Use of Free wifi

Free WiFi or hotspots are public places where Internet connectivity is available to anyone within broadcasting range. Generally, it’s safe to use hotspots with a few common sense rules.

1. Hotspot networks are often unencrypted, as encryption would require log-on credentials for each person joining the network, hampering accessibility. Networks that don’t require credentials are easy for anyone to jump onto with little or no user direction.
2. A wireless router broadcasts all dialog taking place between itself and connected computers.
3. As a precaution, users might avoid visiting websites that send usernames, passwords or email in the clear when using free WiFi.
4. It is safe, however, to use hotspots for accessing sites that provide end-to-end also called point-to-point encryption. End-to-end encryption is automatically put in place when visiting a site with an address that starts with https. In this case, the browser will encrypt all communication before it leaves the computer, and it will only be decrypted at the destination site.
5. While free WiFi is safe for secure websites, highly sensitive activities should only be performed from a person's home computer. A public computer should not be trusted for anything but casual surfing. Computers store passwords, usernames and other revealing data in a type of memory called cache, making it possible to retrieve later by others.