Free VPN Solutions for Securing Your Public Wi-Fi Sessions
August 17th, 2007 (4:00pm) Samuel Dean 19 Comments
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 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?
19 Comments Post your own comment
Andrew Campbell says: August 17th, 2007 6:17pm
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.
Aldrin Leal says: August 17th, 2007 6:22pm
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. :)
Aldrin Leal says: August 17th, 2007 6:26pm
wrt my previous comment:
s/personal/portable/
shame on me :)
Michael P says: August 17th, 2007 9:19pm
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.
Ian Cheung says: August 17th, 2007 10:45pm
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.
Khurt says: August 18th, 2007 3:57am
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?
Geoff R says: August 19th, 2007 8:58am
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.
lnxwalt says: August 19th, 2007 7:06pm
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.
SouthwestSEO.com - » SouthwestSEO picks for August 19th says: August 19th, 2007 8:01pm
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Geoff R says: August 21st, 2007 12:08pm
Are there any cheap VPN solutions that don’t require the user to have their own server? Anything under $20 would be nice.
Web Worker Daily » Blog Archive Open Thread: How Safely Do You Surf? « says: August 22nd, 2007 2:01pm
[...] doing is safe or not. Most people, however, don’t go to the hassle (in the case of free solutions) or expense (in the case of easier-to-use for-fee solutions) of setting up a [...]
Tim Wu says: August 24th, 2007 10:38am
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.
sina says: August 28th, 2007 1:43am
i need pasword
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Web Worker Daily » Archive 4 Ways to Keep Your Public Wi-Fi Sessions Secure « says: April 9th, 2008 4:03pm
[...] put what you’re doing in a secure tunnel. I’ve posted before about my favorite solution OpenVPN, but you can find lots of other good ones for free online. OpenVPN is a long-standing open source [...]
Jacques Snyman » Archive 4 Ways to Keep Your Public Wi-Fi Sessions Secure « says: April 9th, 2008 11:13pm
[...] can put what you’re doing in a secure tunnel. I’ve posted before about my favorite solution OpenVPN, but you can find lots of other good ones for free online. OpenVPN is a long-standing open source [...]
Come essere sicuri quando si utilizzano PC e connessioni Wi-Fi pubbliche - Geekissimo says: April 13th, 2008 1:01am
[...] Usare un VPN: per proteggersi in una rete Wi-Fi pubblica, basta una password dopo aver installato un software gratuito ed open source di VPN (Virtual Private Network), come OpenVPN. [...]
Come essere sicuri quando si utilizzano PC e connessioni Wi-Fi pubbliche | FDS says: April 14th, 2008 1:43am
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