Advice On Using Public Wi-Fi?

[Tanis]

Long story short:
I'm living out of a van for the foreseeable future, but I'd still like to access wi-fi with my laptop.

Any tips/tricks/advice to help protect myself from potential baddies?
Maybe even some stuff to make myself a bit more of an anon?

I'll be using, mostly, stuff like McDonalds and gym net.

 

[Frezzato]

Jesus, are you being literal? I mean really, truly, living out of a van?

I'm sure VPN is your answer, but as I've never used it, I've no idea what to suggest.

One thing though, I'm willing to bet that places that have free WiFi never unplug their routers. Probably permanently plugged into a wall or something.

 

[Tanis]

Jesus, are you being literal? I mean really, truly, living out of a van?
I'm sure VPN is your answer, but as I've never used it, I've no idea what to suggest.
One thing though, I'm willing to bet that places that have free WiFi never unplug their routers. Probably permanently plugged into a wall or something.

Yep.
Cost too much to rent a place, so I don't really have a choice right now.

I've never used VPN either, though a Tor browser has been suggested to me.
-Though, I've never used Tor either.

Is that a bad thing for them to never unplug them?

 

[SnowyGamester]

Just make sure you've got a firewall and have it set as a public network if you're worried about security. I also recommend using the HTTPS Everywhere browser addon which will make your browser default to HTTPS access on every website that supports it. Data sent of plain HTTP is unencrypted meaning it can be more easily intercepted or tampered with. There is also tethering or mobile broadband dongles if you need the interwebs without all the burgers.