Solved How to protect yourself on an unsecured network?

[Jemjem787]

A friend of mine is moving into a basement suite and her landlord has agreed to let her use their WiFi, but their WiFi has no password on it. The location is around a populated area and countless of people are probably already connected to it so security is her priority. We have already talked to the landlord and they do not plan on adding a password anytime soon.

What do we have to do to secure her devices? She has a Macbook, an iphone, and her boyfriend who has an android phone. We also have an old printer we would like to hookup, but don't want random people printing to it, but the printer isn't high priority.

 

[Digital Life]

Connecting to a Wifi without encryption is a very bad idea, Probably the only way he can protect himself is to sign up to a VPN service.

Source:
Why Using a Public Wi-Fi Network Can Be Dangerous, Even When Accessing Encrypted Websites

“Don’t do your online banking or anything sensitive on a public Wi-Fi network.” The advice is out there, but why can using a public Wi-Fi network actually be dangerous? And wouldn’t online banking be secure, as it’s encrypted?
There are a few big problems with using a public Wi-Fi network. The open nature of the network allows for snooping, the network could be full of compromised machines, or — most worryingly — the hotspot itself could be malicious.

Another Source:
3 Dangers Of Logging On To Public Wi-Fi

Unencrypted Browsing Is Public

WiFi uses radio waves, and radio waves are anything but direct. They broadcast, and this means that anyone within range can see everything you’re doing online, if they have the right software.



This means that, without protection, anyone who wants to can see:

• Every site you visit
• Every bit of text you send out
• Your login information for various sites

The danger here is clear, so naturally you’re going to want protection. At home, you can encrypt your WiFi network – this prevents snooping by making all of your traffic unreadable with a key. Public WiFi, however, usually isn’t encrypted – you can tell this is the case when you don’t need to type a password in order to connect.

 

[AddRAM]

Unless someone is physically connected to their device, and as long as they do not download any garbage (which of course is brought on by them self) nothing bad will happen, I promise you that. You have to be connected to a PC in order to do damage to it, I don`t care what any one may tell you.

Random people may see a wireless printer, but they can`t print to it unless they know it`s credentials. And why would someone want to print to a printer when they don`t even know where it is ?

The Landlord not putting a password on the router is absolutely foolish

 

[UsernameIssues]

Unless someone is physically connected to their device, and as long as they do not download any garbage (which of course is brought on by them self) nothing bad will happen, I promise you that. You have to be connected to a PC in order to do damage to it, I don`t care what any one may tell you.

Random people may see a wireless printer, but they can`t print to it unless they know it`s credentials. And why would someone want to print to a printer when they don`t even know where it is ?

The Landlord not putting a password on the router is absolutely foolish

I'm guessing that the OP is more concerned with things like this...



...than in preventing harm to a computer/device.


People print to open printers just to be mean.

 

[AddRAM]

Agreed, but they have to be able to connect to it in order to print to it.

 

[Jemjem787]

UsernameIssues is right that of what i am concerned about, and

Agreed, but they have to be able to connect to it in order to print to it.

In all my days of finding open home networks with printers on them. I have never seen ANY that require credentials, and im pretty confident that in order to connect to them, they just connect to the wifi?

 

[AddRAM]

Wow, you didn`t need to know that printers ip address ? I find that quite amazing.

"In all my days of finding open home networks with printers on them".

Wow, is that what you do ???

 

[AddRAM]

I would suggest to your friend to acquire her own equipment.

And you`re forgetting one important factor, you have to be physically connected to that landlords wireless router to make any changes or see any other devices connected to it.

These smartphone apps may scan the network, and see devices, but that`s all they can do, scan it.

Prevent Someone Else from using Your Wireless Internet Connection

 

[AddRAM]

It would be sweet if the Landlord let her connect her own wireless router to his router, then she could secure it and no one could latch on, but that would be too much to ask

 

[Barman58]

You could always add a software Firewall to the actual devices connecting to the open network, which if set correctly would prevent anyone from accessing, (or even seeing), the protected devices I always install Comodo Firewall on all systems I deal with Free Internet Security and Antivirus | Security Solutions from Comodo (there are both free and commercial software options on their site, so take care )

Adding a firewall will add complexity and a learning curve to your computing but that is the price you pay for security these days.

My basic advice with Comodo Firewall is to set it to "training mode" for a few days or weeks to let it learn your web surfing habits and set itself up.

