Question New hard drive, I use hotel wifi alot, what do you recommend for solid security in windows 10 pro?

[Harper917]

Im a cheapskate so i tend to only use free programs. I only buy if its really worth it

Ive got this free anti spyware, and avast free download atm along with windows own free security that comes with windows 10

 

[kanewolf]

Im a cheapskate so i tend to only use free programs. I only buy if its really worth it

Ive got this free anti spyware, and avast free download atm along with windows own free security that comes with windows 10

Why do you believe you are more at risk with hotel WIFI ? It probably depends on the country you are in more than being in a hotel.
Ensure you have a software firewall on your device to exclude unsolicited traffic.

 

[Harper917]

Why do you believe you are more at risk with hotel WIFI ? It probably depends on the country you are in more than being in a hotel.
Ensure you have a software firewall on your device to exclude unsolicited traffic.

3rd world counties, dont u get a free software firewall with windows 10 anyway?

 

[Secret-Squirrel]

I use hotel wifi alot, what do you recommend for solid security​

Virtually all the websites you visit will use HTTPS so everything will be encrypted on your device before it's sent over the free WiFi so you've nothing to worry about. The same should apply to your email client which should also be using secure protocols as well to encrypt everything in both directions.

You don't need any extra security on your device when using hotel/airport etc WiFi connections.

 

[hotaru.hino]

A "few" things to do:

• Stay up to date with the OS. It doesn't matter if you do any of the following if you're using an outdated version that has a severe security hole.
• Windows has a firewall that's enabled by default.
• Make sure random hardware address in Windows is enabled: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...-windows-ac58de34-35fc-31ff-c650-823fc48eb1bc
• Use a Windows account that's a Standard User one and has no ties to your Microsoft account.
• By default, Windows will treat Wi-Fi as a public network, which limits how much the OS exposes to the rest of the network. Just make sure that when you connect to a Wi-Fi network that Windows still treats it as a public one. You can see this in Settings > Network & Internet > Status
• Check your web browser to see if can force HTTPS on every site. Otherwise install the HTTPS Everywhere plugin.
• Use a different DNS service such as Cloudflare DNS, Google DNS, or OpenDNS. Search for those terms with "IP" to get the IP addresses (you only need them from one provider), then set Windows up to use them: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-change-your-pcs-dns-settings-windows-10
  • The reason to do this is to make sure your computer is using a "trusted" DNS server, rather than whatever the router says (which is supposed to be the ISP's DNS server, but it could point to a compromised one)
  • In addition, enable DNS over HTTPS: https://winaero.com/how-to-enable-dns-over-https-in-windows-10/

One thing you won't need is a VPN. You may see ads on YouTube saying how a VPN protects your internet traffic from people if you're on public Wi-Fi. However, HTTPS already encrypts the contents of what you're sending out to the web and what comes back to your computer. So a VPN for that purpose has no real added value.