkg-WLAN-guests" which get an other password and are separated from your local network.

bye
Ron


Wiebo(Posted 2013) [#3]
There is less of a risk. Chrome OS is a modified Linux OS (not sure which) and everything in Chrome OS runs in its own little process. The chances of there being mal-ware or a virus on that machine are very small.


mkg(Posted 2013) [#4]
Thanks for the advice.