Lots of wifi coffee shop usage: More risk??

I just got a new Dell. I will be using it on nearly a daily basis at places like Starbucks, Roy Rogers, and other public spots. Does this put me at greater risk? I use MS Security essentials, along with Spybot. Any suggestions? Advice? Anyone else have the same uses for their notebook and not have any issues?

 

It doesn't really put you any-more at risk than what you do when surfing at home.
If you simply close down the ability for others to see your laptop in a network and prohibit access to it when connecting to a free wifi such as starbucks, you shouldn't have problems.

Although, do replace Spybot with Malwarebytes (the latter is much better).

 

Thanks Will do.

 

Don't even have to connect or be on the same network just sit in range and monitor wireless communication ...
Msn/web/non ssl login/pw all can be captured.

 

SSL can be captured too, but people who know how to do this have better things to do than wardrive coffee shops.

Just standard practices really op: when on public networks don't do critical business, don't do anything involving money/transactions, and watch the behavior of people around you/be aware of them. I don't know how many times people have said 'omg got hacked at a coffee shop' when in reality it was the dude behind you watching you type your weak password.

 

change you firewall to public places so it protects you more while out and about.

 

If you're really paranoid, you can use HotSpot VPN. If you're out and about a lot, it might be worth the subscription fee. It's easy to use and is very secure.

 

Another layer is KeyScrambler personal edition (free)
Link: QFX Software - Download KeyScrambler
Will cover when PW etc type items in IE and Firefox.
But as mentioned above - best to wait until you're on a more secure network.

 

Well, I personally wouldn't advise you to conduct business/monetary transactions on a free Wifi.
Surfing and downloading data is fine, but for transactions... I'd definitely wait until you're on a more secure network.

 

How would I change my settings for when I am in a public network?

 

Change what settings?

When you connect to a new network with Windows 7, it should prompt you to input what type of network it is, public, home, etc. Select public, then don't do anything where you might have to enter sensitive information.

 

Sorry I meant what should my settings be like?

 

captured or decoded ? that is very different thing.

 

assuming such a person isn't targeting a specific individual.

 

What about email? I've always wondered if it's a good idea to log onto Gmail while on a public network.

 

I think your safe as long as youre on https

 

Thanks I haven't heard of this before.

 

If you use Firefox, ' HTTPS Everywhere' might be useful. link.

 

That's a good one. Thank you

But if we are using Prevx already, would I need this as well? From my use of Prevx, I think it's quiet secure and good, right?

 

If you do not encrypt your information using one of the solutions mentioned above like HTTPS Everywhere, anyone with a the FireSheep addon installed will be able to harvest passwords for things like Twitter or Facebook when you access those webpages while on the open wifi.

 

Prevx can be an excellent addition as it protects http(s) traffic (and more depending on settings) in case of a local infection.
It does NOT encrypt outgoing 'over the air' http so anyone can snif that.

Firesheep got itself a Wiki, read on how and what and you'll understand why Prevx can't offer protection against this. link

 

Does HTTPS Everywhere make the initial page request in Http, then switch over to HTTPS like the Chromium Https extensions? I don't use Firefox, but am just curious. I'd love something in 100% https when available for Iron but there doesn't seem to be anything and HTTPS Everywhere seems to be the extension that everything else is measured against.

Here is a list of free VPN services last updated Nov. 2010.

A word of warning, stay away from Ultrasurf. Fast and easy but HERE shows that it has quite sophisitcated malware capabilities. I've used it for about 3 days last week before finding that article and I'm still looking at info on Ultrasurf to check things out for myself but so far, seems like one to drop like a bad habit. Now I'm using SecurityKISS for when I'm in public wifi and it has a 300mb limit per day, is not a big deal for me. proXPN (in the article above) seems to be very good as well if you can deal with a 1 Mbps speed cap for the free version.

Wilderssecurity in general is a very good compliment to NBR. I've been spending a lot of time there lately and many of their users are into the proxy/VPN/privacy stuff.

 

Thanks for the info... I learned a lot.

By the way, I'm trying out HTTPS everywhere.. and I understood that the rules can be custom written too, and there was a help page as well as sample sets... and there is a page with submitted rule sets.

