How to Make RV Resort Wifi More Secure?

[wa8yxm]

A firewall protects your computer (Well some do) From intrusion.. Anti Virus software (Anti-Malware) Attempts to snag nasty stuff that sneaks past the fire wall (example.. Years ago thre was a cute little program that had a cat walking across the top of an open window.. Many installed it.. Many versions of it. many of them carried key loggers and other hacker tools to enable folks to swipe your passwords.. When the I/T folks paid a visit to the office where I worked (I DID NOT INSTALL IT) they had a few kittens of their own).

What many thieves do is make it so they can read the traffic between your computer and the park's router.. NOTHING you can do other than a VPN will stop that.

[docj]

Originally Posted by wa8yxm

What many thieves do is make it so they can read the traffic between your computer and the park's router.. NOTHING you can do other than a VPN will stop that.

But, to clarify your comment, if the park's wifi is using WPA2 encryption, as many do, then any would-be hacker you already have one layer of protection which will discourage many amateur hackers.

Furthermore, if you are connecting to site using HTTPS protocol your communications are highly protected by the encryption embedded in it. Despite lots of misinformation spread on internet discussion groups, your passwords are fully protected by HTTPS because the HTTPS "tunnel" is established by the receiving site before any of your username/PW information is sent down the link. If you're communicating with a HTTPS site (all financial institutions, credit card companies, Google, Facebook, etc) then someone hacking the park's wifi will see your data stream but will not be able to read it. Your unencrypted browsing will be exposed (be careful of those porn sites ) but your important stuff will be protected.

As has already been mentioned, VPN's provide yet another layer of protection by "encapsulating" your data in an additional secure "tunnel" (even HTTPS data). However, VPN's are yet another layer of complexity that users may not wish to get involved with.

At the risk of this being judged to be a commercial post, I'll mention that the current version of WiFiRanger software provides an easy to use, VPN-like capability which creates an encrypted tunnel between your router and WiFiRanger headquarters' link to the internet which, happens to be in Idaho. To anyone local trying to intercept your data it would appears as if it is contained in a VPN. This feature is called SafeSurf and is enabled with a single keystroke.

It's also worth noting that this feature provides for easy IP spoofing, making it possible to access US-only websites from outside the US since your IP appears to be in Idaho when SafeSurf is in use.

[rpk]

BUT... it keeps other campers off my extender.

[mikensallyt]

I dunno .... I'm out there to get away from all of this and never bring my pc with me. I'm only out for maybe 3 days max, so it can wait. So far my cell phone works just fine for what I need to do (unlimited data, calls and texting). If I want to watch, just got to watch tv - cell phone. And I also bring along my Chrome cast and plug that into my tv to save my failing eye sight. Just saying.

[docj]

Originally Posted by mikensallyt

I dunno .... I'm out there to get away from all of this and never bring my pc with me. I'm only out for maybe 3 days max, so it can wait. So far my cell phone works just fine for what I need to do (unlimited data, calls and texting). If I want to watch, just got to watch tv - cell phone. And I also bring along my Chrome cast and plug that into my tv to save my failing eye sight. Just saying.

Don't forget that quite a few of us live in our RVs full-time. So not having our pc's and not staying connected is not an option. It all depends on your perspective.