It is fairly easy to use SSH-server as a secure proxy server, this means you can connect securely to email and other services on a unencrypted wifi network.

Requirements:
A server with a internet facing SSH server, IE: testserver.com with SSH on port 22. On the server the port forwarding has to be enabled.
A client with internet access able to connect to SSH. An application like a webbrowser og IRC client to connect to proxy.

Here I am connecting with my user: thor and running starting a localhost proxy which only I can access:
ssh -D  localhost:1080 thor@testserver.com

If I wanted, I could also make the proxy server accessable to other users, binding it to my local LAN IP, IE: 10.0.0.25
ssh -D  10.0.0.25:1080 thor@testserver.com

I can now access my proxy server with the webbrowser to connect to either localhost or the local lan ip,  IE: localhost, 127.0.0.1, or 10.0.0.25