Public Wi-Fi

- [Narrator] There are an increasing number of places that allow for free access to public Wi-Fi. This may be at a library, coffee shop, restaurant, or any other place. When using public Wi-Fi, there are some additional things to consider. First of all, when logging on to a public Wi-Fi connection, you may be prompted on whether it's a home, work, or public network. If it's a public network that you're using, make sure to select this, so that a set of more restricted settings is used. Using public Wi-Fi means that you're connected to a Wi-Fi network that other people are also connected to.

In a perfect world, this wouldn't matter. But this does make you more vulnerable and gives easier access to others to be able to hack into your device. When using public Wi-Fi, I strongly suggest that you do not share overly sensitive information such as your Social Security number, your credit card number, address, or other extremely personal info. Doing things like online banking, online shopping, and more is better done on a secured network. Now if you really want to be cautious when using a public Wi-Fi network, you can look into accessing a VPN which stands for Virtual Private Network.

This helps to secure your connection so that others can't access it. Often you'll have to log into the VPN as an extra layer of protection. An example of this is TunnelBear which you can find at TunnelBear.com, but there are many of them out there that will work across your devices. The main message here is that in order to keep your information secure, take additional precautions when using public Wi-Fi.