If you were choosing a VPN for occasional short-term use (i.e. no need for long-term subscriptions), which would you pick?
Longer explanation:
I travel rather occasionally. Most of the time I’m traveling I’m on a trusted wi-fi (friend, family, etc.). And even then, I’m mostly just doing light web browsing where security doesn’t matter as much.
But sometimes I wind up at a hotel for a few days to a week, and that means I’m also doing my day-to-day work with servers, bill payments, etc. So the extra encryption would be a Good Idea.
This doesn’t need to be the cheapest VPN, as the use case is short-term. It just needs to be solid. Thoughts?
2nd vote for Mullvad monthly. Sensible price, very reliable. And I’m not bombarded with emails offering extra useless features and unnecessary upgrades.
3rd vote for Mullvad. It’s a great option if you only want a single month, and they don’t charge a ridiculous premium if you only decide to use them for a single month and not take out a multi-year subscription.
If all you need is encryption on wifi, check if your home router has a VPN server built into it, a surprising number do these days. Just keep the profile on your laptop and you can connect anytime without having to remember or set anything else up.
On the Mac, I just do it in Network Settings. In iOS, I was going to say I toggle it off, but apparently I’ve deleted the app! So that. You can also use generic networking apps like the Wireguard app.
Mullvad VPN (https://mullvad.net). It’s $5 a month, renew it for as long as you want, whenever you want. I have it on all my devices, if you’re crafty enough (or can navigate forums easily) you can probably get it to run on a smart fridge.
It’s actually $5.82 in USD. If you want the best Mulvad is it.
I use NordVPN and it’s also very good and significantly cheaper I purchased one year for $20 back on a special.
I can also recommend proton VPN
Whatever you do, avoid private Internet access. Avoided like the plague for the Mac. Their client is proven to have frequent kernel panics and take down computers.
You don’t need a consumer VPN for this. Not even a little bit. Don’t waste your money.
(This is my grumpy topic in general, to the extent that I co-presented on it at a conference a couple of months ago and once a year or so I post here like this )
Just clarifying - are you saying I don’t need anything at all?
This particular hotel was, quite literally, a whole hotel with a single, shared password. And let’s just say that, based on its content, I’m confident the password never changes. It seemed sketchy, even by hotel wi-fi standards.
For paying bills and such? If you can’t do that over an untrusted, completely open WiFi network, the problem isn’t the network, it’s who you’re banking with (or whoever you’re paying your bills through). As long as you’re not clicking through untrusted website warnings, TLS (used to be called SSL) should be providing strong, end to end encryption between your browser (or app) and your service provider’s server (or where ever they terminate their connections).
I spend a fair bit of time in airports these days and have absolutely no issue doing my banking over the open WiFi networks that I find there, without a VPN. The same goes for hotels or the WiFi on airplanes.
There are a few edge cases where it helps with security, such as if the hotel network’s DNS has been compromised, and entering a genuine URL will redirect you to a malicious site.
However the primary purpose of a VPN is certainly privacy rather than security. It stops the hotel from knowing where you’re browsing. People don’t need any reason to assert their privacy, so if they want to stop a hotel from knowing where they’re browsing, that’s their lookout. That’s what a VPN helps with.
That’s exactly the sort of thing the TLS is meant to protect against. You may get to a malicious site, but it’ll result in a certificate error (“This webpage cannot be trusted” or something similar).
As far as privacy goes, I think it’s generally a wash: You’re transferring who gets to snoop on your browsing habits from a hotel chain to the VPN provider. It maybe works out in the VPN provider’s favour, but (personally) I don’t think the benefit is worth the added risk that comes with installing a VPN client. It is worth considering though.
I would (and do) use Mullvad VPN. In fact, it’s covering me right now. You can top-up one month at a time at a low, stable price, and you’ll get phenomenal security, privacy and convenience. Visit any tech et al. forum and you’ll hear praise for Mullvad. For when I travel to less-free countries, I have Proton VPN and IVPN installed as just-in-case backups.
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