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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?

#161

Post by Aromasin »

phillc73 wrote: post #153
dfee wrote: post #77

This might sound dumb. But, I use ProtonVPN because Mozilla partnered with them and I place trust in Mozilla’s ability to make a more informed choice than I can make — largely due to their access to information and on hand knowledge and expertise. https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2018/10/22/testing-n...

As much as I would like to support Mozilla, connecting to protonvpn.com with Firefox 65.0.1 throws me an insecure site error: Your connection is not secure The owner of protonvpn.com has configured their website improperly. To protect your information from being stolen, Firefox has not connected to this website. Doesn't inspire confidence.

Same thing happened to me with NordVPN yesterday.

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

#162

Post by Ace_of_Knaves »

I'm going to link here the site [1] I found while researching the same topic several months ago. I was overwhelmed by information available and in the end I didn't choose any option. Seems like all providers have pros and cons and I didn't have any specific use case to weight in on the decision.

The person running it provided a number of detailed comparisons of various VPN providers here [2].

[1] https://thatoneprivacysite.net/choosing-the-best-vpn-for-you...

[2] https://thatoneprivacysite.net/vpn-section/

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

#163

Post by DavideNL »

gnicholas wrote: post #152

I’m curious to know about use cases. I recently started thinking about anonymizing my web activity because a few minutes after I searched for a particular make/model vehicle, my wife saw an ad for it on Facebook. It seems like this is IP-based tracking, since I was searching in Firefox Focus (and she doesn’t get car ads in general). Would a VPN help with this? I’ve tried using Tor (through Brave), but I run into tons…

A VPN won't solve the problem entirely, but it can help (because you share a public IP with many other users of that VPN service). Of course it's crucial you pick a vpn provider you trust, that won't sell your data etc.

There are many other ways of tracking though, first of all browser cookies and cache, but also browser fingerprinting. So, with these methods, you can even be tracked/uniquely identified while using a VPN.

https://www.privacytools.io/#fingerprint

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

#164

Post by 0db532a0 »

peteretep wrote: post #32

I'm using Freedome, which requires special software (best I can tell). I'm using it because it's made by F-Secure, and I know the F-Secure people from a long time ago. They have a large commercial business that would get seriously Kaperskied if it turned out they were knowingly doing anything wrong, and I've decided that that's the kind of incentive I want in a VPN provider.

What happened with Kaspersky?

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

#166

Post by llukas »

bigiain wrote: post #118
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.

GDPR seems to have comprehensively failed to "wipe out" Facebook and Google - who're quite obviously similarly in breach...

I think you misunderstood what GDPR is about.

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

#167

Post by nindalf »

phillc73 wrote: post #153
dfee wrote: post #77

This might sound dumb. But, I use ProtonVPN because Mozilla partnered with them and I place trust in Mozilla’s ability to make a more informed choice than I can make — largely due to their access to information and on hand knowledge and expertise. https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2018/10/22/testing-n...

As much as I would like to support Mozilla, connecting to protonvpn.com with Firefox 65.0.1 throws me an insecure site error: Your connection is not secure The owner of protonvpn.com has configured their website improperly. To protect your information from being stolen, Firefox has not connected to this website. Doesn't inspire confidence.

FWIW, I get the same error connecting to yc.dev. Seems like a bug.

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

#168

Post by Jonnax »

whocares123 wrote: post #158
kinkora wrote: post #145

PIA (Private Internet Access) and am a happy customer for 3rd year running. Why do I choose them? Besides the ease of use over multiple platforms, they are the only VPN (I am aware of) that has held up in court that they do not store any logs when asked to handover personal information. Sources: [1] https://torrentfreak.com/private-internet-access-no-logging-... [2] https://www.scribd.com/doc/303226103/Fake-bomb-thre…

I have 1GB fiber, do they offer 1GB speeds? How badly would using them as my VPN affect my speed?

IPsec at 1gbps needs a powerful router.

A Juniper SRX 320 that I have can only can reach about 500mbps.

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

#169

Post by posedge »

muppetman wrote: post #48
hannob wrote: post #41

The first question you should ask is why you want a VPN. Because I believe many people newer ask this question and have some vague idea about "it somehow improves security and/or privacy". In most situations this likely isn't true. You add an additional attack vector and you centralize your communication to a single point.

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…

It would be naive not to expect VPS providers to keep logs themselves.

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

#170

Post by usx »

whocares123 wrote: post #158
kinkora wrote: post #145

PIA (Private Internet Access) and am a happy customer for 3rd year running. Why do I choose them? Besides the ease of use over multiple platforms, they are the only VPN (I am aware of) that has held up in court that they do not store any logs when asked to handover personal information. Sources: [1] https://torrentfreak.com/private-internet-access-no-logging-... [2] https://www.scribd.com/doc/303226103/Fake-bomb-thre…

I have 1GB fiber, do they offer 1GB speeds? How badly would using them as my VPN affect my speed?

I would like to know a bit more about this as well.

I often play online multiplayer games, my main issue with using a vpn full time would be the performance impact here.

I'm also curious if PIA has a way where if I launch certain apps, it would pause itself while that application is running? Or some way to automate on/off state of the VPN.

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