LAist: What US Airports Have Free Wi-Fi?

phdiaz

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 16:19:25 -0800

@hillrat not really - imagine going to a bank teller, you tell her your name, your account number, and your pin. I'm standing 2 feet behind you - I hear everything. How do you protect your own conversation? Nearly impossible - you would have to VPN into work and use email from a remote computer - which most companies don't do that. Which is why I say - don't ever use a free-wifi to check anything personal/that requires a log in. Need to check sports scores/yahoo finance/google maps - not an issue. Just don't log into anything you have to use a password, because someone can and most likely will see it. This is a good chunk of the reason why so many people get their identity stolen - they use seemingly innocent "Free" wifi spots but it's the most dangerous thing you can do.

Marshall

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 21:58:05 -0800

I'm routinely embarrassed that LAX doesn't have free wi-fi. It's such a shoddy airport, that the least LAWA could do to improve its image would be to throw up some free wireless. I've noticed that big airports don't have it, but most of the little ones do. Kansas City has great wi-fi, as does Tallahassee.

hillrat

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 20:00:19 -0800

@phdiaz I was on the road earlier this week and needed to send a few e-mails after I got the airport, what should I do; is there any way to protect yourself if you're using free wi-fi?

phdiaz

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:31:19 -0800

You know, free wi-fi is not good in large public places. To test how safe it was, I setup one of my old laptops with a packet sniffer, took a total of 10 minutes. Within 30 minutes I had people's passwords from UCLA, USC, Wamu, hotmail, yahoo,myspace, facebook, hi5- everything imaginable. It's unbelievable what people look at when they hit a free wi-fi spot. It was ridiculous. Why was I able to get it? Because its a free wi-fi - nothing preventing me from joining the network. If you insist on using free wi-fi - never check your email, never check your bank accounts, never go to a website where you have to log in - because it is ridiculously easy to grab your passwords - and chances are, they're not security experts like me, they're people that actually want to use that information.

paul

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 16:41:59 -0800

good list to have