I am living in a rented flat where the building offers free internet. What I get is an ethernet cable out of the wall. I have put my own access point to get wireless. What I would like to know is how secure this connection is? Ie can the landlord/admin see my traffic, which websites I am accessing etc.. And more importantly am I safe accessing my online banking etc... What if I use hotspot shield? Thanks.

In theory, yes, however in practice how complicated it might be for the landlord depends on what your Ethernet cable is connected to and the design of the flat's network. The wireless portion of your network can be secured using the security features provided by the access point, yet once your traffic gets upstream of the access point it can be packet sniffed by anyone with access to the network equipment. Despite this, your online banking should be secure as most banking sites use an encrypted protocol - HTTPS. A sniffer could still see what bank sites you are visiting, but not the packet contents.

A VPN proxy like HotSpot Shield encrypts all traffic so that it cannot be sniffed by anyone between you and HotSpot Shield. HotSpot Shield itself would still have some access to your traffic.

Hey
I'm in a rented flat too I had the same problem

But they can see what you open TOTALLY CLEAR

But what you should do is go to your start up then control panel then security and put a password on your wireless so that if someone tries to open it asks for your password I hope it workd just in case don't open anything important before you add a password.
(I never wanted to live in a rented house my husband loves it ughhh)
TKM!ST