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Ask HN: What VPN service are you currently using?

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Re: Ask HN: What VPN service are you currently using?

#101

Post by throwawaymath »

rb666 wrote: post #91
spindle wrote: post #61

Mullvad, because it has a good interface for port forwarding, and I kinda like the fact that it supports wireguard. It's also fast and reliable (but so are many of the others), and apparently has good privacy. I've previously used AirVPN, which was great except for not having any servers near me, and ExpressVPN, which was great except for not having such a good interface for port forwarding (and also it's the most ex…

Read this on Wireguard: https://restoreprivacy.com/wireguard/ Be aware.

The claim that Wireguard has not had a security audit is false[1][2]. It's based on the extremely robust Noise protocol framework, it has a formally verified Tamarin security model and two of the most well-known cryptographers in the world have personally reviewed it with no significant findings.

Wireguard also does not do any of the logging claimed by that article by default. I know this because I maintain Wireguard VPN instances on baremetal and public cloud. This strikes me as a misunderstanding of what Jason wrote on the mailing list about Blind Operator Mode[3].

I stopped reading that article after I saw these two (glaring) inaccuracies. Either someone has a vendetta against Wireguard or they seriously misunderstand the protocol's security and default behavior. ________________

1. https://www.wireguard.com/formal-verification/

2. https://eprint.iacr.org/2018/080.pdf

3. https://lists.zx2c4.com/pipermail/wireguard/2017-November/00...

Re: Ask HN: What VPN service are you currently using?

#103

Post by xiphias2 »

joering2 wrote: post #65
xiphias2 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like it as well, but Netflix blocks it much more than a year ago...it's a shame, because I travel a lot, and changing country means that I can't finish a series that I was watching in another country

Netflix blocks majority of VPN but in contrast Spectrum/Brighthouse is in long-term fight with Sling Tv and they block them unless you use VPN. So you win some you lose some. ExpressVPN has been great to me and I continue to fail finding bad news about them. They dont offer any discounts tho and Im on $99/year plan but I was tempted to get NordVPN for half thatprice. I gave up on setting up their stone-age designed r…

I'm using ExpressVPN Miami servers to video chat to Europe from Colombia, and the quality of the video feed is day and night.

Re: Ask HN: What VPN service are you currently using?

#104

Post by bigiain »

throwawaymath wrote: post #96
llukas wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say you are grumpy ;) There is no comparison for ISP with TOS saying they can and will sell your data and VPN company which explicitly advertises privacy. First it is false advertising and second with GDPR such company would be wiped out after somebody figures it out.

Be careful with that assumption. Many, many VPN vendors actually sell their user data even if they advertise otherwise. They can also be far harder to penalize than ISPs, especially if they're outside the US/EU.

Part of me thinks "I don't care. If Facebook or Google or Experian or Equifax or whoever it's work a buck to wants to pay my VPN provider for my metadata - that's kinda bad, but possibly not as bad as being part of a great big juicy pile of government compelled metadata retention records at my ISP which can be easily accessed by random government agencies or evil actors working in government agencies with very little oversight."

I suspect my data leaking through profit motive from a VPN company specifically selected to be in a far away country is much less likely to fall into the hands of an internet troll or griefer, a disgruntled ex employee or partner, or a vindictive neighbour - than the trove of ISP metadata that can quite likely be readily accessed by bribing or blackmailing some random low-level government employee locally...

Re: Ask HN: What VPN service are you currently using?

#105

Post by maxyme »

spindle wrote: post #61

Mullvad, because it has a good interface for port forwarding, and I kinda like the fact that it supports wireguard. It's also fast and reliable (but so are many of the others), and apparently has good privacy. I've previously used AirVPN, which was great except for not having any servers near me, and ExpressVPN, which was great except for not having such a good interface for port forwarding (and also it's the most ex…

I used to use Mullvad but switched to AirVPN. Mullvad was extremely slow in the US (under 25mbps most times) where I have found AirVPN to be able to reach ~750mbps. They also publish the congestion on their servers which is very handy for reaching high speeds.

