With the rise of wireless network everywhere, there is becoming a need to be able to transfer your files in a safe and secured manner. A lot of people falsely assume that you are as safe on a remote network, as you are on your home version. This simply is not true. There are a lot of attacks that can affect you when you are on a strange network, especially a network that you have not been on before. One of the attacks that are popular on a public network is called a man in the middle attack. Or you can have someone sniff out your data packets that are transferring mid air. Whatever the attack may be, you need to be able to make sure that it doesn’t affect you while you are on a public network. One of the ways that you can do this, is by using a VPN. A VPN will protect your data when you are on a remote network. And when you use Windows 7, this process becomes a lot easier.

Before we get started in describing how to set up a VPN in Windows 7, I realize that some people do not know what a VPN is or what it does. So lets take the time now and describe it for you. The letters VPN stand for Virtual Private Network. What it does, is to create a smaller network that sits on top of a larger network, like the internet, that will only allow certain people permission to access it. If you set up the VPN, then you and whoever you allow access to, are the only ones that are allowed on it. That of course, is where the private part of the name comes from. Most of the time, you can set the VPN to be encrypted. This is why it is so effective for when you are on strange public networks. Your data can flow freely and even if they are able to see it, they will not be able to encode it.  This will prevent them from understanding what they are seeing.

So if you are using an unfamiliar remote network and you have important files that you need to protect, then your best bet is to set up your own VPN. You can either do this by using third party software or do this by using the software that is already available in Windows 7. You will need a VPN server to be able to connect to, when you are setting the VPN up. The connection must have two sides, the server and the client. Most of the times the actual server will be from a third party vendor. There are plenty of free and open source versions to choose from. To set up the client portion in Windows 7, you go into the Network and Sharing portion of the control panel. You then click on “Set up a new connection or network”. After that click on “Use my internet connection”. You then type the IP address or domain in the box and you will have a connection to that network. Anytime that you want in, just type your name and password.

Set up a secured VPN connection is very easy in Windows 7. If you are on a strange network, it pays to have one.

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