Are you still Surfing Internet Naked?

Free internet is the goal of any new internet surfer.How to keep your data safe when you're on a public wireless network.

Tunneling Your Traffic

Anyone who connects to the  public wireless network , could spy on your HTTP traffic.You can fix this problem by creating an encrypted tunnel through which you can send Web traffic that originates at your laptop and ends at a known location.

Easy, Cheap Security via SSH

SSH was created as an encrypted version of telnet, one of the Internet's original protocols, used to send character information between computers.

Get an SSH Client

OS X ships with a command-line SSH client, so all you need to do is open Terminal (located in the Utilities folder within your Application folder). You will see a command prompt that has your username and your computer's name, followed by the $ symbol. All of the commands in the following sections will be things that you type just beside that symbol.

On Windows, you need to download an SSH client. You have many to choose from, but a popular freeware client is PuTTY.

I am using https://www.fastssh.com/ to create SSH tunnel.

Local Listeners and Remote Endpoints

You need to configure a port on your local computer that will take any packets you throw at it and stuff it into an SSH encrypted session. At the other end of the tunnel, the traffic will dump out on your SSH server.

Create Your SSH Tunnel

$ ssh -ND 8888 [email protected]

The 'N' option tells the SSH client that you do not want an interactive session (a command prompt), because you just want to set up a tunnel. The 'D 8888' option tells the SSH client to set up a "dynamic" port-forwarding tunnel on port 8888. The tunnel is dynamic because the destination Website will change depending on where you are surfing; other port-forwarding tunnels have static rules, but for Web browsing you want the dynamic version. After issuing the command, you will be prompted for a password and then ... nothing will happen. Actually, if the command works, the port will be open, but you will not receive any confirmation within Terminal

Configuring ports in PuTTY

For Windows, start PuTTY again, scroll down the 'Category' listing on the left to 'Connection', and expand the 'SSH' category to select Tunnels. Select the Dynamic radio button, enter 8888 for 'Source port', and then click Add

Internet Explorer users should go to the Tools menu and select Internet Options. From this dialog box, select the Connections tab (fifth from the left) and click the LAN Settings button at the bottom. In that pop-up dialog box, select the checkbox next to Use a proxy server for your LAN. Now click on Advanced. Next to 'SOCKS' enter localhost for the address and 8888 for the port; leave all the other fields blank. Click OK three times and go to What Is My IP Address again. Your IP address should now reflect that of the SSH server.

Mozilla Firefox users on Windows should go to the Tools menu and select Options, while OS X Firefox users should go to the Firefox menu and select Preferences. Thereafter, users on either platform should select the Advanced category (a gear icon) and then the Network tab (second from left), and click the Settings button.

Select Manual Proxy Configuration. Next to 'SOCKS Host', enter localhost for the address and 8888 for the port; leave all the other fields blank. Choose the SOCKS5 radio button if it isn't already selected. On Windows, click OK twice; on OS X, simply close both preferences windows. Visit What Is My IP Address again. Your IP address should now reflect that of the SSH server.

Safari users on OS X should go to the Safari menu and select Preferences. Select the Advanced category (a gear icon) and then click the Change Settings button next to 'Proxies'. This will open System Preferences for your current network connection. On the Proxies tab, select the checkbox next to SOCKS Proxy and then enter localhost for the address and 8888 for the port. Click OK, Apply and then close System Preferences. Visit What Is My IP Address again. Your IP address should now reflect that of the SSH server.