You don’t have to look far to find lots of horror stories about ID theft, phishing and malware attacks on unsuspecting WiFi users. Sure, some of them are designed to generate more cash for the security business, but that doesn’t alter the fact that it’s generally a pretty hostile place out there if you’re not careful.
Current solutions typically involve the installation of various complicated programs to protect your computer, but up till now there hasn’t been a really comprehensive product which covers all the bases in one easy to use program.
WiFi Protector, developed by the team behind the popular Broadband Speed Checker, provides a complete suite of wireless network protection in a freeware program which is impressively simple to install and use. After downloading all the user needs to do is…well nothing. The program automatically configures itself for your network, and from then on will do a number of clever things.
First it provides an encrypted VPN connection between your computer and the Internet over the wireless connection. This ensures that no-one can ‘snoop’ on your connection and grab private or sensitive data, such as banking logins etc. The software also monitors your home wireless network to make sure that nobody is logging on to it without authorization. Every time a new device connects which is not a trusted device, you receive a warning so you can keep track of intrusions in real time.
The program also maintains a list of past wireless connections which you have used, and informs you when you’re about to log on to an insecure and potentially risky connection. Finally the system shields your IP address and gives you an anonymous one which lets you surf privately and without restrictions, useful if you’re trapped behind a company firewall at home.
The most impressive thing about the product is how easy it installs into your system. It even integrates with your web browser (as an option) to warn about potentially dangerous phishing or drive-by malware sites. Very neat indeed. Although the program is free, there is a Pro version which costs $4 a month on subscription and which offers faster browsing and removes the rather intrusive video ads you have to watch when booting up the system for the first time.
In practice one thing we noticed is the free version does impose a fairly significant speed penalty on your Internet connection because of all the VPN and encryption work. From our tests we saw the file download speed drop by a half when WiFi Protector was enabled. For many people this may be a price worth paying for the increased security, for others it’s a no-no.
One important thing that makes the slower speed issue less of a problem is the fact that you can switch the protection on and off as you feel necessary. This means you could install the software and then switch it on only when you were about to do some Internet banking or other private activity and then switch it off again for general high speed surfing. No doubt the speed problem goes away if you pay the subscription for the Pro version.
All in all we have to say this is still a worthwhile program to own. It’s free, it installs like a dream and apart from the initial annoying advert in the free version, and the inevitable and unavoidable speed penalty from all that security, it’s a nice way to secure your computer against malfeasance. Definitely worth a bookmark and/or download.