Need some help in understanding the vulnerabilities of using a
computer to access the Internet via an unsecured router.  As I
understand it the computer doing the accessing uses its access point
hardware to make the connection.  What sort of access does the
receiving computer have to folders and files on the computer that is
using its router to make a connection to the Internet?  Does it have
the capability of tracking the places on the Internet where one goes?

The reason I ask is that I read an article where the authorities set
up and used a wifi hotspot to track computer usage by walk-ups on a
public street looking for illegal uses of the Internet.

Also, I have discovered an unsecured router within connect distance
from my home and have used that connection to experiment.  Many of us
pay for more compacity than we use, and some of us do not mind
sharing.  But if there are dangerous security concerns about this I
would like to know about them.

Tom
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In every assembly, of whatever size, passion will
always steal the crown from reason.  John Adams

By no means are all unsecure wireless units honeypots. Any time you connect
to a unsecure wireless network you'd be wise to assume that anything you do
there is being monitored. Any data you transmit might be stored, and could
be decoded. You are setting yourself up for a man in the middle attack.
Nothing you transmit is really secure. You really don't know, and can't know
what you are accessing. It could be just a wireless router, it could be
another computer setup to act as a wireless router. It could be anything.
Tracking where you go, and proving that you went there is child's play.
Discovering user names, and passwords is just slightly harder.

Do you know what an STD is? You can have sex lots of times and never come
down sick. Or your first time can get you AIDS. Same kind of things applies
to accessing unsecure access points. You're playing the odds, and sooner or
later you'll lose.

Need some help in understanding the vulnerabilities of using a
computer to access the Internet via an unsecured router.  As I
understand it the computer doing the accessing uses its access point
hardware to make the connection.  What sort of access does the
receiving computer have to folders and files on the computer that is
using its router to make a connection to the Internet?  Does it have
the capability of tracking the places on the Internet where one goes?

The reason I ask is that I read an article where the authorities set
up and used a wifi hotspot to track computer usage by walk-ups on a
public street looking for illegal uses of the Internet.

Also, I have discovered an unsecured router within connect distance
from my home and have used that connection to experiment.  Many of us
pay for more compacity than we use, and some of us do not mind
sharing.  But if there are dangerous security concerns about this I
would like to know about them.

Tom
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In every assembly, of whatever size, passion will
always steal the crown from reason.  John Adams

David Hettel <dah***@hotmail.com> wrote:

This applies any time you send data over the internet. The only reason
for securing a wireless network is to keep others from using it.

Tom wrote:
Show quoteHide quoteI've been struggling with this issue.

There's a linux variant called "PUPPY".  It boots from a CD.  When
you're done, you have the option to copy any downloaded data and/or system
state back to the CDR.  It doesn't touch any storage on your laptop.
It will even boot from a flash card.  When it works, it works great.
YOu can put the CD in any windows machine, virus scan the crap
out anything you download before copying it to a "real" machine.
It runs 100% out of ram and it's faster than...
It's also picky about your wireless card.
Problem I have is that the Toshiba CDRW in my laptop won't boot
the multi-session CD you have after the first save.

My second set of experiments revolve around running a browser under
windows 2000 emulated in virtualPC 2007 running on an XP laptop.
This works well.  I'm more concerned about security because all the
underlying XP stuff is still running.  And this solution requires
a lot more laptop horsepower than the linux solution.
I have not collected any real data, but judging from the temperature
of the air coming out of the cpu fan, I expect that battery life
is gonna be shorter for an emulated system.

None of this will protect you from liability for your illegal activities
or keep people from viewing your data. Just
makes it harder for people to corrupt your system.

Don't do your banking or enter ANY private data from a coffee shop.
Remember that it's probably easier to capture your passwords with a
security camera than to do it electronically.

I'd be interested in solutions others have devised.
mike

Need some help in understanding the vulnerabilities of using a
computer to access the Internet via an unsecured router.  As I
understand it the computer doing the accessing uses its access point
hardware to make the connection.  What sort of access does the
receiving computer have to folders and files on the computer that is
using its router to make a connection to the Internet?  Does it have
the capability of tracking the places on the Internet where one goes?

The reason I ask is that I read an article where the authorities set
up and used a wifi hotspot to track computer usage by walk-ups on a
public street looking for illegal uses of the Internet.

Also, I have discovered an unsecured router within connect distance
from my home and have used that connection to experiment.  Many of us
pay for more compacity than we use, and some of us do not mind
sharing.  But if there are dangerous security concerns about this I
would like to know about them.

Tom
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In every assembly, of whatever size, passion will
always steal the crown from reason.  John Adams


In addition to the comments by the others, you might look into running all
of your wireless traffic through a VPN tunnel while connected at a public
wireless hotspot, ie. like a bar, restaurant, library, etc. Here are some
threads from the DSL Reports forums that you might find of some interest...

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,16208058
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,14760105

Depending on my current LAN configuration I run a PPTP VPN (currently
running on a Vista machine) server or an OpenVPN server or a Secure Shell
(SSH) server at home. I can then connect from a public wireless hotspot and
have all of my traffic encrypted through the VPN tunnel to my home server
and on to the public internet via my home ISP.

You also might consider accessing your email through a SSL connection. Check
with your ISP to see if they offer that option. You can also use a service
like Mail2Web if you have a POP3 account with your ISP. I use Mail2Web if my
home VPN server is offline...

https://www.mail2web.com/cgi-bin/login.asp?lid=0&il=1

Gmail also offers a free SSL email service. Go to https://mail.google.com to
sign in. Of course this presumes you have a Gmail account.

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