There are two routes to go here. You can go the WiFi route, which is far more popular and usually in the broadband range for speed. Or, you can go the dial-up route which is slower, however you can access it from the convenience of your own home or maybe from a hotel without WiFi service.

It may be slower than molasses going uphill in winter, but beggars can’t be choosers.

All Free ISP

All Free ISP has a simple way to access their database and find a service provider near you. A major benefit is that their database covers the United States of America as well as Canada. You are more likely to find free service in the U.S.A. than in Canada, so I was pleasantly surprised to find several providers in my home province of Alberta.

Just go to All Free ISP and select your State or Province. You can also search by ZIP or Postal Code. Then click on our friend, the Go button. I’m also partial to his cousins the Enter and Next button – really handy fellows, the whole bunch.

The website then shows you a page of free and cheap ISPs you can access from your area. Here’s what showed up for me.

See how it breaks the list down into cities? That’s a nice touch. How about the rating system and letting you know what platforms are supported? Pretty nifty. From here, you can click on the name of an ISP and find out more about them. Let’s do that, shall we?

This just shows you a basic overview of the ISP. Really, do I need to explain this? No, exactly! That’s why I like this site. If you go to All Free ISP and follow through to this point, you’ll see that there is way more information than I’m showing here. Based on what they present, you can make an educated guess about whether you want to use this ISP or not.

At this point also, you realize that nothing is really free. If you choose Juno, you’ll be subjected to large banner ads for the privilege of using their service. No different than watching TV really.

Freedom List

You might be living or travelling outside of the northern two-thirds of North America and be in need of dial-up service. Yes, believe it or not, there is more to the world than North America. I know, shocker isn’t it?! Freedom List offers a, well, list of free ISPs broken down by country. Just take a look! Pretty impressive, huh?

So, if your WiFi card is broken, or you just can’t sit at the cafe any longer, check Freedom List out.

Your ISP

Another place to check for free dial-up Internet access is your current ISP. Many of them offer you a certain amount of hours of dial-up access for free, if you have a paid broadband account. Some of them even have directories of dial-up numbers that you can use across the country or even internationally. If they have a dial-up number near to where you are staying, chances are you won’t even have to pay long distance fees.

The best way to find out if your ISP has free dial-up is to check out their website, or call their customer service number. Usually, they’re more than glad to help you. The hardest part will be trying to remember how to make a connection using a dial-up modem again. What was once second nature is now a chore.

Your Town or County

Municipal Internet Access or Municipal WiFi seems to be an on-again off-again project for most communities. While driving across the countryside of Alberta for my job, I’ve noticed my WiFi card picking up access points that are provided by the county. If I were a resident of that county, I could get an account and access the Internet for little to no cost. It’s provided for with my taxes.

Municipalities also often provide totally free, unlimited Internet access at locations such as the municipal offices, libraries and some schools. To find out more about what your community offers, contact your local government offices.

Editor’s note: Remember, there are always security issues when using a public internet connection. Karl teaches you how to protect your personal information while enjoying free wifi connectivity.

Know of any other interesting ways to get legal free Internet access? Share it in the comments. We all like a freebie now and again. Got a tip on access being provided by your government? Let everyone know – it’s good to use the services you already pay for.

Image credit: andrewgrill

Public computers and Wi-Fi hot spots can be set up to log everything you do through a rouge connection.

So to keep you safe in the land of public computers and free Wi-Fi I have compiled some tips for you. Read through them and if you have something to add please feel free to do so in the comments.

When using a public computer:

• Whatever you do absolutely NEVER EVER save your log-on information. That means avoid clicking the box that says Save My Password or Remember Me. This will allow the next user of this machine to possibly log on to this web site as you. And we do not want that! Find and click the “log out” button the website before you leave.



• Don’t type personal information on the computer. Avoid credit card account numbers, banking passwords and things that can be used to give you a bad case of identity theft. Save these transactions for your home or from your handheld on a respectable carriers network. Even encryption won’t help if the machine has a keylogger on it.
• Erase your web browsing history and restart the computer (if you can’t log-off).



• Watch out for people staring at you or spying on you. This may be common sense but it should definitely be on the list.

Some other tips were also mentioned in our earlier post covering safety on public computers.

When using a public Wi-Fi hotspot:

You might already know how to secure your wireless connection but what about public Wi-Fi hostpots.

