“Even when your goal is to get away from it all, sometimes necessity requires that you stay in touch with the outside world,” Séamus Bellamy writes for Macworld. “This can take a lot of forms: chatting with your loved ones on FaceTime, shuttling project files between your iPad Pro or MacBook and an employer’s private server on the other side of the globe, or simply taking in the latest episode of Game of Thrones so that you can blather about it later over iMessage with your friends.”
“But once you connect to a wireless access point at an airport lounge or café near the hotel where you’re staying, or slip a SIM card into your MiFi device in a country where the citizenry is routinely surveilled (some would argue that happens here too, but meh,) your confidential information could quickly become less confidential,” Bellamy writes. “And if you’re roving outside of your home country, you may be disappointed to find that, despite paying for access, many streaming service providers will refuse to provide you with access to the latest video and music due to licensing issues. I think we can agree that this sucks.”
Bellamy writes, “To get around these issues, you my friend, will want to rock a virtual private network (VPN).”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Safety first! Also, remember that you can also use an old Mac to create your very own inexpensive personal VPN.
SEE ALSO:
This home VPN router setup protects your data wherever you are – April 7, 2016
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
The problem with these solutions is that you always have to connect to the free public wifi BEFORE you connect to your VPN…and in the 30 seconds or so that it takes you to connect to your VPN, your computer can already have done tons of network-related tasks in the background without your knowledge, like checking your email, facebook, twitter, dropbox, icloud, etc.
Then don’t connect to the free public wifi until you’ve turned off all that stuff. Duh.
Out in the hackable wide world you can:
1) VPN over to your own home VPN server to access the Internet
2) Sign up for a VPN service, which should add the offering of several destination/outlet IPs around the world.
Many VPN services are now offering inexpensive ‘lifetime’ premium memberships, if you shop around. Just be sure to do your homework and check out:
A) The reputation of the VPN.
B) The viability of the VPN. (What does ‘lifetime’ really mean?)
C) The speed of the VPN.
D) The world IP destination/outlets available.
E) The quality of the VPN software. (Example: PPTP is essentially dead at this point. Don’t get stuck with it as the only choice. OpenVPN that is constantly being updated is the ideal, IMHO).
– I know there’s a better word for ‘destination/outlet’ IP. Suggestions appreciated. Dinner gongs for my attention…
I use Opera, IPVanish, and tried another one. IPVanish seems to work good, $10 a month!