Solved What do you guys make of this? screenshots attached

[sunsetlover]

I'm traveling overseas and I'm staying temporarily in a serviced apartment building. The set up is 2 routers per floor from a ADSL connection, have to log in to a billing page when launching the browser (only wireless is available). Last night I lost my wireless connection. Trying to connect again, I got these screenshots attached.

Now, one of the routers is the Asus, the other is a Linksys.

This happened when trying to connect to ANY wireless signal in the building that I could see (3-4 signals on 2 floors).

Also, what about the security (or lack thereof) in this case?

Thanks!

PS. I'm not Robert!

 

[UsernameIssues]

My guess is that the router has reached the limit for the number of simultaneous "log ins". Perhaps this is because others failed to sign out and/or the system disconnected everyone at the same time that you lost your connection... so no one could log out. Maybe the lease on the log in is set too long, then all of those accounts will remain logged in (even if not connected) until their log in times out.

Security on that type of Wi-Fi connection is probably poor. Hopefully, the clients are isolated from each other, but I've seen cases where that is not so. People can still pull you info out of the air. I have no idea what the odds are of this happening - so I don't know if it is an acceptable risk level.

The company that I work for provides me with a secure connection (secure in theory). So I don't know too much about the tools that are supposed to keep you safe when traveling. Others can chime in on that.

 

[sunsetlover]

Thanks. The building manager today blamed it on the provider. I left it at that as further communication in detail is impossible and it's restored now.

I'm using a VPN, based on openVPN, when I travel, is that enough security-wise? But it's cutting a lot into my download speed.

 

[LMiller7]

Wireless networks have security risks not associated with wired networks. The problem is worse when the network is beyond your control and you have no way of knowing the details of configuration. And you really have no way of knowing how serious the problem is.

 

[severedsolo]

Security on that type of Wi-Fi connection is probably poor. Hopefully, the clients are isolated from each other, but I've seen cases where that is not so. People can still pull you info out of the air. I have no idea what the odds are of this happening - so I don't know if it is an acceptable risk level.

It's not. The information to do so is widely available on the internet. Personally I would be using a VPN pretty quickly, to keep everything encrypted. My personal favourite is Cyberghost: Surf anonymously - Download now and use for free | CyberGhost VPN but there are alternatives.

 

[sunsetlover]

Thank you all.
I checked Cyberghost VPN, it looks like a good deal.