Two longtime co-workers pinged me with intertwined although unrelated questions about connecting to freely accessible Wi-Fi hotspot networks.

Sean Captain was looking into a planned New York deployment of Wifi kiosks that would make use of a not-new, but not-yet-extensively-used risk-free method of connecting. I’d heard about the standard several years back, and just since; this new network may be big enough, well-put enough, and useful to enough folks to prompt more adoption.

The risky protection of Comcast
Comcast began building out a national Wi-Fi hotspot footprint accessible at no cost to its subscribers several years back. This was an endeavor to make their service more precious beyond one’s house use, and followed by Cablevision on a pioneering attempt. Over time, multiple independent cable operators have constructed Wifi networks of varying size, and the majority of them enable roaming among them as long as you are a customer of a single network.

Using your own cable provider’s network may be clear-cut: The very first time you connect to any called hotspot (like Comcast’s xfinitywifi), you are prompted for your subscriber qualifications. Once you have logged in, you need to automatically connect without that login later on. That login occurs but it does not create an encrypted connection between the hotspot and your iOS or other apparatus. Instead, it merely ensures you are a valid subscriber.

By Choice common public Wifi networks (i.e., hotspots) are by definition untrustworthy. This does not mean they shouldn’t be used by you; instead, you can not trust that they are what they say they’re or that your traffic is shielded.

For example, they can poison DNS (the international domain name lookup system) to point your browser, email client, or programs to an illegitimate website. If this other website uses internet or similar encryption, applications or your OS will warn you, but some individuals could be lulled into clicking to avoid the warning.