Why Are There a Million Wi-Fi Networks in Hotels?
While none of us should be traveling right now, there are still many people who want (or need) to leave their home base. I start with this because it seems a little strange to me to answer a technical question related to hotels in Tech 911 this week, when we are in the middle of another surge in COVID.
But of course, someday we will go again. And when you do, you might be thinking the same thing as Lifehacker reader Janice :
I have a strange question: I have a VPN and that’s good. But when I, for example, go to connect to the Hilton Wi-Fi, I see a long list of other people in the hotel, and everyone seems to have secure wireless access. How did they get it? Are the people who appear in the dropdown menu with a padlock next to them using their cell phones to communicate?
Hotel Wi-Fi is a plague
From a security standpoint, hotel Wi-Fi is a nightmare. And even from the simpler point of view, “I would like to connect to the Internet like at home,” hotels are still a nightmare. Connection speeds typically range from incredibly slow to “14.4 Kbps modems are not very dangerous.” And that’s assuming you can even get a reasonable connection at all from the rooms — inevitably one that’s just barely out of the Wi-Fi range and feels like its wallpaper has a lead pad.
I can’t remember the last time I had a great experience with hotel Wi-Fi. I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t afraid of my less tech-savvy fellow travelers. You know them: they will connect to any open network that is available because they want to watch YouTube videos right now . Or worse, they’ll just guess what wireless network the hotel has from the options available. These people, of course, have no idea what a VPN is and why it is so important that they use it when connecting to any open wireless network.
A few words about this. While it’s absolutely great that you use a VPN to keep your device secure when connected to an open wireless network, you can even go a step further. When you connect to an open wireless network, chances are good that your device will do something before your VPN kicks in – once you use the hotel portal to authenticate to your Wi-Fi, it can quickly connect to your mail services. when it knows it’s online; your cloud software might try to sync the file; your browser can load all websites that you have opened in tabs.
Varonis security researcher Cody Kinsey describes this process in more detail:
“… I disabled PIA [VPN] while monitoring my Wi-Fi connection from another computer using Wireshark. Immediately after disconnecting, I was able to see that the Signal messenger was running on my phone, it was on the AT&T network and was currently watching YouTube videos only for DNS queries. I can even identify the VPN being checked by its update server. All this information was leaked in a few seconds of traffic interception without using a VPN. “
To work around this issue and make sure you are in the safest possible mode, it is recommended that you use a cellular connection whenever possible. Does this have its drawbacks? Absolutely. First of all, we hope you have an unlimited data plan. Secondly, you will definitely want your phone to be on and charging while you do this. And third, remember to turn off Personal Hotspot when you’re done. There is no point in leaving this on if you don’t like draining your battery for no reason.
And that brings us to your answer. I suspect this is the reason for the many wireless networks that you see: other hotel guests have left their wireless hotspots on, whether they did it on purpose on their phones, or they just didn’t realize that the hotspot function on their computer has been switched. on the. There is also a rarer, but not impossible idea that someone is using a travel router or a regular router in their room to connect multiple devices at the same time – like the Chromecast they took with them on their trip. There is also a chance that someone suspicious creates an open network and tries to suck on unsuspecting critters in order to connect to it.
You will probably see the same overwhelming number of wireless networks anywhere where people congregate in huge numbers, especially if they are trying to get their jobs done: an airport, a thriving cafe, a train, etc.
I wouldn’t worry about that. While the wireless connection at your hotel may be insecure, using a VPN is one of the best things you can do to stay safe in an emergency. And even if all you do is use a VPN, and you try to make sure that your online activities always go through the specified VPN, you will probably be fine.
I still wouldn’t do things like access my bank account via hotel Wi-Fi if I didn’t really have to – and I probably would use an hotspot if I needed to do something. on my work laptop or if I knew that I have a lot of experience the services are eager to be activated as soon as they detect a connection.
But if you have this VPN ready to go, as soon as you are online, you are already many steps ahead of most normal people. In fact, your VPN client might even come with an option that blocks your network connection when you’re not connected to a VPN – an even better option for minimizing leaks over an unsecured connection.