Security of NAS and Media player on home network

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#1

Hi All,

I am thinking about setting up a simple home NAS for media streaming and such, however I have a security concern.

My network is composed currently of my desktop and an ADSL Modem/Router/Access Point which is also my Gateway. I want to add a NAS and also connect my WD TV Live media player and TV to the network, however I am concerned about unauthorized accessibility of these devices from the outside.
The problem is that while my Router has a built-in Firewall, I had to disable it due to issues accessing some websites. I have tried looking for a firmware update to resolve this but my router is some 5 years old and has not received any updates since.
Security-wise, my desktop is running Comodo IS, I have hidden my SSID, use WPA2 for my wireless with a nice long key, have MAC filtering enabled, and am also using Comodo SecureDNS. IPs are dynamic but with a limited allocation range.

Do the above measures provide good enough protection regardless of the router firewall being disabled? Am I being paranoid?

Many thanks for your help.

#2

For what web site issues do you disable the router’s firewall? Are you using a built in parental control filtering on the router?

#3

No parental filter on either browser or router. Typically the issues are some images not displaying, might be related to images linked in from other sites or domains as locally stored ones are ok.

#4

I would not disable a router’s firewall for this reason alone. Are you sure it is not ad blocking on your computer? How did you come to the conclusion the router firewall was to blame?

#5

Don’t have any ad-blocker installed and once i disabled the FW everything started showing up again. Are you saying those images were blocked for a reason and not because of some fault?

#6

I am just trying to wrap my head around your situation. Scratching my head…