wireless router / printer question

[aeronutt]

Maybe not a Ubuntu specific question, but I'm not sure.

I have a linksys wireless router (WRT160N). Connected wireless to the router is my laptop (running Ubuntu) and a wireless HP printer.

Is there anyway to configure things such that the internet connection is 100% blocked, but I can still send jobs from my wireless laptop to the wireless printer through the router? Seems like I should be able to.

[MoebusNet]

I'm not an expert by any means, but perhaps the place to start would be to go to your router's set-up page (at least my routers use a web page to set password, options etc.) You should be able to deselect WAN (wide-area network which should include internet I believe) while leaving LAN (local-area network) enabled. Of course, you would have to change that setting every time you wanted to activate/deactivate internet access.

It might actually be easier to just unplug the coax or telephone connection to the cable/asdl modem whenever you need to stay off of the internet. If the rest of the family is on-line, they might not be happy with either of these crude solutions, though.

If you need to be able to restrict internet access just for your computer without affecting everyone else in the house, I'm afraid someone else will have to advise you on that one.

Just a thought, but might not a firewall for your computer meet your needs? You might be able to restrict internet access with that. Best of luck!

[aeronutt]

Thanks. Yes, simply unplugging the Ethernet cable works fine. I'd rather not have to do that every time. FYI, the reason I want to do this, is every so often, I copy and print files that I'm probably overly sensitive about, but that I don't want on my computer unencrypted while connected to the internet.

I haven't found a setting on my router config page that obviously disconnects the WAN, and leaves the wireless LAN intact.