Free VPN Solutions for Securing Your Public Wi-Fi Sessions
August 17th, 2007 (4:00pm) Samuel Dean 38 CommentsTweet This
In my previous post on the topic of how users of public Wi-Fi services can keep their sessions secure, I mentioned a couple of VPN (virtual private network) offerings that cost from $30 to about $100 a year. There are also a number of good free VPN offerings that will keep public Wi-Fi users safe. I’ll run through several of the best ones in this post. If you use free Wi-Fi service at all, definitely go with a VPN. It runs totally in the background after you sign in, and gives you a private, encrypted tunnel for your data and communications when on a public wireless connection.
Whether you use Windows, a Mac, or Linux, OpenVPN is probably your simplest, most robust way–among the free products–to secure your Wi-Fi sessions. The download takes seconds, and OpenVPN works with Windows Vista. OpenVPN is a long-standing open-source project, so while you won’t get the support you receive if you pay for a VPN, it is a very solid product that shouldn’t provide any compatibility problems.
One of the readers of my previous post on securing public Wi-Fi sessions wrote in with positive comments about a freeware VPN software offering known as iPig (iOpus Private Internet Gateway), from iOpus. You can find an excellent discussion about it, as well as discussions of the Hamachi freeware VPN offering from LogMeIn, and OpenVPN online.
IPig is a simple download, and from any public hotspot you get encrypted access to all your applications through a secure server. It’s only for Windows at this point, but many people who want a free VPN solution have praised it, including security guru Steve Gibson.
As I mentioned in my previous post, in addition to running VPN software, regular users of public Wi-Fi services should run firewall software in addition to VPN software. For Mac users, the firewall that is built-in to Mac OS X by default is excellent. Windows users can go with their built-in firewall software, but I prefer Zone Alarm Free, which, true to its name, costs nothing.
One other thing to keep in mind during public Wi-Fi sessions is that you can often ensure a secure session in a particular web application by using the prefix “https” in the URL you use. For example, if you’re going into GMail, use the URL https://mail.google.com to ensure a completely secure session, even as you login. The https prefix is a combination of normal http interaction and an encrypted Secure Socket Layer (SSL) or Transport Layer Security (TLS) connection. SSL is the most widespread encryption standard in the world–in all the browsers.
And that should do it for you, public Wi-Fi users. A few simple, free downloads can keep the hackers at bay, even down at the cafe. The download and installation of these tools are really worth the few minutes they will cost you.
Do you have any security tips for public Wi-Fi users?
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This is a major issue and a big, big problem. Thanks for writing about it and offering simple (and Free!) solutions. Public Wi-Fi’s allow modern day pick pockets to steal from unknowing users and this problem is going to get a lot worse before is gets better.
If I can share my $0.02c and you have a handy SSH Server nearby, I”d suggest Bitvise Tunnerlier. Works like a charm, and now it does have a personal edition.
If you know the nuts and bolts of setting up a dynamic SOCKS5 Proxy, you don’t even need to bother yourself with that “administrative permissions” cr*ap. :)
wrt my previous comment:
s/personal/portable/
shame on me :)
personalvpn from http://www.witopia.net and hotspotvpn.com’s hotspotvpn2 product are both based on openVPN. openVPN is considered to be one of the best (if not *the* best) VPNs out there, but I believe it’s way too complex to set up for anyone without some serious technical chops. Better to go with one of the above services and get the set up and support.
In tune with the https tip you gave, you can also do the same thing for email. If you are not using gmail or hotmail but are using POP/IMAP you can configure your email program to connect via secure protocols most commonly SSL or TLS.
This is recommended as otherwise the mail you are sending or receiving will be unencrypted. Usually not such a big deal but sometimes you get password reminders or registration confirmations by email.
Wow! Hamachi has come a long way. I remember using it last year to create a poor mans VPN between my brother’s computer in Connecticut and my computer in New Jersey. It make “tech support” a hell of a lot easier. When did LogMeIn aquire Hamachi?
Aren’t there any simple free VPN solutions other than OpenVPN? I tried hotspotVPN and personalVPN, but even though they are built on OpenVPN, they cost money.
there are
http://www.itshidden.com no download or installation requires!
http://www.privacy-gateway.com its commercial but they have a free vpn software for non commercial use.
If you have the tech skills to use it, there is also Zebedee, available from http://www.winton.org.uk/zebedee/.
Also see http://excusemeplease.org/computers/zebedee/ .
One should also know that no VPN software protects data that does not go through the VPN. So installing OpenVPN or Zebedee on your laptop and then logging into your e-mail at an unencrypted hotspot isn’t going to help.
Are there any cheap VPN solutions that don’t require the user to have their own server? Anything under $20 would be nice.
I am currently traveling and found this post VERY useful. iPig is just what I needed!
Before iPig I used the (free) logmein.com service. Logmein is good, but for just checking email, surfing and using Yahoo Messenger that was a bit of an overkill.
i need pasword
how can i get free vpn number
Also you can use some public vpn services to safely browsing on public wi-fi zone.
I was looking for a free VPN for windows and mac and I found this www dot anchorfree dot com/downloads/hotspot-shield/
Completly free, just you need to get patient with the sponsors but is great for be free.
yeah.. if you have a cheap linux host somewhere that support ssh, just issue following command
ssh -D 1080 username@yourserver.com
and you could have on the fly a sock5 / encycripted connection on proxy 127.0.0.1 port 1088
Also you can use some public vpn service to safely browsing on public wi-fi zone.
I think theres’s cheap solution. Only $1 you can build your vpn by subscribe VPS. Try google search about grand opening vps that costly just $1 for first month. Then you can build your vps using openvpn (it’s easy to build). Alternatively, you can use anchofree vpn, but it’s ot private
While using https for gmail is a good idea, gmails ads are not over https so your cookies can still be stolen in a man in the middle attack and your login replicated.
Thanks for the great advice! I had no idea that all websites could be encrypted if accessed with the prefix of “https” in the URL. The issue of hackers is real even though plenty of people do not realize it. We reveal information about ourselves all the time and then assume that no one cares enough to spy on our online conversations. Often times, hackers are watching, and the seemingly pointless flow of information is enough for hackers to steal your identity or at least send you some nasty malware.
I always use http://www.RoadWarriorVPN.com . They offer OpenVPN on nice fast servers. They are always very helpful when ever I have any problems. Road Warrior VPN.com makes me feel safe because I know that when I am connected to them, I am safe because it is not possible to break their VPN connection.
At least have the decency to say that was a paid comment
Apparently iPIG has taken their free server down and has limited, if any, support for iPIG. Their forum no longer works. When trying to connect to iPIG server you get a non-stop cycling of “Disconnected [Unknown server ipig.iopus.com/11888]”
No response from Tech Services.
I use IP Privacy. It has premium proxies and it’s not slowing down the Internet connection. http://www.privacy-pro.com