VPNs, whos using one?

[fallfornoone]

Stumbled across this randomly and I am thinking this is a good idea and so I am wondering what one to go with. hide.me is one that I was looking at, they have free an paid ones.
Thank

[tommyboy619]

I use hidemyass.com VPN. I've used it for over 4 years with no complaints Right now I think they have a holiday pricing promotion

[2DoorImpala]

Privateinternetaccess

[Wrangler John]

We use two services, the aforementioned Hide My @ss https://www.hidemyass.com/ Which is by Privax in Great Britain. Allows the user to switch between servers in various states and cities - I'm connected through Las Vegas just now - and various nations around the world.

The other is Anonymizer the old standby: https://www.anonymizer.com/

We use them alternatively and have never had a hacking incident, virus or other malware infection. We use Webroot SecureAnywhere, a real time anti malware suite that is highly rated. We also use the paid premium version of all security programs, but then we do financial transactions online.

[the86d]

I tried the Avast free-trial, and it worked... but don't want to jump on the train until it is longer-tested by more people, with reviews posted.

It seemed to be almost native speed, while encrypted, and the price wasn't too bad when I last checked.

[pc_load_letter]

I really like IPVanish. I tried Hidemyass but IPVanish had (for me at least) better speed and better options. Not to mention more servers in just about every large city.

[stilly]

Privateinternetaccess

+1

I have heard good thigns about these guys and for the price per month $7 or so? It does not seem to be that bad.

I have heard of hidemyass as well but I liked what I saw with PIA.

I might be going this route soon.

[Fizz]

IMO, there's no real value for hiding your IP address unless you're looking to avoid DMCA notices because you're pirating content.

Your public IP isn't of much value in and of itself. If you emailed me your public IP I could only do something with it if there was port was open on the other end (in this scenario, the VPN doesn't do anything for you). Merchants may do some stats and various 3 letter agencies can ostensibly associate connections to specific host(s) from a timestamp and getting a subpoena from the ISP who the customer was at the time.

I'm the IP admin (amongst other things) for a small ISP, Colo, hosted services, VoIP provider. We get infringement notices that we have to relay from time to time. The only subpoena we've received in my time was for email's stored on one of our mail servers for a specific client.

[shermola1]

Privateinternetaccess

+1

I use this as well. Had a few glitches with it in the beginning but it works like a charm now.

[Laythor]

IMO, there's no real value for hiding your IP address unless you're looking to avoid DMCA notices because you're pirating content.

+1

VPN's are great for accessing your home network while away but unless you're SSH tunneling you're not adding any layer of security by using a VPN.

[Fizz]

+1

VPN's are great for accessing your home network while away but unless you're SSH tunneling you're not adding any layer of security by using a VPN.

We'd have to clarify what the VPN does in various use scenarios.

The ones in this thread encrypt the traffic between a home computer/gateway and an 'anonymizing' provider. Traffic to this provider is encrypted so the ISP (and anyone that has their hands in the ISP) can't see what you're doing (other than connecting to a specific network). After the anonymizing provider, the traffic acts just like it would had you gone directly from your ISP. Different hops/path, but same basic idea.

What you're referring to is a VPN for secure remote access. Ex. You need to connect to your work PC from various remote networks. Your VPN solution can get you access to a remote host (ex. to remote desktop into) or subnet (maybe you access server shares/resources directly). It may operate akin the anonymizing service where your internet traffic is encrypted to the remote network and for all intents and purposes the remote network's public IP is what the world sees when you visit websites, etc. but this is not a requirement. If you remote into a computer and use the internet from there, very similar in effect.

[ocabj]

+1

VPN's are great for accessing your home network while away but unless you're SSH tunneling you're not adding any layer of security by using a VPN.

By definition, a true VPN is an encrypted tunnel from the client to the VPN server.

I use my work VPN for two reasons:

1. To use specific work resources that are restricted to specific vlans.

2. To protect my traffic while I am on an untrusted network (e.g. public wifi).

[Cyberion]

Take a look at this one too. https://vpn.ac/

I use it on my mobile devices and laptop while traveling and on public networks (hotels, etc.)

While evaluating different VPN services, I found some great discrepancies between what the service provider claimed to provide in the way of privacy, versus what their very small font privacy terms and conditions said. For example, one of them claimed complete privacy, then in the legal terms said they shared logs with Google, but not your "personally identifiable information." Any VPN provider playing those games was eliminated. I didn't find the same legal word games with VPN.AC and the value is pretty good. Documentation is excellent. I use OpenVPN to access the service.

[pc_load_letter]

You are right, that is one reason.

I use a VPN for a couple other reasons not related to pirated content...

1. Some video game companies are becoming do draconian with their multiplayer connection "rules" that it's now a pain in the butt just to run a couple of users from behind one NAT'd IP.

Running one machine on a VPN gets me around those rules so I can run a couple buddies on other PC's from my Cox connection and connect to uplay (the devil)

2. At work, internet is closely monitored. I can connect via VPN and the firewall logs do not show what sites I am visiting.

IMO, there's no real value for hiding your IP address unless you're looking to avoid DMCA notices because you're pirating content.

Your public IP isn't of much value in and of itself. If you emailed me your public IP I could only do something with it if there was port was open on the other end (in this scenario, the VPN doesn't do anything for you). Merchants may do some stats and various 3 letter agencies can ostensibly associate connections to specific host(s) from a timestamp and getting a subpoena from the ISP who the customer was at the time.

I'm the IP admin (amongst other things) for a small ISP, Colo, hosted services, VoIP provider. We get infringement notices that we have to relay from time to time. The only subpoena we've received in my time was for email's stored on one of our mail servers for a specific client.

[MaHoTex]

I typically use Goldenfrog (VyperVPN) and have no issues.

My kid plays a lot of online games and was getting DDOS'd frequently. Now, I require him to use VPN and we have had exactly ZERO instances of DDOS attacks since he starting using the VPN.