Personal VPN software?

[JustDerek]

I bought my first laptop with WiFi capability a couple of months ago. Giddy with my new mobile internet capability, I stupidly began connecting willy-nilly at wireless hotspots and was rewarded with a nasty worm on my new VAIO. I had to do a complete system restart; the only silver lining was that I hadn't put very much onto the machine yet.

Newly paranoid, I began trying various new security measures to avoid having to go through another virus or worse yet, identity theft. That's when I came across these "Personal VPN" products out there. I tried JiWire Spotlock first, but took the 30-day opt-out when it stopped working and I got zero response from tech support after 5 days of waiting. Now I'm investigating WiTopia's personal VPN product, and another one called Hotspot VPN.

These products seem to be based on an open source app called OpenVPN, with each company creating its own interface and tweaking the app so as to be configurable with a variety of APs/routers, etc.

Essentially, I want to be able to safely use my laptop either on my home network (another ball of wax...) or at public hotspots (the library, the cafe, if I'm traveling, etc). At this point I don't have a need to connect to the network at my job - my laptop is just for my personal use.

So... anybody familiar with the whole personal VPN thing? In case not, below is a link to an article I found on the subject. Any thoughts/advice will be greatly appreciated.

April 14, 2005 article comparing Hotspot VPN and WiTopia

[drumfu]

it might just be a nomenclature thing, but traditionally a VPN has nothing to do with protecting your computer on a LAN. what you want is a firewall.

[lmychajluk]

Yeah, you don't need a VPN, you need a Firewall. A VPN is a secure, encrypted connection between two specific points, such as your laptop and a server at your office. Each individual connection would be set up seperately, and it wouldn't do anything to prevent you from picking up a virus.

It may not be the best, but have you enabled the firewall in Windows? That in conjunction with a good AntiVirus (I like Norton) and anti-Adware program (I like MS's free offering) should keep you covered. If you want an all-in-one solution, look at something like Norton Security.

-Lee

[JustDerek]

I understand what you guys mean, and I don't disagree that for my home network a good firewall should have me covered. What I'm curious to know is what you all think about these "personal VPN" products whose purpose as I understand it is to make you as secure as possible if you are connecting at public hotspots. That is, they're selling you a wireless VPN connection from wherever you are to their server, where your VPN-encrypted data is then put out onto the regular ol' internet; this way, nobody hanging around at your hotspot is going to be able to intercept what you're putting out through your wireless connection.

There's a lot more detail at the links in my original post, which you may or may not have looked at. Anyway, I guess one of the key questions is whether a consumer should trust WiTopia or Hotspot VPN or whomever with whatever data they may want to send through their server. Of course the vendors have all kinds of assurances that they could not and would not look at your info... but in today's climate of corporate info-sharing you may wonder what they might have buried in their endless Privacy Policy with the "I Accept" button at the end.

[drumfu]

from the WiTopia site...

Why do I need a “personal” VPN?
Everyone does, they just don’t know it yet. If there wasn’t a need, companies wouldn’t spend big bucks to deploy VPNs for all their offices and employees. WiTopia’s personalVPN™ is an industrial-strength VPN built for the individual. Consider us your personal IT department, but without the attitude.

i disagree with this statment. when i worked as a network consultant, the purpose of the VPN solutions i deployed was not for security. they were used so that telecommuters could log in remotely to the domain/LAN as if they were actually in the office (access calendaring functions, etc.) it was a function driven solution, not a security issue.

anyways, to clarify the technical difference; a vpn will protect outgoing/incoming data, but not the contents of your HD. the firewall protects your HD from users on the same LAN/hotspot.

[JustDerek]

when i worked as a network consultant, the purpose of the VPN solutions i deployed was not for security. they were used so that telecommuters could log in remotely to the domain/LAN as if they were actually in the office (access calendaring functions, etc.) it was a function driven solution, not a security issue.

anyways, to clarify the technical difference; a vpn will protect outgoing/incoming data, but not the contents of your HD. the firewall protects your HD from users on the same LAN/hotspot.

Understood. I guess that these companies' calling their products VPN's is kind of a misnomer. So I take it that you don't think much of the so-called "personal VPN" as a security tool for use at hotspots or wherever? WiTopia does do some pretty blatant retail-fearmongering on their site. Here's a few selections from their "10 Things You Should Know About Using WiFi":

- WiFi security is not a “do it yourself” project. Hide the SSID, use MAC filtering, enable WEP or WPA Personal/PSK (even if you understand what all that is) and it still won’t stop someone with some skill, some free software, and some time from hacking in and doing some real damage.

- The enemy could be miles away... You’ll think we’re making this up, but it’s quite possible to lock onto your wireless access point from tens of miles away using homemade antennas fashioned from potato chip cans and whiskey tins. Of course, there are easier ways, but this is a smart and creative group.

- You could soon be the biggest Spammer on the net. Or, even worse. For those who want to be malicious, and need to hide their tracks, an unprotected wireless router paired with an Internet connection is valuable indeed. It’s an ideal launching pad for several hundred thousand spam e-mails or the world’s next big virus, worm, or attack. Do you really want to explain to “the Feds” that you had nothing to do with it?

- That WiFi Hotspot isn’t safe either--and we’re not talking about the coffee. Actually, it’s probably downright unsafe. It’s a fantastically target-rich spot for hackers to scoop up data, passwords, and the like from people they know can afford to stay in a nice hotel, catch a flight, or spend five bucks on a coffee drink. Our PersonalVPN fixes all that.

Thoughts?

[ccbr01]

yeah, a good vpn and wpa should be ok because wpa generates security keys about every hour, so hacker can't use sniffing programs to crack your key.