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Never used a VPN before, is there a good one to use?

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Re: Never used a VPN before, is there a good one to use?

#11

Post by wwalexander »

hayst4ck wrote: post #8
_justinfunk wrote: post #4

You can run your own VPN server easily enough.

I haven't tried to in a while, but every time I've tried it's been a huge pain with crufty looking software and poorly written walkthroughs. What do you recommend setting up?

I use a Unifi router which has a feature called Teleport that lets you create and connect to a Wireguard VPN with very little friction.

Re: Never used a VPN before, is there a good one to use?

#12

Post by hayst4ck »

VPN is not a privacy "solution". There are multiple implementations of super cookies. Super cookies transcend your ability to clear them.

Websites used to store cookies in flash, which weren't cleared, even when you "cleared all cookies," I'm not even sure reinstalling your browser cleared them.

Then there are things like google analyitcs and tracking pixels. The google login window. Captchas can betray your identity. The "referrer" header when clicking links.

There are all manner of cookies and fingerprinting techniques.

Screen size is detectable, installed fonts, installed plugins.

This is an EFF project to show you how easily your browser is fingerprint-able: https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/

If privacy is deeply concerning to you then I would spend way more effort on your browser than your IP.

You also have to consider that chrome, firefox, and safari all want to sync your web history to their clouds and all manner of other stuff.

When someone shares you a link on messenger, FB will click that link and download its contents to their servers for analysis.

Your phone reports your location to your carrier that sells that information.

Bluetooth can betray your identity when walking around.

Any picture can have facial idea and OCR run against it.

The only solutions to this problem of privacy are regulations.

Re: Never used a VPN before, is there a good one to use?

#14

Post by cpach »

hayst4ck wrote: post #8
_justinfunk wrote: post #4

You can run your own VPN server easily enough.

I haven't tried to in a while, but every time I've tried it's been a huge pain with crufty looking software and poorly written walkthroughs. What do you recommend setting up?

If I were to do it myself I would have a look at Algo from Trail of Bits: https://github.com/trailofbits/algo

Re: Never used a VPN before, is there a good one to use?

#17

Post by unstatusthequo »

cpach wrote: post #14
hayst4ck wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't tried to in a while, but every time I've tried it's been a huge pain with crufty looking software and poorly written walkthroughs. What do you recommend setting up?

If I were to do it myself I would have a look at Algo from Trail of Bits: https://github.com/trailofbits/algo

Yes this is a good option. What I used for years. You’ll maybe end up hosting on Vultr or DigitalOcean, so if you’re worried about privacy or identity, you’ll want to use a prepaid debit card or gift card or crypto to pay for the service. I think Vultr takes crypto. Unsure if they do any KYC these days.

Re: Never used a VPN before, is there a good one to use?

#18

Post by 7174n6 »

If you're just looking to mask your public IP address and secure your network traffic while browsing on public wifi, or a network you don't control - ProtonVPN or NordVPN are good choices. Don't make it complicated. Complicated things become unused things.

I have used several and currently use Proton. Affordable, easy to use, no-logging, and they seem to have a deep commitment to privacy.

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