How safe am I?

[Sue]

I purchased my first laptop this December. It's a windows vista home premium
notebook. How safe will I be if I connect through a hotspot? I have been
reading all the posts and answers in this forum and it's like reading my old
high school physic book (I barely passed physics!) Please can someone kindly
tell me if my laptop straight out of the box is safe to connect via a
hotspot? Does vista come with vpn or do I need to purchase vpn through, for
example, HotSpotVPN or PublicVPN.com? Is my notebook safe to use at a
hotspot now or do I need to get something additional like PublicVPN.com.

Thank you,

Sue

 

[Mr. Arnold]

I purchased my first laptop this December. It's a windows vista home
premium
notebook. How safe will I be if I connect through a hotspot? I have been
reading all the posts and answers in this forum and it's like reading my
old
high school physic book (I barely passed physics!) Please can someone
kindly
tell me if my laptop straight out of the box is safe to connect via a
hotspot? Does vista come with vpn or do I need to purchase vpn through,
for
example, HotSpotVPN or PublicVPN.com? Is my notebook safe to use at a
hotspot now or do I need to get something additional like PublicVPN.com.

As long as you're using Vista FW/packet filter, and you don't have the
Exception rule to share resources on a network, like a wireless LAN, then
you are safe from other machines on the wireless LAN. No one can come at
your machine.

The other thing you can do is disable the Client for MS Networks and MS File
& Print Sharing services off of the wireless network interface card (NIC),
which will close all the ports on the computer that would allow someone to
access your computer in a LAN situation such as a wireless hot spot. If the
ports are closed on the computer that will allow networking with you
computer and other computers on a LAN, then how can someone come at you if
the ports are closed?

 

[Sue]

Thank you both! Very clear!

Sue

 

[Andy C.(never #)]

SNIP
tell me if my laptop straight out of the box is safe to connect via a
hotspot?

No, it is not. I think DZ is wrong about what he told you. When you
connect to a PUBLIC access point, you'll see a message that says
basically "Are you sure you want to do this?" and if you click ok,
it's on your head if you get owned.

Here's a M$ link with some suggestions for people that like to live
dangerously:

http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/stayconnected/hotspots.mspx

I love the one about "you may want to remove any and all sensitive
data from your system." ROFL!

Does vista come with vpn or do I need to purchase vpn through, for
example, HotSpotVPN or PublicVPN.com? Is my notebook safe to use at a
hotspot now or do I need to get something additional like PublicVPN.com.

Thank you,

Sue

I assume you want to set up a VPN to your employer so the best thing
to do is to talk to the people in your IT department that handle that
and they will tell you what to do and probably save you some
headaches, as well.

HTH,

Andy C.(never #)

 

[Sue]

It looks like it's an unsafe world out there but I knew that. So it wouldn't
hurt to set up extra protection by getting a vpn. I guess I could speak with
my school district's tech people. But this is my own personal notebook. I
won't need to use it until April when I fly back home to visit my parents (in
their 80s and completely computerless, so I will probably have to find a
"cafe hotspot" to check my email and stuff). Maybe I will just go with
PublickVPN or HotSpotvpn. Thanks!

 

[NoStop]

Easy. When Vista detects the hotspot, be sure to specify that you are
connecting via a PUBLIC network, then it'll lockdown the system to help
prevent unauthorized access.

You might also want to consider purchasing a third-party firewall
solution (such as Kaspersky Internet Security) to help bolster the Vista
Firewall.

How many firewalls do you Wintards typically pile on top of one another in
an effort to keep your Windoze boxes "secure"?

Cheers.

--
An HONEST Vista Ad:

The Rolling Stones Love Vista:

Frank - seek help immediately! Visit ...
http://www.binsa.org/

 

[Frank]

dzomlija wrote:



How many firewalls do you Wintards typically pile on top of one another in
an effort to keep your Windoze boxes "secure"?

Cheers.

You miserable POS lying linux troll. RS needs
your...uhhh..."help'...immediately...hahaha...LOL!
Don't keep his majesty waiting you cross-dressing sack of crap!
Frank

 

[Mr. Arnold]

You are DEFINITELY NOT SAFE at an open wi-fi hotspot or when you use
Wi-Fi at home (unless you have WPA or better enabled with strong
password).

