(untitled)

I'm curious to know what experiences you guys have with VPNs. Several months ago I was researching this but most user reported information seems to be very mixed. PIA is one of the only vpns that is consistently discussed positively, so I ended up buying a subscription. It's been working very well for the time I've had it, but I can't help but feel paranoid about how well known and commonly recommended this is. Is it safe to use or are there better alternatives? Curious to hear your opinions on this matter.

>>4364 >buying Isn't there a free better alternative. I've been trying to find what I would consider the best free VPN.

>>4368 If it's free they're likely selling your data. How else could they make money to pay for the infrastructure? Buying is the most secure way to go, because then you know their primary source of income is your subscription, not some other shady soykaf. But honestly either way they could be selling your data, it's just that a paid VPN is probably less likely to.

It really depends on why you've bought your VPN. If you're looking for privacy, there are two very good gists to explain why that's not the best choice: https://gist.github.com/kennwhite/1f3bc4d889b02b35d8aa https://gist.github.com/joepie91/5a9909939e6ce7d09e29 If you're buying a VPN to pirate stuff in safety (what I used to use them for), pretty much any VPN will be good enough. Media companies and their law firms usually won't go after VPN users because it's just too much of a hassle. As long as there are other people pirating without VPN, you're pretty safe.

I've been using mullvad for a while and it works pretty well. I've heard that protonvpn is quite good too, but it doesn't have servers where I need them.

>>4371 Thank you for the links, they were interesting to read through. Some of the first discussion went over my head, but reading through the comments gives me the impression that using OpenVPN instead of VPN specific software nullifies the issues mentioned. I do think I need to read further into this, but correct me if I'm wrong. As for the second discussion, his main argument is that there is simply no way for us to know for sure whether or not a provider is keeping logs. However, there have been court cases where certain providers are subpoenaed for logs and are unable to turn over any meaningful information (source for PIA https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-providers-no-logging-claims-tested-in-fbi-case-160312/ ). this was ultimately the deciding factor for why I opted to go with PIA over any other VPN. In the worst possible scenario pia did not (supposedly could not) turn over any identifying information which is exactly what they promise.

Is there a specific purpose you need a VPN for that isn't covered by Tor? Most of the things you enjoy doing on the net (like posting on lainchan) will still work.

>>4374 >Is there a specific purpose you need a VPN for that isn't covered by Tor? Not really, but tor is extremely slow to use. VPNs are much more convenient from that perspective.

>>4377 >Not really, but tor is extremely slow to use. VPNs are much more convenient from that perspective. Have you tried it recently? Because it has gotten quite fast. You can even stream video (admittedly only 480p) over most connections.

>>4379 Tor is not built for speed and that's fine. If you actually need the level of anonymity that Tor provides then just leave torify wget/youtube-dl running overnight and enjoy your content the next day. A VPN is a better choice for interactive browsing if you don't actually need the level of anonymity that Tor provides and/or you trust the VPN to not keep logs.

I'm on the free version of ProtonVPN, which works completely fine. They claim to not keep logs or sell data, which is probably true since they're based in switzerland and most users pay money.

>>4384 >free

>>4386 Yes, free. As I said, it's meant to be a trial for a paid version so they don't need to sell data to make money.

>>4384 >ProtonVPN I started using their free tier recently too. No real complaints. It's fast enough for a free vpn. You only get one "connection" (cert) but the paid tiers give you more. They also let you use openvpn rather than some proprietary client, which is non-negotiable for me.

Reposting from the simple questions thread. I'm moving into a new apartment, and I can share an internet connection (wifi) with my landlord as part of the deal. What VPN should I go with in order to ensure he can't spy on me (intentionally or otherwise)? I am willing to pay for it, of course. I am not concerned about law enforcement. I just don't want my landlord (or anyone else that might know the password) to see what I'm up to.

Just spin your own OpenVPN running on a fully encrypted OpenBSD box with dnscrypt

>>4459 This. Depending on what you want a VPN for, anyway. I'd argue most people who claim to want a general purpose VPN actually just want an encrypted proxy in a foreign country. In other words, they just want to hide their torrenting or whatever from their ISP and don't really care about anything else. This is the one situation where a paid VPN service makes the most sense. For anonymity, tor is a better option. For actually using a VPN like a VPN (i.e. to securely connect services on separate LANs), you're better off running an OpenVPN server on your home network. Obviously running it on a rented VPS from a trusted host is the best option, but it's also the most expensive so it comes down to how badly you want to hide traffic from your ISP.

I've been using Mullvad for 3 years now. I don't use it that much to try to 'anonymize' my traffic, it's more to undo geoblocking, don't get in trouble for torrenting (again) and to stop people from directly sniffing on my traffic. I live in a student dorm and several people use the same access point, we have many cs students so I just want to make sure they don't track me

I've got a question for this thread. I'm getting google fiber. There is no other option so don't suggest not getting it it's out of my hands. I don't want google to sell all of my fuarrrking data and traffic. I was thinking of slapping a VPN onto all my traffic. Is it better to let some cheap vpn sell my data or should I just let google do its thing?

>>5726 Roll your own is the best option (>>4459) Using a paid VPN provider would work the same but for better security I'd roll my own if I were you.

