What's good protection from Public-Wifi?

I'm on public wifi at the airport and I got a message saying "another computer is nearby" click a button to connect. What is that?

I have pctools firewall and avast and I don't want anyone sneaking into my pc so how can I protect myself with public wifi?

 

I feel quite comfortable with Online Armor. Just setting WiFi interface to not trusted. This is enough that noone could connect you using netbios or any other tcp/ip way.

 

I'd say that your 'computer is nearby' message, comes from the new Windows Vista feature, Windows Meeting Space. You can learn some more about it there ; http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/features/details/meetingspace.mspx

However, your question sounds interesting.
You can connect thru a VPN tunnel, when connecting to wi-fi hotspots but that doesn't seem to be the an easy task. There must be some recommended firewall to protect yourself on public wifi connections, which one, I have no idea, but I'd like to hear some opinions about it.

 

Anchorfree offers a simple (and free) encrypted VPN solution which they claim is designed for use in public hotspots.
http://www.anchorfree.com The product is called Hotspot Shield.

I have used it when traveling with my laptop. It's very easy - but to be honest, I can not quantify how secure it actually is.

 

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Hm .. "Generate Ad Revenues!".

 

Its addware. The program creates sort of a VPN by using their server that also serves up adds. Seriously annoying.

 

Thanks for the info. Came by this some weeks ago and was left wondering how their VPN actually worked.

 

VPN services such as Anchor Free are good to secure your traffic...while you're on open public wifi spots. But the OP has a local firewall point that he's addressing...not a traffic encryption issue. Setting Vista to "public network" will lock up his PC..or select a 3rd party software firewall.

 

is anyone here using Cyberghost VPN? and what's your experience using this service?

i was thinking about using one of these two. either Hotspot Shield or Cyberghost VPN.

here's the web http://www.cyberghostvpn.com/?language=en

Cyberghost seems to be a little 'professional' in appearance compared to Hotspot Shield. but still, it has a limited usage of 10GB per month for free user just like Hotspot Shield.

need your opinion guys! thanks a lot.