Vpn

I am a mac user, mainly privately and not for any heavy duty functions. I do quite a bit of travelling and lately, I've been seeing a lot of infoads about the risk of using open wifi networks and stuff. What I'm trying to understand is should I get a VPN and if so, can anyone provide a good, easy to use one?

Thread moved to better area. Not a "Switcher Hangout" topic.

Thanks,

- Nick

The perils of public WiFi/networks have always existed and you need to be vigilant on these networks. That means that you shouldn't be banking or doing anything else sensitive when on these networks. Using a VPN is the absolute bare minimum that you should employ to protect your data. If you don't wish to get a VPN for general use, you can download the latest version of the Opera browser that includes a built-in free VPN. While on these public networks, you would only use Opera to do your browsing with the VPN enabled to get you a layer of protection.

However, understand that while on these public network, other applications will be connecting to the Internet without the VPN protection, so installing a VPN that covers you entire network access is more preferable.

If you travel for business, you can ask your employer to setup a VPN system for your use.

Excellent, many thanks Raz0rEdge. Am going to check out Opera as I'm guessing it will be more than enough for my needs!!

cjshort said:

I am a mac user, mainly privately and not for any heavy duty functions. I do quite a bit of travelling and lately, I've been seeing a lot of infoads about the risk of using open wifi networks and stuff. What I'm trying to understand is should I get a VPN and if so, can anyone provide a good, easy to use one?

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Hello and welcome to the forum! Checkout this recent THREAD on VPNs - I've been using the one discussed there for over a month - not free but a good deal from the Mac-Forums. Dave

the Opera browser's built-in free VPN is more than enough for regular users.

What about the other apps that sync? Calendar, Mail, etc? Do those need VPN?

ferrarr said:

What about the other apps that sync? Calendar, Mail, etc? Do those need VPN?

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I imagine it's a good idea to use a VPN both on your Mac and iOS devices. I recently downloaded the free "Tunnel Bear" VPN app which is for OS X and iOS. The free version for iOS is limited to 500 MB of data per month. There is no free version for OS X but at $59 per year for unlimited data, it's a bargain.

I honestly don't know how effective the Opera built in VPN is. I do know that it's not configurable like other VPNs.

I have tried quite a few and for ease of setup and system wide protection with unlimited bandwidth, two way encryption and no user logging, 1000+ sites in 94 countries Express VPN is the most expensive but still the best. I was pleasantly surprised to find I could also use the same account for my wife's laptop and my iPhone at no extra cost.

For most of us here in the US, a VPN is a must for those times when you're away from your home network and using public WiFi. I don't know what the restrictions are in Indonesia but many countries (China for example) limit what sites you can access. A VPN can work around restrictions (sometimes).

Oh, yes we have lots of restrictions here in Indonesia. A lot of news feeds are blocked as well as live streaming media and anything that might be construed as gratuitous sex. For example breast feeding sites ( my wife was a midwife and lactation consultant) she can now access those sites. We have the VPN set for Australia so it's just the same as Australia.

ferrarr said:

What about the other apps that sync? Calendar, Mail, etc? Do those need VPN?

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These apps would benefit from a VPN to protect your data from being snooped. For example, Email is sent as clear text through the SMTP server. SMTP servers do support SSL and everyone should enable that as a minimum. So while it is unlikely that you will get infected by malware/virus by these apps doing their sync'ing you are likely looking at your data being compromised.

I don't see a macOSX version on your link? Is there no Mac desktop version?