When you’re out of town and need to access your online accounts, it’s important to remember to use a secure browser. Here are a few tips on how to browse securely away from home:

  1. Use a VPN: A VPN is a virtual private network, or VPN, that helps you encrypt your traffic and protect your privacy. This can help you stay anonymous when browsing the internet, and it can also help you stay safe when traveling.
  2. Use an HTTPS Everywhere Browser: Another great way to browse securely is by using an HTTPS Everywhere browser. This means that the website will automatically try to connect through HTTPS instead of HTTP when you visit it, which will make it more difficult for hackers to track your activity online.
  3. Use Two-Factor Authentication: If you don’t have any personal or financial information stored on your computer or phone, then two-factor authentication is a great way to keep yourself safe while browsing the internet. This means that you’ll need to provide two pieces of identification before logging in (usually your username and password).

Responses to this week’s Ask the Reader question show that just because you’re away from home doesn’t mean you have to give up the security and privacy that your home network provides.

Earlier this week we asked you to share you browsing away from home security tips and tricks and obliged. JC offered one of the more entertaining tales of away-from-home browsing:

TheFu highlights how, despite your best efforts sometimes the Wi-Fi hotspot can thwart you:

Onsite we setup the devices and connected to the wireless with one paid account(tied to the MAC address). Everyone connected to the other device for wireless access and it was all tunnelled through my home network with encryption.

Next time, I will have a WAN side proxy to allow devices to get on the WiFi network, not register with the access gateway, and use the proxy as the default gateway. This way we can use the wireless anywhere on the resort, not just in our room.

Paranoid, not really(in Cuba I was paranoid). I’m just cheap, paranoid was a simple addon to cheap.

Hisa tried the tunneling and VPN solutions others highlighted, but found them lacking:

For longer needs, like an evening in a hotel, OpenVPN.

If I can’t get either of those working, it is time to hit the hotel bar or watch some tube.

Out of 7 hotels I’ve stayed in the last 3 months, only 2 allowed any VPN/ssh access. Hotels are deploying invisible web proxies to prevent bandwidth hogs. These are not compatible with ssh or openVPN. I’m amazed at the number of fantastic hotels that don’t have in-room wifi too. I always bring a tiny, usb-powered, travel wifi router now.

The proxies are a real problem.