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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?

#71

Post by muppetman »

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…

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 care of your privacy correctly and not just reselling your metadata back to your country of origin etc.

Perhaps I am being a pedantic, grumpy old man though. Because now I think about it, even if we all run our own VPSes there's no way to vet the VPS provider doesn't just tap your egress traffic too.

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

#72

Post by doorbellguy »

mirimir wrote: post #66
doorbellguy wrote: post #18

Here's another question I had for a few weeks: I tried a server of a certain free VPN via OpenVPN and since it did not support tunneling traffic through their own servers for IPv6 requests, my friend told me to disable IPv6 on my adapter's settings. Now ipleak.net doesn't detect my location. Was it a smart thing to do?

Unless you're using a VPN service that provides its own IPv6 address, as well as an IPv4 address, it's crucial that you disable IPv6 and/or use a firewall to block IPv6 traffic. Or at least, it is if your ISP provides IPv6 service. If it does, and the VPN both routes IPv6 and doesn't push its own IPv6 address, IPv6-capable websites will see a global IPv6 address that's owned by your ISP.

Thank you very very much.

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

#74

Post by CameronBanga »

Been using Ghostifi for about three months now. You’re the sole user of the VPN, and you get root access to the VPS that it’s built on.

You may ask “how is this different than just running my own vps”, and the answer is the ability to redeploy to another region with no downtime and push of a button. I love that feature and use it often.

Because you’re on your own VPS, so far in my experience, I’ve never even noticed I’m connected to a VPN. It’s blazing fast. I cancelled my PIA account and moved over entirely.

https://ghostifi.net

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

#75

Post by a_bonobo »

xiphias2 wrote: post #40
crsv wrote: post #7

ExpressVPN has been a really great experience in terms of price and ease of use. Been a customer for a few years now.

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

I too use ExpressVPN - `expressvpn list` gives you a list of all VPN servers in all countries, not all of them are blocked. Support has been helpful (< 5 minutes reply time in an Australian Saturday night) in ferreting out one that works, even though back then the support person stated that they focus on keeping US servers unblocked.

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

#76

Post by llukas »

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…

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.

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

#77

Post by dfee »

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...

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

#78

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

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.

If you're in the States, you probably are better off trusting reputable VPN provider than your local ISP. Especially because your communications are already centralized on that point and there's a long history of them being less than trustworthy.

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

#79

Post by eyeball »

mirimir wrote: post #50
kdmedev wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

There's an old HN thread about it. Basically, the ProtonMail and PIA CEOs got in a catfight, and traded accusations. I don't recall what PIA was accused of. Maybe connections with China? But I've seen nothing more about that. The PIA CEO basically claimed that Tesonet operated ProtonVPN for the ProtonMail team. And then additional articles appeared, detailing the connections. And adding NordVPN to the mix. But many o…

Well that blows. I just set up a proton mail account and was going to migrate from gmail.

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

#80

Post by gpm »

The only reason I use a VPN is to shift my traffic to make it look like it's coming from another country. Only for traffic that I don't care about getting sniffed. I close everything I can before activating it.

That said I just use a free one that didn't ask for a signup - https://www.vpnbook.com/

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