How to safely browse on an open wireless network

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I am doing a fair amount of travelling at the moment and the only internet access I have access to is from public open networks (shopping malls, internet cafes, etc). However, I need to access my bank, email, paypal and various online accounts. What precautions should I take to make sure no one nabs my password? Unfortunately I don't really have any other choice (in Philippines at the moment!)
 
https websites are secure-ish..

An alternative would be to get a VPS up and running and then SSH tunnel into it and route all your traffic through it. It'd be pretty watertight.
 
Can you point me to any sort of guide to do this? I could also buy a WRT54GL and connect to the network through that and to the laptop with a cable if that will help matters at all?
 
I could also buy a WRT54GL and connect to the network through that and to the laptop with a cable if that will help matters at all?

No, that won't help. I'm sure there are web based services that allow you to VPN into for secure browsing. They're not free mind.
 
I don't mind paying if it's not too expensive and if it will secure my browsing on almost any open network.Will it impact speed? Philipino internet is already pretty shoddy
 
When I am abroad or away from home etc I just VPN back to my home network and route all the traffic down it. Free and secure also has the added bonus of being able to access iplayer/ITV streaming etc from overseas. Also works fine with my laptop teathered to a iphone over 3g.
 
I'd use SSH tunneling (Google will show some guides through PuTTY, it's very straightforward). All you need is a box somewhere running sshd (Pretty much any Linux box).
 
Basically I just need some way to securely browse my emails, bank, ebay and paypal. Anything else (downloads, general browsing and gaming) can be done on the normal unsecured network.
 
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