TOTAL disconnection from internet options?

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15 Feb 2010
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Would one have to disconnect the Ethernet in order to have 100% no internet connection. I heard that using a firewall "block" option or by disabling the network via windows would work but surely they can be "cracked" since they are software based?
 
Well; i would like an easy way to disconnect my PC from any and all internet activity; including preventing programs from accessing the internet, updating etc, as well as security precautions like preventing being hacked and virus avoidance etc. Of course disconnecting the Ethernet is the best way to do this but this is difficult due to the PC in question being right in a corner
 
It's a slightly strange thing to want to do on a regular basis.

If you bought yourself an inline Cat5 coupler you could position it somewhere easily accessible.
 
In the good old days of windows XP, I didn't install an ethernet driver. That isolated windows effectively enough. Today, 7 works out of the box, and I go for "change adapter settings, disable".

For cad / uni work, I tend to use a windows install without access to the internet. This has proven a very effective way of keeping viruses out. The same computer has a few other operating systems installed though, and the day-to-day windows and linux systems do have internet access. I don't want to repeatedly unplug an ethernet cable, hence the above set up.

I suppose malware could infect the windows install that can see the internet, assign a drive number to the offline windows partition, and attack it. So far this hasn't happened.
 
You could always try an outbound firewall. Windows 7 firewall control is fairly innocuous and has a free version. You can shut down all outbound and inbound connections, it will also tell you when something is trying to get outbound connection which you can either allow or not.

They can be a bit annoying as they learn the system and keep asking for permission, but at least you’ll always know which software does and doesn’t access the internet

Much less aggravation than unplugging cables or disabling connections.
 
This is for a PC at work and i have been asked to find out these things for the person; I cannot easily disconnect the wire since there are a few PCs and they are situated right in a corner; of course disconnecting the wire will give 100% security but that is not feasible so i ask how secure/effective it is to disconnect the network via software so i can see if this is acceptable to them
 
If you just want to prevent internet access (but don't mind keeping lan access) you could just change the machine's gateway address. You should be able to script this using the route command.
 
Can you configure the Internet router - maybe enable the onboard f/w and block your IP outbound, or configure a static IP on the box with no default gateway so you can still access local stuff
 
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