Referred to as “evil twins,” hot spots that seem legitimate but are operated by a hacker are increasingly popping up in public and semi-public spaces (that free Wi-Fi hotspot named FREE WIFI you found in your hotel room doesn’t sound so good anymore, does it?).  These evil twins can even have legitimate-sounding names, such as “Hilton Hotspot” and can also be found in cafés, airports, parks, and even office buildings.

Many laptops are set to connect to any open network and that can lead to trouble.  Travelers can protect themselves by knowing the network they are connecting to.

What you can do to protect yourself:

• Use a Virtual Private Network (VPN), either through your corporate IT department or services such as JiWire’s HotspotHelper.  VPNs encrypt your online session, making it impenetrable to nearby snoops.
• If in doubt, don’t log into systems requiring a user name and password that could be exposed.
• Don’t rely on the lock icon on your browser; illegitimate Web sites can obtain digital signatures as easily as legitimate sites.
• Watch the Web address.  A hacker could intercept your legitimate request for www.citibank.com and change it to something that might look similar, such as www.cittibank.com, where he collects your user name and password.
• Turn off peer-to-peer networking.
• Turn off “automatically connect to non-preferred networks.”
• Think of public hotspots as shared resources.  If you aren’t using a VPN, restrict your surfing to Web sites and pages that you don’t mind sharing with the gentleman sitting nearby.
• Disable file sharing (in Windows XP, check the Properties tab of your main folders and look for the Sharing tab).
• Make sure you are using a firewall, a feature that is included in recent Windows and Mac operating systems.

Even known systems run by hotels and conference venues can be insecure.  More on that in coming weeks.

–Jonathan B. Spira is the Editor of Executive Road Warrior and Chief Analyst at Basex, a knowledge economy research firm.

Once in Beijing, having dinner with my hosts, I immediately tell them that I need a Lenovo store in order to have them install the wireless card.  The next day, after a flurry of phone calls, three Chinese gentlemen show up at my door.  Only one of them speaks English.  He takes out his tool kit and according to my memory of IBM’s instructions (which I repeat to him), he takes out the 4 keyboard screws and 9 palm rest screws with his special screwdriver.  The keyboard comes off easily, but the palm rest board does not follow suit.  He works on it for 25 minutes but it will not budge and neither of us can figure it out.  Finally he just gently lifts it up so he does not break the plastic and is then able to swap out the wireless card.  He puts it all back but it still refuses to function.  He then takes his portable USB drive, goes to a business next door, accesses the Internet, downloads a new driver from the Lenovo site, hooks up his portable drive to my laptop, installs the new driver, and voilà, I am immediately able to access my WLAN connection.  Total cost for the two hour on-site English speaking visit?  RMB 180, or $23.25. Priceless? Well, almost.

Ellen Pearlman is a contributor to Executive Road Warrior and a senior analyst at Basex.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005, 11,000 m over Europe
As soon as we reached cruising altitude, my computer detected Wi-Fi and I logged into FlyNet.  Seat power outlets are conveniently located and I had a choice of U.S. or the European Schuko connection systems.  I started off with simple chores, such as checking the news (I decided NOT to grab a handful of newspapers as I boarded, opting – hoping – to see the more current online versions).

With Lotus Notes replicating my mail and other databases in the background, I started receiving Sametime instant messages from colleagues.  Briefly put, my initial experience (discounting last week’s flight) with FlyNet was very positive.  Granted, it was relatively slow (I did several speed tests and it was marginally faster than GPRS) but we WERE, after all, at 11,000 m cruising along at 860 km/h.

After reading some e-mail, I called home using Skype (quality was decent), checked my voicemail, upgraded iTunes, did some online banking – in short, nothing extraordinary, absent the venue.

The author, connected to the Internet on board Lufthansa Flight 410 to JFK

My neighbor in seat 3J, Frau Frowein, lives in Munich and was visiting New York for the first time.  She had some questions for me about things to do, so I suggested we look online at some information about events for the upcoming week in New York – another good use for FlyNet.  I also recommended a concert at Carnegie Hall, so we looked at the program and she and I booked a ticket for her for a concert with Hilary Hahn.  We also e-mailed her daughter (Frau Frowein had never used e-mail before).

About 3 hours into the flight, I briefly lost the connection but the service was flawless from that point forward.

Last Tuesday’s flight took place entirely during business hours in the United States.  We departed at 15:15 local time, which is 09:15 in New York.  We landed at 18:25 New York time.  This represents an entire day – and given the pace at which the knowledge economy moves – missing one day is more than many can afford.

–Jonathan B. Spira is the Editor of Executive Road Warrior and Chief Analyst at Basex, a knowledge economy research firm.

But I digress.

I’m going to Munich for several reasons, including client meetings and to participate in BMW’s European Delivery program.  The trip also presents an opportunity for me to finally test the Lufthansa FlyNet service (powered by Connexion by Boeing).  Earlier this year, Lufthansa added the service to New York flights; it had been available on the Los Angeles – Munich route for over a year now.

Before boarding the aircraft, I stop in the Lufthansa Senator Lounge for a snack and a drink.  For a variety of reasons (see further down), I am glad I do.   I open my laptop, briefly scan some news and e-mail messages, and board the flight.

