Basically, you NEED a VPN as a basic privacy precaution for any online activity on wireless networks. MakeUseOf provides a list of top VPN providers that you should check out if you’re considering signing up to a VPN service.
Once you’ve subscribed, and you’re set up with your virtual private network, you probably think “that’s it, all sorted.” But you’d be wrong. You’ve only just made your first baby steps into the world of VPNs.
Here are seven ways you can enhance your use of a VPN, and use it like a boss.
1. Set Up Your VPN on a Router
One of the most important things you can do with a VPN account is to set it up on your home router. The reason for this is simple: once set up, no other devices on your network need VPN software installing (unless you use public Wi-Fi).
However, there is a problem: not all routers support VPN accounts. As such, you may need to purchase a new router specifically for this task. While this may seem an unnecessary expense, the privacy benefits are considerable. Specific VPN routers are now available online, such as at Amazon.
If this isn’t practical, there are other solutions. For instance, it’s possible to set up a computer as a dedicated VPN between your modem and your router (or, if they’re the same device, between your router and your devices). Probably the best solution for this is a Raspberry Pi — if you don’t already own one, however, buying a VPN router isn’t much more expensive.
Free VPNs are great, right? Well, actually, no, they’re not. Free VPNs may seem like an excellent alternative to paid solutions, but in truth, you’re still paying.
In every single way, a paid VPN is better than a free one. Functionally, a free VPN does not cut italongside a subscription. They’re slower, less versatile (for instance, free VPNs don’t support torrenting), and more often than not display adverts based on the information you’ve used to sign up.
Avoid!
3. Pay Annually for Better Value
You can subscribe to a decent VPN service with almost any budget. Almost all services let you pay monthly, but if you really want to keep your costs down, pay annually!
This may need a bit of fiddling around with your account settings, but if annual payment is available, you’ll find your VPN offers at least a 10-percent saving. It’s definitely worth paying that fee in advance to make the saving.
While we’re on the matter of paying for your VPN, several options are usually available. For instance, major credit cards and debit cards can all be used to subscribe. Similarly, you might pay by PayPal, or one of its many alternatives.
ome VPNs, meanwhile, accept Bitcoin as a payment option. If you own a sizable amount of Bitcoin, this represents a minor fraction of the cryptocurrency’s value.
4. Use the Mobile VPN Client
Sadly, not every VPN service offers a mobile client. But if you’re subscribing to one that does, you should take advantage of it. It’s all very well extolling the dangers of using public Wi-Fi without a VPN, but people tend to view this purely as a laptop problem.
The issue here is that many shopping malls are mobile internet blackspots either intentionally, or by design. Your only option, therefore, is to access the public Wi-Fi on offer in these places. Stores are increasingly offering free Wi-Fi to potential customers in order to learn more about them. Remember that advert on your phone when you signed into public Wi-Fi in your favorite fashion store?
5. Don’t Let VPN Encryption Drain Your Laptop Battery
You probably know that a virtual private network uses encryption. And that the encrypted data travels from your device (or router) to the VPN server, then onto the destination website unencrypted (unless you’re using a HTTPS service).
Encryption can be heavy going on your computer. It can certainly impact the performance of your laptop battery, and if you run a VPN client on your mobile device, the battery of your smartphone or tablet. You don’t want your device battery to empty faster than usual, do you?
The solution to this is rather basic. You’ll need to employ a portable battery solution to recharge your device during or after VPN use. Regular charging is not ideal for batteries, but it’s a tradeoff between privacy and convenience. We’ve looked at several rechargeable battery packs at MakeUseOf over the years. My own favorite is the RAVPower 27000mAh Portable Charger, which will recharge a laptop, and is available from Amazon.
However, smaller alternatives are available, ideal for smartphones and tablets.
6. Learn How to Use Your VPN Software
There’s little point subscribing to a VPN service, installing the client software, and then leaving it to run. Accessing your virtual private network delivers so many advantages, from beating government censorship to keeping your torrent activity private. VPNs can even deliver benefits to online gaming.
In many cases, these advantages are gained by switching to a particular server. For instance, to watch region-blocked streaming media, you would need to use a server based in the appropriate country.
While some VPN clients make it easy to perform particular private tasks (such as CyberGhost), others offer less explicit features. The result is that you will need to gain familiarity with your VPN client; doing so will enable you to appreciate the full range of features on offer.
7. Book Cheaper Air Travel
We’ve briefly touched on the costs of subscribing to a VPN service. But do you know how to use a VPN to save money? With a VPN enabled, you’ll be able to deal a blow against tracking cookies. Unfortunately, online marketing services have developed other ways to identify you. Going forward, this particular advantage may die out, but for now, switching servers to different locations around the globe to book holidays can yield notable savings.
