Virtual Private Networking → VPN issues

Hello everyone,

I am not much of a computer expert and i am hoping some of you are. I have an issue. I use websites that do not accept American customers due to United States laws. I would like to use these websites. I need to mask my location and make it appear as though I am in Canada. It has to do with poker. I have read about VPN services like StrongVPN. I have also read that those can be unreliable and they can fail or temporarily trip up and reveal your true location.

Is it true that they are unreliable?

Are there any other ways to effectively do this?

Thank you very much everyone.

Then first let me start you off with "VPN is about SECURE communications over an INSECURE communications
medium," full stop. Anyone promising anything else is selling snake oil.Make friends with someone in Canada, and set up an RDP / Citrix session to a machine behind their ISP

Tunnel / proxy your traffic

Regards

Is that something i could do myself as a one time thing? Set up a computer and install the software. Then access it remotely from another computer for a long period of time. Leave the computer on..

Thank you for responding by the way.

What are you talking about? There's tons of VPN providers that specialize in catering to customers looking for exactly this service. These companies offer long lists of gateways available that they have physically located in other countries.

@OP
That the RDP / Citrix session you're talking about?

@pike
Was VPN originally designed to "change your IP address?" Not in the docs I've been reading in building and supporting
VPN networks.

Do I think VPN providers are hyping this "function" out of proportion and/or what VPN was originally designed for? Oh yes.

The point I think we can all agree on is that one should not jump into a technology without understanding the
caveats / gotchas! / limitiations / not to be used for... / etc. and that's what I'm hoping the OP takes away from this.

Regards

You're absolutely correct that this was not the design intent of VPN, but that doesn't mean it's not effective for this purpose. There are endless examples of things around us that have been successfully repurposed. Are you familiar with the original use for Lysol?

The morality/efficiency/usefulness/legality of VPN to avoid country-specfic IP blocks is certainly debatable but until there's a better suggestion it's OP's best bet.

An OpenVPN account hosted in another country would probably work. Portdefender doesn't do that. We don't allow illegal traffic. I suggest what you really want is "TOR". It's free and you can change your apparent IP at will.

sysadm - portdefender.net