Using Public WiFi and Staying Safe?

jproeber wrote:
What is the best way to remain safe on a public WiFi network such as Starbucks or another that is available to the public. I hope there are free and safe options to remain unseen and unable to be connected while on one of these hotspots.

Any Suggestions?

Never use an administration account for anything other than administration work, even at home.

Create a roaming WiFi account with a new user name and login.
For this user:
Firewall settings. Set to allow only essential services.
Turn off all sharing.
Be alert.

I second the recommendation to turn off everything in your Sharing preference. In addition, you might want to turn off Bluetooth if you aren't using it, or at least turn off Discoverable there on the Bluetooth menu.

Just know that anything that isn't encrypted can be sniffed by anyone else on the same network because it's sent as plain text. That means email, HTTP (web pages you visit), iChat, Twitter, blog entries you upload, iPhoto & iTunes libraries you have shared, FTP, telnet, etc.

You can encrypt some things. If you can connect to your bank etc. with an HTTPS address (lock icon), that's safe. If you turn on SSL for your email, that's safe.

But for everything else, the only practical protection is to use a VPN that encrypts all your traffic from your laptop all the way out to the VPN server on the Internet. No one else can see what's in there. These companies provide such services; I am sure there are more and I do not officially endorse any although they do work.
Hot Spot VPN
Witopia
Public VPN