A Long Car Trip Ahead and Need Advice

Traildust wrote:
We are going to be departing in about 6 weeks from our home here in Fallon, NV to East Tennessee, Atlanta, Georgia and up to Jacksonville, North Carolina. Then head back home to Nevada. Because we will not be towing the RV will be stuck in a lot of different hotels along the way. I am wondering about what to do for internet while on the road, we have our Android cell phone, a laptop and a tablet. I am guessing that using Hotel Wi-Fi is not to safe so what is suggested for online security if I need to access something like my bank account?
Bill

security wise hotel wifi is no different than campground wifi. accessing your bank's or credit card website should not be a problem as virtually all of them are secure (https://). if you're worried about a key logger stealing your keystrokes that has little to do with the internet provider. if you're concerned about your data planconsider doing what we do with our verizon account. before we take off on an extended trip we bump our data plan from the normal 2gb to 16gb. we typically never use the campground's wifi while on the road..not because of security but because campground systems are usually congested and horribly slow and 16gb is about right for what we need.

good luck and safe trip. I don't envy you having to motel it.

I would use the wifi without worry.

I have cable internet at home. They provide a wi-fi finder app for travel use. Supposedly, it provides a secure encrypted connection. I am just learning how to use it (for my next trip) and am not yet sure whether it will do the job. For security with banking apps, can't you set up 2-factor authentication?

I guess my wording was a little off, I know that WiFi is no more safe in a campground than hotels or anywhere. We have not stayed in a regular RV campground with full service in years, we boondock almost always. We will not be towing the 5ver on this trip for personal reasons. This trip will be over 6000 miles by the time we make it back but that's not why I won't be towing. Verizon is our cell phone provider and we have pretty much unlimited everything with tthem.
Thanks,
Bill

There's a risk with ANY wifi network. If you want to secure those connections, you need a VPN. While there are a few free VPNs, I prefer to use a paid one. My favorite is Azire (azirevpn.com), which is relatively inexpensive, and can be bought for as short a time as 1 month for 5 euros. A year's service is 45 euros. It is a Swedish company, but has servers in the US, does not track you nor keep records on your activities, and will give you a fully encrypted connection the the net.

I use it all the time, especially whenever I use a public wifi network, but even at home. All your traffic is encrypted, and when you do things like banking, you get the benefit of things being encrypted twice, making interception especially useless. I've also marveled that sometimes I find traffic via Azire to be FASTER than non-VPN traffic, which makes no sense, but does happen when I test it sometimes.

Once you are logged on to an encrypted site, the data transmission is secure, regardless of your connection type. The problem with low security connections is that someone could install malware on your PC which would then transmit your info such as passwords, to the user.

Use the mobile hotspot app on your cell phone anything sensitive.

Traildust wrote:
Because we will not be towing the RV will be stuck in a lot of different hotels along the way. I am wondering about what to do for internet while on the road, we have our Android cell phone, a laptop and a tablet. I am guessing that using Hotel Wi-Fi is not to safe so what is suggested for online security if I need to access something like my bank account?
Bill

I have to wonder what the difference is regarding internet security between traveling with your RV and staying in hotels. The nature of your question implies that WiFi access in campgrounds is safe, but WiFi in hotels is not safe.

Change to an unlimited data plan for a month or two.

Use your own cell phone data.