Mozilla VPN • Hacker News Board

Re: Mozilla VPN

#81

Post by kd913 » Thu, Jun 18, 2020, 6:38 PM UTC

Jonnax wrote: post #22

haunter wrote: post #15

Every single time I start researching VPN services I end up more confused and with more questions than before because basically every vouched service has the same amount of negative comments too. Like feels like the whole sector is a honeypot (lol) of shady stuff and also they figthing against each other (or not?). So I just wait until when turns out Mullvad is also one of the bad guys.

Ask yourself why you want a VPN. Is it to avoid your ISP collecting browsing data off you and selling it? Perhaps using 8.8.8.8 or 1.1.1.1 as your DNS might be good enough. Is it to watch geo region blocked videos? Then pretty much any service will work for you. Except that video streaming sites have caught on and blocked hosting provider IP blocks. So that might require you to shop around. Do you want the most priva…

Just FYI just setting your DNS to 8.8.8.8 or 1.1.1.1 may not do that much. Not only is DNS in plaintext, but some ISPs simply redirect all port 53 DNS requests to their own DNS.

If you want privacy with your DNS, you should setup DoH using dnscrypt-proxy or perhaps DNS over TLS.

Personally, I think a better strategy with this whole vpn aspect is to just setup a vpn with pis in various countries + pihole. At least that way I know what the setup is happening in each locations and what expectations of privacy I can expect.

Re: Mozilla VPN

#82

Post by rmrfstar » Thu, Jun 18, 2020, 6:39 PM UTC

helloooooooo wrote: post #24

pipermerriam wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use ProtonVPN. Same company as ProtonMail. Highly reputable with a business model around doing privacy and encryption well.

NordVPN shares offices in Estonia with ProtonVPN. For that reason I find it sketchy.

Link. Please.

Re: Mozilla VPN

#83

Post by kd913 » Thu, Jun 18, 2020, 6:39 PM UTC

jwilk wrote: post #75

cgb223 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is it to avoid your ISP collecting browsing data off you and selling it? Perhaps using 8.8.8.8 or 1.1.1.1 as your DNS might be good enough. 8.8.8.8 is Google’s DNS so you’re really just trading being tracked by an ISP to a giant advertising company...

And then it's a shitty trade, because your ISP still can track you without much difficulty.

Not just track you, some ISPs will simply redirect all UDP port 53 DNS packets to their own DNS anyway.

Re: Mozilla VPN

#84

Post by rakoo » Thu, Jun 18, 2020, 6:41 PM UTC

Jonnax wrote: post #22

haunter wrote: post #15

Every single time I start researching VPN services I end up more confused and with more questions than before because basically every vouched service has the same amount of negative comments too. Like feels like the whole sector is a honeypot (lol) of shady stuff and also they figthing against each other (or not?). So I just wait until when turns out Mullvad is also one of the bad guys.

Ask yourself why you want a VPN. Is it to avoid your ISP collecting browsing data off you and selling it? Perhaps using 8.8.8.8 or 1.1.1.1 as your DNS might be good enough. Is it to watch geo region blocked videos? Then pretty much any service will work for you. Except that video streaming sites have caught on and blocked hosting provider IP blocks. So that might require you to shop around. Do you want the most priva…

Additional use case: you want to self host at home ? A VPN will give you a public, stable IP address without having to fiddle with your router and opening ports and NAT-punching and friends

Re: Mozilla VPN

#85

Post by qchris » Thu, Jun 18, 2020, 6:41 PM UTC

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #20

Forget the VPN--I already have a VPN provider and I have no interest in changing. Offer a paid e-mail service, on the other hand, and I'd sign on up Day 1.

I second this wholeheartedly. I would be happy paying at least the $5/mo that they're charging for the VPN to have web-based access to privacy-respecting email service tied to a name I tend to trust like Mozilla (hopefully with a fairly vanilla domain name that doesn't get weird looks).

Purism's Librem One suite [0] comes the closest, but I just don't have the trust in them that I'd want before pulling the trigger. They have a history of making grand claims with sub-par delivery, which just doesn't cut it for a service like a primary email provider. They've claimed plans to add features like file storage for ages now with no updates. Email is just too important a part of daily life to risk it.

[0] https://librem.one/

Re: Mozilla VPN

#86

Post by alteria » Thu, Jun 18, 2020, 6:41 PM UTC

jrockway wrote: post #69

I am surprised at how much money exists in the VPN industry. Whenever I watch even a mildly-popular YouTube video, it always has an advertisement for the latest VPN provider. As far as I can tell, there is only one reason there is this much money in the field -- to subscribe to US-based video streaming services from outside the US. But they never ever say that that's the reason, they always say things like "work from…

They must massively oversubscribe their services, far beyond ISPs. The advertising probably brings in a lot of profitable users who aren't pushing tons of BitTorrent traffic as well. With the insanely high affiliate commission they're offering I can't think of another way.

Re: Mozilla VPN

#87

Post by kawsper » Thu, Jun 18, 2020, 6:42 PM UTC

I wish Mozilla would also offer a DNS-over-TLS service instead of just offloading it to Cloudflare or NextDNS.

Re: Mozilla VPN

#88

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jun 18, 2020, 6:44 PM UTC

jorge-d wrote: post #37

pipermerriam wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use ProtonVPN. Same company as ProtonMail. Highly reputable with a business model around doing privacy and encryption well.

IMHO ProtonVPN (and Mail) are the perfect honeypots

[deleted]

Re: Mozilla VPN

#89

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jun 18, 2020, 6:44 PM UTC

Jonnax wrote: post #22

haunter wrote: post #15

Every single time I start researching VPN services I end up more confused and with more questions than before because basically every vouched service has the same amount of negative comments too. Like feels like the whole sector is a honeypot (lol) of shady stuff and also they figthing against each other (or not?). So I just wait until when turns out Mullvad is also one of the bad guys.

Ask yourself why you want a VPN. Is it to avoid your ISP collecting browsing data off you and selling it? Perhaps using 8.8.8.8 or 1.1.1.1 as your DNS might be good enough. Is it to watch geo region blocked videos? Then pretty much any service will work for you. Except that video streaming sites have caught on and blocked hosting provider IP blocks. So that might require you to shop around. Do you want the most priva…

[deleted]

Re: Mozilla VPN

#90

Post by leokennis » Thu, Jun 18, 2020, 6:44 PM UTC

haunter wrote: post #15

Every single time I start researching VPN services I end up more confused and with more questions than before because basically every vouched service has the same amount of negative comments too. Like feels like the whole sector is a honeypot (lol) of shady stuff and also they figthing against each other (or not?). So I just wait until when turns out Mullvad is also one of the bad guys.

VPN’s just mean you’re trusting someone else than your ISP. Instead of your ISP seeing you go to site.com, now your ISP sees you connecting to a VPN and the VPN sees you connecting to site.com.

For this reason I am highly suspicious of any VPN service that markets itself as some “magical privacy wormhole”, which is 99% of VPN providers.

Honest ones I know of are Encrypt.me and Mullvad, who both tell you they should be mainly used to secure yourself on open WiFi and to circumvent geo blocks.

If you want a private internet connection, use TOR.