this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2024
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I don't know how effective VPNs are over a public WiFi network, but I do know it stopped Spectrum from sending me "you are downloading copyrighted material, stop it" emails once I started using one. Fuck Spectrum, I don't have them anymore, but that seems like a good enough reason to keep using one in certain circumstances.
On public WiFi I just vpn into my home network. The issue with public WiFi is that it can be sniffed by anyone in range since there is generally no encryption.
Although pretty much everything we do is over tls these days, and DoH helps protect against even dns sniffing. There's still at least some risk to working in the clear over a public WiFi network. At least in information gathering, what bank you use, etc.
But, there's no real benefit in using a paid vpn over one you own unless you're downloading illegal content, want to watch another Netflix region, or are in a country with heavy Internet monitoring/filtering.
With TLS and DoH, how is your bank and other information leaked?
Possibly the domain is visible with a traffic monitoring tool. Everything else is between you and the bank via HTTPS. Having said that, whatever is not over https is visible to whoever sits on the same network as yourself.
Importantly, you probably don’t know what all is encrypted in every app you use on your phone, so it’s best practice to encrypt the transport.