We travel once a month or so and frequently use the hotel’s WiFi. From what I understand, there are (at least) two benefits to using a VPN that interest me.
First, if we use a VPN service, we can type in credit card numbers, passwords, etc. without worrying that someone in the hotel (or airport, etc.) is capturing the data.
Second, if things are configured correctly, we should (may) be able to access our home network to retrieve files. We’re currently using GoToMyPC to do this. But some of our NAS devices (we have 2 Synology, one D-Link and one Lynksys) say they have VPN capabilities. For example, the Synology says:
Would figuring out the built-in VPN capability allow us to drop the GoToMyPC subscription? Is doing something like that—without really knowing what I’m doing—asking for trouble?
And if we only have dynamic IPs from our ISPs (we have cable and DSL), would we also need to figure out a DDNS provider?
Tell me there’s a load-balancing, VPN-easy-fying router out there.
Or, can things be simple—is there a go-to standard for VPN providers?
You should be using HTTPS to secure these sorts of activities - if HTTPS is not supported for these sorts of activities, you should not do them over any network, let alone an unsecured public network.
But VPNs are good for this sort of use.
As long as you share the files off the PC to your network, you will have the access you need. You could also use something like VNC to gain remote control of the PC as well.
Yes - you need to be able to find the IP address of the router to connect to the VPN, and DDNS is the easiest solution to do this.