Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What VPN service are you currently using?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 344 posts

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

#171

Post by phillc73 »

worble wrote: post #157
phillc73 wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Have you messed with your certs? It should be absolutely fine. I read over the weekend that some people were distrusting QuoVadis because or something or other to do with DarkMatter? I don't really understand too much about it, but proton use QuoVadis[0] so you'll get improper SSL for their sites if you did that. [0] https://old.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/au7zcz/how_to_remo...

No, but.... The above error was from my office. When connecting to ProtonVPN's website via a VPN, there is no error. Seems like it could be a certificate configuration error with the network I'm using, which is odd because it's a University and I've not seen that error anywhere else I regularly visit.

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

#172

Post by t0astbread »

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…

What about traffic aggregation? Correct me if I'm wrong on this but as far as I understood it, VPN services forward multiple users' requests from a single IP address, disabling website owners to track you using your address.

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

#173

Post by pimeys »

lowpro wrote: post #60

There's a website[0] that goes into detail comparing different providers. This used to be a shared spreadsheet but the author chose to turn it into a website. I still have the old spreadsheet if anyone wants it (from 2016?). I was looking for a reasonably priced VPN not based in the 5 eyes territory, and I came to iVPN as the best solution for my criteria and at $110 per year. [0] https://thatoneprivacysite.net/vpn-c…

Sent iVPN an email a few weeks back if they'd check all my requirements:

- Wireguard in Switzerland

- IPv6 /64 subnet

- No bandwidth penalty

Now they can only fill the last point, if they ever get all three they'll get a lifelong customer out of me.

What I now have is Mullvad for IPv4 for their Swiss servers and good bandwidth, AzireVPN for their /64 IPv6 subnet. Both are running on my router, but I'd be happy to have only one provider.

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

#174

Post by nightfly »

epynonymous wrote: post #82

anyone use wireguard? i hear it’s extremely lightweight and can be used between containers, but curious if it’s beneficial for common use like netflix?

I use Wireguard for a VPN I run at work and am very happy with it. But for a use like Netflix it doesn't really make a difference compared to any other VPN technology.

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

#175

Post by AsyncAwait »

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…

They also donate to FLOSS on a semi-regular basis.

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

#176

Post by ikatson »

latchkey wrote: post #144
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…

I just ran into a case where I needed a VPN for a short lived task. Ally bank blocks creation of time deposit accounts while in a foreign country, despite me already having an account with them. Takes less than 10 minutes to setup a VPN with algo on DO and I just shut it down after my task was done. Cost me $0.02. The support for Wireguard + OSX Wireguard App is perfect and super easy. Please tell your coworkers, tha…

For simple usages like this, you can also create an SSH socks proxy with one SSH command, and then configure your browser to use a local port as a socks proxy.

Does not require any software installed on the server, and the whole setup should be quicker then configuring VPN server and client.

Also, an HTTP proxy is a couple steps more to setup, but will allow you to use command line tools on the client, not just the browser. The majority of command line tools support http_proxy and https_proxy environment variables.

An easy and pretty secure way to setup an HTTP proxy is: 1. Install tinyproxy. 2. Configure it to listen only on localhost and start it. 3. SSH port forward localhost:8888 from your server. For example to the same port on your client. 4. Configure your clients to use localhost:8888 as a proxy.

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

#177

Post by bad_news_ »

phillc73 wrote: post #171
worble wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you messed with your certs? It should be absolutely fine. I read over the weekend that some people were distrusting QuoVadis because or something or other to do with DarkMatter? I don't really understand too much about it, but proton use QuoVadis[0] so you'll get improper SSL for their sites if you did that. [0] https://old.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/au7zcz/how_to_remo...

No, but.... The above error was from my office. When connecting to ProtonVPN's website via a VPN, there is no error. Seems like it could be a certificate configuration error with the network I'm using, which is odd because it's a University and I've not seen that error anywhere else I regularly visit.

Uh oh, your network is potentially unpacking SSL traffic for inspection.

They've likely forced you to accept a self-signed root CA (probably as requirement to access wi-fi) so they can intercept and scan encrypted connections.

Never do anything important or personally identifiable on that network. Scummy admins are running it.

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

#178

Post by HenryBemis »

phillc73 wrote: post #171
worble wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you messed with your certs? It should be absolutely fine. I read over the weekend that some people were distrusting QuoVadis because or something or other to do with DarkMatter? I don't really understand too much about it, but proton use QuoVadis[0] so you'll get improper SSL for their sites if you did that. [0] https://old.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/au7zcz/how_to_remo...

No, but.... The above error was from my office. When connecting to ProtonVPN's website via a VPN, there is no error. Seems like it could be a certificate configuration error with the network I'm using, which is odd because it's a University and I've not seen that error anywhere else I regularly visit.

>No, but.... The above error was from my office

So.. IT that manages the certs and the gateway, use a MIMT 'attack' to decrypt all your traffic, scan/read it, and then encrypt it again to send it out to the wilderness of the Internet. This is what the browser is messaging. Notifying you that "something is wrong with the connection. Browser is not sure what exactly, thus pointing the finger on the certificate.

Perhaps someone can explain the above with more technical terms, but in a nutshell, our companies, on our corporate desktops/laptops sniff through each and every bit and byte that goes in and out of our machines.

A commom workardound "permanent accept this exception" (or similar wording) makes the browser to stop complaining about this breach of privacy.

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

#180

Post by jacobush »

I read about a project, widely deployed, where people install special router software in their homes for instance. And that they got better availability than "plain" internet. Sadly, I did not bookmark it, because I thought I would remember the name or terms to google it up again.

Anyone know what I'm talking about? It would compensate for instance censored web sites, or routing table errors at the ISP, and route/tunnel the traffic through one of your peers in the project. Damn, I don't think I dreamed this up.

Post reply on HN