Keeping Public Wi-Fi Secure: A Little Help From Readers
A while back, I did a post on ways to keep your public Wi-Fi sessions secure. In response, readers wrote in with some very good tips of their own. I am always interested to see what readers can teach me. For example, there are more good tips on Microsoft Outlook in the reader comments for this post than I supplied in the original post. Here, I’ll cover a few of the good responses to the public Wi-Fi security item.
Hotspot Shield. One reader wrote in about AnchorFree’s free Hotspot Shield VPN (virtual private network) solution. I had recommended OpenVPN in my post, but after trying Hotspot Shield, I think it’s better for most people who just want a hassle-free VPN. OpenVPN is more configurable and good for VPN-experienced folks, but Hotspot Shield very easily puts your work into an encrypted tunnel where nobody is going to hack you. Hotspot Shield is available free for both Windows and Mac users.
Firefox Profiles. I had mentioned in my post that some applications, such as Gmail, let you log in with an “https” prefix, where the “s” on the end ensures that you get SSL security (http://gmail.google.com is your most secure Gmail login). A reader points out that a good tip for Firefox users who use hotspots a lot is to set up two profiles for Firefox–one dedicated to use in public places. This way, you can keep your public profile set to never auto-enter passwords or add-ons that could disclose passwords–an excellent tip.
In addition to these tips, keep in mind a couple that I had in my previous post about public Wi-Fi security:
Don’t Forget the Firewall. Firewall software, for blocking hackers and other threats, exists within both Windows and Mac OS X, although many people have complaints about the firewall in Windows Vista. The firewall built into Mac OS X is actually very good. Windows users who want to find a good, free solution can go with Zone Alarm Free.
Avoid Using Internet Explorer. Sorry Microsoft, but one of the big reasons people gravitate to browsers like Firefox, Opera and Safari is that they are simply less of a target for hackers, and also have fewer exposed vulnerabilities that can be exploited.
Do you have any good tips on staying secure at public Wi-Fi hotspots?
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Great suggestions, I would also suggest using a secure VPN to encrypt your traffic back to your home, this way no one on the Wifi hotspot your using can understand your traffic.
A good firewall for Mac users is Little Snitch ( http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html )
good firewall for Mac users is Little Snitch ( http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html )
Michael:
Agreed — the VPN setup is really the best way to go. I make it a rule never to interact with client servers in public unless I’m routing through my own (secure) machine.
Still, VPN can be kind of a hassle and isn’t 100 percent safe (basically no solution is 100 percent hacker proof when you’re using public wifi). I ended up getting the EVDO internet plan from Verizon, which is a little pricy at $60 a month, but as far as I know guarantees an encrypted connection wherever you go. Its actually amazingly fast for something that communicates over the cellular networks — fine for development work but I wouldn’t recommend sending gigabytes of data over it at once.
Plus, it also means you can work where free wifi isn’t offered (I take mine up to my roof deck, out of range of my apartment’s WiFi signal, a few times a week). Something to think about. I used to get really frustrated trying to find free, reliable WiFi at coffee shops where I live. Now I just open my laptop and go to.
Good suggestions. I usually opt for a SSH tunnel. I run an OpenSSH server on my under-the-stairs Ubuntu box. If I’m out and about, I use:
putty -D 8000 tim@mybox.com
Then I configure Firefox to use a local SOCKS proxy running on localhost:8000. Voila, instant secure tunnel. Followed by a quick trip to whatismyip.com just to make sure.