A VPN would work well for keeping her traffic safe but if her laptop wasn't safe then the VPN would be moot. I think using a VPN is complicating the situation beyond what the user maybe was looking for. The two places to secure would be the end node and the traffic in between. The traffic could be secured by a VPN, but that would still leave the end node vulnerable to attack. I think with the amount of threats currently in the wild, browsing the internet without a personal firewall can be a dangerous venture.
If she's looking for the most secure approach I would say a personal firewall and a VPN connection to a trusted source. If she is just looking for machine security I think a personal firewall would be plenty. I would steer towards a firewall with good reviews that looks at more than just ports, like IE requests and such. If she used SSL sites anytime she was divulging personal information her traffic would be encrypted and there wouldn't really be a need for a VPN. Andy Kitzke Network Engineer In-Sink-Erator -----Original Message----- From: James Harless [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, April 19, 2006 8:53 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Internet security on "hotspots" Have her connect to a VPN that is available to her. If her company doesn't have one available, there are many easy to implement solutions for setting up a PPTP VPN. Then, she can connect to an insecure Wireless AP but, all of her traffic would flow encrypted to the VPN and out to the 'net from that remote location. -- James Harless Network Security Engineer Kidwell Companies kCOM kE kTECH 900 S. 26th Street Lincoln, NE 68510 13336 Industrial Road Suite 101 Omaha, NE 68137 Main: 402-475-9151 Fax: 402-475-9186 [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.kidwellcompanies.com <http://www.kidwellcompanies.com/> On 4/18/06 9:09 PM, "Agent Zr0" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I have a friend who is interested in better securing her laptop while > she's out surfing the net at coffeehouses and what not. I'm thinking of > telling her to just get herself a REALLY good firewall program (I use > zonealarm pro myself), but I was wondering if anyone here had any other > ideals or thoughts that I could pass onto her other than that. > > Agent Zer0 > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ --- > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ --- > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ --- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ --- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
