Wireless interwebs help - looking at you ollllo

SWMBO brought her laptop and it turns out our condo has wireless internet. We usually only use our home wireless network. Is this safe to use? Are there risks we shouldn't take? The reason I ask is we need to sign our kids up for swimming lessons (like getting into Harvard here) and you have to sign up in the first 30 seconds the classes are offered. Is it safe to use our credit card info. over such a unsecured network?

I personally wouldnt because I am paranoid about wireless security, but I can not back it up with facts. Just personal paranoia. I am curious what someone with expirence will say.

I only use public wireless access for casual browsing.

In this case it has 2 strikes against it.
1) I'm sure that there's no encryption. All of your passwords are sent in clear text.
2) Someone you don't know has physical access to the network.

And in your case, casual browsing is kind of iffy if you value looking your condo super in the eye.

Here's our dilemma: swmbo was planning on heading out to a Starbucks and using a one-day T-Mobile wireless account to sign up for and pay for these swim classes. Is there any difference in security doing this? If not, we might as well just risk it here?

We also only use one CC for online transactions with a real low limit.
That make it easier to mitigate. CC aren't your biggest worry because they have some fraud protections. Your bank account and your email (which can be used to reset passwords, etc) are your biggest exposure.

Orpheus said:

Here's our dilemma: swmbo was planning on heading out to a Starbucks and using a one-day T-Mobile wireless account to sign up for and pay for these swim classes. Is there any difference in security doing this? If not, we might as well just risk it here?

Click to expand...

I think my last post addresses the risk to the CC. I have no firsthand knowledge about which network exposes you the most.