Privacy in a public interne tnetwork?

Question

Hi,

I'm currently connected to a wireless internet network in an samll hotel. I have no idea about the privacy of my internet connection and little bit worried about it because the network administrator knows the quantity of my downloads and already complained about it. Is administrator able to see more details about my internet activities?

The number of users are less than 10.

How can I be sure of my privacy?

My Windows firewall is always on and my Antivirous (Norton) is always enabled.Is that enough?

Hamid

Answer 1

Really, it's a 2 part subject:  the internet access (while at the hotel); and the computer itself.

If the hotel's (or whatever) wifi is 'open' (not requiring a passphrase to get on) then all your traffic (to and from) the router is in plaintext and can be intercepted by a 'packet sniffing' 3rd party.  

Passphrase connections have differing degrees of security (WEP, WPA, etc.) & can be somewhat trusted.

If your computer is a company owned unit, likely it's got some 'keylogger' or other recording system that monitors your activity, so everything you do can be scrutinized.  All depends on how paranoid your employers are.  

Answer 2

The administrator, can monitor what your surfing, and sending through their internet connection including emails and IM, unless they are on encrypted connection when doing the above task(https instead of http) then they can see every you do, including teh downloads, they probably have logs and proxy running and logging user data, its a normal practice in any company it dept.

this  is a sample of how secure you can be with wirless connection

Wireless conenction and my neighbor

http://www.review-ninja.com/2008/08/how-...