Free open wifi access

Roadwarrior

Roadwarrior

Member
Discovered something about smart phones this last week. I usually have mine powered off sitting on my side table. Use it very sparingly. Only have talk/text no data. Decided that I should also have data for travel to access my bank for balances, make payments or whatever. Most areas I camp in are not open to wifi, but may have cell service (some not all) some use a dish for internet access but can be limited. I decided that it would be a good time to add data. It's a hassle to find an open wifi within a short distance. But when I was at the coffee shop with my tablet I noticed I connected to their wifi no problem. Then asked if this was a secure connection, not happening which I knew. I hadn't been using my tablet for financial or personal data up to this time.

I know that my friends tell me they have their phones with data connect to whatever access point they are within range of, not using their data limit. If they have apps that connect to their financial & personal information then the wifi they go through is unsecured & open to hackers. I then did a little research to find out how to circumvent that issue. If you turn your wifi off (in settings) then you also lose your data link through your cell service. So no access, you must therefore put your phone in 'airplane' mode to channel only your data link service to the smart phone, bypassing the wifi connection you may or may not be aware of. Safer yes, but how many people realize that if the smart phone has wifi turned on & they are not in airplane mode they are exposing all their browsing & personal information on an unsecured access point.

Is this fact or unnecessary paranoia? Is this the correct information?

No responses, maybe it was a dumb question.
 

Last edited:
A mix of facts and some exaggeration.
You do not need to go into airplane mode, just don't connect to unsecured, untrusted WiFi network connections.

What site told you that turning WiFi off disconnects your cell data? And which site says just having your data on exposes all your browsing?!?
 
Sorry, gentlemen the question was, 'Is this fact or unnecessary paranoia? Is this the correct information?'. I wasn't trying to start another political discussion. I'm new to smart phones not the operating systems. I run Linux on my laptop as well as Android (Linux) on my tablet & smart phone. I've used Linux for 15 years, never had a compromised system. Just was asking a simple question. This is the first time trying a social network, don't know the proper syntax of a question.
 
No, it's not true.

Unless you have visited this place and connected to their wifi before, your phone will not connect to it automatically. As long as you are not using their wifi, you are safe. Pretty obvious to me.

Nowadays I only use wifi at home, my 4G connection is much faster than most public wifis, it makes no sense to connect to any wifis outside.
 
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