WIFI

[snail]

Hi all, just wondering if any of you european travellers who use good old McDonalds for your wifi could answer a couple of questions,

1, do you have to get a code to use it?

2, can you simply connect from the carpark?

3, has anyone used a wifi aerial to boost the siganl allowing easier connection and do they work?

4, would you trust and use this wifi to do your online banking?

thanks very much for any info given. brian

[Klyne]

I have only used it once but did not find it very convenient. Just parked outside and I don't recall any sign up. As to whether its safe it will depend on the security on your laptop. The likes of Norton have special internet safeguards. Far better to use campsite WiFi as there is less likely to be opportunists around wanting to get into your computer. Alternatively use a mobile broadband dongle which is much more secure because it use telephone system rather than open air communications. The downside is that its very expensive. I have a Vodafone contract dongle and in most European countries it costs £10 per day with a 50mb download limit.

 

David

[Peter Highe]

Hi

 

1 No

 

2 Yes, probably.

 

3 Yes, but not in McDonalds. I use one on a long USB lead (to get height) to get access to campsite supplies and occasionally to piggyback on unencrypted WiFi transmitters.

 

4 No I wouldn't in McDonalds, unless there was nobody else around with a laptop (and nobody in the car park or nearby - not likely to happen) but I would do in a campsite, especially in Winter. My logic is that we wrinklies are not likely to have the desire, skill or equipment to start hacking WiFi signals and I understand that it is not easy to do. Even so I wouldn't spend long on line to the bank.

 

Peter

[kelly58]

We always use MacDonalds when in France and have not encountered any problems just park up in or near the parking area and log on its unsecure so you have to take the risk.

[le canichot depang]

I purchased a signal booster from Amazon and it seems to do the trick, it is meant to increase the range to 500m, it cost around £30, there are some very cheap ones too/and mega expensive, but as I wasn't really sure what I was buying I went along with the good feedbacks provided. It's worth remembering that they buildings in the way will partially block the signal no matter how good the range is. Mine is a realtek wireless lan usb signal booster, and just plugs into the sb port with the long lead provided (it does reach out of the rooflight) but I find just having it on the table gets a good signal. Hope this helps

[Robinhood]

Re: Banking over unencrypted/unsecured wifi.

 

As I understand it, as long as the transaction with your bank takes place as a secured *transaction* (using Transport Layer Security - something like SSL (Secure Socket layer) and evidenced by both an https: webpage AND the padlock that appears in IE) then it should be safe to carry out over an unsecured/unencrypted wireless connection.

 

This is because the transaction is already encrypted at the two ends BEFORE it is transmitted; thus, what goes into the ether is unintelligible if captured.

 

I've certainly relied on it!

 

Be careful, however - though I would expect most (ALL) online banking to run the *full* session as a secured one, it is worth checking at home in advance that the padlock remains for the whole of your session.

 

Certain other transactions - for example some email access, only rely on a secure session for the sign-in process - to protect paswords, and then revert to unsecured for the rest of the session.

 

HTH

[RogP]

check out the Gadget Shows website , they did a feature on using public hotspots such as MaccyD's and Starbucks and how to secure your device

 

I also think that Watchdog did something last year as well so check out their website as there was some very good advice given.

 

They showed how easy it was to hack into your device despite some basic security measures.

 

 

[Robinhood]

RogP - 2010-05-20 10:14 AM

 

check out the Gadget Shows website , they did a feature on using public hotspots such as MaccyD's and Starbucks and how to secure your device

 

I also think that Watchdog did something last year as well so check out their website as there was some very good advice given.

 

They showed how easy it was to hack into your device despite some basic security measures.

 

 

Indeed, and quoting from the Watchdog site (under "The Cloud") it supports the view that anything undertaken under SSL (see my post above) is secure.

 

===

 

- SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption technology to protect sensitive details such as user names, passwords and credit card details when you interact with any of our hotspots. The SSL standard is used by a wide variety of online providers such as online bank accounts and provides protection from the interception of sensitive data by third parties, as well as the misrepresentation of access control and credit card processing services.

 

===

 

You just have to be clear when SSL is active to have confidence. Essentially it provides at least as good encryption (and in many cases better) between your PC and the remote Server as a decently configured secure network does only between your PC and the wireless access point.

 

It is generally only implemented for sites that have specific security requirements (banking, online transactions, etc.) since it is more complex than simple wireless network security, and also has an on-cost to the service provider for the provision of the infrastructure that provides the capability.

 

On an unsecured/unencrypted wireless network, anything carried out using SSL is *already encrypted* without using any wireless security capability, anything that isn't under SSL is potentially open to view via "sniffing".

 

Online banking with my bank is fully SSL protected (and incidentally also requires two-factor authentication for any financial transactions - something that is a pain, but adds significantly to the security).

 

My webmail service for my emails, however, only implements SSL for the login, thus protecting my username/password, but then immediately reverts to 'clear', potentially exposing any transferred email content to someone 'sniffing'.