Running Bitcoin core over public wifi

[Blue_Panda73]

Online wallet is not secure for large amount of bitcoins. I would save most coins in my local wallet.

[1715610896]

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[Duomo]

Yeah I would definitely use a light wallet like electrum.  You don't have to bother with all the syncing.

Here's a link to the electrum wallet download.
https://electrum.org/#download

-Aglacan

This is agreed. Remember that Bitcoin Core-QT has to sync blocks and every single transaction that are present in the ledger.
Multibit HD and Electrum are the way to go if you don't wish to wait to conduct transaction.
But Bitcoin Core-QT is the original "Satoshi" wallet if you want to keep that in mind, I recommend using it 100% if you have hard drive space and time to wait for the sync.

[Blue_Panda73]

Yeah I would definitely use a light wallet like electrum.  You don't have to bother with all the syncing.

Here's a link to the electrum wallet download.
https://electrum.org/#download

-Aglacan

This is agreed. Remember that Bitcoin Core-QT has to sync blocks and every single transaction that are present in the ledger.
Multibit HD and Electrum are the way to go if you don't wish to wait to conduct transaction.
But Bitcoin Core-QT is the original "Satoshi" wallet if you want to keep that in mind, I recommend using it 100% if you have hard drive space and time to wait for the sync.

We need a lot of core clients running so that the wallet service is not centralised. If all of us use online wallet, the network is centralised.

[shanerc563]

Your activity should not have much of an effect on other users, however I would not recommend updating the initial information through wifi, you will be there forever.  I think you would be safe for now, for there are not to many people looking to hack public wifi bitcoin access, just my opinion though.

[Jet Cash]

Your activity should not have much of an effect on other users, however I would not recommend updating the initial information through wifi, you will be there forever.  I think you would be safe for now, for there are not to many people looking to hack public wifi bitcoin access, just my opinion though.

Thanks for the warning. I'm considering using a dead mobile as offline storage. Dead as in without a network connection of course.

[shorena]

Your activity should not have much of an effect on other users, however I would not recommend updating the initial information through wifi, you will be there forever.  I think you would be safe for now, for there are not to many people looking to hack public wifi bitcoin access, just my opinion though.

Thanks for the warning. I'm considering using a dead mobile as offline storage. Dead as in without a network connection of course.

There is nothing to hack, the data is verified locally if its modified it will be discarded. If I wanted to get hold of a bitcoin wallet I would not sit at a McD for a week either. Its more likely that you are targeted in general over a public WiFi (e.g. your Windows) than a targeted attack on full nodes. Finding full nodes is easy online, why go to a place where the chance is smaller than finding a block with a CPU?

[Jet Cash]

I'm on a domestic connection in the Somerset countryside. The connection is made using overhead copper wire. I'm having more trouble here than I had in MacD. It's a lot better since I disabled everything I could find in Windows 10. The Cromebook is better. but I decided that trying to run Bitcoin core over public WiFi on a Chromebook, whilst it appears technically possible, was not a project worthy of the setup time.

[knightkon]

Your activity should not have much of an effect on other users, however I would not recommend updating the initial information through wifi, you will be there forever.  I think you would be safe for now, for there are not to many people looking to hack public wifi bitcoin access, just my opinion though.

Thanks for the warning. I'm considering using a dead mobile as offline storage. Dead as in without a network connection of course.

That is a good idea.  It will hold battery life for a long while and you can connect through wifi when ever you want to use your account.  That is a great idea and I think it trumps my laptop that I keep off the network until I need it.  Not to many people would expect a cell phone that is out of service.

[Blue_Panda73]

Your activity should not have much of an effect on other users, however I would not recommend updating the initial information through wifi, you will be there forever.  I think you would be safe for now, for there are not to many people looking to hack public wifi bitcoin access, just my opinion though.

Thanks for the warning. I'm considering using a dead mobile as offline storage. Dead as in without a network connection of course.

That is a good idea.  It will hold battery life for a long while and you can connect through wifi when ever you want to use your account.  That is a great idea and I think it trumps my laptop that I keep off the network until I need it.  Not to many people would expect a cell phone that is out of service.

But with cell phone, you can only use online wallet. Is that safe?

[xmax]

Your activity should not have much of an effect on other users, however I would not recommend updating the initial information through wifi, you will be there forever.  I think you would be safe for now, for there are not to many people looking to hack public wifi bitcoin access, just my opinion though.

Thanks for the warning. I'm considering using a dead mobile as offline storage. Dead as in without a network connection of course.

That is a good idea.  It will hold battery life for a long while and you can connect through wifi when ever you want to use your account.  That is a great idea and I think it trumps my laptop that I keep off the network until I need it.  Not to many people would expect a cell phone that is out of service.

But with cell phone, you can only use online wallet. Is that safe?

Isn't there a way that you can download a wallet onto your cell phone through wifi or you could download to your computer and then back up to the storage on your cell phone.  I also thought there was a cell phone app you could get to use?  Just wondering.

[shorena]

Your activity should not have much of an effect on other users, however I would not recommend updating the initial information through wifi, you will be there forever.  I think you would be safe for now, for there are not to many people looking to hack public wifi bitcoin access, just my opinion though.

Thanks for the warning. I'm considering using a dead mobile as offline storage. Dead as in without a network connection of course.

That is a good idea.  It will hold battery life for a long while and you can connect through wifi when ever you want to use your account.  That is a great idea and I think it trumps my laptop that I keep off the network until I need it.  Not to many people would expect a cell phone that is out of service.

But with cell phone, you can only use online wallet. Is that safe?

No, e.g. bither has an offline mode for phones.

[b-trading]

Most public wifi is time limit and have privacy policies who tickle high usage of the network. Also the posibilty with abusing the network they stop offering free wifi. Just short term connection would not be a big problem I guess.

how about if there is a free public wifi that have no privacy policy to limited the usage of network is it still secure to still running bitcoin wallet using that public wifi if we considering it from the security issue of our bitcoin wallet

[knightkon]

Why do you want to use a public WIFI?  Unless you do not have internet at home or something like that I would not take the chance in using public WIFI.  There are some people who have nothing better but to break into private systems connected to public WIFI.  Is there a reason behind this?

[Jet Cash]

A cell phone with an expired sim card can still communicate with a notebook. I've got an Alcatel Pixi which I think is rubbish, and I don't feel comfortable using it as a phone. It has bluetooth, USB connectivity, and an SD card slot.

There are many reasons for using public wifi.

1. Living in the country can mean you have to rely on an erratic service utilising overhead copper wire. This can be slow, and affected by high winds.
2. Making Bitcoin exchanges in a public restaurant with WiFi is safer imho. I don't like the idea of online exchanges with wide spreads. This aversion is probably related to my PayPal experiences some years ago.
3. Businessmen on the road, travellers, holidaymakers, yachtsmen, nature photographers, and many others all find an internet connection useful whilst they are away from a home base.

[Jet Cash]

Running a full node seems to be a viable option, although I only run it to syncronize the files. and to stay active for about 15 minutes a couple of times a day. If you are going to use public WiFi long term, then you need to make sure you keep up to date, and synchronize every day. I'm getting a transfer rate of about 30Kb/sec.

One useful side effect is that, by leaving the network traffic analyser on display, I've started a few discussions about Bitcoin with other customers. Some of the MacD staff seem to be interested as well.