Hi, I have been reading various snippets on the forum about VPN's and have grasped the general idea of it. I am not too hot on securiry/privacy but I suppose it would be a good idea to hide my identity and encrypt online data etc. I generally use IE9 when browsing within Sandboxie, and I use Avast Safezone for online banking, but I am not sure if a VPN would be necessary or not. I was hoping for some feedback to determine if it is something I should have and perhaps some recommendations, preferably cheap or free and with easy configuration. Many Thanks Andy
There are three main reasons to use VPNs: you don't want your ISP to see what websites you access you don't trust the public WiFi hotspot that you use you don't want websites that you access to see your IP address You might like AirVPN.
Here's an interesting read.. http://www.windowsecurity.com/artic...-2008-remote-access-ssl-vpn-server-part1.html http://www.windowsecurity.com/articles/VPN-Options.html Hogndog
Two more reasons to use a VPN: Watch online US TV or listen to music from abroad (Hulu, CWTV,Slacker,Pandora,etc) Bypass ISP filtering (The Pirate Bay website is blocked in the UK) For the activities above you can use a free advertisement supported VPN like HotSpotShield, but if what you want is privacy you will be better off with a paid for VPN like SecurityKiss, AirVPN, or Mullvad.
I should have clarified....here's what I wrote in another thread earler this afternoon: I call a VPN like this from Norton a "Coffee Shop VPN' (not to be confused with a VPN used for serious pseudo-anonymity). With that said, this might be the best of the Coffee Shop variety. The $19.99 a month is a bad deal. The $49.99 a year is an incredible deal. The $2.99 "day pass" is perfect for every now and then use. I like this VPN for what it is. Nice software package, reliable name, good speeds. Can't go wrong for this 'class' of VPN.
Many thanks for your responses. I will investigate the comments and see which one best suits. Thanks again Andy
I would agree with these reasons...I never used to bother with it (I know what I'm browsing and cover my bases though), but traveling a lot more lately, I use one setup on my server when on the road. It wouldn't hurt to use a better browser like Firefox or Chrome, and install HTTPS Everywhere, so at least a good chunk of your sites that really matter are for sure going through SSL.
Thanks again for the comments. I managed to get a free year's promo of Cyberghost so I am trying that at the moment to see how it goes.