Some Lagniappe for You
By Tiny Ruisch
la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1. A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called regionally boot.
Do you ever download from the internet on unsecured wireless networks? If you answered “no” to that question, I can say that you are most likely not telling the truth. The first thing almost everyone does when they come to our monthly meeting is log in to the local WI‑FI. It is probably safer than the local McDonald’s, Starbucks, or library. Personally, I’m not willing to bet my personal data on that.
That’s why I use a Virtual Private Network (VPN). Put simply, a VPN is a group of computers networked together over a public network, namely the internet. A VPN client is the software that allows you to enter an encrypted network and access the internet. Anyone intercepting your data will not be able to decipher and read it.
If you search for “free VPN”, “best VPN”, etc. you will find literally thousands of VPN clients. Of course they will all tell you why they are the best. I like TunnelBear. I’m not going to tell you it is the best, but I’ll try to convince you that it is pretty good. The first thing I like about TunnelBear is that it is a Canadian company. This means that they aren’t subject to a National Security Agency court order. It’s really not that big a thing, but I know the NSA spies so why make it any easier for them. TunnelBear has servers in seven different countries. They create a secure, encrypted connection between your internet device and the host country you are connecting to.
TunnelBear is easy to download and setup. There is no need for the user to learn about network protocols, IP addresses, encryption levels, etc. After downloading and installing the program, an account must be created. The only user information required is name, e-mail address and password. No need for your phone number, address or Mother’s middle name.
Like all other VPN companies, TunnelBear offers both a free and paid service. Their free service gives you 500 MB of free data every month. This should be plenty for the occasional user. A bonus 1 GB can be obtained by promoting them on Twitter.
TunnelBear is easy to setup and use. Give it a try and see if you like it. You can download TunnelBear here.
If you like the program, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, a bonus perk; a little lagniappe.