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Hi from experience would not buy any software or dongle again....until I made sure it would work other than certain post codes, or was more expensive when abroad. I took my laptop to France this year and got on with using either the camp site's WI-FI usually free or up to 3hrs aday, or as everyone says Mcdonalds car park. You only need a basic one for e-mails or to download photos and personally would not go to PC World again Happy hols...
Hi from experience would not buy any software or dongle again....until I made sure it would work other than certain post codes, or was more expensive when abroad. I took my laptop to France this year and got on with using either the camp site's WI-FI usually free or up to 3hrs aday, or as everyone says Mcdonalds car park. You only need a basic one for e-mails or to download photos and personally would not go to PC World again Happy hols...
Hi
Thanks for the reply.
Yep we used free WIFI a lot last year but ,regreably, it's not very secure that's why I was asking if anyone had bought a dongle in Portugal.
Do you think I should repost the query under it's own heading as I have dificulty finding it each time myself?
Gary
Using a dongle is no more (or less) secure than using a Wifi connection.
Any site that expects you to be doing secure transactions will be over https rather than http protocol, and you should also see a padlock appear in your browser. Once a secure connection has been established, you should be ok. That's more important than which transport mechanism you're using for the connection.
Using a dongle is no more (or less) secure than using a Wifi connection.
Any site that expects you to be doing secure transactions will be over https rather than http protocol, and you should also see a padlock appear in your browser. Once a secure connection has been established, you should be ok. That's more important than which transport mechanism you're using for the connection.
gareth
Hi Gareth
Thanks for the info.
I was aware of the https/http and the padlock on the browser, but that is about the extent of my knowledge on the encryption side so can I ask you, how good will a firewall be on a free WIFI site as you hear so many stories of how easy it is for hackers to gain entry to a laptop and contents on these sites?
Also (sorry) are you also saying that a dongle is no more secure than an open WIFI connection?
Thanks
Gary
There are a number of security issues and solutions to each of them.
1. Whenever you connect to the web, you are issued with an identity, usually just for the session only. The first risk is that someone could pick up that identity (IP) and use it to back track to your machine and gain access to anything on your hard disk including cookies containing passwords and other sensitive information.
2. They could "listen in" to your traffic, just like on a mobile phone, and trap information being sent or recieved.
3. They could send a program to your machine which will send information to their machine whenever you connect to the web. (Spyware)
4. They could insert a program inside another program so that when you download the program you want, you get their program secreted within it. (Virus)
There are a number of solutions to these risks.
a) A firewall is to ensure that no-one can back track to your machine.
b) Encryption makes it virtually impossible to "see" what you are sending or recieving. This is usually established between you and the router in the case of WiFi "hotspots" and is what is happening when you use a "secure" connection for card transactions and with your internet banker. These come in various strengths but even the weakest will virtually protect you from hackers.
c) Passwords are used to identify you to your end contact and may well trigger an encryption unique to that session. For instance, your internet banker may well give you a password generator which is used to tie the password to a time and place so it is different everytime and will change if you sit and do nothing for a few minutes.
d) Virus and Spyware can be prevented by running a program on your machine in background. They look at everything coming and going between you and your contact to see if certain "patterns" are present which indicate known viruses and also look at formulae of files to see if there is any difference between what a downloaded file should look like and what you get.
All these protective techniques apply equally to the dongle route as to the WiFi route.
The biggest risk is for people who run a local network of machines through their routers (like me) and do not set it up so that others cannot join the local network.
Apple Macs are particularly good at preventing external access to networked machines and there a mighty few viruses that attack them.
PCs running Windows are the biggest risk and a lot of what has been developed in the later operating systems, such as Vista & Windows 7 are about making them more secure.
So... For you, running a stand-alone machine with a firewall and virus/spyware protection you are pretty secure anyway and the use of SSL security (the lock) whenever you pass over sensitive information and you will be virtually bullet proof.
Most security breaches are invited by users who know, deep down, they are doing it. Putting personal details on Facebook, answering questions on emails or handing your credit card to the waiter to pay your bill etc are way and beyond the most lucrative sources for the bad guys.
Always remember the massive industry that the computer security game has become. Put up a scare and then tell people that, for a fee, you can protect them from the threat.
Hope this hasn't sent you to sleep but gives you a little comfort so you can sleep easier
Wow! Thanks for such a detailed answer and far from sending me to sleep I was fascinated by what you had to say.
As I have quite good security on my PC's and laptops it looks as if I will be ok on the free WIFI but you have got me thinking about my local network so perhaps I should make sure the security is up to scratch there as well.
Once again thanks for an extremely helpful reply.
Gary
As reccomended by others but dont forget you can quite readily use your laptop as an entertainment centre for DVD's, TV Digital or satellite, also they are almost essential for viewing and editing digital photos.
Playing games, Flight Simulator for me and Scrabble etc for Val.
Val also keeps a daily diary on the laptop.
O i almost forgot we can use ours as a Sat Nav as well.
Majority of campsites we visit have Wi Fi (weefee) some free.
Patrick seems to have covered most of the questions you had - and everyone should note this
Quote:
Always remember the massive industry that the computer security game has become. Put up a scare and then tell people that, for a fee, you can protect them from the threat.
You need to separate the hype from the reality!
If you have a good firewall on your machine, and you have good virus protection (Kaspersky is my preferred program for windows to fulfill both these requirements - good value and also not a resource hog - as I feel Norton has become) you should be ok on either a dialup (Dongle) or WiFi connection.
Patrick seems to have covered most of the questions you had - and everyone should note this
Quote:
Always remember the massive industry that the computer security game has become. Put up a scare and then tell people that, for a fee, you can protect them from the threat.
You need to separate the hype from the reality!
If you have a good firewall on your machine, and you have good virus protection (Kaspersky is my preferred program for windows to fulfill both these requirements - good value and also not a resource hog - as I feel Norton has become) you should be ok on either a dialup (Dongle) or WiFi connection.
regards
Gareth
Just thought I would mention that if you do internet banking with Barclys you can get a Kaspersky three user licence free of charge.
Gary
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France
Happy hols... 
Waving in memory of Peter and Fiona
Fighting with Mavis“s MESO WARRIORS 
