5 Safety Tips When Using Public WiFi

By   |  March 3, 2010

If you have a laptop that has a wireless Internet card, which is most computers these days, then you should keep in mind the following security precautions whenever you bust out your laptop on a public wireless connection. This is especially true for college students who use their laptops at the local coffee shop or on campus, or who have the bad habit of stealing their neighbor’s router signal. :)

1. Activate your computer’s firewall – Another great reason to use Windows, in case you weren’t aware that Macs suck. Macs ship with their internal firewall turned OFF, so whatever computer you are using, make sure that your network firewall is activated.

2. Encrypt your computer’s files and activity – These are many ways to go about doing this. The best way, by far, is to invest in a monthly VPN plan that allows all of your surfing to be encrypted by a 3rd party program which connects to that 3rd party’s servers around the world. British company HideMyAss has a very affordable and popular monthly VPN plan. Other free options for encryption include the Hotspot Shield or UltraSurf programs (warning: these “free” companies may track your activity or display advertising). You should also consider encrypting your sensitive files and folders.

3. Don’t type in credit card numbers or passwords – Even if you are using some of the above tips, determined hackers can sometimes find a way around them. In general, avoid typing in any sensitive passwords or information when using public WiFi. If you must, make sure the website you are using is accepting such information via an encrypted server, which means the URL should begin with “https” instead of “http.” Take care with viewing any sensitive emails also, especially if your email provider is not behind an “https” server.

4. When you aren’t surfing online, turn OFF your wireless card – Going about doing this depends on your operating system, wireless card, and other factors. The easiest way on most laptops is to simply switch off the physical wireless switch that is often located on the side of your laptop. On Windows and Mac and Linux you can also usually right-click on your wireless signal and choose “disable.” For the record, you should also not engage in any file sharing types of technologies while using public wireless signals.

5. Never, never, never connect to an Ad-Hoc network – Many computer users are not aware that sometimes a wireless signal that shows up under their “Available Wireless Networks” is not actually a wireless signal from an Internet router. Often times there are other laptops nearby that are giving off a signal, whether on purpose or not, which is a called an Ad-Hoc network. This theoretically allows one computer to connect to the Internet via a second computer, but the average user has absolutely no use for this. In fact, by connecting to such computers, you may inadvertently be dumping all kinds of data straight into a non-suspect hacker’s hard drive. These Ad-Hoc networks are disabled by default in the latest versions of Windows, but in Windows XP and some other systems they will show up automatically as “Free Public Wi-Fi” or otherwise.

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6 Comments on “5 Safety Tips When Using Public WiFi”  (RSS)

  1. The Spiral of death my mac has, im liike WTFFUUUUUUU

  2. Thanks! My firewall was off on my mac, and I agree that macs suck…

  3. Encryption seems a tad paranoid. Especially at $80 a year.

  4. Well, well, well, Thank you kind little sir! I’ll be more careful when using a public Wi-Fi :)

  5. Thanks you for post,and I agree for don’t put any password or credit card on public Wi-Fi.

  6. Thanks for the tips. I’m on my campus a lot using public wi-fi. I guess I really need to be more careful and put some of these tips onto action.

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