• Use a firewall ““ There are tons of free firewalls out there like Zone Alarm. But, your Windows XP Post SP2, Vista or Windows 7 machine has one built in. Turn it on! I like configuring ZoneAlarm to let me know what is going on and trying to access my machine and or files.



• Turn off your Wi-Fi when you’re not using it. Do not log into a network you do not know and just leave your machine on. If you are not using it turn it off. This is like locking up your machine when you walk away from it. Don’t make yourself a target. Most newer machines have a switch on them like the one depicted below or you can right click on the Wi-Fi icon on your task bar and choose disable.



• Encrypt sensitive files prior sending them over. We have covered several free file encryptions tools.
• Just like we said before don’t type in information you don’t want other people to see. If you keep the data in your head ““ then no one can get to it short of physically harming you!
• If you HAVE TO use a credit card or enter passwords on a public Wi-Fi connection ““ make sure the web site is using SSL. It will have a padlock icon on your browsers right hand corner as well as a HTTPS:// in the address.
• Disable Wi-Fi Ad-hoc Mode ““ Disabling this in your Wi-Fi settings will prevent your machine from connecting to someone’s computer that you don’t know. Most normal Wi-Fi connections use Infrastructure mode. Where as Ad-hoc meshes a group of Wi-Fi users into a pseudo network.

]]> http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/things-to-know-when-using-a-wifi-hotspot-or-a-public-pc/feed/ 15 http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/keep-your-passwords-secret-on-a-public-computer-with-kyps/ http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/keep-your-passwords-secret-on-a-public-computer-with-kyps/#comments Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:01:11 +0000 Damien Oh http://www.makeuseof.com/?p=10308 Have anyone ever told you before that it is risky to use a public computer (such as an Internet cafe) to surf the Web and login to all your online accounts? The main reason for this is because there could be keylogger software or spyware installed in the public terminal that can capture your username and password when you type on the keyboard. Can you imagine your email/bank/Paypal password being stolen? What loss would it cause to you?

KYPS is a Web service that allows you to log into your account from a public computer without disclosing your password to that computer. The way KYPS works is very simple: You register your website (be it an email account or any login site) with the KYPS server. Based on the username and password that you have provided, KYPS will encrypt the password and generate a list of one-time codes that you can use to login to your account.

Everytime you want to login to your site, KYPS will prompt you to enter the code from a certain pad. It will then decrypt the code, rebuild the password and auto-login to your site. After that, that particular code will be rendered useless. Even if there is a keylogger software that logs the one-time code, it won’t be able to login to your site. The image below show a graphical explanation of the whole process.



When you first use KYPS, you are required to register your login account with them. During the registration, you are asked to enter your username and password. From here, you can choose how many one-time codes you want to generate. The more codes you generate, the more times you can login to your site without using the actual password.



The length of the one-time code is the same as the length of your password. If your password is 7 characters long, your one-time code will also be 7 characters long.

Once you have submitted the registration, it will prompt you to download a PDF file that contains your list of one-time codes. This is what it will look like:



The number on the left of each column is the pad while the string of characters on the right is the one-time code. Whenever you want to login to your site, KYPS will ask you to enter the code with number XXX. You just match the number to your list, enter the corresponding code and you will be securely logged in to your site.



In case you are worrying that KYPS is a phishing site that is out to collect your password, you can be assured that the password you have entered is not stored in the database. It is only used to generate the one-time codes and will be deleted after that.

If you are still not convinced, you can leave out the password field when registering your site. KYPS will then bring you to another site where you can disconnect your computer from the network and use the java applet to generate the one-time code.



Apart from logging you into your account, KYPS also acts as a reverse proxy that you can use to hide your online trace. All of the website is delivered with the “https” protocol and the URL does not contain the original link of the webpage. In this way, your privacy is protected and you don’t have to worry about other people finding out which sites you have been to.



KYPS may not be the only way to fight against keyloggers, but it is definitely one good way that anyone can use to protect themselves. The only troublesome thing is that you have to pre-register your login accounts with KYPS on a keylogger-free/spyware-free computer before you can use the service on a public computer. If you have the sudden urge to log into an account that you did not register with KYPS, you have to subject yourself to the same risk as others.