Your data stream between your PC and the acccess point is wide open and
easily sniffed. firewalls won't help this.

You were right in the first place. Use a VPN, although I would
recommend Personal VPN from 'Welcome to WiTopia >> Where Freedom and
Security Meet' (http://www.witopia.net) over hotspotvpn or publicvpn.
They are offering a free PPTP VPN (what publicvpn offers) along with
their SSL VPN for only 40 bucks a year. hotspotvpn has same package for
over $100 a year.

Unless this woman was James Bond's wife with some top secrets on the
computer she was transmitting somewhere, why would she need a VPN
connection?

 

[AlexB]

Well you are right to the point.

HOWEVER, sometimes it is just an issue of a virus getting in and thrashing
your system from the inside. This is the most dreadful thing.

This is a real life story. I do have Vista + Win2K on one machine with
constant switches between the two. I still have some software I need on
Win2K I cannot transfer to Vista. My secretary hates Vista and she likes
Win2K because it is where she's worked all time she's been with me. I give
her a lot of leeway when there is a slack in workload. She can roam the web
to look for her soft toys. Those places are filled with traps set up big
time gangs. I asked her to do it from Vista but she forgets because for her
it has no difference. As a result today Win2K crashed miserably, pretty much
as it did 10 years ago a couple of times. Also my ZoneAlarm has expired on
that partition. I think the virus actually got into Vista as well as I saw
some trouble but it seems I am recovering but Win2K looked totally dead.

 

[Paul Knudsen]

I purchased my first laptop this December. It's a windows vista home premium
notebook. How safe will I be if I connect through a hotspot? I have been
reading all the posts and answers in this forum and it's like reading my old
high school physic book (I barely passed physics!) Please can someone kindly
tell me if my laptop straight out of the box is safe to connect via a
hotspot? Does vista come with vpn or do I need to purchase vpn through, for
example, HotSpotVPN or PublicVPN.com? Is my notebook safe to use at a
hotspot now or do I need to get something additional like PublicVPN.com.

Thank you,

Sue

Lots and lots of people do this, most of them apparently have no
problems.

Do you have an antivirus?

 

[AlexB]

College kids do it. For many of them if their machine crashes it is a
learning experience and perhaps should be even encouraged because people
should learn from mistakes. For a person who values his laptop a bit
more.... Read my previous post. That was MHO.

 

[Mr. Arnold]

Well you are right to the point.

HOWEVER, sometimes it is just an issue of a virus getting in and thrashing
your system from the inside. This is the most dreadful thing.

This is a real life story. I do have Vista + Win2K on one machine with
constant switches between the two. I still have some software I need on
Win2K I cannot transfer to Vista. My secretary hates Vista and she likes
Win2K because it is where she's worked all time she's been with me. I give
her a lot of leeway when there is a slack in workload. She can roam the
web to look for her soft toys. Those places are filled with traps set up
big time gangs. I asked her to do it from Vista but she forgets because
for her it has no difference. As a result today Win2K crashed miserably,
pretty much as it did 10 years ago a couple of times. Also my ZoneAlarm
has expired on that partition. I think the virus actually got into Vista
as well as I saw some trouble but it seems I am recovering but Win2K
looked totally dead.

Well, do you think VPN is going to stop that? The only thing VPN does is
encrypt and decrypt traffic between two valid VPN end points, so that the
traffic between the end points cannot be eavesdropped. The VPN protocol
rides on the TCP, and whatever is coming in the network traffic between two
machines in a VPN session is coming, malware and all.

 

[AlexB]

It is a good point of clarification but I do not think I was referring to
VNP. I actually do not quite remember how the thread started--sort of
irrelevant.

 

[Mr. Arnold]

It is a good point of clarification but I do not think I was referring to
VNP. I actually do not quite remember how the thread started--sort of
irrelevant.

Yes, your post was irrelevant, since you posted about something that was not
in the context of the thread. I am still trying to figure out your post
based on the context of the thread, a wireless hotspot, and security of the
computer using wireless that the OP was asking about, which included VPN.

 

[Sue]

Yes I do have antivirus, Mcafee security suite plus pc tools spyware doctor.