Does the N800 do fine with non-standard wifi? For example, T-Mobile in an airport. I'm hoping my device will work fine on the campus network. Windows and now Mac OS devices use cisco clean access, . However, I think linux devices can just user name and password authenticate in a web browser.

I was in Chicago Ohare airport and San Francisco airport used the pay WiFi there and it worked just fine. Also when I was in a hotel in San Fran worked as well.

I sometimes do banking and such over my wifi connection at home. Is there a tutorial somehow of which programs to use to test the strength of the security?

Also, is there a list somewhere of all the must have repositories?

If you bank online over WiFi, the security strength of your WiFi is the least of your concerns - make sure your bank is using HTTPS and at least 128-bit encryption, if not then change banks. Banking over https is very secure even on an unencrypted WiFi connection as long as you never pass any confidential details (such as username/password) in the clear over an http connection.

WPA-PSK + AES and WPA-PSK + TKIP are the most secure home/personal WiFi security settings you can use (AES is more secure than TKIP). Don't use anything less than WPA - don't use WEP if you want to keep your network safe.

See this article on the The Register about a guy recently charged with stealing another persons WiFi connection - late at night, in his car with the windows blacked out... I dread to think what he was downloading, but if it were illegal the owner of the network would most likely have been charged and not the guy in the car outside his house.

Make sure you never transmit confidential financial information over unencrypted (http) connections whether they be wired or wireless.

Use WPA encryption to prevent people gaining access to your WiFi network.

Sorry if this is a bit of a ramble...

Milhouse
What security alternatives for wifi when traveling?In this case I'm going to croatia.
TIA
Jerry

Unless you own the wireless routers you connect to while travelling, you can only use whatever wireless security is employed by the router that you are connecting to. This could be no security, WEP (almost as bad as no security!) or WPA (either TKIP or [less likely] AES). There are some forms of WiFi security that aren't well supported by the N800 such as EAP/PEAP etc.

If you are connecting to your or work dedicated servers, you might be able to setup a vpn/ssh tunnel in order that all your communication is encrypted before it leaves your PC/N800 and hits the airwaves, but for regular internet cafe type connections you'll most likely be at the mercy of the router administrator for security. For most surfing from an N800 this shouldn't be a problem, as long as you remember to use only HTTPS connections when entering confidential information!

EDIT: Modified the wording of the first sentence. No problem jschon - hope it helps and enjoy Croatia.

Thanks for the help and the quick reply

I have read a few articles in the general media about wifi attacks in airports. ( I can't cite any original sources).

Essentially, people were using their own laptops to set up fake access points with names like 'Free Airport Wifi Access'.

For Windows PCs that were configured to share their harddrives, they were owned very fast. For all other wifi users, the attacker could do a 'man-in-the-middle' and sniff out anything of interest.

If you are on a public wifi access point and you aren't using ssh or a vpn, think of yourself as sending postcards. Don't write anything that you don't want the mailman or anyone else to see...

The securitity the wifi network is set up with is to protect the network from _you_, not to protect you from the _network_. In other words, any WEP or WPA or whatever isn't for you, it's for the owner of the access point/network. (And remember, on the inside of the access point everything is in the clear, whatever WEP or WPA protocol the AP is using. You want to encrypt that part. See below.)

If _you_ want security then you must use HTTPS or encrypted VPN or similar (depending on what you do -- for banking that would be HTTPS) to do your networking. It doesn't matter what the wi-fi access point is using, as long as you can connect. What matters for your own security is what kind of security protocol you are using _on top_ of the network (that is, https, vpn etc.)