Techies: advice needed

Go to download.com download the
AVG Anti-Virus software. It's number one on the top ten list and free. My credit union has a very simple internet banking system, it will only let me check my blanace/activity and transfer funds between checking/savings. So in the off-chance that my password did get stolen, the only thing the hacker could do to me is transfer funds between my own accounts. Annoying but nothing to loose sleep over:) Your greatest danger is your laptop being physically stolen. Make sure the operating system and browser are password protected, and never have your email password stored on the hard drive. It's a pain, but always have your email program setup so you manually type in your password each time you check your mail.

When using public computer or public WIFI you have no security. While the probability that someone is watching is low, you have to assume that every transaction is monitored. The safest way to set it up is to used a trusted third party. When my son was on a five month around the world honeymoon, I had all of of his access codes AND answers to security questions. When he needed funds transfers, bills paid, etc., he emailed me the instructions and I did the transactions. I also monitored his accounts every three or four days just to look for unusual activity. It worked well. Do you have a brother, sister, cousin that you trust????

I have used my laptop (with WIFI) extensively in Israel without a problem. When the website starts with https: (as all banking sites are) it means it is a secure web site and even if someone is monitoring your signal it will just be garbage to them. Personally I would take it and not worry about it, just have to make sure you are signing on to the correct ssid.

The worst you have to worry about is if a public computer has a key stroke recorder, but since you have your own machine, I wouldn't worry too much. As Michael pointed out, if you are talking about signing into your bank account to check balances and move money, and that's ALL your bank allows you to do, it should not be a problem.

I would not, for example, sign into a Paypal account.

I don't see why Kent would need an anti-virus application to be safe when you connect to his bank.
Your bank is supposed to have a security software on their site. Your Internet Explorer, if you use it, has SSL, which means security.
The big problem with the public (unsecured) wifi's is that anyone can connect to your PC thru wifi, so any type of security you might have on your PC won't matter in this case.
Keylogger programs are a problem as well. You might need to install some software for scanning the network.
Here is a good article about wifi:

http://news.cnet.com/Worried-about-Wi-Fi-security---page-2/2100-7347_3-5540969-2.html?tag=mncol

About anonymisers.They will not hide your identity from the internet provider, they only hide it after you pass that, which means when you connect to web sites.
AVG Anti-Virus is a very good free application. Another one, not free and the best in my opinion is kasperky. It works different than the other anti-virus programs. It doesn't load into the memmory when the PC starts up, which means that your PC won't be slow. The rest of the anti-virus programs on the market slow doesn your PC, which drives me nuts.

Bea, You're correct that anti-virus software won't block a hacker from "eavesdropping" in on an unsecured WiFi connection. But it should preventing a hacker from accessing/tampering the data that is stored on your hard drive. In the past I've gotten alerts from neighbors that have tried to do this.

Michael,

If it's just an anti-virus application, it won't stop intruders from seeing your hard drive. The anti-virus apps only stops viruses, adware and things like that.
The only way to stop the bad guys from connecting to your hard drive is to put a password on the files/folders that you want to be hidden, or 2rd party software for hiding the hard drive.

Michael,

I use McAffee protection on my lap top... would you consider that safe?

McAffee, is a fine program, and works as well as the free anti-virus programs that are available. The reason I use one of the free programs on my netbook is that I don't use it everyday, so I can't really justify paying for software I'll be using infrequently. Whereas on my desktop which I use many hours a day, I also have McAffee installed.

All of the popular AV software programs do more than just scan your hard drive. They also monitor your network traffic, and block intrusion attempts. I get alerts all the time.

This quote is from the AVG Technologies website under a listing of features it's free AV software package provides: "Checks network traffic for possible threats and disallows dangerous connections."

Are you sure about that Michael?
Those alerts are form web sites that are trying to install adwares, not from people who attempt to connect to your wifi network. Those are 2 different things.:)