One of the features that we are considering offering is free wifi internet access. We have already set our router and printer to wired access only, but have any of you had issues with leaving your office computers on the same network as your public access? I know it would be possible to get into computers, but have you found that customers have the time/motivation to actually attempt a malicious attack?
15 years
Another option might be to get an Apple Airport Extreme, which has an option for guests to access the wifi in a sandbox environment apparently. I haven't used this feature myself, as I have 2 separate networks, but they are great wifi routers. Info here.
15 years
I never have been a fan of Apple... I used a dual quad-core Mac Pro (that's right... 8 cores!) when I did research back at UC Berkeley and I had so many frustrations with it that I refuse to use Macs unless I absolutely have to.
15 years
We have free wifi and have never had a problem with malicious attacks. As long as you have the main PC in the office behind a firewall and not on a a network other than using the internet (ie not using file and printer sharing) I don't think you'll have a problem. Put it this way - you're probably in just as much or more danger just having a PC connected to the internet. I doubt many guests could be bothered - they are too busy updating their facebook pages.
15 years
We have free wifi and have never had a problem with malicious attacks. As long as you have the main PC in the office behind a firewall and not on a a network other than using the internet (ie not using file and printer sharing) I don't think you'll have a problem. Put it this way - you're probably in just as much or more danger just having a PC connected to the internet. I doubt many guests could be bothered - they are too busy updating their facebook pages.
See, this is what I thought, but we also have a network printer that's plugged into our router. I'm guessing that I'll have to either plug the printer directly into the computer and not share it or just set up two different networks.
15 years
It probably depends what kind of datas you have on your computer.
But your router potects you much better from the internet than a firewall from any computer who is connected to the same router and this way in the the same network as you. I am surprised you can get away with one computer and one printer though. Is there no other computer at reception or so? Also don't you think you are going to have private informations from your guests on your computer you need to protect. At the end it's up to you, but I would not take the risk. It is easier than you think.
15 years
It probably depends what kind of datas you have on your computer.
But your router potects you much better from the internet than a firewall from any computer who is connected to the same router and this way in the the same network as you. I am surprised you can get away with one computer and one printer though. Is there no other computer at reception or so? Also don't you think you are going to have private informations from your guests on your computer you need to protect. At the end it's up to you, but I would not take the risk. It is easier than you think.
At the moment we plan on having one computer at the front desk because we are a smaller-sized hostel (only 30 beds). The data I'm talking about protecting are billing, invoices, reservation schedule, and anything else we plan on having on the main computer.
15 years
We have free wifi and have never had a problem with malicious attacks. As long as you have the main PC in the office behind a firewall and not on a a network other than using the internet (ie not using file and printer sharing) I don't think you'll have a problem. Put it this way - you're probably in just as much or more danger just having a PC connected to the internet. I doubt many guests could be bothered - they are too busy updating their facebook pages.
Same for us. Printer is plugged in directly in computer. If guests need to print anything, they come to reception and do it.
15 years
Having the office and reception PCs on one network and the hostel WiFi system for guests on a separate line has worked really well for us.
The only problem has been sometimes that too many guests have wanted to log in to the WiFi system at the same time and this has slowed the internet speed for other guests who are logged-in at the same time.
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