That cheap wifi router at the coffee shop in Denver taught me a lesson

I was working from a coffee shop near Union Station last week and noticed their free wifi was asking for my full name and phone number to connect. I typed in "Mickey Mouse" and a fake number and it worked anyway (hint hint, don't give real info to public hotspots). Has anyone else seen these excessive login requirements popping up in cafes around town?

3 comments

3 Comments

evannelson2mo ago

Dude I live in Denver and that exact coffee shop near Union Station got me last month. They asked for my email too so I just put in "totallyrealemail@notreal.com" and it let me right through. The crazy thing is half of these places dont even encrypt their traffic so anyone sitting nearby can see what youre doing. I watched a guy log into his bank account on their wifi once and it scared me straight. Now I just use a vpn whenever I hop on public wifi, even if its a legit looking network. Its wild how lax people get just because they want free internet with their latte.

ivan_fisher992mo ago

Same here man, its scary how easy that stuff is to steal.

troy4391mo ago

I hear you but I gotta push back a little. I think people get way too paranoid about public wifi. I mean yeah if you're logging into your bank account on a network called "Free Coffee Shop Wifi" with no password, thats asking for trouble. But most of these cafes use the same basic encryption as your home network. Ive been using public wifi for years to check email and scroll social media and never had an issue. And honestly if someone really wants your credit card number they can get it a dozen easier ways than sitting in a coffee shop with a packet sniffer. The whole VPN thing feels like overkill for most people just trying to check the weather or read the news.