Unsecured Wifi at my Apartment

Hi,

This is a little strange, but I'm not sure how to approach the situation I'm in...or even if it's that big a deal at all anyway.

My wife and I recently moved to New Jersey. We've always ran our internet through our Airport (secured of course). Well, the apartment we have in Jersey is a great deal. It's a garage apartment in a great neighborhood in a nice house.(We get the garage for our cars btw) Our landlord is amazing and has a family. All utilities included...even internet. We our connected to the house, so I do not believe we can get our own internet connection.

Anyway, my problem is we use their internet via unsecured wifi. Granted, it's a nice neighborhood, so it's not quite like going to McDonalds for public internet. So the way I see it, it's extremely unlikely for someone to come along and start trying to hack computers...when there are plenty of public places to do that. However, there is still a chance. And we have to get online to do banking, etc. My Macbook's firewall is on, but I'm not sure if that would do anything against an experienced hacker. Should I worry abou this? What are my options? Or should I just bring it up with my landlord and see if he'll secure it? I don't want to be rude to him, but I would feel much better if I could protect myself online. I would appreciate any advice.

One more option I forgot to mention. He does have a eithernet cable running through the wall. It is not currently connected to the router, but he said he will if we want him to. If I connect our Airport to that eithernet cable and secure it, can someone still get to our computers via his unsecured connection? Not sure if that made sense, but I hope so.

Thank you for any comments!

Your firewall is adequate protection

You would be better connecting your airport as a gateway through to the main router via ethernet, for speed if nothing else, that option is there when you newly configure it from fresh

Dont confuse an unsecured wifi connection with an unsecured web connection, they are 2 different things. A secure wifi connection would be better, but if it is unsecure anybody can logon and use wifi internet, that gives them access to the network.

You macs have most ports turned off, and the internet router itself will likely still be configured with most services blocked. As for banking, that sets up a separate secure link between you and the bank (or shopping site) whether or not your wifi connection's login is secure or not.

Its the login to the wifi network that is open, but that doesn't give a so called hacker open access to all machines connected to that network and gives them no access to your machines unless you have deliberately turned on lots of sharing access for guests - something I doubt you have done

But tell your landlord to secure the wifi, any body in range could piggyback on your network and begin filesharing copyrighted material, and its your landlord that the Feds will be coming to see, and you have to prove its not you doing the illegal activity

Never, never, never, run with no security. A firewall is useless against a hacker. And your landlord may or may not be using a router which does provide some protection. Having said that, you have two choices: Connect via ethernet or contract your own wireless connection and secure it.

There is no way I would use that connection the way it is for banking or for anything else that involved personal information. There are young teens who know more about hacking than you and I could ever know. Don't take a chance and leave yourself open.

Bad things can and do happen in "nice neighborhoods" with "nice people". Be smart, protect you and your family's privacy and identity.

SuperCooper said:

Or should I just bring it up with my landlord and see if he'll secure it? I don't want to be rude to him, but I would feel much better if I could protect myself online. I would appreciate any advice.

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Bring it up with him, offer to set it up for him (including the configuration on his devices) and you'll end up with a win-win situation.