Difference between downloading on public wifi and mobile hotspot? (midwest.social)

submitted 3 months ago by clark@midwest.social to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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Not sure if I used the correct terms but what is the difference in security and privacy between downloading from a public wifi (or a closed wifi; with password) and mobile hotspot (sharing 4G/5G data from your phone to your computer)? Which one is recommended or does it not matter?

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[-] darkdemize@sh.itjust.works 34 points 3 months ago

Well, using a mobile hotspot will tie the IP address to your phone, so probably not a great idea if your name is listed on the account. Honestly, just use a quality VPN and you'll be fine with your home connection.

[-] clark@midwest.social 6 points 3 months ago

I also did use a VPN on both mobile and computer. Does that change anything?

[-] tgxn@lemmy.tgxn.net 8 points 3 months ago

Yes a VPN will hide your IP address from the server you're connecting to. The VPN service will still see your IP and may log/record it. You also have to watch out for things like DNS leaks.

[-] Zedstrian@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 3 months ago

Also have to make sure that the public WiFi network one's device is connected to doesn't block VPN connections, as was the case at at least one Walmart I tried using the WiFi at.

[-] tgxn@lemmy.tgxn.net 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Absolutely! Wireguard (for example) uses UDP 51820 (normally) which will mlre than likely be blocked, but that won't stop you from using something like cntlm to proxy it over an allowed port like 443/80. DPI or some intercepting proxies would likely still filter it.