Answer: No

Most hotel wireless routers are not encrypted nor do they have mac address restrictions. This is not by oversight, it is to make getting online convenient for hotel guest. This leaves you vulnerable in two ways. When your computer sends the information from your computer to the wireless router it travels in text packets that could be pulled from the air into another computer. At that point the packets can be opened and they can “see” what you sent from your computer. The other – often overlooked – peril is who can access the hotel’s router.

I have stayed at hotels where I was able to walk right into their router. They had left the ip address, id and password on the router to the default from the factory. I meant no harm. For me it is a matter of security to test their setup before I go online.

So, if the hotel has not secured their router and just anybody can access it you now have a second issue. Having said all that the real question is, “What is the probability that someone here is sniffing packets from the air on this wireless connection?” Or, “What is the probability that someone has compromised the router at this hotel?” Or “Who manages the router at this hotel?”

If you absolutely, positively have to access your bank account while traveling and using an unsecured network log on, do what you have to do quickly and then get out. The first time you can get on a secure network go in and change your banking password.

Enjoy!

There are two ways to secure your router. One is encryption and the other is MAC access. These functions protect you in two different ways. Encryption scrambles what you are sending through the air waves while MAC access limits the computers that are allowed to talk to it wirelessly. It is best to use both if possible for the best protection.

Running “Netstat”

Is your computer running slow on the internet? Have you ran Ad Aware, Spybot Search & Destroy or Malwarebytes and come up with nothing? Is your antivirus program showing your computer to be clean, but it is still very slow on the internet? There is a possibility that your computer may have been invaded and is now part of a botnet.

A simple command can be ran on your computer to see if there are excessive connections into and out of your computer via the internet.

Click on “Start”

Click on “Run”

In that box type “cmd” and click “OK”

A black screen will come up with white writing and a curser. With the curser blinking where it is type “Netstat” and then hit the enter key on your keyboard.

A list of Active Connections will come up on the black screen.

Every computer is different, but on average your computer should show less that a dozen. If more than that begins to scroll down the screen you may have a problem.

Enjoy Safe Computing!