Using public wifi - making it more secure? VPNs?

A VPN is like a secure tunnel through the internet to a destination where the VPN terminates.

So in some ways they would make the connection more secure. But then websites that require you to log in should be using SSL and have a certificate to authenticate them.

The other things you need to worry about is who else is on the local network trying to attack your machine. In my mind this is the biggest problem you would face. Make sure you have a firewall and a fully patched OS!
 
Vpn is the only safe way to use it sadly (mostly thanks to insufficient security on web sites/unsecured web mail etc.). Hence most av companies offer secure vpns as standard now.
 
gameover said:
Hi,
What are the options for making public wifi connections more secure?
VPNs?

how do they work? is it like a proxy?
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Wifi cafes you are prone to man in the middle attacks and proxy's revealing anything in plain text and even some encrypted data.

If you can establish a vpn to a trusted source and route all your traffic that way its means your local traffic is secured even to other people on the local lan.

I do this myself like below.

Me > SLL VPN > Encrypted > Public wifi point > internet > home > unencrypt > internet > porn.

Note that it only means you are secure between your self and the destination of the VPN. It doesn't mean that you secure plain text passwords and the internet, it merely means someone running a packet capture locally in the internet cafe will be encrypted.
 
What i run for the benefit of our office staff is two VPNs - one which re-routes the default gateway that they can use on public access WiFi so they know all their personal traffic and browsing is encrypted and safe too.
 
Azuse05 said:
Vpn is the only safe way to use it sadly (mostly thanks to insufficient security on web sites/unsecured web mail etc.). Hence most av companies offer secure vpns as standard now.
Click to expand...

What companies provide these services? I had a google, couldn't find anything
 
GeForce said:
SSH tunnel to somewhere you trust perhaps?
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How does that work?
i ssh (via putty), and change some setting so it acts as a proxy? then in firefox/etc i put 127.0.0.1 as the proxy?

is there any way to force it to go through a proxy (or something like a proxy) system wide? otherwise it means setting up mirc, msn, firefox, icq, chrome, outlook, etc etc with the proxy settings
 
So you SSH and set up a Tunnel (under the SSH menu) to DynamicForward a port, e.g. 8010.

Then in firefox you set a SOCKS proxy for all URIs to localhost:8010.

If you're going to be using it a lot then an extension like FoxyProxy Basic or QuickProxy will make your life easier.

Not sure about doing it system wide - I know it's possible on Linux and probably OS X, but not sure on Windows. Try a tool like ProxyCap perhaps?
 
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