In addition, if you have plenty of accounts, the generated codes will form quite a huge list (imagine 200 codes for each account). If you mind carrying a huge list of codes everywhere you go, then KYPS might not be suitable for you.

What other precautions do you take to protect yourself against keyloggers’ software?

]]> http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/keep-your-passwords-secret-on-a-public-computer-with-kyps/feed/ 13 http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/public-computers-made-safe-security-tools-and-tips/ http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/public-computers-made-safe-security-tools-and-tips/#comments Fri, 23 May 2008 19:03:03 +0000 Varun Kashyap http://www.makeuseof.com/?p=2461 No matter how good a PC you have at home, there are often times that there is no other way but to use a public computer to get the work done.

When I say public computers I refer to computers at airports, cyber cafes, libraries or even a friend’s computer. Beware the computer may be spying on you!

This guide applies to those situations where you have to use anything but your own PC. So I invite you to Make Use Of these:

Tip 1: Use portable software or LiveCD wherever possible

Here are some of the tools you might want to consider:

MojoPac – Sits on your USB drive and gives you your very own operating environment. We have already profiled it along with other similar programs here.

Portable Firefox – The Web Browser is your door to the Internet, so first and foremost secure it. Use the portable version of Firefox from you USB drive as opposed to the browser on the public computer.

Portable IM solution – Use portable Miranda or Pidgin (I know not very handy and fun to use, but we are talking security here!)

Web Messengers – Or you can use Yahoo Messenger for the Web, Meebo, Google Talk.

Use LiveCDs – Ubuntu, Knoppix are some good options.

Tip 2: Choose a computer where there is less interruption

Something like a computer in the corner will be just fine. This not only helps you to concentrate but more importantly from a security point of view it keeps shoulder surfers away from you. Needless to say don’t enter passwords when some one is standing next to you, how uninterested he or she may pretend.

Tools for this – Something that sits between your ears!

Tip 3: Don’t leave any downloaded or newly created file on the hard disk

Tools for this – Although a simple Shift + Delete (please don’t just delete) will do the trick but if you want to be totally sure that no one can access it then use: UltraShredder (It’s Portable too) – or maybe you know of a better program that you can recommend?

Tip 4: Entering Login Information and Passwords

The computer you use may have a keylogger software on it that may record the passwords as you type, but some tools and steps can be taken to minimize the damage.

Tools for this – Use Windows On-Screen Keyboard (press Win + U and select On-Screen Keyboard) to enter the passwords or you can use KeePass Password Safe to store your passwords and then you can directly insert the password or copy/paste from KeePass so that you fool the keylogger.

Or you can type the password randomly in a text file and then copy paste from there in random order. e.g to type MyPassword you could write rdPasswoMy and then copy paste in correct order(requires some work, I know).

Tip 5: Clear theTraces

Delete the History, Temporary Internet files, and stored passwords and cookies from within the browser.

Internet Explorer 7 – Click Tools and then Delete Browsing History > Delete All

Internet Explorer (Older versions) – Click Tools and then Internet Options. On the General tab, under Temporary Internet files, click Delete Files, and then click Delete Cookies. Under History, click Clear History. Delete all the files in the temporary folder of your user account which you can find by browsing to C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Temp.

Firefox – Click Tools then click Clear Private Data.

Clear the Pagefile

You will need to access the Local Security Policy, To access Local Security Policy, open Control Panel, double-click on Administrative Tools, and double-click on Local Security Policy. Then, click Security Options in the right-hand pane and scroll down to Shutdown: Clear Virtual Memory Pagefile. Double-click that item and make sure it’s enabled.

Tip 6: Always Logout

As elementary as it may seem, many people for one reason or another can leave one or another account logged in. This is easy to do if you are using IMs, Browser, FTP, etc.

Tip 7: Don’t buy or give personal information

No matter how much of a geek you are, lets face it some information must NEVER EVER be given when on public computers. This includes credit card numbers, paypal accounts or any other personal information.

Tip 8: When you are done – Do a reboot

Reboot the computer when you are done using the computer and have taken care of all the above steps, this will not only clear the RAM, it will also clear the pagefile.

Have I forgotten anything? Let me know in the comments!

(By) Varun Kashyap – A Tech Enthusiast and a blogger. Check out “Varun Kashyap’s Tech Crazy Blog” here

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