Safe internet access with VPN?

Question

Safe internet access with VPN?

Answer 1

I highly recommend utilizing http://www.vpnpower.net to unblock sites. I am using their services for more than 3 years with no troubles.

Answer 2

I have one most trusted VPN installed on my system i.e "PureVPN". It ensures me complete security, 100% online privacy and provides anonymous web browsing. I always use it on public wifi hotspots to secure my online identity and confidential data.

Answer 3

There's little to be gained from it (aside from a warm fuzzy), and you will see a speed decrease, but yes... you can route internet traffic through a VPN connection. In fact, I believe that's the default for something like Windows XP.

Answer 4

There are many VPN offerings, each with its own properties; generally speaking, VPN-ing to your home computer using an IPsec-based VPN (with encryption+integrity protection enabled), or using the SSL/TLS-based OpenVPN, ensures that the Internet cafe won't see the contents of your communications.



This assumes that you use *your own*, hopefully spyware and keylogger-free, computer/laptop from the cafe. If you use a (public) cafe computer, then you either have to trust that computer (i.e. the cafe operator, and everyone else having had physical access to the computer), or all bets are off; encryption/VPNs/SSL/TLS do not remove the trust requirement in any way.



There exists another significant factor contributing to "safe browsing using an Internet cafe computer"; the ability to login using a one-time password (OTP) instead of a normal password. That is, if you have to use an Internet cafe/kiosk computer, then it is safer to log into websites using OTPs rather than passwords. In this sense, having a VPN that supports OTP-based login would be of advantage. However, this requires that the Internet cafe computer has the required VPN client software.



The service at http://kyps.net lets you log into websites using OTPs without the Internet cafe computer having to have any software other than a standard browser. Note that, however, you will need to trust that service with your password (instead of the Internet cafe computer).

Answer 5

I use Strong Vpn http://strongvpn.com and you cant connect to your private internet connection from an internet cafe with unsecured wifi. You are connecting your computer to there computer via your internet service provider. You need to set up your computer with the connection wizard on your computer. They give you a user name and password to do this. You also get a different ip address

They have video tutorials to show you how to set up your computer it is not very difficult you can watch them now to get an idea of how to do it. http://strongvpn.com/setup.shtml

also you can look at their frequently asked questions to answer some more questions you might have. http://strongvpn.com/faq.shtml

Answer 6

VPNs, once the "tunnel" is created can use the gateway on the VPN. That means that once you are connected your internet gateway is from your private network. There are options to allow the "Local" gateway but doing so, in the system you describe, would loose the benefit.



For this to be truely secure, the VPN has to be encrypted, the quick easy ones are not!



Here is a good group of articles from Microsoft

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/network/bb545442.aspx

Answer 7

VPN's are not hackerproof but are as secure as you're going to get without spending megabucks



If your information is that sensitive from a security prospective that you need to ask this question, then don't use unsecured wireless in a internet cafe



However, In answer to your question, Yes, VPN will provide security from all but the best hackers.

Answer 8

Generally speaking if you want safe and secured browsing across the Internet, you need to bounce off Internet proxy/relay servers and anonymize yourself. What this means is your IP address information is hidden behind some other server, and that server does the browsing on your behalf and relays the information back to you. If you go to www.torproject.org that's one such technology that will allow you to browse anonymously on the Internet.



In regards to using VPNs to get to your home PC, yes you can definitely do that. There are many many ways of doing that, from commercial top quality products like gotomypc.com, logmein.com that will allow you to access your home machine securely from anywhere to proprietary solutions that will allow you to log onto your home router over a VPN....to free products like VNC and SSH. You just need to have the technical know-how if you plan on implementing this yourself. VNC is a free remote desktop control tool. SSH is a powerful tool that contains a feature called port forwarding that basically allows you to pick a local port on your own machine and connected to a port on the remote machine. What usually happens is you connect to your home machine (running SSH server) from the cafe using an SSH client like Putty. The connection is encrypted, giving you a VPN. Inside the connection, you can specify any type of port number between your computer and a host on the remote network and route traffic through it. So let's say you wanted to browse the Internet through your home network from the cafe...you would specify something like:



local port 5901: remote home PC IP address: 5900



what this will do is connect securely and allow you to remotely control your home PC. once you control the home PC, you can pretty much do whatever you want on it, including surf the Internet from it.

Answer 9

Not unless you have a mile-long cable.

Answer 10

There is no need to connect to your home computer. In fact, your home computer is probably less secure than the VPN providers servers. For example if you are on a cable modem at home you are on a shared connection. Anyone can see your stuff on the network who is on the same share as you.



Nobody is going to break the encryption of a good VPN on the fly. People at the hotspot will not be able to see anything you are doing as all traffic will flow through the encrypted tunnel. There is no risk of anyone getting to you from the hotspot once you log into the VPN.



Since you exit the VPN on a server somewhere far away your data is as secure as it's going to get. However, remember that once it exits the VPN server it continues across the internet unencrypted. So this is an answer to prevent hackers at the coffee shop from getting your stuff. This is not end to end military grade security but since you're not using any encryption from home and consider that OK then you're not looking for this level of security.

Answer 11

It is not safe because the internet café machine might have a keylogger that captures what you type before the data even gets encrypted by the VPN. There is one trojan/virus that has been around for 3 years and has been very effective at stealing banking info.

Answer 12

yes