Combatting snoopers: How do you use wi-fi on a daily/weekly basis without getting hacked by snoopers?

At home I use my desktop computer for work and school. But now I want to start using my laptop at a public hot spot or two on a regular basis: coffee shops, the library, the airport, McDonald's, etc. That means I'll be going on the Internet via wi-fi. You know that wi-fi is super unsecure. I understand that when it comes to safe surfing a VPN (virtual private network) is the first thing a security minded person should have on their laptop.
a) Is that true?
b) If so, can you recommend the name of a good VPN?
c) will the VPN slow down my surf sessions compared to the hard wired connection I use at home?
d) one person said that a VPN is NOT the way to go. Check this out: he said that all I need is a good firewall and a good anti-virus protection program when I go wireless in public. That sounds a little nuts. Does that sound crazy? That sounds like a prescription for a virtual suicide. Of course I have both already in place, but is that to say that that's all you need to guard against packet sniffers when you're wireless in public - a firewall and an anti-virus progam? Sounds kinda incomplete to me. Do you agree or disagree with his statement?

 

If I may, you're being a bit paranoid.

Turn off file sharing, enable your firewall, turn off automatic-wifi connections (you should be choosing the network, not windows) and update your AV software. Don't purchase anything or check your bank statement, etc.. Wait until you get home.

That should do it, but if you need the peace of mind, then by all means feel free to use a personal firewall / security suite. IMHO it's overkill, but it's hard to put a price on feeling "secure."

 

Wait? Snooper or snipers? Because if you meant snipers, we have to regroup.

 

If you set up a VPN tunnel through an SSL (which I am pretty sure would be any VPN) then all of your traffic is being encrypted. Except most secure websites are already https, which is encrypted as well. A VPN would slow down browsing and I do not believe that it would achieve what you want anyway. I don't think the real concern when using public wifi is having people sniffing (I think this is what you meant by snooping) out your packets. The concern when using public wifi is that you're now connected to the same public network as other, potentially malicious people. They can, again potentially, connect to your network, drop viruses into unsecured shares, possibly access the contents of your hard drive. As Brandon said, a good firewall and antivirus will take care of this for the most part. If you really want to be safe I would suggest not using Windows, as that is where the security problem lies. Use FreeBSD, that's about as secure as you can get.
I would consider myself very security minded and I do not even go that far though, it's all about how paranoid you are (and I suppose how well you can track what is happening on your computer on your own).

 

you could also set up a secure proxy on a server which I would think would use less over head than a VPN but they might be equivalent.

 

If you were on a slow connection on either side a proxy would probably be slightly faster since it will only cover your internet ports, not all network ports.

 

I'm still concerned about the snipers, you guys.