Hotel Wireless

I will be staying at a hotel that provides complimentary wireless and
wired high speed internet. Using their high-speed wireless (even though
I remove the sharing of my laptop's hard drive) would I be foolish to
go to websites that require a password? I'm thinking that a wired
connection will be fairly secure...for, say, banking websites.

Thanks!
Scott

Scott wrote:

> I will be staying at a hotel that provides complimentary wireless and
> wired high speed internet. Using their high-speed wireless (even though
> I remove the sharing of my laptop's hard drive) would I be foolish to
> go to websites that require a password? I'm thinking that a wired
> connection will be fairly secure...for, say, banking websites.

Yes to "would it be foolish using wireless", but I wouldn't assume that
wired is any better. After all, anyone administering the network can
capture traffic if they want to. It is better security practice to not go
to online banking sites, etc. when you are away from home. As for the
websites that require a password, I don't think anyone in the hotel's IT
dept. will be interested in your MySpace profile, but PayPal might be
another matter.

Malke
--
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic"

Here are some threads from the BBR forums concerning this subject that may
be of interest...

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,16208058

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,14760105

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,14214038

--
Al Jarvi (MS-MVP Windows Networking)

Please post *ALL* questions and replies to the news group for the
mutual benefit of all of us...
The MS-MVP Program - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights...


"Scott" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>I will be staying at a hotel that provides complimentary wireless and
> wired high speed internet. Using their high-speed wireless (even though
> I remove the sharing of my laptop's hard drive) would I be foolish to
> go to websites that require a password? I'm thinking that a wired
> connection will be fairly secure...for, say, banking websites.
>
> Thanks!
> Scott

"Tom H. Lautenbacher" wrote:
>
> Hello Scott,
>
> >I will be staying at a hotel that provides complimentary wireless and
> > wired high speed internet. Using their high-speed wireless (even though
> > I remove the sharing of my laptop's hard drive) would I be foolish to
> > go to websites that require a password? I'm thinking that a wired
> > connection will be fairly secure...for, say, banking websites.
>
> ok, here are my 5 cents:
>
> - In General, every network traffic can be captured by a stranger. When you
> are connected via a cable, the administrator in the company "at the end of
> that cable", or the telephone-company-guy at the end of your phone-line,
> etc. can use software to analyze your traffic. For this there have been
> invented some protocols, which allow secure transfer of information, e.g.
> SSL (you will recognize SSL-using homepages from the "https://" instead of
> "http://"... If SSL is used, then it is not possible for the guy, who
> analyzes your traffic, to unscramble your data (e.g. your passowords that
> you transfered to your bank).
>
> - When using WLAN, everything is the same. The only difference is, that it
> is now not only that administrator and that telephone-company employee, that
> can try to analyze your traffic, but it is everybody in that WLAN-area, e.g.
> all the hotel-room-neighbors of you.. So the chance, that indeed someone
> trys to read your traffic (maybe even just for fun, because he saw some
> others in the WLAN and has nothing better to do!), is much, much higher!!
>
> - As long, as you use SSL-connections, everything should be safe.. But all
> the other traffic, e.g. your unsecured emails, passwords, that you enter at
> non-ssl-secured-homepages, etc. should be very easy readable by everywhone,
> that has at least a little knowledge of WLAN hacking...
>
> So my advice: use only SSL-connections for crytical transmissions. for the
> rest: just transfer only uncritical stuff (e.g. the holiday greetings to
> grandma), but not necessarily sensitive data, as long as you aren't 100%
> sure, if the transmission protocol uses encryption, or not! Ah, and not to
> forget: delete all network-shares, if you have any on your laptop, otherwise
> others might just be able to download all your stuff right away from your
> laptop :-)
>
> many greetings from Greece / Europe,
> Tom

Thanks, Tom, for your detailed answer. I will follow your advice.

Scott

Hello Scott,

>I will be staying at a hotel that provides complimentary wireless and
> wired high speed internet. Using their high-speed wireless (even though
> I remove the sharing of my laptop's hard drive) would I be foolish to
> go to websites that require a password? I'm thinking that a wired
> connection will be fairly secure...for, say, banking websites.

ok, here are my 5 cents:

- In General, every network traffic can be captured by a stranger. When you
are connected via a cable, the administrator in the company "at the end of
that cable", or the telephone-company-guy at the end of your phone-line,
etc. can use software to analyze your traffic. For this there have been
invented some protocols, which allow secure transfer of information, e.g.
SSL (you will recognize SSL-using homepages from the "https://" instead of
"http://"... If SSL is used, then it is not possible for the guy, who
analyzes your traffic, to unscramble your data (e.g. your passowords that
you transfered to your bank).

- When using WLAN, everything is the same. The only difference is, that it
is now not only that administrator and that telephone-company employee, that
can try to analyze your traffic, but it is everybody in that WLAN-area, e.g.
all the hotel-room-neighbors of you.. So the chance, that indeed someone
trys to read your traffic (maybe even just for fun, because he saw some
others in the WLAN and has nothing better to do!), is much, much higher!!

- As long, as you use SSL-connections, everything should be safe.. But all
the other traffic, e.g. your unsecured emails, passwords, that you enter at
non-ssl-secured-homepages, etc. should be very easy readable by everywhone,
that has at least a little knowledge of WLAN hacking...

So my advice: use only SSL-connections for crytical transmissions. for the
rest: just transfer only uncritical stuff (e.g. the holiday greetings to
grandma), but not necessarily sensitive data, as long as you aren't 100%
sure, if the transmission protocol uses encryption, or not! Ah, and not to
forget: delete all network-shares, if you have any on your laptop, otherwise
others might just be able to download all your stuff right away from your
laptop :-)

many greetings from Greece / Europe,
Tom