Advice for use of new phone

[Andy™]

Careful using "Free WiFi"..............we ran a training day at work on Cyber security basically what the attendees thought was a 2 hour power point session that was boring from the first few minutes, this was done on purpose as we also set up an  evil twin "Free open guest wifi" in the room nextdoor to the training room.

Using a wifi pinapple we ran a man in the middle attack on users approximately 10 minutes into the session.

after half an hour the power point was ceased & we gave the real lesson  using some of the captured data & messages that had been intercepted & changed..........needless to say people think twice about using hotel or Mcdonalds & coffee shop free wifi.

Amazing how many people have their wifi connections on phones set to remember....our PEN test girly managed to pick loads up.

should always use a VPN on free wifi

 

[Evans Electric]

And a VPN  is  ??  :C   

f no connection has been established so far, you would normally select one from the list then it will either prompt for the passwords, or just connect if it is an open network. 

Thanks Doc . 

 

[Andy™]

virtual private network

 

[Phoenix]

Think of a VPN is a tunnel, or a conduit if you prefer, everything you do is piped to its exit point, which can be something you have set up, or there are plenty of providers on the internet. Everything travelling through it is encrypted (scrambled), so even if its running through a dodgy wifi that M107's mate has set up, they can't get your private information, all they can see is the VPN tunnel running through it.

They have a few different uses, privacy, pretending you are in another counrty (some content might be available in certain countries only), but the biggest is probably teleworking, folk can work from home, and be tunnelled through the internet to the corporate network in the office and assessing everything as if they were at work, files, printers, etc

 

[Phoenix]

Deke, we aware that if you don't have data included on your plan, it could bite you!. These phones 'use' data even when you arn't doing anything, they search for security updates, and I'm sure a lot of stuff likes to phone home!

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

Can't see how anyone working for themselves nowadays could survive without a smartphone and a half decent data allowance????

Well..  I couldn't!?

:C

 

[phil d]

A good thing about WiFi is that it can, as others have said save you going over on your data allowance, some systems work in a rather good way too. At the farm we use BT broadband, now once you log into this it 'knows' you are an authorised user and remembers this, so if you go somewhere and there's a BT WiFi, it automatically connects you to it. apparently BT users get free access to WiFi hotspots when out and about.

I like my location access turned on, it helps if I forget where I've been sometimes, especially if I'm on the way back from somewhere and call in somewhere else for a quick 10 minute job, if anybody that you need to worry about wants to track you they can do it without you having location access turned on, the only other risk is if your wife gets hold of the phone and finds out that the night you said you worked late you actually spent a couple of hours in your local, lol.

Roaming I always turn off, Bluetooth I have set to 'known contacts only'.

I remember a few years back stuck in traffic on a motorway, it was like a giant car park, nothing moving, one of the lads decided to amuse himself and sent a risqué picture to 'all available bluetooths', it was hilarious looking at the faces of some of the people in nearby cars when they got the picture. nowadays a lot of firms use this for advertising, there's a few taxi firms in town and if you drive or walk past them you get messages via Bluetooth, 'need a taxi call us, A&B Taxi's' then as you pass the next one you get another message and so on. 

 

[Richard-the-Ninth]

 apparently BT users get free access to WiFi hotspots when out and about.. 

We do. But it also means if a BT user is outside my place, they get to use my wi-fi BUT it does not use my allowance.

 

[phil d]

We do. But it also means if a BT user is outside my place, they get to use my wi-fi BUT it does not use my allowance.

Yes I was aware of that, neither does it affect your download speed, contrary to popular belief, I think it's a great idea.

 

[Andy™]

Yes I was aware of that, neither does it affect your download speed, contrary to popular belief, I think it's a great idea.

if will affect your speed. if the internet connection is ony capable to 20mbps and they use 10, then you will be limited to 10. . you cant just magic some faster internet because someone else is using it. id expect its pobably set to give you priority though

 

[phil d]

if will affect your speed. if the internet connection is ony capable to 20mbps and they use 10, then you will be limited to 10. . you cant just magic some faster internet because someone else is using it. id expect its pobably set to give you priority though

Well, that's what I got told by someone at BT, thinking about it the only way it can do that is if it won't allow a connection if you're already running at capacity, which I suppose they'd need to do, or as you say if you've already got a really poor download speed, because thinking about it there's a lot of people using BT broadband, but you don't always find a wireless hotspot.

Incidentally do you remember that one a few years ago, there was something where you used a phone and it worked at home but there were hotspots outside and you could link to these and it charged the call to your bill, I think it was called 'talkabout' or 'roamabout' or something like that. I know it didn't really take off, places had signs outside indicating that it was one of these 'hotspots' there was only one I can remember in my area.

 

[Evans Electric]

Can't see how anyone working for themselves nowadays could survive without a smartphone and a half decent data allowance????

Well..  I couldn't!?

:C

I don't find it a problem  TBH 

 

[binky]

if you want to improve battery life make sure lots of things are turned off, wifi especially. Trouble with modern phones is that they tend to come with lots of stuff turned on which just waste battery power. You can also go into settings and turn on battery manager which shts down useless apps and extends battery life. Very useful when you have forgotten to charge your phone up and it's saying 15%, low battery.