My family and I will be living in Paris for 6 weeks this summer. Although we are bringing a laptop, we do not have internet access in our apartment. We do, however, have a library directly across the street which has free wifi, which we have used on occasion in the past for emailing, weather checks, address look ups, etc, but nothing where security was a concern. I was wondering whether the library wifi is secure access to the internet, appropriate for online baking, paying bills, etc. Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.

Many thanks

Online baking sounds a bit dangerous to me

Oops! That's "banking"

An ethernet connection is an ethernet connection.

If your banking site uses https (encrypted) transactions, you're as safe in a library as you are at home - as long as you use your own computer. Never use public computers for sensitive traffic.

In either place, you must have a firewall and a virus checker running.

Thank you for your help. I will make sure that my virus protection and firewall are in place and running. I think I may subscribe to a VPN for added security.

A VPN is a way of securing the connection between a remote computer (your laptop) and a host computer (typically your office).

Other than that, you don't need one.

Here's a website with all the places w/ free wifi access in Paris
www.wifi.paris.fr

Robespierre,
I admit that I am no expert in computers at all and I thank you for your help. I was under the impression that VIN software like JiWire Hotspot Helper would automatically encrypt everything I do on my laptop (which in Paris I would be doing on a public wifi)...is that not correct/or necessary for my use?

plafield, do you have a link to that same site that's in English? When I clicked on the EN up in the corner, it took me to a different page.

Or perhaps they don't want English-speaking visitors to know where their free Wi-fi is?

Hmmm...I looked around the site for an English translation of the wifi info but couldn't find it either, so I surfed the page in French. Here's a link to the addresses of the location wifi hot spots in each arondissement. The addresses would be the same in French or English. Hope this helps.

http://tinyurl.com/34rv4t

Additional info: "The service Paris Wi-Fi is accessible to all from 7h to 23h and during the open hours of the equipped public sites such as parks and libraries."