Live data from Hacker News

The Mullvad Browser

mullvad.net

251–260 of 434 posts

Re: The Mullvad Browser

#251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sketchier providers often use dubious methods to acquire their exit nodes. Often they pay someone to include their code in a "free" software or browser extension (or malware) that allows them to route traffic through the host. Oxylabs is one of the larger examples whose record is somewhat dubious.

IIRC the mylobot botnet is responsible for providing the vast majority of residential (home) IP addresses for residential VPN providers (who are then sold to expressvpn/nordvpn). The whole business is incredibly shady and nefarious and nordvpn/expressvpn must know from whom they contract their residential vpn services from. BHProxies is the largest residential proxy provider on the internet and almost all of their pr…

Whaaaaaaaaaat.

This needs to be on the front page of.... something.

Re: The Mullvad Browser

#252
post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It annoys me that the only way to access iPlayer from abroad is via a VPN. Surely opening it up and allowing international customers to pay some form of license fee could be a nice little revenue stream for the BBC? I'm guessing the reason is just "licensing issues" but if they're making the programmes then what's the problem? I'm sure there's an international market for watching the world class output from the BBC.

With the cultural capital that BBC had especially 7 to 10 years ago, I'm pretty sure they would have been at league with Netflix and the like if they had opened it up. Dr Who was huge back then in the US, and you had Sherlock and a few other shows. I think people were just pirating it (?) but lots of people I knew were huge fans.

Dr. Who was on Netflix for a long time, except maybe whatever recent season, and more recently HBO Max

Re: The Mullvad Browser

#253
post #20

I guess why not. This is an open source, rebranded Firefox and Firefox-like browsers could use some publicity. It promotes privacy and privacy can use some publicity too. Tor too. Mullvad seems to be honest in the fact that their business model is selling VPNs and it's nice they are saying it's not enough. They are not saying that you might not need one though. We need a Firefox with good defaults and it seems like t…

I've asked multiple times to all the brave sympathizers about "why not fork firefox, put your shnazzy customization and call it a day. By lapping up to chromium, you are only helping Google regardless of what search engine you use" And more often than not the response has been "well we did investigate Firefox but working with it was pita so we went with easiest option" Shit dude. You want to start a business so at le…

How is propping up Firefox's market share and slowing down their own development the right thing to do as a business?

If Firefox wants to have a competitive market share they should actively compete instead of begging people to increase their market share.

Re: The Mullvad Browser

#254

> "Works on Windows 10 or later " Why? Firefox hasn't dropped support for Windows 7/8 yet. If you are somebody using Windows 7/8 etc and want Tor Browser but without Tor, then add the following to your `user.js` user_pref("network.proxy.socks_remote_dns", false); user_pref("extensions.torlauncher.start_tor", false); user_pref("network.dns.disabled", false); user_pref("browser.aboutConfig.showWarning", false); user_pr…

If a user cares about privacy and security why would they be using an outdated, unsupported OS? That would be like double dead bolting the front door but leaving the window next to it wide open.

Re: The Mullvad Browser

#255
post #20

I guess why not. This is an open source, rebranded Firefox and Firefox-like browsers could use some publicity. It promotes privacy and privacy can use some publicity too. Tor too. Mullvad seems to be honest in the fact that their business model is selling VPNs and it's nice they are saying it's not enough. They are not saying that you might not need one though. We need a Firefox with good defaults and it seems like t…

> it's nice they are saying it's not enough. Mullvad, who has a reputation in the HN comments for being just like... over the top amazing + great (they swear up and down they don't store traffic logs and if you don't trust them, you can pay anonymously somehow or whatever), is having a "hard time" being profitable/growing all while NordVPN, who has a bad reputation in HN comments for being untrustworthy and "not so a…

It's because, like it or not, NordVPN is a great product. The apps are great, the design is slick, they have more servers in more countries, and offer additional value through things like Smart DNS, dedicated IP. Not to mention solid customer service.

Re: The Mullvad Browser

#257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IIRC the mylobot botnet is responsible for providing the vast majority of residential (home) IP addresses for residential VPN providers (who are then sold to expressvpn/nordvpn). The whole business is incredibly shady and nefarious and nordvpn/expressvpn must know from whom they contract their residential vpn services from. BHProxies is the largest residential proxy provider on the internet and almost all of their pr…

Whaaaaaaaaaat. This needs to be on the front page of.... something.

Seconded. I refer to them as shady because I have no way of knowing what they do with your data. I didn't even consider that they'd have a whole botnet market going on too. This definitely needs to be more public.

Re: The Mullvad Browser

#258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's nice they are saying it's not enough. Mullvad, who has a reputation in the HN comments for being just like... over the top amazing + great (they swear up and down they don't store traffic logs and if you don't trust them, you can pay anonymously somehow or whatever), is having a "hard time" being profitable/growing all while NordVPN, who has a bad reputation in HN comments for being untrustworthy and "not so a…

It's because, like it or not, NordVPN is a great product. The apps are great, the design is slick, they have more servers in more countries, and offer additional value through things like Smart DNS, dedicated IP. Not to mention solid customer service.

Sure, their UX is more polished, and due to using residential IPs they aren't so easily blocked out.

But there is a different reason for the popularity:

NordVPN and others spend a lot of money on aggresive and pretty shady advertising, which tricks consumers into all kinds of false assumptions.

Re: The Mullvad Browser

#260
post #105
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I quite like Mullvad. I haven't needed to use them much (mostly when my ISP has wonky routing and I need something semi-urgent), but their service is pretty good, their website feels like it's designed for the more "techy users". Their billing is the least sketchiest of VPN providers, with no ticking clocks, no upsell and other nonsense. I also like they provide a Wireguard file and a way to filter it, so it's super…

I share a VPN subscription with my father, I use it for torrenting so my ISP can't snoop on me, and he uses it to bypass geo blocking to watch UK shows (things like BritBox, Netflix, BBC etc.) in another country. Unfortunately, there is no way to legally pay for most of these services and watch them from abroad. I tried to get us to use Mullvad, as it was perfect for me, but for him it was constant problems with the…

>> I use it for torrenting so my ISP can't snoop on me

Would installing WireGuard server on a router directly solve this (like Gl-Inet travel routers)?

Post reply on HN