“It is possible — and increasingly common — for malicious people to ‘sniff’ traffic on public Wi-Fi networks, looking for information,” Kirk McElhearn writes for Intego. “They try to catch your user names, passwords, and any other data that may identify you, and then try and access your accounts or even steal your identity.”
“For this reason, you need to take extra precautions when you’re on public or unfamiliar networks,” McElhearn writes. “There’s a way to protect your devices from man in the middle attacks wherever you are: You can use a virtual private network (VPN). This ensures that the data you send and receive is encrypted between your device and a server, ensuring that no one can sniff your traffic in a coffee shop, airport, or hotel. Most VPNs are subscription services, and cost from a few dollars to a few hundred dollars, depending on the speed and amount of data you use.”
“But there’s a better way to set up a VPN: You can buy a router that includes built-in VPN software, and then set it up at your home or office,” McElhearn writes. “When you’re on the road, you connect to that router, and the traffic between your laptop computer, iPhone, iPad or Android device is encrypted up to that point. After that, it goes out onto the Internet, but from a location that you know is secure.”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Safety first! Also, remember that you can also use an old Mac to provide an inexpensive personal VPN.
SEE ALSO:
Dvorak: You need a VPN, or you’re screwed – March 23, 2016
Why you should avoid free VPNs – January 29, 2016
How to easily turn that old Mac into an inexpensive personal VPN – November 19, 2015
How and why you should use a VPN to protect your data’s final mile – January 16, 2015
It is certainly good to use a home VPN to access your network; however, many home internet connections are asymmetrical, with much slower outgoing traffic. That means you may get slower internet than you would from a commercial VPN provider.
I’ve been using private tunnel for the past 6 months and it’s fantastic.
More info please!
https://www.privatetunnel.com/home/
It’s a great service IMO, and it is possible to set it up on a standard cable router (I did it on my Virgin Media router).
But to be honest, it’s got native Apps for iOS, OS X, Windoze, Android and Ubuntu. I paid for a year of unlimited access and will be renewing next year.
It’s also developed by the OpenVPN team.
Pricing is by data amount, not time. How did you pay for a year? Did you average your bandwidth usage?
You can subscribe for 1 year and basically you get 1PB of data.
If you can get through 1PB in a year, you need some time away from your computer!!
The last option on the pricing page is ‘Unlimited’ for $29.99 a year:
https://www.privatetunnel.com/home/pricing/
I don’t have old Macs because I either resell them or gift them. But I may pick up a Mac Mini just for this.
This would be a nice feature for future Airport Extremes.