Public Wifi Security

RVers love the conveniece of Wifi. It is wonderful to be able to stay connected wherever we travel. But public Wifi use involves serious risks to the unaware or unprotected. Would you let a stranger walk up to your computer and boldly attach a network cable? Of course not, but that is what you may in effect be doing. Lets look at some ways you can help protect yourself. (Note this article was written for XP, procedures may vary slightly for your operating system.)

Before we begin, your laptop should be prepared to connect to the internet safely. If you have never taken steps to protect yourself on the internet, read our Internet Security article and take the steps outlined there.

Turn it off

The first step is to physically turn off Wifi when not in use. That's right, you probably have a switch on your laptop to physically turn it off. Make sure you do that when you are in a place that has public Wifi. If you have a wifi card, unplug it.

Turn off file and printer sharing

Be sure that your computer is not set up for file and printer sharing on wireless connections. First click on Control Panel|Network Connections to open the network connections window. Now right click on the wireless connection icon and select the 'wireless networks' tab. In the window there will be several items with check marks. If one of these is 'File and printer sharing' uncheck it. Leave this window open.

Disable Automatic Connections

Disable automatic connections with Wifi Access points and also with other computers. In the wireless connection properties window you left open from step two, click on the wireless networks tab then the advanced button. Select 'Access point networks only' and make sure that 'Automatically connect to non-preferred networks' is un-checked. Close the advanced properties window. Now remove any connections from the preferred networks list that you are not sure about.

Know who you are connecting to

In a public airport or coffee shop look for a sign with the name of the access point. If in doubt ask someone. One of the biggest risks with public Wifi is the man-in-the middle-attack. A hacker sets up a free wifi access point and unsuspecting users connect through them. This allows the hacker to scan your internet traffic looking for credit card and bank account information.

Encrypt Sensitive Email

If your email is just notes to friends and family that you would let anyone read, then you are probably ok. If you are sending any kind of work or business related emails or personal financial information, you should consider encrypting your emails.

Subscribe to a VPN service

A VPN or Virtual Private Network creates a secure channel between your computer and the VPN service so that no one can intercept your data. This is the only truly safe way to do banking or use a credit card on public Wifi. JiWire Hotspot Helper and HotSpotVPN offer VPN services for a fee (around $10 month).