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Many folks consider a pistol on their hip prudent protection against the dangers in the world. Adults of all ages and backgrounds across the country have a gun in their house to protect against unwanted and dangerous intruders. There are real world risks around many corners and being prepared to deal with them is essential. However, in the world of computers, the cyber world, similar dangers lurk. People will sneak up on you while on line and rob you of your personal information. Which then leads to robbing you of your money and credit. Stalkers and other predators lurk about, waiting for a victim to reveal themselves so they can strike. The cyber world is just as dangerous as the real world yet most people think that they have nothing to fear when on their computer.

Traveling often and working with many web sites and internet providers, we have watched as internet access has sprung up almost everywhere. Wireless access is available from small towns to big cities in cafe's, hotels, bookstores, airports, bus terminals and even at highway rest stops. What is well documented (but not widely known) is that all of these wireless networks are a real problem. Users of these networks are completely in the open and have no cover from the ever growing number of hackers and identity thieves sitting in the shadows. They can record your every move while on the wireless network. With minimal effort, they quickly learn how to get into your email, personal accounts, and even figure out where you are and where you are headed.

Just like those careless people who think carrying that pistol is paranoid and that nothing is going to happen to them, most people don't even consider the risk they are taking every time they get on a public network. We learned the hard way that this just isn't the case and have been promoting secure wireless access ever since.

Think about it, some predator sitting quietly on line reading your wife or daughter's email conversations, listening in on their instant message discussions and learning many details of their lives. They can even find out where they are going and at what time. If you knew someone was listening to your telephone conversations that way you'd be calling the police. But in the world of Wi-Fi and computers, this is an everyday and everywhere occurrence.

Another factor, beyond safety, is your privacy. When you surf on the internet, regardless of where you are, every web site records information from you. Your IP address tells them where you are and who your provider is. They know what page you came from and what page you are going to when you leave. Many web sites have tracking code in place to help them figure out how many people come to the web site. This code reports back to the provider of the tracking code of your activity on a web site. If you go to another web site that has similar code, the provider follows you across the internet. It doesn't take long before large web sites and big company providers of services gather up enough information on you to where they know exactly who you are and where you are surfing. A lot of people think that surfing the net is anonymous. That's a big mistake. Surfing the internet is FAR from anonymous. There is a lot of money to be made by figuring out your every move and browsing habits and selling that information to marketing companies so they can target-sell to you.

So what do you do? The solution we found is called a personal VPN. In layman's terms, it takes all of your data from your computer to a secure server on the internet that encrypts all of it. What does this do to solve the problem? Simply put, since nobody can see your internet connection data between your computer and the secure server hundreds of miles away, they can't see what you are doing. The local Wi-Fi hacker can no longer read anything you are writing. They cannot see where you are going on the net as they no longer have access to your IP address trail. Likewise, web sites no longer know what your personal IP address is. So, they can no longer track you. Since you appear to be coming from that secure server on the internet with thousands of other of people, they can no longer put together a pattern for you. It's all mixed up with people from all over the world. The net result is that your connection is secure and you no longer have to fear of your data being used against you by identity thieves and predators.

We've been using the SurfBouncer Personal VPN service and have been extremely pleased with it. While they provide an array of great features our favorites are knowing that they constantly change their IP addresses for maximum privacy and that they offer end points in both the USA and Europe. All of our friends and family have access to the service and we never communicate on line without it. We consider it as essential to our safety and security as a good sidearm, good training and lots of practice.

Go to www.surfbouncer.com and sign up for their service. You, your friends and family will be glad you did.