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Surfing Unencrypted


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Not sure if the above sounds rude or painful, but can anybody advise if connecting to the internet unencrpted can compromise your internet security, especially when accessing online banking etc.

I ask the question because when I connect to the internet using my 5-year old desktop computer which is not 'wi-fied', I have to connect using an USB stick, I can only get connected unencrypted. I have Avast loaded on the computer, which I have paid for, not the free version, so can I presume that my Avast security will stop anybody attacking my computer even though I am connected uncrypted? I guess I could connect with a wired connection but that would mean blasting a hole through the floor to connect to my computer downstairs.

Any computer whizz kids out there who can advise?

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I don't understand when you say you connect using a USB stick.  What is the stick for?

Regardless how you access the net (internet cafes and the like excluded) its the web site that controls the encryption so https is always secure.

BTW Avast wouldn't stop an attack by a herd of buffalos IMHO. If you don't believe me, try a scan with THIS

Get Comodo which is better, lighter and free

EDIT: The link now works

 

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[quote user="Pierre ZFP"]

I don't understand when you say you connect using a USB stick.  What is the stick for?

Regardless how you access the net (internet cafes and the like excluded) its the web site that controls the encryption so https is always secure.

BTW Avast wouldn't stop an attack by a herd of buffalos IMHO. If you don't believe me, try a scan with THIS

Get Comodo which is better, lighter and free

[/quote]

Its a USB Wifi network adapter, something like THIS.

By the way there is no link on your THIS

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I have editted the link to now work, sorry about that.

Having a wi-fi dongle is almost as secure as using a wired connection to your router (provided you have WPA2 keys set up) so it still comes back to the fact that if you're using https sites you're as safe as you can reasonably hope to be.

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Many thanks for the replies, sorry if I didn't make myself clear in trying to explain the situation. I am using a USB WiFi adapter as pointed out by Quillan, as the computer is not Wi-Fi enabled like the new computers you buy now.

When I hover my mouse over the icon showing I am connected to the internet, it reads that I am connected by Wi-Fi Public. When I click on the icon it brings up a box showing my Wi-Fi options, one reads NEUF_CEE4 which shows it is encrypted by WEP whatever that is. I seem unable to use this as an option to connect to the internet and have to use the Wi-Fi Public option. If this doesn't make any difference as long as the secure sites show https then I won't worry about it.
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Sounds like you have an open wireless network so that anyone within range can feed off your bandwidth for free and with a tiny bit of research could access your router as administrator and screw things up for you. Nobody can see what you are doing over secure sites but can see every thing else.  This is exactly what Google Streetview have been sniffing out.

 WEP is virtually usless these days but better than nothing, you need WPA or preferably WPA2  to be safe.

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Neuf offer the choice to create a part of your connection as a public hotspot for other Neuf users to connect to. If you do this, you can also connect to any public neuf  hotpsot connection anywhere it is available.

The instructions for how to turn off the public hotspot part of your neufbox are here

http://assistance.sfr.fr/internet_neufbox-de-SFR/connexion/activer-desactiver-fonction-wifi-public/fc-473-50181

Grecian, to connect to your secure neufbox connection, you will need to enter the security code (key WEP or key WPA) when prompted by your computer as you try to connect. The key is found on the back or underneath of the box, where it says code Wi Fi (WPA-PSK) ***********************

* being the letters and/or numbers which make up your particular code

There is also the name there of your secure connection (it's SSID) This will be displayed as a secured network connection in your list. the one that says NEUF_CEE4.

There may be a conflict with your Wifi dongle only working to the older WEP key standard and the Neufbox set to accept only the newer and more secure WPA key system.

If this is the case, then you will need to change the settings of the neufbox to use WEP

instructions for doing this are on this page.

http://assistance.sfr.fr/internet_neufbox-de-SFR/connexion/gestion-wifi-interface/fc-473-50159

Danny

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Thank you all once again for your input, I must admit I am getting a bit bogged down at the moment with this wi-fi stuff. I managed to get my laptop connected to the neufbox which is wi-fi enabled, but the laptop would only accept WEP security, which at the moment I will settle for. The older desktop which is not wi-fi enabled is giving me a bit of a problem. Danny many thanks for you excellent post again, you mention that there could be a conflict with my wi-fi dongle, which I think there could well be. I have established a connection to my neufbox but I can only get connected via clicking on the internet explorer icon, and not the SFR icon, when I do get connected the connection is very slow, and sometimes disconnects me altogher, whereas the laptop is lightening fast. Do you think if I purchase the SFR dongle that this could sort my connection problems out?
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Hard to say if the dongle is the culprit or not.

If you want to test it you could either turn off the inbuilt wifi of the laptop and install the USB dongle on the laptop and try connecting with that.

Or, if you have the possibility to borrow another dongle from someone, you could try with that on the desktop.

This should give you a clue if the dongle is at fault or not.

Danny

PS It would be useful to know the make and model of your laptop, your desktop and the dongle and the operating system on each computer.

