When you're on a smart phone that's using wifi rather than dialling up to get an internet connection, how important is it to use VPN?
I've heard with out VPN your data can easily be intercepted, so using the free wifi in (say) starbucks, would be a bad idea.
If this is the case how you go about securing your phone with VPN?

It's true that any info sent over insecure WiFi can be easily read, and that includes any SMTP emails or unsecured IM you send.

However, if the website you are on is secure (little padlock logo etc) then it's as safe as it can really be regardless of whether your WiFi is open or not. For example, if you use Outlook Web Access or Gmail on an https:// address then it is already encrypted and you shouldn't worry too much.

Before you can use VPN, you first need a VPN end point to connect to. If you have an office network with VPN access, then their IT staff should set it up for you.

If you're doing it yourself, then one way would be to connect to your home router via a static IP or dynDNS address. A lot of home routers support VPN these days including my cheap Netgear. That way, your data is encrypted all the way to your house before it goes over the Internet.

I was thinking more along the lines of using a VPN in these free hotspots. I take it that isn't possible then?

A VPN is a secure tunnel between two points.

One point could be your phone at McDonalds or any other free hotspot, and the other end could be your router at home or a secure connection at work. You could also pay a subscription to a commercial end point.

My point is, a VPN has to have an end point. The tunnel has to go somewhere.

+1

Google Mail can also be forced to use an https connection - they also changed it recently, so that you can also explicitly tell GMail to use https all the time (it used to just use it for the login screen, then switch back to http).

Either connect to GMail with an https connection (it will then stay in https mode throughout your conversation with their servers) or turn it on in your preferences.