dslreports logo
 
    All Forums Hot Topics Gallery
spc
view:
topics flat nest 
Comments on news posted 2014-03-17 08:29:39: With a growing number of ISPs playing content nanny (as seen in the "six strikes" copyright warning system), an equally growing number of users are turning to VPNs and proxies to hide their behavior from the ever-watchful eye of their Internet servic.. ..


Packeteers
Premium Member
join:2005-06-18
Forest Hills, NY
Asus RT-AC3100
(Software) Asuswrt-Merlin

4 edits

2 recommendations

Packeteers

Premium Member

another biased list

ordered by who paid TF the most for placement.
major privacy players like airvpn and ibvpn are
omitted as they would not pay extortion money.

good article pointing out privacy issues, but
anyone believing a USA based VPN like PIA
keeps you safer is only kidding themselves.

about half of the providers listed may require
real information during registration or payment,
which is major privacy issue that article ignores.

any VPN that asks more than an email address
a password you designate, and your public IP
(it gets automatically) is a VPN to be avoided.
as long as they somehow can get your money,
they should not care at all who you really are.

morbo
Complete Your Transaction
join:2002-01-22
00000

morbo

Member

Re: another biased list

Why don't you list 2-3 VPN providers that meet your criteria?

Packeteers
Premium Member
join:2005-06-18
Forest Hills, NY
Asus RT-AC3100
(Software) Asuswrt-Merlin

4 edits

Packeteers

Premium Member

Re: another biased list

because i would be biased to the half dozen i actually tried

i can confirm mullvad is great for privacy, but they are expensive.
(mullvad also uses a ridiculously higher encryption level than most)
for a single vpn user, ibvpn is just as private and the cheapest.
airvpn costs a bit more, is private, and allows for multiple vpns.

i've used all three for over a month, and did multiple p2p ubuntu
download tests, and all three have great availability and speed,
whether you use their clients or a generic openvpn install.

one provider I have used that made TF's list to be avoided is; TorrentPrivacy
their network performance is terrible, and their vpn client is a resource hog,
but since they only required an email address, i guess they are private
pkorx8
join:2003-06-19
San Francisco, CA

pkorx8

Member

Re: another biased list

said by Packeteers:

but since they only required an email address, i guess they are private

Question:
How does "only required an email address" imply privacy?
Isn't email the easiest way to track and link someone? If you didn't notice, most of the major free email providers require a lot of identification info to have an email nowadays.

Packeteers
Premium Member
join:2005-06-18
Forest Hills, NY
Asus RT-AC3100
(Software) Asuswrt-Merlin

4 edits

Packeteers

Premium Member

Re: another biased list

i won't argue about which email address providers require what, but you may want to register with a vpn using dispostable.com
and prepay for a year. when the year has elapsed, just make a different dispostable, pay for that, etc.

i used dispostable to prepay a year with my hulu+ and netflix accounts - they have no idea who the i am and i get no spam

fortunately all my aol, hotmail, yahoo and gmail accounts are a decade old,
so when they demand my name and phone number, i just skip through it.

law enforcement can track people though a typical email, but if they already have your
public ip from your vpn login, then why go to the extra effort of tracking your emails
elefante72
join:2010-12-03
East Amherst, NY

elefante72 to morbo

Member

to morbo
A list by nature is biased, so that is just spewing populist language, however I have tried a few of those on the list and have settled on one of those providers which has near-network speed and reliable as heck.

FWIW, I use openvpn and have a strict firewall on everything.

The MAJOR mistake that people make is that they DO NOT tunnel their DNS requests through the VPN provider, so the local node happily issues DNS through your trackable provider.

In any case I use VPN for my work, when I am on the go, public hotspots, and for other areas of concern that people are monitoring...

TBH is you use any Google product, you are leaving behind mountains of data, so you need to restrict your browser, etc.

I would recommend running your tunnel either in your router or in a VM meant specifically for the task and that is the ONLY thing running on it. Otherwise you are opening up any application to tracking.

BTW, the only country I tunnel to for ultra-secure communications is in Europe and starts with an L. For general hotspot stuff, the US is fine and has good speed, of course through a different provider.

Packeteers
Premium Member
join:2005-06-18
Forest Hills, NY
Asus RT-AC3100
(Software) Asuswrt-Merlin

Packeteers

Premium Member

Re: another biased list

said by elefante72:

mistake that people make is that they DO NOT tunnel their DNS requests through the VPN provider

nonsense. if you leave your dns empty while using a vpn, the vpn's own dns automatically takes over. if you filled in your dns with say google, it was to avoid feeding your dns data to your isp or wifi public hotspot, so either way copyright enforcement and that coffee shop owner has no way to track your activity. it's only criminals who should be worried about dns leaks while on a vpn.

