FrootVPN – Surf anonymously on the Internet • Hacker News Board

Re: FrootVPN – Surf anonymously on the Internet

#31

Post by exelius » Wed, Oct 22, 2014, 3:28 PM UTC

vdaniuk wrote: post #13

ToastyMallows wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know what they always say, when something is free, you are the product.

This phrase should be put down with a shot in a back of its metaphorical head. Whisper Systems, TOR, tox are free. Should we apply the same principle to those products? (I am not defending this shady VPN service)

You're talking open source software vs. free services.

Free software is write once and release; it costs the author nothing to maintain it. Free services require maintenance and incur operating expenses that need to be covered somewhere.

The original quote was always about SaaS anyway.

Re: FrootVPN – Surf anonymously on the Internet

#32

Post by caractacus » Wed, Oct 22, 2014, 3:28 PM UTC

darkstar999 wrote: post #29

api wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't tell you how happy I am to see this as the top comment. Free is a con. If you want a cheap VPN that you control (and that's faster than Tor), set up an endpoint on something that takes Bitcoin payment and pay with Bitcoins obtained via an anonymous route. This list might be helpful. https://www.exoticvps.com

Depending on your needs, you can just roll your own with Amazon EC2. I use it for an SSH tunnel, mostly to use while at work. Not that I'm doing any weird browsing, I just don't like the thought of my employer keeping a log of what I am doing on my free time ( https://xkcd.com/303/ ). I wrote a script to spin up a new instance when I need it, and to terminate it when I don't. It should cost less than $10/mo, and I on…

Can you share the script on a pastebin or something? Sounds like an excellent solution.

Re: FrootVPN – Surf anonymously on the Internet

#33

Post by jliptzin » Wed, Oct 22, 2014, 3:29 PM UTC

I always chuckle when I see a VPN service claim no logging. While it's probably true, they can't ever prove to you that that's actually the case, which makes the claim moot for anyone who actually cares about their privacy.

Re: FrootVPN – Surf anonymously on the Internet

#34

Post by icebraining » Wed, Oct 22, 2014, 3:30 PM UTC

explorigin wrote: post #24

ceejayoz wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And Whisper Systems, TOR, tox are free as in free beer. What's your point?

Probably a better disambiguation would be "services" that are free. Open-source projects can always be validated to make sure that they are not monetizing their user-base. Tor is a service but by reading the source code, you can see (if you understand the code) that nothing monetizable leaves your computer. I don't have as much confidence in Tox just because it hasn't been around as long (and I haven't read the sourc…

Wikipedia is a service.

Re: FrootVPN – Surf anonymously on the Internet

#35

Post by Torgo » Wed, Oct 22, 2014, 3:31 PM UTC

furyg3 wrote: post #19

I'm not quite sure what the appeal of free VPN services are, or why anyone would trust them. Setting up a VPN server takes very little time. From a default Ubuntu installation you only need to install the OpenVPN Access Server package, visit a web page and add a user. You can do this from a cloud service provider in a location with favorable privacy laws, like Iceland. I do this with GreenQloud, and just spin up my V…

>People who wish to be nearly untraceable can use a prepaid credit card for anonymity.

Does anyone have experience with this? I tried it once, and found that most places blocked the use of these cards and needed a "real" one.

Re: FrootVPN – Surf anonymously on the Internet

#36

Post by beagle3 » Wed, Oct 22, 2014, 3:31 PM UTC

darkstar999 wrote: post #29

api wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't tell you how happy I am to see this as the top comment. Free is a con. If you want a cheap VPN that you control (and that's faster than Tor), set up an endpoint on something that takes Bitcoin payment and pay with Bitcoins obtained via an anonymous route. This list might be helpful. https://www.exoticvps.com

Depending on your needs, you can just roll your own with Amazon EC2. I use it for an SSH tunnel, mostly to use while at work. Not that I'm doing any weird browsing, I just don't like the thought of my employer keeping a log of what I am doing on my free time ( https://xkcd.com/303/ ). I wrote a script to spin up a new instance when I need it, and to terminate it when I don't. It should cost less than $10/mo, and I on…

That's a VPN but not anonymous. Amazon knows who you are.

Re: FrootVPN – Surf anonymously on the Internet

#37

Post by atmosx » Wed, Oct 22, 2014, 3:32 PM UTC

api wrote: post #25

teamhappy wrote: post #5

Free product, free support, no logs. They're either lying or trying to turn this into a freemium product at some point in the future. Everything else just seems unlikely. Furthermore, their domain is protected by WhoisGuard (Panama). If they (the people involved, not the servers) were sitting in Sweden this would be unnecessary (compare IPredator). The IP address behind the website points to the same Swedish datacent…

I can't tell you how happy I am to see this as the top comment. Free is a con. If you want a cheap VPN that you control (and that's faster than Tor), set up an endpoint on something that takes Bitcoin payment and pay with Bitcoins obtained via an anonymous route. This list might be helpful. https://www.exoticvps.com

> [..] and that's faster than Tor

Okay but please don't mention 'Tor' side by side with VPNs they are essentially different services/solutions, for different needs. Even on HN I see that many people are so confused about Tor that consider the traffic encrypted by default (when it's not not) or they use tor to perform the usual daily web operations (Facebook, twitter, email, etc.) which totally beat the purpose of Tor but would be excellent use case for a (paid or self-hosted) VPN.

Re: FrootVPN – Surf anonymously on the Internet

#38

Post by junglhilt » Wed, Oct 22, 2014, 3:34 PM UTC

Interesting...doesn't work in China.

Re: FrootVPN – Surf anonymously on the Internet

#39

Post by benmorris » Wed, Oct 22, 2014, 3:34 PM UTC

I don't really use these VPN services, but I did see they use PPTP (for android at least). Isn't that flawed/insecure?

Re: FrootVPN – Surf anonymously on the Internet

#40

Post by beagle3 » Wed, Oct 22, 2014, 3:34 PM UTC

furyg3 wrote: post #19

I'm not quite sure what the appeal of free VPN services are, or why anyone would trust them. Setting up a VPN server takes very little time. From a default Ubuntu installation you only need to install the OpenVPN Access Server package, visit a web page and add a user. You can do this from a cloud service provider in a location with favorable privacy laws, like Iceland. I do this with GreenQloud, and just spin up my V…

In the US and many other places, prepaid cards are not anonymous. IIRC you need ID of some kind to buy them in Germany, for example (similarly for SIM cards)