On The Go? Get Connected and Stay Secure With Simple, Free VPN Tools!
What you will read here will change the way you use your laptop while on the road. Okay, that’s probably too optimistic of me, but being an avid laptop user, I try to keep abreast of technologies and trends, especially when it comes to being connected while on the go. I should–I write about laptops, and I often find myself at public WiFi hotspots doing some work or just catching up on email.
Two things keep popping up in my list of needs when connecting on the go: security and connectivity with the home front.
Security. Public hotspots are usually open access points that do not offer any level of security at all. Not WPA. No, not even WEP. The idea is for the hotspot to be as accessible to as many people as possible. So this means the lowest common denominator in terms of security–no encryption.
Also, even commercial hotspots tend to be unsecured, so they can support as many clients as possible, most of whom wouldn’t know a thing about even entering a short piece of code onto their WiFi managers in order to connect.
Problem: You turn on your email client and chances are, your email username and password are being sent over the network in clear, unencrypted text everytime you poll for messages. Anyone with a packet sniffer running on the network can get your password in less than thirty seconds. And even if you’re using secure http (https, say, in Gmail), not all of the sites you are browsing are using a secure connection. The websites you’re reading are available for someone else on the network to read, with the right tools.
Connectivity. Don’t you just love the fact that on your home or office network, you can store all your files on one computer and then you can share them across your different computers? I mean, I certainly wouldn’t want to have duplicate copies of all the documents I’m currently working on, especially if I constantly shift from working on the desktop, to my main laptop, and then sometimes to another laptop.
Problem: You’ve just arrived at a meeting venue when you realize you left some important presentation documents at your office desktop. You end up having to call someone from the office (or mom, the wifey, or the kids back at home) to email over the files you forgot to copy on your laptop.
The Solutions: Virtual Private Networking
Setting up a VPN might sound daunting at first, but it doesn’t have to be. A VPN doesn’t have to be an expensive enterprise solution installed and maintained by an office IT department. It can be as simple as installing two small pieces of free software, tweaking some configurations, and voila! You’re all set to conquer the mobile realms!
My picks: iPIG and Hamachi.
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