Public Wi-Fi Safety Checklist
Check whether cafe, hotel, airport, campus, or coworking Wi-Fi is safe enough for what you plan to do. Get a practical risk score and next-step checklist before you log in.
Spot risky networks
Check network name, open Wi-Fi, captive portals, and spoofing risk before joining.
Protect logins
Get warnings for banking, admin dashboards, password resets, and other sensitive accounts.
Device aftercare
Remember auto-join, file sharing, updates, logout steps, and forgetting the network after use.
Interactive public Wi-Fi checklist
Check your Wi-Fi safety before logging in
Select where you are, what you plan to do, and which precautions are already in place. The result is practical guidance, not a guarantee of safety.
Precautions checked
* Essentials for ordinary public Wi-Fi safety.
How to use this public Wi-Fi checklist
Choose the public place, activity, device, and how confident you are that the network is genuine. Then tick only the precautions you have actually done.
The score is deliberately cautious. A VPN helps on hostile local networks, but it does not make phishing pages, fake captive portals, compromised devices, or risky account behaviour safe.
Next steps
- Use the Free VPN Risk Checker before trusting a free VPN on public Wi-Fi.
- Open the VPN Buyer Checklist if you need a safer travel VPN.
- Compare paid options in the VPN comparison tool.