Just thought I'd let people know that the local food app Locavore is free today because its earth day.

http://www.getlocavore.com

VPN recommendations
 

Howdy.
Just picked up an iPad 2 and need some recommendations for VPN for it.

I assume I need it for protection while using public wifi service to check emails while traveling, general browsing, etc. Not planning on a lot of graphic intensive stuff...maybe a skype / video call or two.

I searched through a lot of this thread, but can't seem to find any recent discussion.

Thanks for any pointers or experiences.

A VPN would either be provided by your corporate network or, if that isn't an option, by a paid service. I'm not sure of (nor am I sure I would trust) anyone claiming to provide a free VPN service.

I believe there is another thread here discussing paid VPN services.

For basic protection when checking emails, I'd recommend Gmail in conjunction with activating the "always use https://" option in the settings. This way, your email address and password will always be encrypted during the log-on process, even if you're on an open, unsecured access point.

Thanks Jackal.

I was looking for a VPN for personal use, not work. And I have no problem paying for a VPN service. I was just looking for some advice or recommendations for a VPN service for iPad 2.

I did find a thread talking about VPN, and it seems witopia was mentioned numerous times as a good solution.

Can anyone confirm it works well on iPad 2?

EDIT: I am not a tech guy, so if this is not considered an "App" or I am really in the wrong spot, just let me know. I figured this would be the spot for some good info regarding functionality of a VPN with iPad2.

Thanks.

I'm sure some of those who monitor this thread will no doubt have experience connecting an iPad 2 to a VPN, but VPN isn't really an "app" per se. It's a network setting configured in the iPad's settings screen.

Any VPN that provides you with a Cisco-compatible IPsec VPN endpoint would work fine. Witopia's appears to do that: http://wiki.witopia.net/wiki/Install...ouch,_and_iPad

The iPad also supports L2TP and PPTP VPNs, but those two--especially the latter--are less secure than IPsec, and I doubt you'd find a reputable paid VPN provider offering only those options.

I know this might be a bit of geek/Greek speak to you, but Googling some of the above keywords might help you do further research.

Right. For a VPN connection you need a VPN client on your device and a VPN server at your employer, one you set up or a commercial VPN server. The iPad comes with a VPN client built in. If you look under settings it is directly under the WiFi setting place on the left side of the screen (at least on my iPad (I havent upgraded). I routinely use that with our work VPN server which is Cisco. You just need to select a server and they should be able to give you the information for connecting.

It's there if you've set up a VPN already; if you haven't set one up, it's under Settings>General>Network>VPN (might need to scroll down)>Add VPN Configuration. Once you do that, the toggle switch to turn it on/off is right where GadgetFreak said it is.

Google "My Maps" Layers on iPad?
 

I recently picked up an iPad 2, and in general I love the thing. However I've been dissapointed that there isn't direct support to import my "My Maps" layers I created in Google Maps into the pre-installed Google Maps app on the iPad.

I've found that Google Earth has direct support for these layers, and I found an iPhone app that imports these layers to the iPhone Google maps app. However I haven't found something that imports "My Maps" to the iPad Google Maps app.

Has anyone found a workaround?

Oops. Good catch. I forgot about that I did it so long ago. Thanks for pointing that out.

Me, too--I had to look to see where it was. I just remembered that I didn't see the VPN toggle on a couple of family members' iPhones I was looking at recently. :D

Thanks to both GadgetFreak and Jackal for all the helpful info.

Sounds like I will sign up for witopia and should be pretty easy to configure the iPad to use it.

Thanks for being patient and helpful to a non-teckie guy.

I use hotspotvpn.com for my ipad 2 and iphone vpn services and needs. They have weekly, monthly and annual subs. Pretty cheap overall, I think about 50$ a year or less. One gets usually a laptop vpn solution of high security and ALSO a vpn solution for ipad, tablet or smartphone use. So, both for one price. Very reliable easy to setup

I believe it's up at $89 / yr now.

yes
 

Yes, I guess it is. I hadn't done an annual in a while, I just use the montly ad-hoc since I do a home router based one.

Okay, I'm going to query the other thread for a nice less expensive vpn service.

Switching Between VPN and No-VPN?
 

I am interested in using this while traveling, but probably not at home over my wireless router because that connection is already WPA encrypted. (My assumption is that using a VPN would slightly slow down the connection.)

How difficult is it to re-configure a Win7 laptop from VPN to no-VPN when you return home, and vice-versa when you travel?