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Ask HN: What is it like to run a VPN as a business?

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Re: Ask HN: What is it like to run a VPN as a business?

#52

One of my "favorite" evil business models is Hola VPN ( https://hola.org ), a free browser VPN extension. Hola VPN users unknowingly become exit nodes for residential IP address proxies for sale at https://luminati.io .

So, it's kinda like Tor, just that there's a free tier where you are an exit node, and a paid tier where you are not?

I dunno, I don't really see what's so very wrong about this, as long as it's communicated clearly.

Re: Ask HN: What is it like to run a VPN as a business?

#53

One of my "favorite" evil business models is Hola VPN ( https://hola.org ), a free browser VPN extension. Hola VPN users unknowingly become exit nodes for residential IP address proxies for sale at https://luminati.io .

As part of a company in the residential proxy space [1], I just wanted to point out that this type of proxy is used in a very different way than low-end VPNs. Residential proxies tend to much more expensive, and this results in them being used almost exclusively for legitimate business purposes. It's even a standard practice to go through a KYC process before obtaining access to residential proxies in order to ensure that they'll be used responsibly.

VPNs are often used for piracy, SPAM, and other nefarious purposes while residential proxies are primarily used to obtain access to data through web scraping. Large companies like Google are able to scrape the same sites without getting blocked already, and proxies help to level the playing field between innovative startups and established players. I can certainly understand the critique, but I strongly believe that the existence of residential proxies results in a lot more good than evil.

[1] - https://intoli.com

Re: Ask HN: What is it like to run a VPN as a business?

#54
Be focused on a specific audience, because talking to consumers about security is very hard. First, I'd start with your friends.

The first questions they're going to ask is how can I trust you're not spying what I do. If you can convince your friends, then you can convince anybody.

Next is how do I use it / how does it work, that brings to make it as simple as possible. Minimal setup, no configuration, it just works.

Finally it's why should I use it. This can be "easy" because you can just look around the competition, see their messaging, find out which one you like better and copy it. Focus on benefits vs technical features and details. When consumers see something they don't understand, they leave.

I've never built a vpn, but I made a password manager (question 3 is relatively easy/understood), and now I'm making a security key (all these questions are proving to be pretty hard). Shameless plug, we're live on Kickstarter: https://solokeys.com/kickstarter

Re: Ask HN: What is it like to run a VPN as a business?

#55

One of my "favorite" evil business models is Hola VPN ( https://hola.org ), a free browser VPN extension. Hola VPN users unknowingly become exit nodes for residential IP address proxies for sale at https://luminati.io .

Thank you for mentioning it. Just removed it. Do you know of any good, non-expensive (VPN?) alternatives? I was using it to access Netflix in other languages for language learning purposes.

ProtonVPN has a free plan, I recommend it quite strongly. Netflix works on the server I use, though I'm not sure if it works for all servers. P2P traffic is not allowed on free servers.

Support is okay, not the fastest. Downtime is rare but not unheard of, they've been targeted with big DDoS attacks. Server options expanding but not in tons of countries. Most trustworthy and reputable service because it has a CEO you can actually put a name and a face to, and the history of Protonmail.

Re: Ask HN: What is it like to run a VPN as a business?

#56
post #12
post #8

The fact that it is easy to set up a VPN does make this more competitive but that doesn’t mean you can’t build a business. Think about who your customers will be. Is there an underserved niche that you can reach? It might take a HN reader 10 minutes to set up a VPN but my mom wouldn’t be able to figure it out if you gave her 10 months. My battle plan for assessing whether or not I would pursued this would be the foll…

Adding an example of a niche: Those who wish to crawl Google/Bing/Amazon/Youtube results for SEO analysis around the world. You'd write a wrapper or other positive list of domains allowed through the proxy.

Here you can purchase dedicated or semi dedicated proxy ip's. Easy to use with network request libraries.

Re: Ask HN: What is it like to run a VPN as a business?

#57

By and large, people are interested in VPNs because they're vulnerable, in some way or another. By becoming a VPN provider, you become a "pinch point" for the connections of a number of vulnerable people. That way, a hypothetical bad actor only needs to compromise one entity (you) in order to gain access those people who rely on you. Aggregating vulnerability makes you a target, and puts your customers at risk - Espe…

Very good point. OP should be ready to get heavily involved with legal proceedings, especially as they say it is for ideological reasons.

Re: Ask HN: What is it like to run a VPN as a business?

#58
post #53

One of my "favorite" evil business models is Hola VPN ( https://hola.org ), a free browser VPN extension. Hola VPN users unknowingly become exit nodes for residential IP address proxies for sale at https://luminati.io .

As part of a company in the residential proxy space [1], I just wanted to point out that this type of proxy is used in a very different way than low-end VPNs. Residential proxies tend to much more expensive, and this results in them being used almost exclusively for legitimate business purposes. It's even a standard practice to go through a KYC process before obtaining access to residential proxies in order to ensure…

My critique is that Hola VPN users don't realize that they are peers, nor what that entails even if you were to use more direct language than the vague "share your idle resources with the community!" rhetoric on Hola VPN's homepage.

But since you brought it up, we both know residential proxies are especially attractive to bad actors and circumventors.

It's like how we're both capable of pitching Tor as the emancipator of the sanctioned journalist trying to publish the truth in the face of mortal danger. Yet 99% of Tor traffic to my websites is malicious despite our feel-good hypotheticals.

Of course, residential proxies are even better than Tor because a network can't just block the residential IP address space. ;)

Re: Ask HN: What is it like to run a VPN as a business?

#59
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I ran this script on a node 2 years ago and haven't had to touch it since, it's been a fully-working, reliable VPN for my whole family for $2.50/mo and 10min of my time for initial setup: https://github.com/jawj/IKEv2-setup

I've been looking for something like this, thank you. Do you mind sharing what type of hosting you use, and what kind of VPN traffic it supports?

vultr.com, and it's an IPSec tunnel, so it supports all traffic, not just HTTP.

Re: Ask HN: What is it like to run a VPN as a business?

#60
post #52

One of my "favorite" evil business models is Hola VPN ( https://hola.org ), a free browser VPN extension. Hola VPN users unknowingly become exit nodes for residential IP address proxies for sale at https://luminati.io .

So, it's kinda like Tor, just that there's a free tier where you are an exit node, and a paid tier where you are not? I dunno, I don't really see what's so very wrong about this, as long as it's communicated clearly.

as long as it's communicated clearly.

Exactly. It's not.

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