If I want to use one of them, is it enough if I just move the rule files (.xml files) to the https everywhere folder, as described in the instructions page of their website?

Thanks and cheers.

 

Just use this Get Behind the Shield! Hotspot Shield by AnchorFree and as long as you have a decent av/firewall you really shouldn't have any security concerns at all.

 

Thanks. This looks good. Can you share some real life usage impressions?

 

I'm using this at the moment just to try it out. Seems OK so far. It installs the TAP Win32 network adapter (an OpenVPN driver) which is to be expected but also it installs its own little "Helper Driver" as it shows in Windows, not happy about that. Hotspot has a little icon in the taskbar and it can run through a browser page or right clicking the icon for connect/disconnect. Despite what the article I link to above says, you can set it up to not start with Windows.

It set Comodo crazy with all its weird connections, creating files and changing registry keys. It also wanted to install Ask.com crapware. I denied all the Ask stuff so I don't have any ads on pages. I also have a lengthy host file though.

Both pass the decloak.net test but deanonymizer.com doesn't load for me with either program, supposedly because it doesn't play well with Vista.

The speeds seem to be about the same as Security Kiss (just about as fast as my normal internet connection) but I don't quite trust all the extra stuff Hotspot is trying to do so I'm sticking to Security Kiss. It gives a higher usage limit (9gb/mo vs 5GB), has US and western/central European servers, and runs off the Tap driver only so it installs the program with a little command console. That's it. With Hotspot, Comodo shows Ask.com related things trying to go through the firewall after it's connected and running.

 

Damn. Kiss is a lot better. I actually always had all the hotspotshield services disabled so whenever I wanted to run it it was a pain going to the control panel and having to start all of them. With this one, it runs openvpm and kiss obviously but when you close it nothing else lingers. Nothing stars with the system. This is great. Much much better than hss.

I uninstalled hotspotshield and with revouninstaller so hopefully it found everything....

Thanks once again. +rep.
haha. hulu works on this. I think it's kind of slow but might be my net atm. But the fact that hulu works...hahahaha.

Nice one man.

 

No problem, glad to help and I haven't really found any good info on this stuff on NBR.

Hotspot shield put a Ask.com TaskUpdate.exe marker in my Task Scheduler. The only reason I found out about it is because it was still trying to connect to the internet after I'd uninstalled it. There was a folder in my C drive the uninstaller didn't remove and I haven't searched the registry to see what it left behind. That was one of the stickiest programs I've ever seen.

Good that Security Kiss is working for you. ProXPN is also a great choice if you find yourself using up Kiss's data cap too quickly. I use them both when in public and proXPN's only flaws are that it has a 1Mbps speed cap (which doesn't affect Youtube, I've never used Hulu though) and every hour and a half or so will have a small popup on the bottom of the screen that says you only have the free version. Other than that it won't bother you.

Also if it matters to you, proXPN's privacy policy is better.

 

For some reason proXPN isn't working with me. It just...doesn't connect. I press the connect button and it just sits there doing nothing really. The green progress bar moves a bit initially and then just stops. I signed up for an account and everything...any ideas why it wouldn't work?

Also, how to disable xpn from starting up? I don't see any startup entries but the bloody thing is there.

 

Hmm, strange. It may be the type of server that moderates its connections based on traffic and you're just trying to connect during a very busy time but I've not read anything regarding this. I don't know for sure though.

Do you have a TAP-Win32 or Local Area Connection 2 (3, or 4, etc.) in your Network Connections window? It should be something like Start-Control Panel-Network Sharing-Manage Network Connections.

I'd try again in the morning or a low traffic time. If still nothing, email them and see if they can id a problem.

Edit: Also to keep it from running at Windows start, right click on the proxpn icon in task manager, click on 'show proxpn'. The General tab will have a tick box to disable launching program on system startup.

 

yeah,when you are entering your password of the webbank,or other keys to your privacies, you'd look around to find out someone is looking at u;or some hacker would inject into your PC through the public network.and for the trojan,worm and things like these two,u should apply a powerfull antivirus-software to guard your system,such as the Spydig,Avast and the AVG,or the Kaspersky and so on,then you'd choose one fit youself and your PC.

be care and be helpful for you
thanks
webby