Securing my MacBook on a Open Wifi Network

No, using an open wifi connection does not mean that anyone can access your macbook neccesarily. By default I believe, all your file sharing settings are set to "off" but just to make sure they are, do the following:

Go to: System Preferences>Sharing

Under the Firewall tab, make sure your firewall is set to "on"

And...

Under the Service tab, make sure "personal filesharing" is set to off.

If you do both of these things, your macbook will be just fine, and nobody will be able to access your files.

1. Using open wifi networks can in some cases be illegal, because people may not realise they are open. If you want to be on the safe side, you should ask for permission before using it. See for instance http://management.silicon.com/government/0,39024677,39150672,00.htm

2. They can't directly access your Macbook unless you have set up file sharing without a password, or you have a very simple password.

3. They are however on the same network as you, which means that if they have malicious intentions, they have a much easier time cracking your Macbook. Keep your Macbook updated and with good non-obvious passwords. It is very unlikely given that YOU are the one using their network.

"Using open wifi networks can in some cases be illegal, because people may not realise they are open."

Not even close to true.

Not even close to true.

You must have meant "not even close to false", right?

The idea that the owner of the wireless system may not know it's open is irrelevant, of course. But the fact that it's an open network doesn't automatically grant you the right to use it. Theft of services is very real.

Big assumptions are being made here guys. There are plenty of wireless hotspots that are "open networks" that are provided by coffee shops and such. Those are obviously fine to use and I took the question to be concerning those networks.

If not and you are asking about using your neighbors' unsecured wireless network without their knowledge or permission, I think that you know what the answer is there. In some municipalities, it is consered theft and I think it is just plain wrong myself.

The guy was quoting British law to a guy living in Australia. They are different countries with different legal systems. Therefore it was a meaningless example.

Connecting your computer to public wired or WiFi network without traffic encryption, no matter if you enabled file sharing or not, you're susceptible to those with malicious intent. Your unencrypted data going through the open network can easily be sniffed with packet sniffer program. That means someone, if they really want to, can obtain your passwords, files, emails and data from your traffic going through the public network.

The best solution is to some how encrypt your traffic while using the public network or connect to the internet via VPN.

If you are really concerned about security, you should listen to Security Now podcast.
http://www.grc.com/securitynow.htm

I think Episode 15 may answer some of your questions regarding ways to access the internet securely from an open WiFi network.




Black MacBook, 17" iMac PowerPC G5 2GHz 1GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.6) http://www.baybox.net

Please don't kid yourselves guys. It may not seem right to you that it can be illegal to connect to an open network without permission, but there has been cases in the UK and the US where people have been arrested and convicted for this particular thing.

Just because it doesn't seem wrong, doesn't mean it isn't illegal. Whether it is illegal in Australia remains to be seen, that is a court decisison will probably decide and I wouldn't want to be the first person on trial if I was him.

The idea is that you are using someone else's bandwidth without permission, thus committing theft. If you walk into an unlocked house and take a Television, it is still theft, regardless of whether the door was unlocked. If you take a car which has the keys in the ignition and the doors wide open, it is still theft.

In many, many countries the legal system will consider the same to be the case with using other people's bandwidth. If you are cracking someone's password, you are clearly committing a crime, but you may not be in the clear simply because you don't have to.

There is also no reason to get defensive about this, I am simply giving someone a friendly warning. I have myself used open networks in the past, but will certainly be careful about it in the future.

The idea that the owner of the wireless system may
not know it's open is irrelevant, of course.

This was only used as an example of WHY the network was open. Mainly, you can't assume that the owner agrees to share the network just because it is open.

If the network is named 'freetouse' or 'usemywireless' or something similar, then I would consider permission to be given, otherwise one should always obtain permission.

None of these replies have anything to do with the actual topic anymore...the guy was asking how he could secure his macbook on open wireless network to prevent un-authorized access to his information. His question had nothing to do with the legality issues of using an open network that you find.