Useful or useless

It's an odd arrangement--laptops usually have Wi-Fi built in, unless it's really old.

If it's a recent Express (802.11n), you can use it as a client of the public network, and then connect the laptop to it over Ethernet. You will be tethered to the wall, but I guess it beats not having access to the net at all.

If it's an older Express (802.11b/g), you're out of luck--that one can't be used as a client of the public network. You'd need to use WDS, which usually isn't available on public networks.

Steve

I have WiFi Built in to MBP. I usually take the AE with me on these trips because I am away for extended periods in condos with nice stereos. So I usually use it to get music from iTunes to the good stereo. I was watching the Today show and they were talking about The Evils Of Public WiFi. At home I am not as worried because I have my WiFi set-up with a good password. But I was wondering if putting the AE (with password) between the condo's (non-passworded) WiFi and my computer would increase security any.

In short, no. You're only as secure as the weakest link, if you still cross an unsecured part of the network then even if you could set up the AE to do what you want, it wouldn't help.

Okay thanks. Since I am going to be on a non-secure WiFi for a few months, any suggestions about staying saf(er)? The bank site is https: from the get go. Other than that?

Are you sure you need to go to all that trouble? When I use WiFi at McDonalds I often see other 'networks' broadcasting from others who are also using Maccas WiFi, but I am not able to connect to them - a little padlock is shown next to their name.

David - willing to learn

The same rules apply whether you're on a secured network or not, if it's https:// (and you don't ignore any security warnings) you're as secure as the weaker of your computer and the remote server.

Anything that isn't encrypted should be assumed to be publicly accessible, monitored and recorded as such and treated appropriately.

Being on an unsecured wifi connection makes it more likely that someone is snooping (or at least it makes it a heck of a lot easier to snoop), but unless encryption is used, you should always assume someone is snooping and act accordingly.

VPN's are available online. I've used this one:

but there are others found with Google. It's cheap enough, and most have different plans by the day, week, month, et al. Makes wi-fi hunting safe from prying eyes.

Not sure about the AE, but if it works like an ASUS WL-330gE in Hotspot Sharing mode, it amounts to being behind a NAT router.

One would normally use something like that to use on a (free) WiFi internet connection, with just the one available ip address and then sharing the WiFi connection on more than the one computer.

But why not manage with just your Mac OS X firewall?