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[quote user="Grecian"] I have established a connection to my neufbox but I can only get connected via clicking on the internet explorer icon, and not the SFR icon, when I do get connected the connection is very slow[/quote]

This is not how it works.

You either have a wifi connection or not. It is not switched on when you open a program like Internet Explorer or any SFR software either.

Normally, your computer will connect automatically to your preferred network at start up. If yours does not do this, you can change the settings so it does.

If you are connected, then you stay connected until you disconnect the wifi connection.

If you open Internet Explorer when you do not have a connection, you will not be able to access the internet. If you are connected, you will open your home page, whatever that is.

Danny

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Going back to the original question it's important to separate WiFi security from online security per se. The security of your actual Internet connection, and that of the sites you visit, will be identical whether you are hard wired into the router via ethernet or on WiFi.

Using WiFi unencrypted potentially exposes you to someone picking it up and capturing the data being transmitted and received over it and whilst I do not seek to diminish the importance of securing it I think a sense of proportion has to be kept and individual circumstances risk assessed.

For instance your location might make it extremely unlikely that anyone could or would be able approach close enough to pick it up. Also bear in mind that whilst sucking a bit of free surfing from an open WiFi connection is one thing capturing and exploiting data for nefarious purposes is something entirely different and frankly anyone determined to do that will hack their way in secured or not.

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Once again thank you all for your replies. Regarding keying in my security code Danny, when I click the icon to bring up my network connections, and then double click on Neuf_CEE4 box to key in my WPA Sharekey, the box is greyed out, so I am unable to key in my code. I also tried connecting to the 192.168.1.1 site but I was unable to connect to the site either yesterday or today.

My laptop is working OK, alibeit using WEP so I am going to leave it alone for the moment. Specifications for my desktop are as follows:

Dell Dimension 3100

Operating System: MS Windows XP Home32-bit SP3

Dongle: BN BlueNEXT BN-WD54G

I am going to purchase a SFR dongle tomorrow, and after having looked at their website this throws up another question. They have two for sale on their website, one with a card and one without, do I need to buy the one with the card and dongle, or just the dongle? Totally confused.

ANO I take on board your observations regarding security, and I guess if somebody really is determined to hack in then yes they will be able to hack in quite easily, you just have to watch CSI to know that! But I would rather be connecting to the internet encrypted rather than not.

If installing a SFR dongle does not do the trick I think I will throw the computer against the wall, that really will not solve anything, but make me feel a whole lot better!
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Well I have had a look at the Neuf dongles and they are both just dongles. I don't know what you mean by one with a card and one without.

One is a no brand dongle

and the other is a netgear dongle

if you mean this "permet de surfer sur Internet à partir d'un PC de bureau ou d'un portable, connecté à votre Neuf Box équipée d'une carte WiFi" then you are misunderstanding the French. It is referring to a wifi card within the Neufbox. Some earlier neufboxs had a wifi card and slot built in to take this card to enable the wifi.

I assume you have a more recent box with built in wifi, having just joined SFR.

Si if you want to buy one, either should work.

The problem may not be with the dongle but with the set up.

I would

1 - uninstall the dongle from control panel. Follow both the instructions as out lined in chapter 2.3 of the manual link here

2 - reinstall the dongle following the instructions in chapter 2.1.

If you don't have the CD, download the files from here http://res.bluenext.co.uk/download/wd54g.zip when prompted, save it to your desktop. To run the software, click on the file.

there are other ways to install it but for now this should tell you if it will work. It is a very cheap dongle.....so it may just be poor quality.

If it was me, I would choose the Netgear dongle. It should work well. It is cheaper on Amazon.fr . Buy it with this and you get a useful USB stick and free postage for about the same price.[;-)]

Good luck

Danny

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if  you want  to  be  safe  while  using  the  interent,  the  the only way  I  know  of this  is by using a  vpn account.  I  use a  site  for this,  works  great, ask  me,  if  you  want  to  know  more!

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Thanks again Danny, your posts have been most helpful.

Yes I did misinterpret the bit regarding carte WiFi and took it to mean you would get a card and a dongle.

Well, I uninstalled the software as suggested and reinstalled, then instead of clicking on the 4 green bar icon to bring up the dongle dialogue box, I right clicked the other icon that has little beam things coming out from a screen, and this brought up my available networks, I clicked on the NEUF_CEE4 icon and this brought up the window to key in the wifi code, I did this and at last I connected via WEP encryption, at a reasonable speed, not as quick as the laptop, but at this moment in time I will settle for what I have.

Reading the reviews on Amazon for the dongle I am using some people do seem to think distance can be a problem from the box to the computer. As my computer is downstairs in the sous or is it the sol, and the neufbox is upstairs this could be giving me problems. I will consider buying a new dongle in the near future. I still have to click on the internet explorer icon to get connected, but who cares as least I do mange to get connected.

Once again Danny many thanks for all your assistance.

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