Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Tips and tricks, Airport, Security
Secure Your Mac: Untrusted networks and how to deal with them
To tell the unvarnished truth, I have to admit that I'm pretty lax on security for my computers. I don't do anything crazy like open email attachments from people I don't know, and I always double check the address bar of websites before I punch my password in. Even so, on a scale of 1 to 10, I'd say I put about an effort of 5 into keeping my computers secured. There's a lot more I could do.And so I found Albert Lee's short guide on surfing on untrusted networks very helpful. I've got a web server set up that runs my own website, but I never had any idea how to get all my network traffic running through there. Albert's guide makes that super easy-- this Lifehacker piece explains the basics of surfing with a proxy, and Albert's guide tells you exactly how to do everything on your Mac, and even how to automate the whole process using Applescript. Eventually, you can have it set up so that one double-click will get your proxy connected and get you surfing securely.
The one thing you know about untrusted networks is just that: they shouldn't be trusted. When it's this easy to get your web traffic locked down, there's no reason not to.
Thanks, Albert!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jay Allen said 10:55AM on 9-28-2007
I've been using lifehacker's proxy tip for some time now and it absolutely awesome. Combine it with the QuickProxy Firefox extension and you have an easy on-and-off solution.
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jkahan said 12:13PM on 9-28-2007
As another point, use OpenDNS for your DNS servers because it adds another layer of protection from spoofed sites and keeps your DNS queries from your prying ISP's eyes.
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