lap tops in coffee shops

[Warren Lake]

Dont have a cell but got this used lap top recent. Thought if im out I can check emails and sure enough someone I was going to meet Sat was late and the place we were meeting at was gone. If I had I been able to check my email at the next Starbucks I stopped at would have known he left late and could have emailed where i was. All worked out fine a grown up person with a cell looked him up and called him for me and fine.

Is it safe to use a lap top ion a Starbucks or other coffee shop place. this would just have my email no data as I keep it off on seperate drives. Its sort of an inbetween of not having a cell for the odd time I could use it. We had a car club thing I did screen saves of the journey there and that worked fine, i was not logged on just had zoomed in maps of streets up close at least when google was smart enough to put a name on instead of a number.

Is a password or? enough to be able to use a lap top in a coffee shop or is it something you just should not do. Im sure ive seen people for many years with lap tops not really focused on it.

[Jim Koepke]

If you want the full paranoid rundown, search on something like > dangers of coffee shop wifi networks < change "coffee shop" to hotel or any other network location you can think of.

If you have a unique password for an email (eddress) that isn't used on another computer or for information you do not wish to share, then you may be fine if that is the only thing for which that computer is used. You may be okay doing news reading, but nothing to do with purchases or other types of communication you wouldn't want intercepted.

jtk

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Be careful with smart phones too. Shortly after Darling got her first smartphone she accidentally used her credit card without knowing she was on a hotels wifi. Someone "spying on the router" used her info to buy several expensive guns. I was very pleased with the costumer service Capital One provided, it was not difficult to have the charges removed from our bill. Capital One also followed up with Law Enforcement.

[Rob Luter]

I see people using laptops in coffee shops frequently. It seems there's a whole class of folks that use these places as remote offices. We were in Denver last week and a guy was set up at the Denver Central Market with a laptop and and big butterfly monitor like the one below. He was wearing noise cancelling headphones and seemed to be hosting a zoom meeting just like he was at the office.

[Alex Zeller]

Just remember that even though they may be in a coffee shop (or similar) using their computer it doesn't mean they are using the shop's WiFi. If out and about I'll use my phone as a hotspot and connect through it. My advice would be to not use a laptop with any public WiFi unless you know exactly how to protect yourself. It doesn't take much for something bad to happen because someone found something that they could use on it.

[Jim Becker]

Using a laptop on a public WiFi connection is the one time that even I would use a VPN to insure whatever I was typing is encrypted from the device out to the Internet to avoid "man in the middle" thievery. And yes, even if you are only using your email, there would be risk. Public WiFI is any freely available WiFi connection, password required or not, that you do not personally control...IE, not in your home and not behind your employer's firewalls.

[Brian Elfert]

These days, any website that has account information should have encryption. If not, you probably shouldn't be doing business with them, coffee shop WIFI, or not. I have no concerns about using public WIFI. A man in the middle attack that decrypts everything is not going to work unless you accept the SSL certificate that the MITM attack would require. There are easier ways to get credit card numbers and passwords than trying to decrypt tons of SSL traffic and hoping to find a packet with a password or credit card number.

Even Sawmill Creek is encrypted.

[Warren Lake]

there would be no bills only checking my email when im away or googling directions. I did read about VPN's after posting. One friend was hacked while in Portugal and have asked with no answer yet on what happened and what he was doing.

[Keegan Shields]

The public wifi concerns are wildly overblown. You are fine to use a Starbucks wifi with your laptop.

https://wapo.st/3UKVc4e

Also, sophisticated non-state actors aren't using their talents to ripoff people at Starbucks. There are far more lucrative enterprises for their talents.

And if a state sponsored actor is coming for you at your local Starbucks, you have far bigger problems - like they found where you were hiding!

[Warren Lake]

yeah 12,000 cars stolen in toronto in one year and just one of all going on. Have to ask my friend how he was hacked maybe he was not in a coffee shop hes not answered so it does happen and hes a fair bit of a computer guy was well. No one after me, no black cars circling around the shop. At least not yet.

[roger wiegand]

I've done it for many years without concerns or problems. I don't ever enter sensitive information on an unsecured site (eg use only ones that start HTTPS), and now I use Apple Pay on line so that my credit card information is never transmitted. (they use a one-time code, so even if someone gets the transmitted information it it is useless). I think the dangers are way overblown.

[Warren Lake]

Rob you seem to be saying he was making telephone calls from the lap top? is that possible or am I misunderstanding that. If I could use the lap top like a cell then that would be nice. Its the all in one printer
concept.

Does a cell phone have an output to go into a lap top? right now the lap top has a 27" monitor connected to it and thats nice. My eyes are not meant for cell phones my miniumum on the lap top was a 15/6 screen size.

[John Stankus]

Rob you seem to be saying he was making telephone calls from the lap top? is that possible or am I misunderstanding that. If I could use the lap top like a cell then that would be nice. Its the all in one printer
concept.

Does a cell phone have an output to go into a lap top? right now the lap top has a 27" monitor connected to it and thats nice. My eyes are not meant for cell phones my miniumum on the lap top was a 15/6 screen size.

You should be able to set things up to be able to call via wifi or text. Google Voice I think is free for personal use for calls in US. (I haven't set this up, so you probably ought to double check)

John

[Larry Edgerton]

Warren, I have a laptop for traveling, and one I use at home. There is no real financial information in the travel one, but there is some fake bank accounts my daughter put in just for fun. I just like the bigger screen as opposed to a phone.

[Warren Lake]

Thanks Larry, here is how I run the lap top when I had it out, all fits into an old samsonite briefcase. I cant stand the mouse on a lap top so have a logitech anywhere three, it has forward and back buttons on the side which is great, only neg this windows 10 no picture viewer. The keyboard is close to the old microsoft white ones I like. I need travel and push back in a keys. I use a plug in drive so not info in the computer for the most part. I dont get lots about this Id be using this to check my email and sounds like it can work like a cell in some ways.

I think one friend said I should get a tablet, more to learn.

The old guy asked several times over the years if he should have a computer. I said just come here and he did. He was blown away with how we can look up stuff even at that time years ago now. Seems info is updated almost weekly or there is more on the same topics. So much for Encyclopedia Britannica.

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