If you’re like me, you tote a laptop when you hit the road. Most hotels and motels in the U.S. now offer some form of Internet connectivity, making it easy to check your email, browse the Web, or update your blog or website.
Many such establishments (and this extends to airports and coffee shops) have chosen a Wi-Fi scheme. Unfortunately, most of these hot spots are unsecured, meaning that any information you send or receive can be intercepted and read by others logged in to the same network. What to do?
Protect your privacy by installing a virtual private network (VPN) application on your laptop. A VPN is an impenetrable tunnel that prevents others from viewing your web browsing activities, instant messages, downloads, credit card information or anything else you send over the network.
Although there are several VPN clients to choose from, I can recommend two that I have used successfully. The first is a free program called Hotspot Shield. According to its developers, Hotspot Shield allows you to:
- Secure your web session, data, online shopping, and personal information online with HTTPS encryption
- Protect yourself from identity theft online
- Hide your IP address for your privacy online
- Access all content privately without censorship; bypass firewalls
- Protect yourself from snoopers at Wi-Fi hotspots, hotels, airports, corporate offices
This video shows how easy it is to download and set up Hotspot Shield on your computer.
The other VPN is a paid offering from Comodo called TrustConnect. Its features, according to the company:
- Securely encrypts all data transmitted over both wired and wireless Internet connections
- Creates a Virtual Private Network to hide all personal web-surfing information
- Utilizes industry-standard 128-bit encryption
- Lightweight—protects without interfering with normal computer operation
Which to choose? If you’re on a budget, go with Hotspot Shield. You’ll be served some ads, but that’s how they keep their service free. If you are experiencing lengthy delays connecting with one of their servers, you might want to consider TrustConnect. For a few dollars a month, you get a faster connection and no noticeable delay in surfing speed.