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Are there any things which the user can do, on their own machine, to protect against DNS spoofing? I was just thinking when I was at the airport last and I wanted to check my email I used a hotspot access point, paid for the access using my paypal and that could probably have been intercepted. What could I have done from my end to maximize my protection?

I would usually suggest vpn, or ssl but this isn't something the user can decide, thats something for the network owner to implement?

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Technically that could have been an ARP cache poisoning attack which is much more likely to occur. I'd suggest using SSL (Secure Socket Layers) and TLS (Transport Layer Security) as well as only connecting to the sites with "HTTPS://" addresses to encrypt your connection. Using a proxy or VPN protects your IP address from users on the other side of the modem, but not people within the network you're using.

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The things you suggested, what are they to prevent? ARP or DNS? Am I right in that they couldnt choose VPN because the network admin would have to set this up? – Paul Dec 24 '11 at 18:20
@Jason I don't think you know what DNS, ARP, TLS, SSL and MITM means. – Rook Dec 24 '11 at 18:26
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I agree with Rook, and a DNS is a domain name server, they are very secure and what they do is route traffic, say you type "google.com" into your web browser, you would connect to a DNS server and be routed to google's IP address. The things I suggested don't prevent anything from happening, they just make sure your data is encrypted in the transfer so that anyone who happens to be listening will get a garbled mess. Now, some people might be able to decrypt the garbled mess, but it will deter most crackers from stealing your data. – zenware Dec 24 '11 at 18:32
Deleted unnecessary language – Paul Dec 24 '11 at 18:39
@Rook, Im not talking about cache poisoning, im talking about DNS spoofing. How's that for my terminology? – Paul Dec 24 '11 at 18:41
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