>>4364 Don't use VPNs oh my god buy a bunch of cheap ass VPSs then run openvpn/wireguard on them VPN companies break their privacy policies ALL THE GODDAMN TIME. soykaf, in fact, tor is better, at least it won't sell your data to the jews unless you do it yourself..

I wouldn't trust any company with either my privacy or anonymity to be honest. https://archive.fo/dH8mJ https://restoreprivacy.com/lawsuit-names-nordvpn-tesonet/

>>5728 I was thinking of doing that after reading the thread but wasn't sure of the cost break down I can afford like $5 a month tops and I couldn't use a free account like I usually do.

I'm behind the great firewall so VPNs are a daily need for most expats. Here's what I've seen so far: Most foreigners use a paid expressvpn or viper. No idea if these steal user data, but they are very user-friendly and have a good interface for selecting location of the VPN and such. People that use these two services rarely have issues. However, it is general knowledge the government knows which IPs host these VPNs, and have the power to mass block them during sensitive periods. They have done this before. Shadowsocks is the defacto for most chinese and people "serious about VPNs." The average tech-literate chinese person has a guy they know on QQ that sells them a monthly subscription to a few shadowsocks servers, usually hosted in hong kong or taiwan or nearby. On the server-side, you can set user accounts and manage large amounts of users pretty well. You can even share server details with QR code. Due to the distributed nature of the service and the protocol, it's harder to block. Personally, I have a few VPSs with shadowsocks installed. They have held up very well against the government and have better uptime than friends that use commercial services, staying up even during sensitive times. However, one has been blocked by the government -- Whenever I turn it on the latency slowly increases until unusable. Installing shadowsocks should take less than 10 minutes: Install from apt, configure the /etc/shadowsocks/config.json, manage your firewall, install a shadowsocks client on your clients, and enter the creds. The hardest device for me to configure has been linux, but I've had luck with shadowsocks-go and connecting to the socks proxy. Wireguard has gotten some praise from Linus among others and probably may be another good option as well. Some things to think about when buying or self-hosting: - Are my DNS requests being proxied? - Where exactily is all my data going? Through a company's servers? - Can services link my identity to a VPN? For example if I log into facebook without a VPN and then with a VPN a day later, the company knows where my VPN is hosted. This is mitigated by having a larger amount of VPNs or dynamic IPs, or being very careful with your usage. I know some people that have two phones, one is always behind the VPN and one is not. - Does a service know I am using a proxy? OpenVPN is very noticeably a VPN, same with tor. Try to find a service or utility that focuses on stealth as well. Will a portscan reveal anything? Also for the love of all that is holy do not use a free VPN. It's worse than not using one in most cases. Mow lawns for a few weeks to buy a VPS or two.

>>4459 >>4470 hasn't it recently come out that openvpn had been compromised ? i don't remember if it was in the vault leaks or some other sec research

Tor can be harder to detect than VPNs if you use obfuscated bridges. https://bridges.torproject.org/ Choose the option to get bridges with a pluggable transport. I recommend obfs4 because (like it's predecessor) it's specifically designed to resist probing by the GFW. If the GFW suspects you are using a bridge (perhaps because you are using one without a pluggable transport) it will probe it. If it's able to connect, it will block that bridge.

VPNs are just profitable honeypots, don't ever buy one.

mullvad allows you to purchase service by contacting them with an anonymous email and sending cash in an envelope. in that case, they don't know your identity. they do know the ip address connecting to the account, of course. but if you're careful with that, and with your traffic, and general opsec, they have no way of knowing who you are.

>>5732 Do you know if you can be nailed for illegal internet usage if you use expressvpn or viper? I assume that even if you can be it’s rarely enforced, but I’m heading to the mainland for a few months for work and I’d prefer to be safe rather than sorry.

>>7094 what country and what illegeality? What is your threat model? Because if you're trying to organize ISIS in saudi arabia i wouldn't be surprised if the MSM are pushing you as the next Kashoggi in two months, but if you're uploading warez in america i don't think anyone will give a soykaf

Mullvad is good since it offers non-cli linux client, paying with crypto, account creation with no personal info etc. https://thatoneprivacysite.net/2017/10/03/mullvad-review/ popular choices like nordvpn and protonvpn are untrustworthy to say the least. https://restoreprivacy.com/lawsuit-names-nordvpn-tesonet/

>>7118 >if you're trying to organize ISIS in saudi arabia i wouldn't be surprised if the MSM are pushing you as the next Kashoggi Wasn't ISIS originally funded by Saudi Arabia? Also this is a government buying soykaf from Hacking Team, I don't think they're a good example of a dangerous threat actor either.

>>7518 >government owned VPN >good OOF

>>7520 >government owned VPN

>>7520 Do you have a single fact to back that up?

>>7534 i doubt he does but if it does turn out to be government owned ill be a bit pissed because i just bought 6 months of mullvad

>>7535 I mean lets say NSA itself is running it, they cant identify you since your account is just just random token number without any personal information. Especially if you bought it with crypto. They could still pinpoint your location from the IP addresses you connected from and log your usage though. But overall it would still be more private than any other infiltrated vpn service.

>>7544 >since your account is just just random token number without any personal information >>what is your IP

>>7545 You should learn to read. I said they would get your IP addresses but not your personal information like name, email adress, payment info etc. Also lets say you connected from a public wifi of some cafe and not from your home or any other kind of private space. In that case IP address itself and them knowing your location with geoip is irrelevant and cannot be considered personal info.