Live data from Hacker News

NordVPN disables features when you turn off auto-renew

reddit.com

111–120 of 238 posts

Re: NordVPN disables features when you turn off auto-renew

#111

Why are these VPNs even a thing? The only reason i would use one is to get cheaper steam keys from brasil and for that i can get a free one. From a security standpoint it is awful because you increase the number of providers you have to trust. Apart from your ISP and the server you connect to, you got a third party involved for no reason. And VPNs can not that trustworhty as shown by the leaks of logs and what not. M…

I'll just leave this here as food for thought https://schub.wtf/blog/2019/04/08/very-precarious-narrative....

Re: NordVPN disables features when you turn off auto-renew

#112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nowadays its probably best to set up your own VPN server for that. Back when I lived there, most VPNs got occationally blocked, then they would get new IPs and work fine again. But from what I heard, it got way worse since Winnie the Pooh took over.

I am not sure using your own is a good idea. Every time I was in China for the last 3 years they would quickly find and block my small startups VPN. I was able to send an email and ask someone to move it to a new IP. Now imaging you have your own setup and they block it, as well as access to the provider you used to create the VM that runs it. Using something like Nord or the like at least you know that they will kee…

You wouldn't advertise you were using your personal VPS as a VPN.

Re: NordVPN disables features when you turn off auto-renew

#113
post #55
post #5

Honestly, nothing holds up to Mullvad [1]. They don't even take an email address while creating accounts, and you can pay easily with Bitcoin or even with cash mailed to them. I'm not affiliated, just a very happy customer. Mullvad is also who Mozilla trusts for the Mozilla VPN [2]. You can sign up with that if you'd like Mozilla to get a cut. [1]: https://mullvad.net/ [2]: https://vpn.mozilla.org/

I totally understand using a VPN service if you're trying to access the internet from another location, e.g. to get past the China firewall or get access to content from a different copyright jurisdiction. However, I don't fully understand the privacy argument. It would seem to be that instead of handing over your entire DNS query history and unencrypted HTTP history to your own corporate IT department or the Starbuc…

Why do you think corporate IT or Starbucks or AWS is more trustworthy than "some Mullvad dude"? Isn't it possible that Mullvad is more trustworthy? Isn't it more possible to know about Mullvad than what's going on at Starbucks or AWS?

Re: NordVPN disables features when you turn off auto-renew

#114
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

exactly. I have at least some trust in Mulvad, but I'll be damned if I'm getting on the hotel WiFi in a US hotel chain without VPN. Let alone while travelling in foreign countries. I frequently access my bank info etc. on such trips. With a VPN at least I have fewer random threat vectors to consider on a network.

but every site nowadays use https. Doesn't it prevent issue with public wifi ?

Not all traffic is http.

Re: NordVPN disables features when you turn off auto-renew

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What third party are you using that does the xmr -> btc for you?

these days, its Morphtoken and Xmr.to still waiting for something better but its good enough

xmr.to has recently shut down[1]. It would be nice to see more services accepting monero directly.

1. https://www.reddit.com/r/Monero/comments/la46ds/xmrto_servic...

Re: NordVPN disables features when you turn off auto-renew

#116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1) people believing long-outdated guidance about not using open WiFi networks without a VPN 2) protecting your browsing traffic from being observed by your ISP (where you may not have much choice), at the risk of it being observed by the VPN company (which you trust). 3) Torrenting without having to worry about fines, nastygrams and other annoyances 4) Bypassing geoblocking 1 + 2 is what the VPNs advertise, but I thi…

What's wrong about (1)? Https or not, there are still MitM attacks, and the URLs you are accessing are still trackable. As to why I'd trust my VPN more than my ISP, who's CEO has got more to lose once word gets out that his company cooperated with authorities to turn over my logs?

This is maybe a nit-pick, but https prevents tracking of URLs - they can still see what hosts you're connecting to, but they don't get the full URL string.

Re: NordVPN disables features when you turn off auto-renew

#117
post #55
post #5

Honestly, nothing holds up to Mullvad [1]. They don't even take an email address while creating accounts, and you can pay easily with Bitcoin or even with cash mailed to them. I'm not affiliated, just a very happy customer. Mullvad is also who Mozilla trusts for the Mozilla VPN [2]. You can sign up with that if you'd like Mozilla to get a cut. [1]: https://mullvad.net/ [2]: https://vpn.mozilla.org/

I totally understand using a VPN service if you're trying to access the internet from another location, e.g. to get past the China firewall or get access to content from a different copyright jurisdiction. However, I don't fully understand the privacy argument. It would seem to be that instead of handing over your entire DNS query history and unencrypted HTTP history to your own corporate IT department or the Starbuc…

> I don't fully understand the privacy argument.

Hiding IPs while engaging in piracy.

Other than that, I think it's mainly geoblocking evasion, which might have overtaken piracy recently as the most popular reason for using a proxy service.

Any use where the slowness of tor is a dealbreaker, and where criminal liability is not so high that law enforcement will attempt to unmask proxy users in realtime.

Re: NordVPN disables features when you turn off auto-renew

#118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

these days, its Morphtoken and Xmr.to still waiting for something better but its good enough

xmr.to has recently shut down[1]. It would be nice to see more services accepting monero directly. 1. https://www.reddit.com/r/Monero/comments/la46ds/xmrto_servic...

that's too bad, thanks for spreading the word

One day people will figure out how to connect XMR to other chains, really unlocking its value and utility for those markets

Re: NordVPN disables features when you turn off auto-renew

#119

Why are these VPNs even a thing? The only reason i would use one is to get cheaper steam keys from brasil and for that i can get a free one. From a security standpoint it is awful because you increase the number of providers you have to trust. Apart from your ISP and the server you connect to, you got a third party involved for no reason. And VPNs can not that trustworhty as shown by the leaks of logs and what not. M…

1) people believing long-outdated guidance about not using open WiFi networks without a VPN 2) protecting your browsing traffic from being observed by your ISP (where you may not have much choice), at the risk of it being observed by the VPN company (which you trust). 3) Torrenting without having to worry about fines, nastygrams and other annoyances 4) Bypassing geoblocking 1 + 2 is what the VPNs advertise, but I thi…

> 4) Bypassing geoblocking

> 1 + 2 is what the VPNs advertise, but I think 3 + 4 are what people actually use them for.

I don't know, I've seen two different "household" gaming Youtube channels advertise VPNs with a focus on geoblocking. I was kind of shocked at how brazen it was.

Re: NordVPN disables features when you turn off auto-renew

#120
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which you would notice immediately because of the big, scary warnings.

Right, but how do you respond to that? Using a VPN seems like a reasonable approach in this situation.

You respond primarily with non technical means, making a giant stink that a hotel that generally lives and dies on corporate money is man in the middling their WiFi.
Post reply on HN