Safe on public wifi?

[Madbison]

I am wondering if there's a way to be safe on public wifi? It's caravan park wifi, so only guests in theory.  But I won't be connecting without full security.

I am aware of VPN, and will do that. That just protects my outgoing traffic from potential snooping and tampering.

What I am after, is safety from a rogue entity getting into my laptop. I was thinking a wired or wireless device that I connect my laptop to,  and that in turn connects to the public wifi AP. The device should block all incoming traffic. Does such a device exist that I can buy or make? I don't want to just rely on the windows firewall.

Or is it best to just never connect to public wifi?

Thanks for any help!

MB

[i8igmac]

Your pretty safe I think.

 

Just use caution. don't install any certificate that are served over insecure networks.

 

I assume you are using your phone. Your apps are a safe portal to a secure connection. Facebook. Snapchat. Bank apps...

 

when using your browser. https and hsts are secure as of now. You could be at risk if surfing sites that are old crappy http protocol.

 

Your safe.

[becker]

There are many public wifi's that are not safe. VPN seems one of the best solutions.

[Dave-ee Jones]

I would think you're generally pretty safe provided you've got an SSL certificate that's doing it's job. If you're doing general surfing and stuff you're pretty right, but I wouldn't put any bank details or anything like that over the WiFi, even with a 256-bit SSL certificate that Chrome says is Secure.

On my phone? Tap off the WiFi, put your details in and do your thing on 4G, swap back to WiFi..In saying that I don't know how safe 4G really is.

You can VPN if you want but...yeah. Some bigger VPNs (especially free ones) are probably more dangerous than they are useful.

Edited December 10, 2018 by Dave-ee Jones

[PoSHMagiC0de]

You can also get is VPS like Digital Oceans (Bithost is the same thing but with bitcoin) and use the roadwarrior script to setup a quick SSLVPN of your own before heading out and then use that with openvpn to hide your traffic.

 

[Dave-ee Jones]

It's a big yikes from me when the Australian Government says "because we want access to anything and everything, everything is now insecure. Now give me access to your ... app, is it? I got no idea I just want access to it. Gimme!"

Relevance? Encryption/SSL is now ineffective against the government if you're using a service in Australia. You'd have to tunnel a VPN through whatever you're using, even then the VPN traffic could be traced back to you through billing or whatever else.

Edited December 13, 2018 by Dave-ee Jones

[i8igmac]

Ill make a suggestion to secure your connection.

 

set up on your home network a server. I run a gaming desktop configured to allow remote access.

( 6t raid drive)

ftp

Ssh

Vnc

Http

Vpn

Squid proxy.

Maybe a few others I forget to mention.

If you absolutely need a secure connection. Squid proxy will do this for you. When your located at a public wifi and your extremely paranoid. Connect back home and use your squid proxy to encrypt your connection.

(Squid or vpn will work.)

 

This wil depend on your phone or device is capable of using a proxy for the apps you use.

A labtop you can simply configure your system proxy settings.

 

Edited December 13, 2018 by i8igmac

[Dave-ee Jones]

On 12/13/2018 at 3:54 PM, i8igmac said:

Ill make a suggestion to secure your connection.

 

set up on your home network a server. I run a gaming desktop configured to allow remote access.

( 6t raid drive)

ftp

Ssh

Vnc

Http

Vpn

Squid proxy.

Maybe a few others I forget to mention.

If you absolutely need a secure connection. Squid proxy will do this for you. When your located at a public wifi and your extremely paranoid. Connect back home and use your squid proxy to encrypt your connection.

(Squid or vpn will work.)

 

This wil depend on your phone or device is capable of using a proxy for the apps you use.

A labtop you can simply configure your system proxy settings.

 

I never understood why people want to setup a VPN server through their home PC..it's bad almost every way I look at it. Location, data, etc. It's all compromised if it's traced back to a home address. At least with a more public VPN it's just traced back to a company that provide the VPN service, which has no involvement with you..

[i8igmac]

On 12/17/2018 at 7:32 PM, Dave-ee Jones said:

I never understood why people want to setup a VPN server through their home PC..it's bad almost every way I look at it. Location, data, etc. It's all compromised if it's traced back to a home address. At least with a more public VPN it's just traced back to a company that provide the VPN service, which has no involvement with you..

You are correct. Any of the protocols I suggest, If you cannot back to your home it is trackable.

 

if your looking for a quick encrypted connection. A simple squid socks5 proxy will suffice.

 

If your performing illegal activities. well. First. Crack a wifi network and configure your proxy on this network at a long distants😎

 

Who wants a video tutorial lol

Edited December 19, 2018 by i8igmac