[alphacharlieandroid]

When I am using my laptop at a public WiFi hotspot, I have been able to use a free public VPN service, as a form of protection from sidejacking through exploits such as FireSheep.

Currently I use a product called Hotspot Shield from a company called AnchorFree, which installed easily on my Win 7 laptop. I do not think that I have run into any speed or data caps with them, probably because my load is quite moderate and intermittent. I also used free or low-cost XeroBank when I was in Europe.

So, now that I have a pair of new HP Touchpad 32GB tablets, and I am just starting to learn about all the great webOS resources, I realize that I am far more likely to use this tablet at an airport, hotel, or cafe public hotspot. I don't want any website or email pswd being broadcast!
Can anyone here recommend a good free public VPN for this purpose? I see that the Touchpad does have some VPN software, of course I will need to learn how to use that.
Thank you!

[jason.hamilton]

Easiest way that i can think of is to set up a vpn at your house and then vpn to that whenever you are at a public wifi.

[jblather]

Yup, that's what I do - I have a VPN server somewhere on the internet that I VPN to.

[marksmith29]

When I am using my laptop at a public WiFi hotspot, I have been able to use a free public VPN service, as a form of protection from sidejacking through exploits such as FireSheep.

Currently I use a product called Hotspot Shield from a company called AnchorFree, which installed easily on my Win 7 laptop. I do not think that I have run into any speed or data caps with them, probably because my load is quite moderate and intermittent. I also used free or low-cost XeroBank when I was in Europe.

So, now that I have a pair of new HP Touchpad 32GB tablets, and I am just starting to learn about all the great webOS resources, I realize that I am far more likely to use this tablet at an airport, hotel, or cafe public hotspot. I don't want any website or email pswd being broadcast!
Can anyone here recommend a good free public VPN for this purpose? I see that the Touchpad does have some VPN software, of course I will need to learn how to use that.
Thank you!

Yes, i also agree with the above recommendation. I also use VPN for the same purpose

[Falter]

Free is not so good VPN service, really I do not know what for use it? You'd better find low-cost, for example kebrum.com . I use it for a long time and have no pittiness

[alphacharlieandroid]

Thanks for the comments. We have been a laptop-only household for a few years now, so there is not any PC kept running 24x7 at the house. That is why I started using the public service.

Is it possible to have VPN based upon a modem/router alone?
In other words, can a VPN "server" be created without a dedicated PC ?

[darkassain]

Thanks for the comments. We have been a laptop-only household for a few years now, so there is not any PC kept running 24x7 at the house. That is why I started using the public service.

Is it possible to have VPN based upon a modem/router alone?
In other words, can a VPN "server" be created without a dedicated PC ?

possible with dd-wrt, tomato (using Openvpn, but you need to have a compatible router to do so) and/or the high end networking hardware that already include such functionality oob

Ot: why in the world does openvpn autocorrect to OpenVMS on the touchpad? ....lol

[alphacharlieandroid]

aha, that is very interesting.
So a possible cheap solution would be an inexpensive router, configured for VPN, connected to the DSL line and kept always on (when anyone is away on the road).

And I imagine it would simultaneously function as a regular wi-fi router for whichever laptops are working at home, while others are far away but connecting in to our private VPN from public places.

So, another thing that I should learn more about.

[jbloogs]

I'm using an old Linksys WRT54L. There's a DD-WRT package with VPN preloaded. Works well for OpenVPN and PPTP. HP supplies a PPTP client so its pretty easy to setup. Only problem is the Touchpad only seems to authenticate with PAP (not MsChapV2). Anyone else have this problem? All my other devices authenticate with MSChapV2

[jblather]

There are a number of VPN-Server type of wireless routers available.

I Googled for "wireless router vpn server" and found lots....

[karun]

Easiest way that i can think of is to set up a vpn at your house and then vpn to that whenever you are at a public wifi.

Except that setting up OpenVPN can be not so funky. You definetely want SSH-Xserver+Xterm on your TP before attempting VPN. I am using key file based VPN and SSH authentication on my TP.

On the otherhand I created a Virtualbox Debian machine that I am using it for OpenVPN and SSH. It seems to work well with TP. The only thing is that sometimes after TP wakes up or connects to new wifi, the VPN does not pickup so one needs to restart using xterm.


Once you have a working setup it will be easier to copy your settings to other machines, like laptops, cell phones etc.


Btw I would not trust any free service since they can log your visits as well. You can also try getting SSH shell and use with SSH forwarding to compansate for proxy. Although I have not tried forwarding http:80 on SSH.

[mikesus]

Except that setting up OpenVPN can be not so funky. You definetely want SSH-Xserver+Xterm on your TP before attempting VPN. I am using key file based VPN and SSH authentication on my TP.

On the otherhand I created a Virtualbox Debian machine that I am using it for OpenVPN and SSH. It seems to work well with TP. The only thing is that sometimes after TP wakes up or connects to new wifi, the VPN does not pickup so one needs to restart using xterm.


Once you have a working setup it will be easier to copy your settings to other machines, like laptops, cell phones etc.


Btw I would not trust any free service since they can log your visits as well. You can also try getting SSH shell and use with SSH forwarding to compansate for proxy. Although I have not tried forwarding http:80 on SSH.

I am a geek and my eyes glazed over! JK


Seriously tho, get on ebay or amazon and search for ddwrt.

Buy a router with it already installed.

Setting up PPTP VPN takes a couple of minutes, and then you can browse from anywhere.

Make sure that you use highest security tho, ddwrt has been known to default to open

[frisco-sp]

i've been using kebrum.com for quite a long time and i must say i never had any problems with it at all

[jbloogs]

I'm using an old Linksys WRT54L. There's a DD-WRT package with VPN preloaded. Works well for OpenVPN and PPTP. HP supplies a PPTP client so its pretty easy to setup. Only problem is the Touchpad only seems to authenticate with PAP (not MsChapV2). Anyone else have this problem? All my other devices authenticate with MSChapV2

Just figured out the PPTP problem. The HP client has the same bug as iOS - need to add these two lines in your options.pptpd file:

nopcomp
noaccomp

[karun]

Just figured out the PPTP problem. The HP client has the same bug as iOS - need to add these two lines in your options.pptpd file:

nopcomp
noaccomp

Hi
Do you add those lines on the server or on the Touchpad?

I cannot get the pptp server and TP work together. I tried on the router and on a linux server.

[bethel95]

Has anyone tried using a TP running the HP VPN plugin with the WiTopia online service?

If so, how easy was it to set up and how well did it perform?

[andyrav]

Would love to know how to VPN the TP with DD-WRT?
has anyone got it working if so how?

[karun]

I could not make DD-WRT work but I set up a PPTP server on my debian box and that works. I forwarded the PPTP port on my router to the Debian PPTP server.

Windows clients conntect to the router`s PPTP server but TP could not, at least I could not get it to work.

Btw the pptp server on DD-WRT does not like long passwords as far as I can tell.

[jbloogs]

Hi
Do you add those lines on the server or on the Touchpad?

I cannot get the pptp server and TP work together. I tried on the router and on a linux server.

Add to the file on the server. For detailed instructions, just google setting up iPhone, PPTP and DD-WRT

[copasetic]

Is there a place we can go to read about this? I am trying to connect to my Cisco AnyConnect at work and all i get is certificate messages (not really errors), and it just stops at the login page. Nothing more.