MyBB Community Forums

Can I safely use public wireless hotspots to administrate my forum while traveling? Thank you for your help.

Depends if your site has an SSL certificate or not.

I have never had an SSL certificate so I have no idea of how to use one.

Are you using a VPS/dedicated server or shared hosting?

If using a VPS or dedicated server, you can easily set up a encrypted proxy over SSH. It might work on shared hosting if they don't have their SSH daemon secured.

(2011-08-22, 02:19 AM)dmmcintyre3 Wrote: [ -> ]Are you using a VPS/dedicated server or shared hosting?

If using a VPS or dedicated server, you can easily set up a encrypted proxy over SSH. It might work on shared hosting if they don't have their SSH daemon secured.

This. I'd look into creating an SSH tunnel over your home internet connection if you can't securely connect to the server. I administrate my blog and sites over public WiFi and haven't had any problems, but I might just be lucky.

Regardless, I would have posted this in the Web Development and Administration forum as it does not qualify as general support.

Encrypted VPN FTW! Flash your router with DD-WRT and use the built in VPN services, takes 2 clicks to enable, just setup a username and password along with a service like DynDNS and you're set.

(2011-08-22, 01:43 AM)pyridine Wrote: [ -> ]Depends if your site has an SSL certificate or not.

I always use https connection for admin things, even when at home lol.

Some people would call that paranoid, but it became a habit when i was disconnected 1+ year ago, for a month or so..

I use shared hosting.

To have SSL my host tells me I would have to pay an additional charge per month for a fixed IP address and buy a certificate. As my site does not generate any income this is impractical.

Thank you all for your suggestions.

Honestly public hotspots are never really safe. While SSL is nice it will only be effective for your site. A VPN as KuJeo mentioned would be your best bet.

(2011-08-30, 02:37 PM)Alex Smith Wrote: [ -> ]Honestly public hotspots are never really safe. While SSL is nice it will only be effective for your site. A VPN as KuJeo mentioned would be your best bet.

I don't have broadband or a router plus I turn off my PC when not in use so no joy there.

I get that SSL is only effective for my site.

This is off topic but the way I read what you say is that no site is safe even if they have SSL when accessed from a public hot spot. At that rate the usefulness of free hot spots is reduced to browsing only. My guess is that for some (many?) that might render free wifi almost useless. At least for sites where a password is required to login.