Wireless Internet can e-mail be read by others?

Question

I was wondering can someone else can read your e-mail if you are on an wireless internet access hotspot if so how can you stop that from happing .
thanks



I mean over an wireless internet can some one read my e-amils over like gamil or yahoo mail web mail is what i'm asking?

Answer 1

GTB is absoulutely correct. Once you are connected to a hotspot you are then part of their network and it is open for anyone to access it. Some windows products include a network analyser that can read all network traffic and it is not that hard to use. In this scenerio a firewall cannot protect you. In a hardwired environment on the same network we used to clone mac addresses that is find a mac address of the computer we were tracking and any information sent to that computer was also sent to ours. I haven't tried it but I don't see how this could not be done wirelessly.

Answer 2

I think what you mean is, can they intercept and read your WiFi signal?

Technically, it's relatively easy to do so, yes.. but you would need to go to a certain amount of trouble, so, in most cases, nobody will bother.
If somebody is really determined to read your mails, then, yes, they can, if they know how.

On the other hand, your data can be intercepted at any of the very many nodes that it will pass through en route to your correspondent, if somebody is sufficiently interested. It's been compared to mailing a postcard, which every postal employee along the route can read, if they choose.

In general, it's not a good idea to send any information over the net, that you're ashamed of... if you have to, then use some form of encryption.

Answer 3

Anyone connected to the same wireless access hotspot can intercept everything you send to the internet, including your username, password, and anything it sends back to you, like your emails.

However this takes some skill and effort and only works if the site your on is not a secure one. Usually if it is, you'll see either a lock or a key in the bottom of your browser or the address of the website will start with a https:// instead of http://.

Answer 4

Its not that someone would be grabbing just your email. It is a case where unsecured traffic is being flung over an unsecured medium (wi-fi hotspot). If you are using a vpn tunnel to access you corporate media then you "should" be fine. Otherwise if you are hitting pop3 with no encryption between you and the access point.... Well I wouldn't send any secret love letters if I were you. TX

Answer 5

are you a company do you work for the CIA have you got some big secret the rest of the world shouldn't know.NO then who you scared of.
do you have any folders with a hand holding them up. it so thats a shared folder.and if you haven't set up a network or maybe you have. just switch of network connections in services.
no network connection.your not part of a network.
also check in my computer that you are not sharing you drive no not shared ok.

Answer 6

Wireless can be very insecure.

Others on the same network can download and read all folders in your pc that are labeled for network sharing.

If wireless is insecure, people can eavesdrop on your transmissions and copy them but this requires some equipment.

If you are that concerned, don't use wireless.

Answer 7

Normally, it happens rarely. But if you have a very important emails, you should not use the email providers which are having many many people to use it around the world. I can't tell what they are, but I do not use them for my important emails.

Answer 8

no they can only read your emails by hacking into your computer or by having your username and password and downloading them from your isp's mail server. if you have a good firewall and antivirus you have nothing to worry about

Answer 9

Normally, no. If someone connects to your computer can only see your Shared Folder.

Answer 10

for a normal user, its very hard to hack into your mail. So i say usually its impossible.