For instance, agencies selling air travel will offer prices based on your location (if not your previous buying patterns). Many people using VPNs have reported making savings by switching to an overseas server to purchase air tickets. Others still have made similar savings from arranging hotels, day trips, theme parks and other excursions.
Could your VPN pay for itself? There’s only one way to find out!
Be the Boss of Your VPN!
These seven tips should illustrate the importance of fully getting to grips with how to use your VPN. Here’s a reminder:
Set up your router with your VPN account
Avoid “free” VPN services
Save money by paying annually
Use a mobile VPN client wherever possible
Don’t let your VPN drain your mobile device
Understand how to use the VPN client and service
Save money when booking air travel and hotels
In short: a VPN isn’t simply a privacy tool. It can save you money, and generally improve your life. Don’t just subscribe, install, and click “Connect”. Get the full benefit, understand what your VPN can and cannot do, and be the boss!
Are you getting the most out of your VPN? Feel like switching to a different VPN provider? Tell us below.
A security protocol at the heart of most modern Wi-Fi devices, including computers, phones, and routers, has been broken, putting almost every wireless-enabled device at risk of attack.
The bug, known as "KRACK" for Key Reinstallation Attack, exposes a fundamental flaw in WPA2, a common protocol used in securing most modern wireless networks. Mathy Vanhoef, a computer security academic, who found the flaw, said the weakness lies in the protocol's four-way handshake, which securely allows new devices with a pre-shared password to join the network.
That weakness can, at its worst, allow an attacker to decrypt network traffic from a WPA2-enabled device, hijack connections, and inject content into the traffic stream.
In other words: this flaw, if exploited, gives an attacker a skeleton key to access any WPA2 network without a password. Once they're in, they can eavesdrop on your network traffic.
The bug represents a complete breakdown of the WPA2 protocol, for both personal and enterprise devices -- putting every supported device at risk.
"If your device supports Wi-Fi, it is most likely affected," said Vanhoef, on his website.
But because Vanhoef hasn't released any proof-of-concept exploit code, there's little risk of immediate or widespread attacks.
News of the vulnerability was later confirmed on Monday by US Homeland Security's cyber-emergency unit US-CERT, which about two months ago had confidentially warned vendors and experts of the bug, ZDNet has learned.
The warning came at around the time of the Black Hat security conference, when Vanhoef presented a talk on networking protocols, with a focus on the Wi-Fi handshake that authenticates a user joining a network.
The cyber-emergency unit has since reserved ten common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVE) records for the various vulnerabilities.
At its heart, the flaw is found in the cryptographic nonce, a randomly generated number that's used only once to prevent replay attacks, in which a hacker impersonates a user who was legitimately authenticated.
In this case, an attacker can trick a victim into reinstalling a key that's already in use. Reusing the nonce can allow an adversary to attack the encryption by replaying, decrypting, or forging packets.
Windows and latest versions of Apple's iOS are largely immune from the flaws, according to security researcher Kevin Beaumont, in a blog post.
However, Vanhoef said the security issue is "exceptionally devastating" for Android 6.0 Marshmallow and above.
Wi-Fi, the wireless data transfer technology practically all of us use on a daily basis, is in trouble.
The WPA2 security protocol, a widespread standard for Wi-Fi security that's used on nearly every Wi-Fi router, has apparently been cracked.
The details on the security exploit, which is called KRACK, or Key Reinstallation Attacks, are to be released at 8am ET Monday on the site www.krackattacks.com.
But according to a new advisory by US-CERT, via Ars Technica, there are "several key management vulnerabilities" in WPA2, allowing for "decryption, packet replay, TCP connection hijacking, HTTP content injection." The worst part? These are "protocol-level issues," meaning that "most or all correct implementations of the standard will be affected."
We'll know more when the details about KRACK are released, but if it turns out that one can use this exploit in a fairly simple and reliable way, then this is one of the biggest online security threats ever.
To see why, one has to go just a little bit back into the past. Wi-Fi used to be secured with a standard called WEP, which was found to be vulnerable to a multitude of attacks, many of which don't require the attacker to have physical access to the Wi-Fi equipment or even be connected to the network. Over time, tools that make these attacks simple have been developed, and now, if your Wi-Fi is protected by WEP, there's a choice of simple mobile and desktop apps that crack your password in seconds (no matter how long or complicated it is).
Because of these issues, WEP was mostly replaced with WPA and, later, WPA2, which are far more secure. Though there were ways to crack a WPA2-protected Wi-Fi router, if your password was long and complicated enough, it made it a lot harder or nearly impossible to do.
