Fluffy Bunnies of DOOM

Hey, since the bunnies tend be tech-savvy people, I wanted to take an informal poll and solicit some advice regarding VPN's. Do you use them? If so, do you roll-our-own or use a 3rd-party VPN service? Beyond the monthly/annual costs of a 3rd-party service, are they any significant downsides, such as a noticeable performance hit?

I have never been too worried about home PC security -- got the basics covered there with a firewall, decent antivirus, periodic malware scans, sandboxes I'm in doubt about something, etc -- but I find myself traveling more these days and wanting to take advantage of the proliferation of wifi hotspots and our plethora of wifi devices.

Any responses, comments and advice appreciated. Thanks all!

Mael

_________________

In all my travels I have used numerous airport and hotel wifi networks without problem. No VPN. That isn't to say there isn't risk, but the only reason I have considered a VPN is to circumvent regional restrictions on media broadcasts. But in general that hasn't been reason enough for me to take the plunge.

For accessing my home server when on the road I generally use TeamViewer. Pretty robust and no issues thus far.

I have two-factor authentication on my gmail and most other critical services and that also provides some comfort.

Sorry -- not much help here except to say that I manage to travel without VPN and do OK.

_________________

Thanks Z, that's the kind of stuff I wanted to know. I keep seeing security articles and blogs that say EVERYONE should be using a VPN but the none of the reasons seem to be high-impact high-probability stuff. Tough to tell if these are truly valid and warranted privacy and security concerns or if there's a history of these tools being used for identity theft. The reasons seem to be:

1) Anti-snooping when on public wifi
2) Circumventing regional or network access restrictions
3) Preventing traceability for web traffic and use

I don't think any of those are a significant risk for me and my typical activities. The public wifi thing, maybe -- but like you say there's other ways to get localized security for certain tasks. I appreciate the info and datapoint. Thanks.

_________________