Vulnerabilities of using public WiFi?

I hope this is the correct group to answer this. Until now, I have only used my WinXP
Pro laptop with my own home wireless network, which has encryption. My laptop has
Outpost Firewall Pro 4.0.

Besides being exposed to bad coffee, what are the dangers of sitting down with my laptop
at my local Starbucks and connecting to their unsecured unencrypted public WiFi?

THANKS!!!

Toni

I wrote this a long time ago, but it still applies
http://msmvps.com/blogs/wifizone/arc...from-home.aspx
On Wed, 25 Feb 2009 14:40:17 -0500, "Toni" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I hope this is the correct group to answer this. Until now, I have only used my WinXP
>Pro laptop with my own home wireless network, which has encryption. My laptop has
>Outpost Firewall Pro 4.0.
>
>Besides being exposed to bad coffee, what are the dangers of sitting down with my laptop
>at my local Starbucks and connecting to their unsecured unencrypted public WiFi?
>
>THANKS!!!
>
>Toni
>
--

Barb Bowman
MS-MVP
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/e...ts/bowman.mspx
http://blogs.digitalmediaphile.com/barb/
http://digitalmediaphile.wordpress.com

To add to Barb's advice in her article see the last part of this page for
much the same guidance concerning the Windows Firewall and Vista location
awareness.

http://theillustratednetwork.mvps.or...sSecurity.html

Additionally if your ISP does not offer SSL protected POP3/SMTP or web mail
see this recent thread concerning the use of Gmail SSL protected POP3/SMTP
email to fetch/send email using your personal ISP email address.

http://tinyurl.com/b4gskd

Lastly you really are safest sending/receiving email while on untrusted
networks if you encrypt email. You can use free [for personal use]
certificates from providers like Thawte or Comodo or other similar companies.

https://www.thawte.com/secure-email/...tes/index.html
http://www.comodo.com/products/certi...rtificate.html

You could also use PGP or GnuPG [gpg4win] to encrypt and/or sign email.

Personally I have free email certs from Thawte for two of my personal email
accounts [Cox and Gmail] and I use GnuPG [gpg4win] for one of my personal
accounts [Cox] depending on who I am corresponding with via email what they
like to use.

--

Al Jarvi (MS-MVP Windows – Desktop User Experience)

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights...
The MS-MVP Program - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com



"Toni" wrote:

> I hope this is the correct group to answer this. Until now, I have only used my WinXP
> Pro laptop with my own home wireless network, which has encryption. My laptop has
> Outpost Firewall Pro 4.0.
>
> Besides being exposed to bad coffee, what are the dangers of sitting down with my laptop
> at my local Starbucks and connecting to their unsecured unencrypted public WiFi?
>
> THANKS!!!
>
> Toni
>
>
>