Guys, today I learned what a VPN is, and I think I want it.

VPNs are great but sooner or later all the IPs will be banned because it only takes one person to get one banned. Also don't trust free VPNs.

I am never quite sure what to make of VPNs being pushed to the masses.

A few years back following all the fun and games with leaked US intelligence services files, programs, techniques... when we saw the massive push for SSL* that was fine, laudable even.

*general idea was that SSL meant something special back then, and as it was so low in volume then even if they could not read it they could capture it all and store it easily enough for a day when they could or for other analysis methods. By encrypting everything then that ceases to be as useful a tactic.

I could sort of see it justified with "if you use public wifi" and "do you plan to do stuff on company time and are fairly sure there are no other issues**". While improvements to wifi (or just pushes for people to use the better versions of said security which have variously been around for years) have negated some of those issues I would agree placing yourself at the mercy of a local restaurant's IT prowess is not the best plan.

For the most part it mainly made sense for the general public if they went in for p2p (torrents and what have you) methods of downloading files.

**no point in being all super secret if your boss has screen capture installed on the machine you are doing it on sort of thing.

There are plenty of reasons a given individual might want such a thing but the way it is being pushed right now rubs me the wrong way ever so slightly.

Most of the good reasons he mentioned in the video don't really apply to you because you're in the US. Here's a list with timestamps explaining why most of the things he said don't apply to you and other people in the US.

* US has Spotify, Crunchyroll, and Netflix already. I know he said "content sites" in general, but all the examples he gave don't apply to you. (1:44)
* The example he gave about a Japanese Android app doesn't mater because you could easily just download an APK. (2:11)
* No GDPR in the US. (2:42)
* He said you could bypass parental controls and websites blocked at work. Doesn't matter if you're not using this at work and you're not 8 years old. (3:43)
* Again, you're not in the UK so the stupid internet law doesn't apply to you. (4:40)
* His example about Google's logo, again, doesn't apply to the US. (5:12)
* His example about seeing what's trending on Youtube in other countries is a dumb example. I can just go to "youtube.co" and see what's trending on Spanish Youtube without a VPN. (5:41)
* I doubt you're traveling often enough to buy a VPN. (5:57)
* You're not in China. There's not tons of censorship when using internet from the US ( I think ). And China could just block NordVPN's servers, right? (6:06)
* Eh. You still have a unique browser footprint that you can be tracked by. (6:41)
* Assuming that this (youtube.com/watch?v= 4DUUqRedAOM) is the video where that Youtuber explains how he got hacked, it didn't even have to do with using public WiFi. Even if his password was stolen though public WiFi, he had two step verification on. Regardless, I think https should protect your passwords most of the time. (7:09)

I see two uses.
1. If you're very concerned about privacy and security.
2. You want to seed torrents.

He didn't even mention torrents. Bad video, 0/10, would not watch 3 times again.

I have had Private Internet Access as my VPN for a year now, and I'll never go back to not having one again. Now I can torrent anything I want without getting copyright strikes against me.

Off topic, but RIP Android blob emojis

Block ad on your computer, problem solved for free. ISP only interested in your data so they can sell it to ads companies but I rarely see any ads company actually put them to good use.

Easy solution here, folks. Pay attention to what country your VPN has it's servers in. If it's based in a neutral country that wipes their asses with DMCA requests from the United States, then they're good. If not, it doesn't matter whether they claim to log or not, they can be issued a gag order and forced to log at any time.

I highly recommend CryptoStorm, Mullvad, and nVPN, with servers in Moldova and Belize.

If you need a recommendation, ProtonVPN - It's the most secure VPN and hosted by one of the most trusted privacy companies (creators of ProtonMail) - It's also always going through Switzerland beforehand and that country is known for it's privacy protection and security of data.

NEVER go with a VPN hosted / founded in certain countries such as America - The government is still able to look at the data in that case and especially America is known for the least privacy you can get.

You should also use this DNS: 1.1.1.1 1.0.0.1 (look at https://1.1.1.1 for more infos) - That also helps a lot!

And if you did all that, mask your user-string and disallow tracking - All that combined is basically the equivalent of a tor-browser so you're basically completely invisible.

iirc Nord got caught keeping logs or something awhile back. I would recommend going with PIA or mullvad as a provider.

I don't remember Nord being caught for logs. May have to look into this, as it's what I use at work and when I'm downloading/streaming.

I also wish VPNs and Teredo played nice. Can't use party chat on the Xbox App with it on, and Discord is just out of reach for some people I play with.

Pretty sure your VPN didn't support direct connections then - You should probably try something that allows it @Memoir

Memoir, you need a VPN that supports packet forwarding. nVPN will let you do that.

Ah nVPN, now that's a name I haven't heard in awhile.

This discussion appalls me. You guys haven't even scratched the surface of a VPN! To start, VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. "This is great and all, but what does this have to do with anything we've be talking about in this discussion?", I hear you ask. The truth is, however, it doesn't. A VPN isn't designed to be used as a glorified proxy. In fact, its original intent wasn't to be a proxy at all. The point of a VPN is to securely connect multiple computers over the internet in a LAN-esque way. Have you ever heard of LogMeIn's Hamachi? This is a true VPN. While it does not connect you to the internet, it connects you to others using the same service as you in, again, a LAN-esque way. If you want a proxy, use a proxy, not a VPN.

But proxies are slow as hell, VPNs don't slow your speeds down as badly.

At this rate, that may also become the case...

VPN's are the shit! i love them, only downside is most good ones with fast speeds cost $$ which shouldnt be a problem unless youre a broke college kid like myself. but there is still a lot of free ones with slower speeds

bennyman123abc said:

The point of a VPN is to securely connect multiple computers over the internet in a LAN-esque way

Click to expand...

Surely the point of a technology is whatever someone decides to use it for.



If people have little use for a private "local" network over shared infrastructure but do have a use for an endpoint located elsewhere or an encrypted connection through a network they deem at least potentially hostile, and furthermore it is a fairly efficient way of doing things that likely will not bother other users or have too many downsides over alternatives...

Blogs so video I guess, amusingly I am mainly linking the advert at the end of the video but the whole thing is good stuff

I don't like to use vpn as it usually is slower then not using it ...
only use it to bypass country restrictions.

You know, thanks to VPN people of Republic of China can finally able to watch and upload videos on YouTube and possibly the only way to visit porn hub!