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Why You Should Start Using a VPN

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Re: Why You Should Start Using a VPN

#2
I'm starting to consider this pretty seriously due to a flurry of incoming snooping laws in the UK. I normally do a bit of SSH tunneling out to a VPS if I need a proxy; is SSH my best option/most secure option? What do others recommend?

Re: Why You Should Start Using a VPN

#6
It's all very well saying a VPN services keep your communications secure, encrypted and away from the prying eyes of your ISP - but why would you trust a VPN provider more than an ISP?

These consumer-oriented VPN services marketing to bittorrent users seem kind of sketchy to me.

Re: Why You Should Start Using a VPN

#7
post #3

Are most VPN providers fine with you using your VPN as a server (e.g. web) of some kind? Or is that frowned upon / against TOS usually?

VPN providers simply give you the VPN endpoint to use with e.g. OpenVPN configuration. They don't give you login information for a server (unlike VPS).

You could maybe run a server behind the VPN, but many don't give you a dedicated IP but use NAT. It could be that you're allowed to open ports and redirect them to you, but whether this is possible differs per provider. It's not usually part of the normal package.

Re: Why You Should Start Using a VPN

#8
post #6

It's all very well saying a VPN services keep your communications secure, encrypted and away from the prying eyes of your ISP - but why would you trust a VPN provider more than an ISP? These consumer-oriented VPN services marketing to bittorrent users seem kind of sketchy to me.

"but why would you trust a VPN provider more than an ISP?"

You probably shouldn't. There are most likely laws against your ISP from listening in on your traffic, not for your VPN. If the government wants to listen in it doesn't matter, your VPN service is forced to cooperate anyway so you haven't gained anything.

If I'd use a VPN I'd make sure to use one that is in another country, probably making it a bit harder to connect the VPN and ISP to you that way - but hardly bulletproof.

Re: Why You Should Start Using a VPN

#9
post #6

It's all very well saying a VPN services keep your communications secure, encrypted and away from the prying eyes of your ISP - but why would you trust a VPN provider more than an ISP? These consumer-oriented VPN services marketing to bittorrent users seem kind of sketchy to me.

http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-providers-really-take-anon...

Of course, the providers there could be lying about not keeping logs, but it's interesting none the less.

Re: Why You Should Start Using a VPN

#10
> "VPNs are the only way to stay safe when using something like BitTorrent"

very wrong. It's not really much. It's probably just limiting your possible bandwidth.

If somebody wants to catch you, it's just one additional step to get to you (via the VPN provider).

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