Re: Ask HN: What VPN service are you currently using?

#106

Post by impostir »

woodruffw wrote: post #4

I use Algo[1] on a variety of VPS providers. It supports IPSec, but I only use Wireguard through it. Supporting OpenVPN is an explicit anti-goal for Algo[2]. I generally strongly recommend against using VPN providers on false advertisement grounds -- VPNs fundamentally cannot provide strong anonymity properties, but that doesn't stop many providers from listing anonymity as a selling point. In terms of the property V…

Man, I love Wireguard; fast, stable and it doesnt destroy battery life. I only wish nixos didn't mess with configs, but I will fully admit that it is a very niche problem.

Re: Ask HN: What VPN service are you currently using?

#107

Post by [deleted] »

bigiain wrote: post #51
muppetman wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% this. VPN marketing appears to have really gotten to people, everyone's always asking about it. Real reasons I can see to use a VPN service 1) You want your traffic to reliably egress in that country. i.e. I live in New Zealand but to access some Australian TV on demand, I need to "appear" in Australia. 2) Errr, I can't think of any others. If you are really trying to hide your traffic from your ISP: 1) Change I…

For some of us, we live in jurisdictions where all ISPs are legally required to keep all metadata for all connections. (In tinpot pseudo democracies with governments who fail to understand technology but pass intrusive laws governing it anyway, then declare "The laws of mathematics are very commendable, but the only law that applies in Australia is the law of Australia.") In that case, a few bucks per month is a pret…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What VPN service are you currently using?

#108

Post by bigiain »

muppetman wrote: post #71
bigiain wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For some of us, we live in jurisdictions where all ISPs are legally required to keep all metadata for all connections. (In tinpot pseudo democracies with governments who fail to understand technology but pass intrusive laws governing it anyway, then declare "The laws of mathematics are very commendable, but the only law that applies in Australia is the law of Australia.") In that case, a few bucks per month is a pret…

So to me this filters down to: You care about your privacy and not have your (meta) data gathered up, but you don't care enough about it ensure that you're really protected, you just hope you are by piping your data off somewhere else, even though the place you're piping it to might also be doing the dirty you. I do understand your point, which is (correct me if i'm wrong) that you trust FSecure/Freedome to be taking…

Also - it's not so much about " … don't care enough about it ensure that you're really protected … ", but more like "One of my concerns is getting drive-by exploited because my data appeared in a huge dump of randomly breached metadata, rather than anybody targeting me specifically", and it's worth a few bucks a month to stop worrying so much about that. Being "really protected" is not possible (when the ultimate end-of-level boss fight is with the NSA), and getting even _close_ to that becomes exponentially expensive. 60EUR a year for Freedome on my phones/tablet/laptops and not having to do any ongoing maintenance or upgrading or weekend sysadmin work - is a good value deal for me. I don't think there's a significant improvement I can make to my protection in this area for less than an order of magnitude more money and two orders of magnitude more fucking around. I don't think I'm prepared to expend either of those for some incremental improvement in my privacy... If I were an illegal international arms dealer or a trafficker of cocaine by the tonne, I'd without doubt spend more money and effort there ;-)

Re: Ask HN: What VPN service are you currently using?

#110

Post by bhaile »

kdmedev wrote: post #27
mirimir wrote: post #21

My favorite is IVPN. It's true that I've written stuff for them. But that's in part because I've known the CEO, Nick Pestel, for several years. And to the extent that I trust anyone, I trust him. But also, they're one of the older VPN services, and one of the first to accept Bitcoin. And their apps are well designed. I also like AirVPN, Mullvad and PIA a lot. I don't know anyone there personally, but they're all stro…

Thanks for introducing me to IVPN. Seems like a good VPN, uses WireGuard. Can you elaborate on the problem with the relationship between Tesonet, NordVPN and ProtonVPN. Also does your problem with ProtonVPN extend to protonmail? Should I be considering switching to a new email?

Good thread to read up on it. https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonVPN/comments/8ww4h2/protonvpn...
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