Hamachi

I’m away at a retreat and need to get back to my home computer. I’m sitting in a resort where the only Internet connection is wireless. From a security standpoint, this is as bad as it gets. By its very nature, wireless is insecure. I am about to type usernames and passwords that will get me into my email, my content system, my blog… a lot of things that I don’t want other people to ever get into.

Before I left my house, I installed a free VPN/P2P solution that let’s me do this in a secure manner. It’s called Hamachi.

http://www.hamachi.cc/

After downloading the program and installing it, the software goes out to a server where a permanent IP address is assigned to my computer. The number is a five dot number (the IP address begins with five). Five dot addresses are real IP addresses, but have never been used by anyone. Having a real IP address means that I can access that address over the Internet. After I have an IP address, Hamachi asks me to name my computer. I called it TrustyHome. Then it asked for a network name. I created a “Trusty” network. Then (and this is the most important) it askes for a strong password. This is what keeps other people out. I give it a good password. I’m done.

Now I repeat the process on my laptop. I do everything the same except I name my laptop TrustyTablet.

Now I’m a couple of hours from my house, connected to a wireless network. I use Hamachi to get back to my home network. Hamachi creates a Virtual Private Network (VPN) between my home computer and my laptop. To connect the two computers, Hamachi uses peer-to-peer technology (P2P). Everything between the two computers is encrypted. Even though I’m on a wireless connection, no one can sniff my information.

Now I can browse the Internet via my home Internet connection… which is secure.