Gadgetory

free public Wi-Fi is incredibly useful when you're on the road as you can check in with family and friends and even download maps you do have to be careful though when you're connecting to an unsecured Wi-Fi hotspot as your data can be intercepted in this how-to I'm going to show you how to minimize the risk whether you're using a laptop smartphone or a tablet some general pointers to be aware of first up avoid doing any credit card or personal information transactions when you're on public Wi-Fi you also should check for a secure connection either by looking for HTTPS or checking for a lock in the corner of your browser screen keep your browser and operating system up to date but make sure you do this when you're not on public Wi-Fi do this on a secure connection like at home or at work when scanning for Wi-Fi you need to make sure that you're connecting to a legitimate public Wi-Fi network don't just connect to the first open one that's available check with the cafe or the hotel or the airport that you're at because it's really easy for someone who wants to intercept your data to set up a fake network just called free Wi-Fi and it looks pretty tempting if you decide to connect to that open Wi-Fi network turn off file-sharing on your PC or Mac on windows it's really simple go to control panel and then find the Advanced Settings within the network connections option and then turn off file-sharing under public networks on Mac the process is really similar open system preferences then find the sharing icon and then untick file sharing one of the best ways to stay safe on a public connection is to use a VPN this will encrypt the traffic between your device and the server there are plenty of VPN options out there if you want a free version then security kiss offers you 300 megabytes of data per day which is more than enough for casual web browsing tasks finally when you're all done mooching that sweet sweet public Wi-Fi make sure to log off all your open services and then forget the network in Android you can do this by going into your Wi-Fi connections finding the name of the net long-pressing and then selecting forget network in iOS head to settings find the network name again select it and then forget the network a big thanks to auto trading company in Sydney for letting us use their cafe and Wi-Fi for more tips on staying safe on public Wi-Fi make sure to check out the full tutorial over at CNET