JimDandy
@as54203.net

JimDandy to Packeteers

Anon

to Packeteers
In some respects signing up for a VPN just moves your ISP down the road.

To maintain their "safe harbor status" they have to respond to take down notices just the same as your local ISP. And how do you think VPN providers track and find out who the culprit is when the copy right police come knocking they look at their system logs.

Read a TOS from a large VPN provider and you will see that any illegal activities including copy right violations will get your account closed.

Packeteers
Premium Member
join:2005-06-18
Forest Hills, NY
Asus RT-AC3100
(Software) Asuswrt-Merlin

4 edits

Packeteers

Premium Member

Re: another biased list

no one is stupid enough to p2p/torrent in us or uk thru yet another us or uk vpn
outlet, and if they did many vpn providers can detect such activity and block it
long before it becomes a 6 strikes worthy incident. regardless, the copyright
holder only has a shared network ip, and no vpn provider, even a us/uk vpn can
be compelled by any copy write holder to match real public ips to any shared.
this can only be done by criminal or military related law enforcement officials.
isps make way to much from vpn hosting bandwidth to care about 6 strikes
where an individual can't be defined. 6 strikes in an invention between isps and
copyright holders, it has nothing to do with any form of file hosting or portals.
copyright holders may go after such services directly, having nothing to do with
the isp or 6 strikes enforcement. the rare occasion you hear of a vpn getting
raided it was always very criminal such as bank wire fraud, child porn, etc.

battleop
join:2005-09-28
00000

battleop

Member

Can you trust these VPN providers?

How do you know you can trust them? What's to stop an MPAA/RIAA from running one and collecting information about your habits? Several people say they will just go with one over seas. Again what's to stop the MPAA/RIAA from setting up shop there. These are about as secure as the lists of IPs that supposedly list MPAA/RIAA computers that are tracking download via torrents.

The only thing these will do is hide what you are downloading but they don't hide the fact that you are downloading stuff form your ISP. You ISP isn't stupid and it wouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the VPN tunnel you're using is being used to download stuff.

graysonf
MVM
join:1999-07-16
Fort Lauderdale, FL

graysonf

MVM

Re: Can you trust these VPN providers?

said by battleop:

You ISP isn't stupid and it wouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the VPN tunnel you're using is being used to download stuff.

But seeing that you are using a VPN tunnel to download stuff doesn't tell them what that stuff is. Same thing when you use an SSL enabled web browser and surf to » web sites - and who doesn't do that?

battleop
join:2005-09-28
00000

battleop

Member

Re: Can you trust these VPN providers?

"But seeing that you are using a VPN tunnel to download stuff doesn't tell them what that stuff is"

They don't care about the content they just care about the traffic. Some people think they can use a VPN to circumvent the ISP's traffic management systems. It would be a trivial task to apply traffic management to these connections. I think the ISPs leave that alone for now because it's another can of worms they are not ready to open yet.

Riusaki
join:2000-09-14
Space

Riusaki to battleop

Member

to battleop
Yes, we get. We should all stop using VPN's so all of our info can be collected. Like you we must sign away our lives and our first borns to our corporate overlords because when we don't they get very angry.

The MPAA/RIAA could log every packet of mine. I don't give a shit. How can they bring a case if they can't even tell what the packet says.

Stop with your moral high ground bullshit. My ISP can't do a fucking thing if they can't read it either.

"Oh no, we just saw an encrypted packet on this guys connection! Why doesn't anyone think of the children!!"

ITALIAN926
join:2003-08-16

ITALIAN926

Member

Re: Can you trust these VPN providers?

quote:
Stop with your moral high ground bullshit. My ISP can't do a fucking thing if they can't read it either.
Obviously you dont work in the entertainment industry. Moral High ground? How bout just being moral ? , and thats the end of it. IMO, youre no different than someone who goes into a store, and pockets an item. Yea yea yea, its been said a thousand times, copy, borrow, who gives a crap, youre not allowed to break the laws just because there are ways to circumvent them. If you were a mad scientist that creates an "invisible pill" do you have enough morals to avoid robbing a bank, undetected ?

Riusaki
join:2000-09-14
Space

2 recommendations

Riusaki

Member

Re: Can you trust these VPN providers?

Yes I don't work for the entertainment industry and I don't give a shit about them either.

Stop caring about people you don't know and don't know you.

I'll keep using my VPN and doing w/e the fudge I want with it. See how easy that was.
Expand your moderator at work
Riusaki

Riusaki to Anon

Member

to Anon

Re: Can you trust these VPN providers?

