Hotel and internet access

A_Nice_Englishman

Excellent! Perhaps they've failed to secure the network so won't even know you've been using it.

chuckles1066

aurora_borealis wrote:

Well I'm here

I just accepted the invite to the hotel's wireless network.
... wonder how I'm paying for this?

lots of hotels provide free wi-fi access these days as a means of attracting business customers.

Be mindful though of the fact that because the wireless network is open, any folders etc on your hard drive (that you cheerfully share at home behind the protection of your own security) will be freely available to anyone else in the hotel also connected to the wireless network.

Not to mention wardrivers!

Icon_3

chuckles1066 wrote:

lots of hotels provide free wi-fi access these days as a means of attracting business customers.

Be mindful though of the fact that because the wireless network is open, any folders etc on your hard drive (that you cheerfully share at home behind the protection of your own security) will be freely available to anyone else in the hotel also connected to the wireless network.

Not to mention wardrivers!

What are wardrivers

If you have not got anything in shared folders are your other files any more vunerable?

albertross_2

people who go around sniffing for wireless networks.

if the pc is firewalled properly, then the files may be safe, but everything people type on the internet isn't, including passwords, emails, they can be picked up out of thin air using sniffers, by anyone in range.

using an unencrypted network, is asking for trouble, wherever it is.

aurora_borealis_2

I'm scared now ... I've set Norton personal firewall to max - is that good enough?

albertross_2

depends who's listening..

chuckles1066

albertross wrote:

people who go around sniffing for wireless networks.

if the pc is firewalled properly, then the files may be safe, but everything people type on the internet isn't, including passwords, emails, they can be picked up out of thin air using sniffers, by anyone in range.

using an unencrypted network, is asking for trouble, wherever it is.

He's right you know.

If you use an unsecured network (with a firewall) just to surf, you should be ok.

But once you start checking emails, online banking etc etc (i.e anything involving passwords) you're courting trouble with a capital T (bold and underlined for good measure).