Why You Should Start Using a VPN • Hacker News Board

Re: Why You Should Start Using a VPN

#71

Post by maxerickson » Thu, Sep 06, 2012, 3:52 PM UTC

jcr wrote: post #70

DanBC wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not making them up! It's what I see on the Chrome "status bar" (or whatever it's called now) and in the html. 1.2.3.8, 1.2.3.13, etc. I'm in a coffee shop at the moment, but when I get back I'll try and get a list of the IPs that are used. (The last digit is always quite small though.)

I wasn't entirely clear in my description of a "bogon" since the definition is a bit hazy. Some define it as unallocated address, and others define it as an address you shouldn't see in use. For example, if you get a packet supposedly from 192.168.1.1 (in private address space) on your public interface (i.e. has a public IP address), then some consider it a bogon. Address space that hasn't been allocated by any of th…

I see 1.2.3.4 all the time. It is clearly Sprint (in the U.S., mobile connection) doing it.

The urls have the same 'bmi' stuff mentioned above, apparently they are using a similar implementation.

Re: Why You Should Start Using a VPN

#72

Post by calgaryeng » Thu, Sep 06, 2012, 3:56 PM UTC

Is http://www.tunnelr.com/ the same as any of these external VPN's? I'm not clear on the differences between OpenVPN type stuff and OpenSSH. Is this going to mask my identity online?

Re: Why You Should Start Using a VPN

#73

Post by kyrra » Thu, Sep 06, 2012, 4:00 PM UTC

olalonde wrote: post #16

Shameless plug: I've just spent the last few days figuring out how to correctly configure OpenVPN and pptpd on my Ubuntu servers + Android & OS X clients (it's a real pain in the ass). I'd be happy to install and configure those on your own server(s) for 5 BTC per install (I'm kind of short on money right now :(). If you want to give it a try by yourself, I recommend the following articles (doesn't seem that complica…

I did L2TP/IPsec for mine since they are supported by default on iphone and android devices. Getting OpenVPN working on the iPhone requires jailbreaking, and android requires your phone to be rooted.

Plus, windows and OSX have native L2TP/IPsec support.

Re: Why You Should Start Using a VPN

#74

Post by jcr » Thu, Sep 06, 2012, 4:04 PM UTC

maxerickson wrote: post #71

jcr wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wasn't entirely clear in my description of a "bogon" since the definition is a bit hazy. Some define it as unallocated address, and others define it as an address you shouldn't see in use. For example, if you get a packet supposedly from 192.168.1.1 (in private address space) on your public interface (i.e. has a public IP address), then some consider it a bogon. Address space that hasn't been allocated by any of th…

I see 1.2.3.4 all the time. It is clearly Sprint (in the U.S., mobile connection) doing it. The urls have the same 'bmi' stuff mentioned above, apparently they are using a similar implementation.

I did a bit of searching and it seems a few different mobile carriers are doing this with the 1.2.3.0/24 range, but the important thing is they should not be doing it at all. It would break the Internet if everyone just used whatever address they felt like using.

Re: Why You Should Start Using a VPN

#75

Post by lobster45 » Thu, Sep 06, 2012, 4:17 PM UTC

BryanB55 wrote: post #65

I may be wrong but it was my understanding that a VPN will slow down your internet connection. Is this not true anymore? For those that use a VPN do you keep it connected on your own secured wifi connection the entire day while working with no added lag? I remember using hotspotshield and torproject.org in the past but they always made things so slow it wasn't worth using. Maybe those were just the free/cheap service…

It all depends on the service being used. tor is especially slow because your traffic is routed through many points online. Hotspotshield is slow because of the bandwidth limits for the free service. If you pay for a legitimate vpn service, you will get what you pay for, a fast connection

Re: Why You Should Start Using a VPN

#76

Post by im3w1l » Thu, Sep 06, 2012, 4:22 PM UTC

XERQ wrote: post #22

I run SSD Nodes ( http://www.ssdnodes.com ), which you can use to set up an OpenVPN/PPTP/SSH-Tunnel server for secure, private access. I've seen users in other countries using our cloud servers for VPN purposes because they got better, lower latency routes to most other providers (due to the optimized transit/peering connections at SoftLayer Infomart in Dallas, TX). [/plug]

How did you see that?

Re: Why You Should Start Using a VPN

#77

Post by corford » Thu, Sep 06, 2012, 4:42 PM UTC

snowwrestler wrote: post #69

corford wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Valid point but there's nothing stopping you setting up your own VPN (either on a small VM from someone like Linode or, if you're paranoid enough, a cheap 1U server bought off ebay and placed in a colo facility). For the single point of failure issue (which is also valid)... just setup two or more VPNs :) And, in an emergency, you can always fall back to the underlying connection.

Setting up your own VPN does not solve the traceability problem, unless you happen to find a colo facility that does business in face-to-face cash transactions only. If you use Linode to set up a VPN, Linode knows your personal and Linode IP, knows when you access their network, and knows your name and billing info. If compelling by warrant they will turn that over to law enforcement.

Sorry, I didn't realise removing traceability was the goal. If you want that, you're better off with tor not a VPN.

Re: Why You Should Start Using a VPN

#78

Post by peterwwillis » Thu, Sep 06, 2012, 4:49 PM UTC

klearvue wrote: post #67

peterwwillis wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I notice both you and drtse4 like the tool but only mention what it's advertised to do, and not anything specific about your experience using it over 'ssh -D'. How has using it changed how you would have used 'ssh -D' ? I suppose the most practical purpose for sshuttle is for shell accounts on a box you don't own, if you need to do random transport-level stuff to remote hosts through an intermediary and you want to u…

It's a matter of convenience for me, substituting both (partially) OpenVPN and 'ssh -D'. I use 7 browsers (incl. 4 Firefox profiles) and a number of terminal tools that I often want to be seen coming from a specific server IP address from my /24 block - saves time configuring all of them individually to use SOCKS proxy or setting up OpenVPN on individual servers.

What are the commands you use? I personally think 'ssh -D 8081 host1', 'ssh -D 8082 host2', 'ssh -D 8083 host3' and configuring each browser for each port might be simpler, but maybe it's the learning curve of a new command throwing me off.

Re: Why You Should Start Using a VPN

#79

Post by debacle » Thu, Sep 06, 2012, 5:01 PM UTC

What is the benefit of using a VPN over something like SSH tunneling?

Re: Why You Should Start Using a VPN

#80

Post by spicyj » Thu, Sep 06, 2012, 5:02 PM UTC

jcr wrote: post #31

It's sad to see the reasoning for using VPN's being so deeply mixed with bittorrent and similar things "worth hiding" according to some. There are actually many good reasons to use various forms of secure tunneling. Many ISP's serve requested pages from massive caches. Although provider caching can improve performance in some cases as well as reduce bandwidth costs for the ISP, it can often result in stale informatio…

> If you participated in the recent Stripe.com Capture The Flag contest without using a VPN or staged connection (ssh), then you really didn't put very much thought into what could happen if some malicious person rooted the game server and attacked the game participants.

What damage could an attacker cause? (And how would a VPN help?)