Able to tell if on a public vs. private wifi connection

[Iceman39]

Hello everyone!

I hope you are all having a good day.

I have a question to which I have been given conflicting answers.

If I am logged into my company's portal to do work, could they know for sure if I am using private or public wifi to connect to the internet?

Secondly, if I am overseas, can I be fairly certain they won't know if I'm in another country if I use a VPN? I am told mostly yes on this one, if the VPN provider is reliable. They prefer that work is done on North American soil.

I would appreciate any feedback.

[Geek-9pm]

You really need to talk to a workmate lyour trust. Trying to sidesstep yuour companies Internet policy is not a good idea.
A trusted workmatre might tell you if the company does not enforce or monitor the policy. Many Internet Servie Providers will give you a connection that is secure and not available to your companies inspection, unless you have already consented to such a thing.

Depending on the kind of work you do, you may be able to do ssome, if not all, lyou work offline. When at a public Wi-Fi, yhou can use a firewall to prevent others from looking intoyour computer. Or, just use another computer when travelling. Make it a bare machine tghat has no personal information or files used in your work. Also, in windows you can password protect a directory to make it hard for an intgrutder to see yuour work. Other OS has similar features.

If you need to send afile over the Intgernet, consider using a secure cloud servier. Most of theres can used anywhere in the world if you have the password for lyour private cloud service.
Here is a recent news item about Clloud service on the Internet.
How do cloud services platforms compare?

This includes Azure’s heavy investing into big data, while also taking steps to ensure that its users are able to develop on whichever infrastructure suits them best. If you think Microsoft Azure isn’t on board with Docker, think again. In particular, Microsoft Azure has also made strides within the open source community, releasing a certification for Linux on Azure in late 2015.

Whenever you conect to a cloud service, theconnection is secure and hard to intercept. Even if the Wi-Fi has been compromised, the transmission is encryted when connected to a good cloud service.
IMO, a good cloud service is your best option to protect your privacy in a resonable way. 

[Iceman39]

You really need to talk to a workmate lyour trust. Trying to sidesstep yuour companies Internet policy is not a good idea.
A trusted workmatre might tell you if the company does not enforce or monitor the policy. Many Internet Servie Providers will give you a connection that is secure and not available to your companies inspection, unless you have already consented to such a thing.

Depending on the kind of work you do, you may be able to do ssome, if not all, lyou work offline. When at a public Wi-Fi, yhou can use a firewall to prevent others from looking intoyour computer. Or, just use another computer when travelling. Make it a bare machine tghat has no personal information or files used in your work. Also, in windows you can password protect a directory to make it hard for an intgrutder to see yuour work. Other OS has similar features.

If you need to send afile over the Intgernet, consider using a secure cloud servier. Most of theres can used anywhere in the world if you have the password for lyour private cloud service.
Here is a recent news item about Clloud service on the Internet.
How do cloud services platforms compare?Whenever you conect to a cloud service, theconnection is secure and hard to intercept. Even if the Wi-Fi has been compromised, the transmission is encryted when connected to a good cloud service.
IMO, a good cloud service is your best option to protect your privacy in a resonable way. 

I very much appreciate your response and all the valuable info you gave me.

Would a VPN be worth my time then?

I just don't understand how an employer would know if you're using public or private wifi when working on their site. I'm far from being a computer scientist. LOL.

This policy isn't strictly enforced anyways. It's just what they say.

[BC_Programmer]

If you are accessing it through a website, then there is no reliable way for them to tell from the server side.

If it is a policy then you should abide by it. "If they can't find out, then I'm allowed" doesn't seem to be a wise approach to this.

[Iceman39]

I thank you very much BC_programmer for your post. It has been helpful.

But the question wasn't whether I should or should not do this (I know this risks), but rather, how is it possible? I want to know the networking science behind it, and if it's possible.

What bothers me about technology and science is that we're all kept in the dark. And when we computer science illiterates try to find out a why or a how to something as it pertains to the subject, we get chastised to keep us further in the dark. Besides, it's no skin off your back to tell me up front (yes, I understand that you may have been telling me not to break the rules for my own good).  And none of us is the saint behind closed doors as we appear at times in the public forum. All of us break rules at times - it's inevitable. It's like lying - sometimes you just have to in order to survive.

[patio]

Point being when it comes to workplace rules...however inane we cannot and do not advise on skirting them for liability reasons...

[Iceman39]

Point being when it comes to workplace rules...however inane we cannot and do not advise on skirting them for liability reasons...

Gotcha!

But I am interested in how it's possible to know such a thing, even if I have no intentions of breaking a rule. That's a fair question.

[Allan]

Sorry, but we prefer not to respond. I'm sure there are lots of other forums that would be willing to help. I'm going to lock this thread at this point.