You can also install the Comodo Internet security suite (free) which gives a number of reliable extras for security,

One other thing is to ensure that you set your network type to "Public" which will set windows own network security to it's highest level, (switching off sharing and device discovery Etc)

 

[AddRAM]

Excellent advice Nigel

A little off topic but...

I just went bonkers on my daughters PC through the routers security using keywords, I totally trust her and she`s 18 years old, but I`m so overprotective of her, I added sooo many keywords

I won`t be surprised if youtube or google won`t even come up anymore :roflmao:

 

[Jemjem787]

You could always add a software Firewall to the actual devices connecting to the open network, which if set correctly would prevent anyone from accessing, (or even seeing), the protected devices I always install Comodo Firewall on all systems I deal with Free Internet Security and Antivirus | Security Solutions from Comodo (there are both free and commercial software options on their site, so take care )

Adding a firewall will add complexity and a learning curve to your computing but that is the price you pay for security these days.

My basic advice with Comodo Firewall is to set it to "training mode" for a few days or weeks to let it learn your web surfing habits and set itself up.

You can also install the Comodo Internet security suite (free) which gives a number of reliable extras for security,

One other thing is to ensure that you set your network type to "Public" which will set windows own network security to it's highest level, (switching off sharing and device discovery Etc)

This is exactly what i am looking for, thanks!

And you`re forgetting one important factor, you have to be physically connected to that landlords wireless router to make any changes or see any other devices connected to it.

These smartphone apps may scan the network, and see devices, but that`s all they can do, scan it.

I am currently connected wirelessly to my internet connection, with no physical connection at all, and can currently change all the settings in the router and see other devices on the network.

I have an APP on my phone called FING. I can scan the network, find any hosts and the ports they have open, and in the case they have port 80/8080 open (Web interface), i can open the interface and depending on the security, (No password/default password) i can do MORE then just scan.

Wow, you didn`t need to know that printers ip address ? I find that quite amazing.

There are tons of tools too scan your network and find any hosts that are alive. I assume you would be able to find the printer.

 

[Barman58]

I am currently connected wirelessly to my internet connection, with no physical connection at all, and can currently change all the settings in the router and see other devices on the network.

Is this your own router to which you have the required credentials or are you saying that the router at your friends location has no credentials set up for the Router - If so then that is really stupid of the landlord, and I would be tempted to add credentials and let the other residents, and the landlord, know

 

[Barman58]

Excellent advice Nigel

A little off topic but...

I just went bonkers on my daughters PC through the routers security using keywords, I totally trust her and she`s 18 years old, but I`m so overprotective of her, I added sooo many keywords

I won`t be surprised if youtube or google won`t even come up anymore :roflmao:

I always have fun at clients when setting up network security, the first thing to happen is a block on any address containing "Faceb" which removes the majority of load on the systems

 

[UsernameIssues]

A friend of mine is moving into a basement suite...
~~~
She has a Macbook, an iphone, and her boyfriend who has an android phone.
~~~

You could always add a software Firewall to the actual devices connecting to the open network, which if set correctly would prevent anyone from accessing, (or even seeing), the protected devices I always install Comodo Firewall on all systems I deal with Free Internet Security and Antivirus | Security Solutions from Comodo (there are both free and commercial software options on their site, so take care )

Adding a firewall will add complexity and a learning curve to your computing but that is the price you pay for security these days.

My basic advice with Comodo Firewall is to set it to "training mode" for a few days or weeks to let it learn your web surfing habits and set itself up.

You can also install the Comodo Internet security suite (free) which gives a number of reliable extras for security,

One other thing is to ensure that you set your network type to "Public" which will set windows own network security to it's highest level, (switching off sharing and device discovery Etc)

I don't see a Comodo Firewall product for Mac and iPhone. Adding a firewall should not hurt anything, but it won't help to prevent the problem shown in the video I posted. The video is old and Facebook uses https now, but many website don't.

 

[Digital Life]

The only way I can see your friend protecting themselves

1: Use A VPN

OR
2: Find out the make and model of the router and see if it has a guest network setting and set that up properly for himself

OR
3: Get your friend to spend a bit of cash and buy a new router and talk the landlord into using his new super duper router instead of the old crappy one. If the landlord is giving him internet for free spending $50 or $100 on a new router would still be worth the peace of mind a properly setup router would bring. To sweetin the deal he should let the landlord keep it as a gift.