wifi where?

Around here Lowe's, Target, Winn-Dixie (super market), McDonald's, Starbucks & the various local coffee shops, lots of restaurants and Walmart offer free WiFi. Xfinity WiFi used to be free for anyone, but now they do require your username and password to surf.

As has been said, paying bills or doing any type of secure transactions on an open network is risky. You can get pay as you go 4G mobile hotspot devices that would be a more secure alternative than an open network. When we are at a campground and need to pay bills, etc. I always use my Droid Turbo as a mobile hotspot if the campground has an open WiFi.

-Michael

WyoTraveler wrote:
Are there really people out there that put their personal info and account numbers on public WiFi to prevent paying for some more private methods of paying bills? I check emails etc but public WiFi for paying bills?

Yes, but I doubt anyone's going to admit it.

Similar to RoyB -- we bought a Verizon JetPack Mifi at WalMart. We then buy 30 day wireless data plans. The wireless plans are available online thru Verizon and a number of retailers sell renew cards (like iTunes cards) for differing amount of data. The Mifi works wherever Verizon has coverage.

Open wifi hotspots are all over the place, BUT paying bills and conducting other financial transactions that way is risky unless you also use a VPN. A VPN is an encrypted Virtual Private Network, and it requires software and a monthly subscription, usually $5-$7 a month. I have been using one called GoTrusted for a couple years now, and while it slows SOME connections, and some hotspots refuse to allow it for one reason or another, when you get a connection going, it is sufficiently secure to send the bad guys looking for somebody else to pillage and plunder. There are many others.

Thinking about it, when I find an open hotspot that does not allow me to use the VPN, I do not conduct any business whatever there on the theory that this one is not secure enough. I encountered one RV park that did not allow a VPN because they insisted on filtering all traffic for porn, their camp rules said so, and indeed, I could not establish a VPN connection. I figured while I wasn't looking for porn, I also wasn't interested in having them up in my business like that, so did my surfing elsewhere.

Most Walmarts have guest wifi.....up here anyways. I can pick it up a couple of rows out in the parking lot too

Are there really people out there that put their personal info and account numbers on public WiFi to prevent paying for some more private methods of paying bills? I check emails etc but public WiFi for paying bills?

I tried to keep using WIFI HOTSPOTS and finally just gave up on it. Like said above if you are paying bills on-line probably not a good idea to use the various WIFI's scattered around the country side.

I signed up with VERIZON MIFI which creates it's own secure password protected WIFI for up to five of my devices. Covers all of our tablets and computers just fine.

This was a few years back and we got connected with a 3GB DATAPLAN for around $27 a month. They not available any more but you can get a 5GB dataplan for around $50 a month I think it is.

Using Verizon Towers we find a connection just about everywhere we go. The VERIZON MIFI is stand alone and does not require to go through your cell phone.

3GB Dataplan for us covers paying bills, checking in with kids, and some internet use. VERIZON has a larger 20GB dataplan using their JET PACK MIFI unit if you are going to downstream anything.

Our VERIZON MIFI PLAN and NATL BROADCAST FREE CLEAR HDTV from the local towns provides all of the connections we need when camping.

Roy Ken

rk911 wrote:

Dennis M M wrote:
...If you use xfinity their open hotspots are starting to show up all over the place, I see them quite often when scanning with the WiFi Ranger.

I don't think those are "open". the ones that I have encountered require a password.

As I said "If you use xfinity ..." They do require an xfinity password. My understanding ( I have never used them) is if you have xfinity in your sticks & bricks you can use your password on any of the "open" xfinity sites.

You ask "other than hotspot on phone" so I presume you don't have that option. I recommend googling the security of different public wifi spots. I think a phone hotspot is more secure than most public wifi. I most definitely would not use a Starbucks or McD's to pay bills. I've paid bills on campground wifi before. Another issue to research is spoofing public wifi. Sad we have to think about such things but people will set up a router and call it Starbucks, Boston Logan, etc. and it will connect you to the internet for free. The catch is they monitor all traffic in between and can steal passwords and you will never know it until they use the info (likely sell it to third party.) In an airport, it's a little easier because it is probably done with some type hotspot which if you know what to look for has a different symbol (two links of a chain) than wifi. But at a Starbucks, it could be placed in a building next door and look the same.

Not trying to scare you - just a little primer for you to do your own research. You're profile is TX. At least some rest areas have wifi. I would trust that before a restaurant. Less likely to get intercepted.

In the old days (10 years ago) I could drive down the street in any small town and pick up a plethora of open connections. Dunno if that's possible now.

Have you set up any bills on auto-pay? No worries then.