Ok so I'll be going to an extreamly large lan party this year in a month or so, and there is always a risk of someone doing something to your computer at a lan party. I have been assured nothing major has ever happened but I'm pretty protective of my comp, I'm also an avid gamer so how can i make the best of both world of going to the lan and yet making sure nothing happens to my computer.

by this I mean
How can I lock my computer to only myself (obviously xp has password startup but still)?
Can I lock My files to make them unaccessable to people on the same network?
How can I lock my computer if I want to go away for maybe an hour or so, without logging off if possible.
General tips/tricks to making sure you have a healthy pc in the lan environment.

thanks
-Ussr1943-

Few suggestions in no particular order of importance
1. Lock and chain for laptop
2. Hook it to a table
3. BIOS password.
4. Be a Non-admin user
5. XP passwords
6. Frequent screen saver with password required to unlock and relogin
7. Firewall with password and very tight security
8. Firewall to lock internet access when screen saver goes in
9. Set properties > Security on directories so nobody can read allow only yourself
10. No file sharing of any areas - so nobody on the network can read them
11. ZIP directories you want to protect
12. Encrypt directories
13. Off load personal data somewhere else so there won't be much to snoop
14. Don't ever walk off without logging off (it's illegal in regulated environments)
15. Don't walk away from it at all
16. Don't go to the lan meeting whatever it is

all very good suggestions Tos, but number 16 won't work for me

anyways could you explain how to do some of the above?
Thanks

1. Computer stores sell some sort of locks for laptops
2. If you get a long chain, hook it to something at the meeting, that won't move out the door with your laptop or just carry it with you
3. I don't remember, I think F2 takes you to BIOS during booting, kinda risky to do
4,5. Control Panel and find users entry, set'm up there - one admin, one non-admin with a password
6. Right click desktop, navigate to screen saver under properties and set a timeout and require a password
7,8. See tutorials, each firewall is different
9,10. Right click directory, properties, sharing, read options - basically Make this folder private is what you want and do not share the folder on the network
11. Right click directory, select Winzip (or equivalent), zip it, attempt to unzip to make sure the checksum is ok, delete source directory contents
12. I don't recall, may not even be available on XP, might be just on W2k
13. To a backup disk (best), or to a network drive at work, or to friend's computer. Depends how much data you have - a 512meg flash drive goes for $10 these days. Much of it also depends on WHAT data you want to keep private.
Sorry, this is a bit cryptic, hopefully less than my first answer, but I've just ran out of time

Wal-mart (laugh if you will) is selling 1GB sandisk USB Drives at $25. Many other stores have similar prices. Back it up every time you walk away.
If your worried about your Hardware many LAN cases have lock hasps on the access panel if yours does invest in a lock.

We don't know what needs to be backed up.
Wal Mart price sounds great, wow, not laughing at all
Flash is very SLOW. I recently copied 350meg, I think it took 20 minutes, or whatever it was, it's not practical for quick backups.

agreed, but if you do a baseline backup before you go and then save all of your modified data to the flash drive before you have to get up to use the facilities you can take the Data with you.

Wonder if they still make the keyboard locks like my Packard Bell 486 had on it. Those were always fun to lock and watch Mom try to use the PC

Hi USSR, are you worried they will change settings? What if you just unplug some of the stuff from the back? Or, remove the monitor and hide it under your bed if you still have he box.

This post had some pretty funny suggestions in it...