Re: Securing my PC at a Wireless Hotspot?

[krymson () gmail com]

Read Rohnskii's response first, I think he hits pretty much every nail, especially about tethering your system. Don't 
forget physical theft!

But really, if you want to go that last step further, you need to tunnel your traffic to a box/server that you control. 
Ultimately, even if you use SSL and even if you take great care to raise the defenses on your system, you simply cannot 
trust an open wireless network.

You need to set up a VPN (OpenVPN!) or SSH tunnel from your laptop to a server you control. You mention about 
encrypting the connection between your laptop and your destination. That's great when both your laptop and the server 
in question talk in a way they both understand and agree to. But (outside of SSL) that is not really how things work. 
You need to provide both endpoints, really.


<-snip->
Hello

You've probably been to a café before that offered WiFi via a Wireless
Hotspot. Or maybe you've been to an airport that had some hotspots?
Well whatever the case, I'm sure you've seen a Public Wireless
Hotspot. Or, at the very least, heard of them.

So my question to you is, NOT on how to secure the Wireless Hotspot,
but rather on how to go about securing my connection to the hotspot.

So, how do I secure my PC at a Wireless Hotspot?

Would there be a way to have 256-bit AES or 256-bit Camellia
encryption on all outgoing traffic?

Or would you recommend a different method?

If this is of any use, I will be using the following laptop: Dell
Inspiron 700m. I will be running either Ubuntu 8.10 or Windows XP
(though probably XP, since I get better battery life).

Can I please have some recommendations on what I need to add onto my
Windows XP installation in order to encrypt my connection to the
Wireless Hotspot?

Thanks in advance,

Chip D. Panarchy