By the time I board, we are already 30 minutes delayed due to thunderstorms in the area.  After boarding, we wait almost two hours for takeoff due to a backlog of 60 aircraft.  I’m glad I had that snack as it is 22:30 before we take off and the flight crew doesn’t start the meal service until almost an hour later.

Wednesday, 9 November 2005, 11,000 m and 860 km/h
I plug my laptop into the convenient seat outlet (the outlet accepts American and European Schuko connection systems) and – nothing.  No Wi-Fi.  No signal.  I ask the purser as she happens by, and her response is simple and to the point: “es ist kaput.”

Given the late hour, and the fact that I have fairly early meetings scheduled, I must confess, that I am not too distressed.

Lufthansa’s flat beds are quite comfy and I am able to get in about 4 hours of sleep before breakfast.  When I awake, I assume we only have one hour of flight left as we had definitely made up lost time in flight.  Unfortunately, just as we finish breakfast, the captain announces that, due to a dense fog (something not uncommon this time of year in Munich), we have to circle.  We do this for ca. 45 additional minutes, making our arrival time 11:45.

Thursday, 10 November 2005, Munich, Germany
The original plan called for me to proceed to BMW’s Freimann Delivery Center for my car (for the curious reader, I will be happy to provide greater detail; however, since this is not a column for Motor Trend, I am limiting my comments to explaining that the car is a BMW 330xi, in Sparkling Graphite, and yes, it has Bluetooth).  A driver was waiting for me at the airport, and we arrive quickly enough, but by then, my schedule is off by 90 minutes.

One of my scheduled meetings was with Herrn Helmut Pöschl and a few colleagues of his who are working on the BMW Welt program.  Herr Thomas Roller, the director of BMW’s delivery center, offers to take me to my meeting first and we speed off in a very fast 130i.  We don’t make it back until 17:30 (more on BMW Welt in an upcoming column) and the Center is empty.  Herr Roller himself does the delivery and off I go to my “Stammhotel” – the Holiday Inn - on the Leopoldstraße.

Met at the door by the manager, Herr Klein, who is very happy to see me and wants to give me an Internet report; specifically, he wants to accompany me to my room to ensure that my room has a working Net connection.  “How has the Internet connectivity been working?” I enquire.  His reply: “It is now in the hands of our lawyers, as we are unable to get the service provider (Swisscom) to keep the system up and running.”

First room, nothing.  Second room, the “Hunting Suite” (hunting lodge decor, no dead animals on the wall, happily), nothing.  Third room, the Confetti Suite (please don’t ask) – we have connectivity.

TO BE CONTINUED

–Jonathan B. Spira is the Editor of Executive Road Warrior and Chief Analyst at Basex, a knowledge economy research firm.

Lotusphere 2004, Lotus Development Corp.’s mammoth customer event, started today (this article is being written on Sunday, the 25th of January), as it does every year at this time.  Traditionally, thousands of Lotus customers, business partners and members of the media descend on Walt Disney World, concentrating on the Dolphin and Swan hotels.

This year, I’m staying at the Swan which late last year, along with the Dolphin, implemented broadband Internet access in all of its guest rooms.  Best of all, it’s free as it is included in the $10 per diem resort fee, which remained at the pre-broadband price.  After settling into their rooms, guests enjoyed speedy access to the Net, that is until the Lotusphere opening party wrapped and all the IBMers went back to their rooms.  At that point, my 1995 vintage 1200 baud modem would have been faster.  But whereas I would normally chalk that up to beginner’s, uh, luck, the same thing happened last year.

Today, I arrived in my suite just as the party was fizzling out.  I wasn’t suffering from Web or e-mail withdrawal, thanks to the variety of Bluetooth-enabled devices (laptop, PDA) which utilize my mobile for GPRS access.  But I did want to look at a few high-bandwidth Web sites so I connected to the hotel’s network.

Big mistake.

Something was dramatically wrong as even the Swan/Dolphin commercial page that loaded after the legal “accept” page didn’t make it past 4%.  So I called the help line.  “The Internet is actually broken,” I was told.  “Our servers are down so there’s no access.”  But I had access, albeit slow, I helpfully explained.  “They’re working on it” was the reply.  I thought about this for about two seconds and rang up the front desk manager, Jonathan, a cheerful chap who assured me that he had been on the Web earlier and hadn’t detected a problem – while at the same time advising that we all shared the same T1.  I think Jonathan hit on the root of the problem, as one T1 line couldn’t possibly be sufficient for all these guest rooms – especially given the number of high tech conferences taking place here.  But he checked on what I had been told and rang me back.  He was very apologetic, assuring me that the Internet, indeed, was “not broken.”  He even credited me a day and a half in resort fees, promising me the situation would improve.  [Did I mention that, while I was connected to the hotel's network, my computer received an RPC shutdown command that restarted the system - three times?]

So if anyone thinks that the high tech industry has made any great leaps in the hospitality industry over the past year, kindly give pause and rethink that thought.

Now I leave you with Jonathan’s final advice to me: “It might be faster if you use a phone line and dial an ISP.”  I wasn’t going to tell him about Bluetooth and GPRS, but that, dear reader, thanks to my belt and suspenders approach to Net access, is how you got to read this story.

–Jonathan B. Spira is the Editor of Executive Road Warrior and Chief Analyst at Basex, a knowledge economy research firm.