(For completeness' sake, one hacking tool, called Reaver, can crack WPA2-protected routers no matter the password, but it's fairly simple to protect your router — you simply have to turn off a feature called WPS.)
If this latest vulnerability is similar to the way WEP is vulnerable — and it looks like it is at the moment — then it won't matter how strong a password you chose. This would make hundreds of millions of routers out there, used by individuals and businesses alike, open to hackers. It would mean that, if you care about security, you should not use Wi-Fi at all until this is fixed. At the very least, you should use HTTPS connections whenever possible, and a good VPN might add another layer of security.
And fixes for these types of things don't come easy. Some routers will probably get a firmware update, but a lot of home users might not know how to apply it, or be aware that this is a threat. Again, going back to the time when WEP was cracked in 2001, it took years for ISPs to start shipping routers with WPA and WPA2 enabled as default, leaving many customers wide open to attacks.
We'll know more after the announcement today; stay tuned for updates.
Consumer use of Wi-Fi is on a steep rise. With the coming 5G era, Wi-Fi's role as a core technology in service providers' network strategy will be further strengthened, but it will also face uncertainties as the use of unlicensed spectrums by mobile operators becomes more prevalent.
This industry report provides analysis of Wi-Fi technologies and emerging business models related to public Wi-Fi hotspot services.
Key Topics
• Consumer use of Wi-Fi and hotspot services
• The entry of Wi-Fi-first mobile service providers and the potential impact on mobile operators' business
• New Wi-Fi standards and the growing use of Wi-Fi technologies in mobile operators' HetNet network strategy
• Global forecast of revenues from public Wi-Fi hotspot services targeting both consumers and business customers
Recently, the FTC posted an article on their website stating that hotel WiFi is dangerous and that users should not assume that just because they pay for Internet access that their connection is secure.
We couldn’t agree more. In fact, I have been stating this fact since we launched PRIVATE WiFi nearly five years ago. This is an important topic because hotel travelers rank WiFi access at hotels as the number one amenity that they look for when booking hotel rooms.
Why Hotel WiFi is Dangerous
The FTC’s announcement is important because many travelers assume that using a WiFi network at a hotel is the same as logging into their network at home. That’s a dangerous view, because in actuality the risks in accessing a WiFi network at a hotel are exponentially greater than those experienced at home or in an enterprise setting.
Here’s the unvarnished truth about hotel WiFi networks: they are completelyunsecured. Here’s another fun fact: when hotel WiFi networks get hacked, they don’t usually find out until months after.
There are two kinds of risks you should be aware regarding hotel WiFi networks:
All public WiFi networks are inherently insecure. Nothing new here, as I have been saying this for years, but it bears repeating: if a WiFi network is public, that means anything you do online can be tracked and captured. And this includes almost all hotel WiFi networks.
Even fully wired Ethernet connections are unsafe. This means even if you are plugging your computer directly into the hotel’s network, you are still in danger of being hacked.
The truth is that it’s difficult to make public WiFi safe, and most hotels are trading security for a WiFi network that is easy to login to and provides them a steady revenue stream. These facts are reflected in the recent Marriott WiFi debacle, in which the hotel conglomerate intentionally blocked personal WiFi hotspots of all guests. The brand maintained that it was doing this to protect guest security on WiFi networks but in reality, they were looking to protect their bottom line.
No matter which hotel you stay, or whether the purpose of your trip is business or pleasure, security on WiFi is up to you.
What the FTC Says You Should Do to Protect Yourself
The FTC offers pretty good advice on what you can do to protect yourself when accessing a hotel WiFi network. Below are some of the tips they offer:
When you have finished using an account, be sure to log out of that account.
Do not use the same password for all of your accounts. It could give someone who gains access to one of your accounts access to all of them.
Many web browsers alert users who try to visit fraudulent websites or download malicious programs. Pay attention to these warnings, and keep your browser and security software up-to-date.
If you regularly need to access online accounts through public WiFi networks, you may want to use a virtual private network (VPN).
I couldn’t agree more with that last point. Only a VPN like PRIVATE WiFi encrypts all your Internet communication from being intercepted by others, whether on a WiFi or Ethernet network.
This is a good rule to live by: never rely on hotels (or any other WiFi provider) to protect you when you use their networks. Never assume that any network is safe, and especially don’t assume that just because you paid for access to it.
No one else is looking out for your security when you use WiFi networks. You need to protect yourself.
Will an 802.11ac router do anything for my in home wifi if the only device I have that uses a 5GHz antenna is my iPad 2? Even backwards compatible, the AC benefits are really only likely to be visible with 5GHz devices, right? The iPad 2 does not support 802.11ac, only 11n. So it will benefit from 5GHz on 11n at least.
