User comments on ISPs
>> BT Broadband

GeoffB
(fountain of knowledge) Sun 06-Jan-13 11:02:14

How secure is BT Wifi?

[link to this post]

I connected my laptop to a BT Wifi hotspot for the first time last week. It was being broadcast from a private house - I was sitting in my car waiting for a friend to arrive back home and was about 15 minutes early so I fired up my lappy to work on a spreadsheet and the popup appeared telling me that there were networks in range.
I tried out of curiosity to connect to the BT Wifi one (using my BT Broadband credentials) and it connected instantly. Without really thinking, I logged onto my bank and spent about 10 minutes checking balances etc. My question is this - was I just as safe doing that as logging on at home fom my encrypted network? I did have to open the car door to get a better signal but apart from that I was impressed.

Dell Studio1558 with Win7 Home Premium 64bit 8GB RAM
IE9 and Live Mail
BT Infinity via HH3

BatBoy
(legend) Sun 06-Jan-13 11:05:44

Re: How secure is BT Wifi?

[re: GeoffB] [link to this post]

I think it's quite secure, and BT offer a free VPN client for extra peace of mind as a download.
More details here http://www.btwifi.com/help/security/

_{_____________________________________________________________________________________________ this is not usenet __________________}

jchamier
(knowledge is power) Sun 06-Jan-13 12:34:04

Re: How secure is BT Wifi?

[re: GeoffB] [link to this post]

In reply to a post by GeoffB:
My question is this - was I just as safe doing that as logging on at home fom my encrypted network?

Yes because the bank's website encryption works from the bank to your laptop over any connection. (Encryption over the internet, as well as encryption over your WiFi or Ethernet connection, or any WiFi hot spot).

Where the hot spot's can be a problem is logging into forum sites, or places such as web email, facebook, twitter, where your password isn't protected. Many mobile phone apps don't use secure ways of connecting to these sites.

Also when you're posting on tbb the forum post isn't encrypted over the connection, so there is the possibility that someone else using the hotspot could see and/or tamper with it.

James BT Infinity 2 19/09/2012 - Estimate 44.6/6.5 - Install 52/12 - Actual 46 / 8 Mbps
_{Huawei VDSL -> Draytek router -> Apple Airport Extreme -> Belkin Switch -> Windows/Mac/Linux/NAS/Phone

13 years of broadband - 1999 ntl:(512k/1M)/BTbusiness(2M)/Metronet(2M)/Bulldog(8M/16M)/BE(19M/16M)/BT FTTC(46M)}

jchamier
(knowledge is power) Sun 06-Jan-13 12:35:20

Re: How secure is BT Wifi?

[re: BatBoy] [link to this post]

In reply to a post by BatBoy:
I think it's quite secure, and BT offer a free VPN client for extra peace of mind as a download.
More details here http://www.btwifi.com/help/security/

That is good!

jw6520
(learned) Sun 06-Jan-13 13:11:10

Re: How secure is BT Wifi?

[re: BatBoy] [link to this post]

Does the 'linked' BT VPN client come preconfigured to access a VPN server?

I've tried to download to take a look, but can't access it at the moment.

Cheers

John

BatBoy
(legend) Sun 06-Jan-13 13:56:26

Re: How secure is BT Wifi?

[re: jw6520] [link to this post]

Yes it does.

_{_____________________________________________________________________________________________ this is not usenet __________________}

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