what does the network tab show?

[orijinal]

i've always wondered what the deal was with this. it changes when i connect to my dorm's internet. i notice some other people's computers show up too, one of which is my friends. does that mean mine shows up too? when i click "servers" it shows my internet providers name, and when i click on that, it shows my computers contents. what's the deal? can someone go through my computer, or something?

 

[yellow]

It's just a browsing list of available machines on your network.
It has nothing to do with your computer's availability for browsing/sharing/connecting.

 

[orijinal]

why does it list my contents under the servers>hh-1-77.flexabit (which is my internet provider)?

and does this mean that on these other systems, they can see my computer listed?

 

[GimmeSlack12]

Turn off your System Preferences>Sharing>Personal File Sharing.

You won't be seen by others. And even if that is on and they can see your computer they need your login and password to get to any of your actual files.

 

[swiftaw]

why does it list my contents under the servers>hh-1-77.flexabit (which is my internet provider)?

That's the unique ID that your ISP assigns to your machine so it can identify it.