safety at hotels?

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Guest

I travel with a notebook running XP Media center and use Zone Alarm's free
firewall software.

In hotels, to check my email, do I have to do anything else for safety?

How about File and Print sharing? Is it necessary to disable that and if so
how do I do it?

Thanks.

Jeff
 
Not really. Connecting to the internet on the road is basically the same
as connecting to the internet at home. At home you connect to the
internet through your ISP -- on the road your hotel's network is your
ISP. So just take the same precautions on the road as you do at home.

There is one big caveat, however, when you're on the road: You know all
about your ISP's privacy practices, and all the things they supposedly
do to protect your security and confidentiality. You don't know the same
about your hotel's policies.

If your workplace has an IT department, and the IT guys are really on
the ball, they will have you connect to workplace computers through VPN
or some similar secure tunnel, inwhich case your privacy is assured. Not
so when you connect to your bank account. So I would avoid trading
stocks while on the road, unless you can do it through your cellphone.
 
But on my home network I can move files from one PC to another. In a hotel I
would not want someone else on the hotel network to look at and pickup files
from my laptop. Is that fear unfounded?

Jeff
 
You won't know until you examine your hotel's privacy policies and make
a judgment about whether you trust the people who operate the hotel's
network.

File encryption could be a workaround. That's probably what I would do.
 
But on my home network I can move files from one PC to another. In a hotel I
would not want someone else on the hotel network to look at and pickup files
from my laptop. Is that fear unfounded?
Click to expand...

A good network in any location would isolate users from each other, but
that's not the case in most of them.

A simple solution is to disable file/printer sharing, run a firewall, or
install a simple portable NAT router between your laptop and their
internet connection. I try and not use Wireless, requesting a wired
connection in my room when I travel, and I carry a small NAT router to
block inbound access to my laptop.

For security, file/data, all my work is through a VPN or SSL connection,
so I'm not worried about them sniffing my traffic.
 
I travel with a notebook running XP Media center and use Zone
Alarm's free firewall software.

In hotels, to check my email, do I have to do anything else for
safety?
How about File and Print sharing? Is it necessary to disable that
and if so how do I do it?
Click to expand...

File and Print sharing should be disabled when you travel - even if you only
have it enabled for your own provate network at home (because each network
you connect to becomes your private network when you travel. heh.)

Personally - I always utilize my jobs VPN connection at all times when I
travel. Not all hotels can accomodate VPN connections - in those cases, I
utilize my blackberry as a modem and connect to the Internet in that way or
actually dial-up (in last-ditch-effort cases.)

I don't personally use any third party firewalls on my system, but I do
change the firewall to "no exceptions" while traveling and actually only
usually use the laptop (even while connected behind VPN, etc) to do the
simplest of browsing and/or as the remote desktop client to connect to a
remote machine of mine and do all my work on that remote machine (nothing
critical is stored on my laptop for security.)
 
Shenan Stanley said:
File and Print sharing should be disabled when you travel - even if you
only have it enabled for your own provate network at home (because each
network you connect to becomes your private network when you travel. heh.)
Click to expand...

"How" do I disable File and Print sharing? Where do I find that setting?

When I look at the properties for my wireless adapter (Control Panel -
Network Connections - Ethernet adapter properties) I find that "File and
Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks" is listed (apparently installed) but
not selected (the box is not checked). Is that it?

Or is it in My Computer\each hard drive partition\Sharing and Security
setting?

Thanks.

Jeff
 
"How" do I disable File and Print sharing? Where do I find that setting?

When I look at the properties for my wireless adapter (Control Panel -
Network Connections - Ethernet adapter properties) I find that "File and
Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks" is listed (apparently installed)
but
not selected (the box is not checked). Is that it?

Or is it in My Computer\each hard drive partition\Sharing and Security
setting?
Click to expand...

Control Panel>Windows Firewall>Exceptions tab

Uncheck File and Printer Sharing, Apply/OK out.

Malke
 
Another point to note is that some hotels redirect port 25 (outgoing email)
to their own mailserver. This is ostensibly to help clients, but means that
email (a) will not be archived on your own system if that is your company
practice, and (b) might be read by a third party.

The workarounds are either to use a nonstandard SMTP port, or to use a SSL
(or otherwise encrypted) connection.
 
The workarounds are either to use a nonstandard SMTP port, or to use a SSL
(or otherwise encrypted) connection.
Click to expand...

How does one do that? While traveling I access my emails from a webpage my
ISP maintains, or by using Mailwasher.

Jeff
 
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