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My coffee shop's public wifi gave me a scare last year
I was working at this spot in Denver, the one on 17th with the good scones... and I logged into my bank account to pay a bill. A few days later, I got an alert about a login from a city I've never been to. It hit me that I'd used their open network without a VPN. I spent a whole weekend changing every password I could think of and setting up 2FA on everything. Now, I keep a cheap travel router in my bag. I set it up once to connect to public wifi, and then all my devices just talk to the router. It adds a little buffer. Has anyone else found a simple, physical gadget like that helps them feel safer on the go?
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aaronw596mo ago
That "physical fix for a digital problem" idea reminds me of putting tape over my laptop webcam.
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ward.diana6mo ago
My cousin swears by those little travel routers too. He said it's the easiest layer of protection he's added.
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matthew_walker5mo ago
Oh man, this whole thread is making me remember my old boss! He was so paranoid about hotel Wi-Fi he'd bring his own little router and a 100-foot ethernet cable. The image of him crawling around the hotel room floor to plug into the wall jack was just hilarious. It felt like overkill at the time, but honestly, he was probably onto something way before the rest of us. Makes that little travel router look super simple and tidy in comparison!
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the_hayden6mo ago
Used to think those travel routers were overkill for normal people. Reading your story and seeing ward.diana's comment about her cousin changed my mind. It's not just for tech experts. A cheap gadget that adds a real buffer between you and a sketchy network makes total sense. That's a physical fix for a digital problem, and I like that. I'm ordering one today.
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