You must be replying to the wrong person.

battleop
join:2005-09-28
00000

battleop to Riusaki

Member

to Riusaki
"Stop with your moral high ground bullshit. My ISP can't do a fucking thing if they can't read it either."

No morals, just facts. You may think that a VPN hides what you are doing but it really does not, it only hides the content. If you see a connection from an end user to news.giganews.com on port 563 it does not take any real brain power to know what that connection is used for.

A lot of VPN users are using VPNs to circumvent network management or to try and hide their identity when the RIAA/MPAA tolls come knocking. There is no real way to verify if the VPN provider is going to protect you or not. The VPN providers provide a false since of security.

Riusaki
join:2000-09-14
Space

Riusaki

Member

Re: Can you trust these VPN providers?

Assumption is not evidence. Here in the United States you need real proof someone is committing a crime. In your words anyone who happens to drive through a supposed bad neighborhood must be looking to score drugs. Nope, that is the only reason to go or drive through there so arrest anyone who comes through.

battleop
join:2005-09-28
00000

battleop

Member

Re: Can you trust these VPN providers?

"Assumption is not evidence. Here in the United States you need real proof someone is committing a crime."

Are you randomly replying to posts? I never spoke of the legalities on anything.
battleop

battleop to Riusaki

Member

to Riusaki
"In your words anyone who happens to drive through a supposed bad neighborhood"

No, if you were able to correctly understand my example it's anyone who pulls into the garage of the known crack dealer's house and you close the garage door. We can't see that you were or were not making a drug deal but we can safely assume that something's up.

TuxRaiderPen2
Make America Great Again
join:2009-09-19

TuxRaiderPen2

Member

Re: Can you trust these VPN providers?

So YOUR ASS U mption is that UseNet is nothing but a "bad neighbourhood?"

Well UseNet may provide a lot of things in the binary groups, there is just as much to be had in the text groups too...

I use UseNet for all kibds of support of things not related to what your ASS U ming I do with it. Long before this site and many others were around... and I prefer it...

Again still waiting for that group, just name 1 I pull....

battleop
join:2005-09-28
00000

battleop

Member

Re: Can you trust these VPN providers?

"there is just as much to be had in the text groups too"

You are not going to max out your connection for hours on end looking at text groups.

"Again still waiting for that group, just name 1 I pull..."

alt.i.can't.comprehend.a.damn.thing.i.read

Go back and re-read my post and PLEASE quote where I said that they could see the content of the tunnel.

TuxRaiderPen2
Make America Great Again
join:2009-09-19

TuxRaiderPen2

Member

Re: Can you trust these VPN providers?

You posted that you could ASS U me that because I connect to news.provider.invalid on port 119, port 563 that there is a correlation to what I am using that connection and UseNet for...

I know exactly what YOU ARE ASS U ming and you are WRONG! Flat out wrong..

So please tell me what groups I am using it for...

And OH YES I CAN MAX OUT my connection with text groups... You don't know the groups I am in... Just pull a groups with large header loads.. quite easy to max it out...

And your group posted is:

1) NON EXISTENT!
2) WRONG!

You most definitely did make the ASS U mption that because I connect to an NNTP provider you KNOW some how what group(s) and/or content I am getting..

YOU ARE WRONG. Flat out WRONG!

Again I will wait for you to tell me

1) What group, just 1 group I am using my NNTP connection for from the info

2) I would like you to tell me and any one else using a VPN to connect to an NNTP provider via VPN
a) that I am even connected to the NNTP provider
b) what group(s) and/or post I am pulling...

You are WRONG ! WRONG AND WRONG! Period.

My ISP can see a connection from my IP to VPN provider X, y and z.. Yes I've got more than one... and then my VPN providers(s) who were chosen for specifically for their LACK OF LOGING and DIRECT CONNECTON BACK... Several point out in the referenced article that they can't go backwards from VPN IP...

There could be numerous users on that VPN node connected to my NNTP provider...

I took great effort to put a box between router and my network which sends out all traffic to VPN, period. I don't use the ISP for email, DNS, or anything.. zip.. just the pipe to get to the VPN.

The attack point is the VPN provider, and again I chose my VPN(s) wisely.. They have no logs.

Just because I or any one else connect to a NNTP provider be it with or with out a VPN you can NOT ASS U me what I am doing with that connection... and I know EXACTLY the ASS U mption you are making and your

WRONG!

You are wrong, WRONG, and WRONG!

battleop
join:2005-09-28
00000

battleop

Member

Re: Can you trust these VPN providers?

"Go back and re-read my post and PLEASE quote where I said that they could see the content of the tunnel."

Again, answer my question.

