And you can Google around and discover that there are, indeed, private VPN services like the ones I was describing above. Your choices include:
- PublicVPN - Works on Windows (Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP), Mac OS X (10.2 or later) $5.95 per month, $59.95 per year
- HotSpotVPN - Ranges from $8.88/mo. to $13.88/mo, depending on encryption strength; multiply by 10 to get annual cost. (Has a day or week-priced option for infrequent travellers.)
- WiTopia personal VPN (Windows XP) - Regularly:$79.00; currently priced at $39.50
All well and good.
But it took me over an hour to sort all of that out, my friends. (I signed up for a couple months of PublicVPN service and am currently testing it out; if it works out, I will point all the users in my "support community" to it.)
And then when I stumbled on the book, I saw... grrrrrr!... that the authors had already figured this out for me!
Oh, the time I could have saved myself.
Dammit.
Okay, here are the free resources I mentioned. But go buy that book, really.
- WiFi Networking News
- Daily Wireless
- Unstrung
- MuniWireless - About municipal wireless efforts worldwide
- TechDirt Wireless
- Reiter's Wireless Data Weblog
- Om Malik's Broadband Blog - "Unwired" topic
DISCLAIMER: Although I must sound like the worst corporate shill ever, I discovered "Take Control of Your Wi-Fi Security" on my own, bought it with my own money, have never met either of the authors and have no business relationship (or any relationship whatsoever with them.
(Also posted at enrevanche.)
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