"And OH YES I CAN MAX OUT my connection with text groups... You don't know the groups I am in... Just pull a groups with large header loads.. quite easy to max it out.."

Bhahahahaha. Right. Contrary to popular belief today isn't my first day on the interwebs.

"The attack point is the VPN provider, and again I chose my VPN(s) wisely.. They have no logs."

How do you know for sure?

"I would like you to tell me and any one else using a VPN to connect to an NNTP provider via VPN"

When the NNTP provider is the VPN provider it isn't not that hard to figure out what the VPN is being used for. Usually when you pick an NNTP provider that provides SSL or VPN it a connection to THEIR Servers and not just for surfing the web.

So if you were following along you would understand that I've been talking about how if you make a VPN or SSL directly to Giganews (remember I've never mentioned any 3rd party VPN provider) someone who can see that traffic can see that you made a connection to Giganews and that anyone who knows anything about Giganews will safely assume you are downloading movies and music.

blackice
join:2014-01-02
Pittsfield, MA

blackice to battleop

Member

to battleop
The Thing is, they wont see news.giganews.com on port 563. Not your ISP, or anyone that might be snooping the connection. (Though the NSA might using there fancy new super computer data centers, but that's just speculation)

When using a VPN all your ISP sees is VPN traffic on port 443, or whatever port the VPN is using. DNS requests are sent through the VPN's DSN server, and all packets routed through the VPN are encrypted.

Sure, someone might be able to see the amount of bandwidth/traffic you are using, but the ONLY thing they will know about that traffic is that it is being routed through an encrypted VPN. And that is not enough evidence to build any court cases on

dnoyeB
Ferrous Phallus
join:2000-10-09
Southfield, MI

dnoyeB

Member

Re: Can you trust these VPN providers?

True. But they will see a connection from the VPN to XXX or whatever they happen to be trying to monitor. So in the end its important that the VPN not give out your info when some third party comes calling on them.

battleop
join:2005-09-28
00000

battleop

Member

Re: Can you trust these VPN providers?

Any network admin is going to know who GigaNews is and what they do. If I saw a maxed out connection talking to news.giganews.com it's not very hard to figure out what it's being used for.
battleop

battleop to blackice

Member

to blackice
"The Thing is, they wont see news.giganews.com on port 563."

Do you understand how the internet works? Your ISP can absolutely see that you made a connection to news.giganews.com on port 563. They can't see what happens in that tunnel but they can certainly see the source (your IP) and destination (news.giganews.com) and what port the traffic was sent on.

••••••••

TuxRaiderPen2
Make America Great Again
join:2009-09-19

1 recommendation

TuxRaiderPen2 to battleop

Member

to battleop
quote:
No morals, just facts. You may think that a VPN hides what you are doing but it really does not, it only hides the content. If you see a connection from an end user to news.giganews.com on port 563 it does not take any real brain power to know what that connection is used for.

OK... please quote to me what newsgroups I am pulling from there ... I'll wait....

Name.. 1 of the groups of a little over 100K+ I am pulling daily from my NNTP provider via SSL on a VPN...

I'l narrow it down... I only pull the headers from my subscribed set and that is about ~ 100...oro so give or take...and one I haunt in particular...

MY ISP "sees" a connection to VPN Provider, but unless they are feeding it to the NSA live to break it.. they can't see that connection to the NNTP provider...

Again.. I will wait.... tell me 1 group I pull.....

••••

workablob
join:2004-06-09
Houston, TX

workablob

Member

BTGuard

works for me.

Blob
pkorx8
join:2003-06-19
San Francisco, CA

pkorx8

Member

DNS queries

This may be off topic, but I can't seem to get a straight answer....
Is the DNS server giving away your internet queries, even with VPN running?

Some vendors has Smart or Secured DNS services, but is it necessary on top of VPN?

I'm referencing:
www.dnsleaktest.com

•••••

IowaCowboy
Lost in the Supermarket
Premium Member
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA

IowaCowboy

Premium Member

I'd like a VPN

I'd like a VPN that makes it appear like I'm in Cedar Rapids IA by IP address so the Facebook Filters let my posts go onto my friends news feeds more often instead of being filtered out because all of my friends are in Iowa and I think logging in from Mass causes my posts to be filtered out of their news feeds more.

UCantSeeMe
@comcast.net

UCantSeeMe

Anon

Re: I'd like a VPN

HideMyAss.com
14110863 (banned)
join:2014-02-10
US

14110863 (banned)

Member

Which VPN Providers Protect Your Privacy?

Purevpn is really great vpn. I have been using it for 4 months and 100% satisfied with speed, protocols and privacy protection..