VPNs, whos using one?

[Fizz]

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.

1. There are other solutions to this. Switch off the back of a cable modem and multiple routers; most cable providers will let you do this. You'll get 2 public IPs off the same modem. ATT Uverse will typically allow you to put the modem into a mode where it'll give publics to devices attached to the LAN ports. With sonicwalls and other SMB+ equipment you can create NAT policies that will effectively allow you have 2+ publics on the same WAN interface.

Also, what guarantee do you have that other gamers aren't using the same service to cause the same issue?

2. If it were "closely monitored" they'd have asked you what all that VPN activity was about by now.

[2DoorImpala]

Ive been using IPA over Tor
That meaning, I run Tor first then IPA over it

[Section 101]

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.

But they know you are connecting to something which in itself is going to be a violation of security policies.

[nerdyvirgin]

Privateinternetacces $39.95 for a year subscription, had it for a couple years, go check out the torrentfreak website they have articles on vpns, I almost went with hidemya@@, but during my vpn research found that they gave up a user and tracked him for the feds and gave him up, european vpns have to keep logs on their servers/ users. U.S has no law for vpns to keep logs, for pia their ip addresses are shared and they dont keep track of who logs in on what ip address, they claim they will cooperate with all law enforcement requests, but they cant hand anything over because they dont keep logs in the first place. My isp speeds are around 30mb d/l but when using the vpn it drops to around 27mb.

[antiseen]

I've used torguard and have liked it.

[2DoorImpala]

On mobile but, ha. I must of been thirsty to put IPA instead of PIA

[fallfornoone]

Ok so if I understand correctly a VPN may or may not hide your activity from your isp but the VPN is useless if
1. the VPN records your traffic/data
2. you use personal info while using a VPN. Example email, Netflix, amazon, user names and passwords, etc.

Is this correct? The Tor and VPN combination looks interesting but again it looks like you cant use personal info while running it.

What I am wondering is if I use a VPN that is truly anonymous and doesn't monitor you can you some how separate the VPN use from personal stuff? For example lets say I use the VPN do dl something, can I then log out of the VPN and use basic internet/browser to access email without being tracked? Will there be a correlation between my VPN use and non VPN use on the same computer?

[ocabj]

Ok so if I understand correctly a VPN may or may not hide your activity from your isp but the VPN is useless if
1. the VPN records your traffic/data
2. you use personal info while using a VPN. Example email, Netflix, amazon, user names and passwords, etc.

Is this correct? The Tor and VPN combination looks interesting but again it looks like you cant use personal info while running it.

What I am wondering is if I use a VPN that is truly anonymous and doesn't monitor you can you some how separate the VPN use from personal stuff? For example lets say I use the VPN do dl something, can I then log out of the VPN and use basic internet/browser to access email without being tracked? Will there be a correlation between my VPN use and non VPN use on the same computer?

What you basically need to understand is that a VPN connection between the client (e.g. you) and the VPN server means that all traffic from you goes to the VPN server and out to the destination.

That tunnel is essentially secure in terms of encryption (whether it's public/private key, IPSec, etc).

The 'security' gained is basically if you cannot trust your network connection (e.g. public wifi). Anyone sniffing traffic on the network will only see your encrypted traffic to the VPN server.

Now, if someone was sniffing traffic from the VPN server going out, then VPN security doesn't help you there, and you still need to rely on other encryption (e.g. https traffic, etc).

Now VPN from a privacy standpoint is specifically going to rely on many things. For one, even if you use some 'anonymizing' VPN (where you create an 'anonymous' account, pay cash, etc), if you conduct business on that VPN account / session as you (e.g. check your personal email), they can tie your email session to that VPN issued IP address. Where your privacy now hinges on is the VPN service provider and if they will give up the VPN session data (user IP, assigned VPN IP, timestamps).

If you've ever seen VPN logs, they're pretty extensive. For example, Cisco ASA logs not only log authentication and authorization information (username, remote IP, assigned VPN IP), it logs every single TCP, UDP, ICMP, etc, connection inbound and outbound. So it's a nice centralized log from a forensics standpoint (short of deep packet inspection).

[Fizz]

Ok so if I understand correctly a VPN may or may not hide your activity from your isp but the VPN is useless if
1. the VPN records your traffic/data
2. you use personal info while using a VPN. Example email, Netflix, amazon, user names and passwords, etc.

Is this correct? The Tor and VPN combination looks interesting but again it looks like you cant use personal info while running it.

What I am wondering is if I use a VPN that is truly anonymous and doesn't monitor you can you some how separate the VPN use from personal stuff? For example lets say I use the VPN do dl something, can I then log out of the VPN and use basic internet/browser to access email without being tracked? Will there be a correlation between my VPN use and non VPN use on the same computer?

1. The VPN may collect statistical data without capturing the content of connections. For example, it may log what your IP address is, how long you were connected for a session and how much data you transferred. It could do all this without being setup to spy on WHAT you're doing. The service could also be setup to monitor WHAT you're sending and receiving (Images from websites, unsecured credentials, etc.). Secured websites use SSL(ex, banking) should prevent the VPN from collecting the credentials you submit, or seeing the balance information sent to your browser, etc. but there are technically ways to 'see' through SSL for someone that's highly motivated.

2. See above

It is possible to setup certain destinations to use a VPN and others not. Software VPNs on computers will usually install a virtual network adapter. This adapter to the OS is another network card, the software will say, "Use this adapter for these destinations and this adapter for these destinations..." and specify that certain IPs the traffic is to flow through the VPN adapter, everything else goes through the physical one. VPN enabled gateways(firewalls) have the ability to do the same thing where it'll choose to send certain destinations through the VPN and others not.

I'll give you some scenarios:

-You access your bank account through your ISP, with no VPN - The ISP can see you connected to your bank's servers, on what ports at what time, however, it can't see your passwords or balances because the website itself makes a secure connection. If government was able to get a subpeona for your records, they could see that your internet account visited your bank's website and transferred x amount of data and force an ISP to give your home address, etc. if such data were collected.
-You access calguns.net (which isn't SSL secured by default) without a VPN - Your ISP if they wanted to could see everything you see, every post you make, what pictures you've seen, etc. if they were so inclined. this is in addition to other statistics/metrics.
- You access your bank with a VPN. Your ISP has no idea you visited your bank's website at all, only that secured traffic between you and a destination occurred. It could see the the volume of data transferred and time windows, but can't see any of the underlying requests for data. Think of it like a book, the ISP can see there's a book there, how big it is, estimate how many pages, but the cover (VPN) stops them from reading the content. (Technically, if your Bank is secured like it's supposed to be, you'd have a book within a book due to SSL).
- You access calguns.net (which isn't SSL secured by default) with a VPN - Your ISP has no idea you visited calguns.com, what you saw, what you posted, etc. HOWEVER! Any hops AFTER the VPN service can see everything if they wanted to, just as your ISP did going to calguns without a VPN service.

Summary. The VPNs discussed in this thread essentially delegate an alternative provider as someone you trust to know where you're going and what you're doing and hopefully not be any help to government who's looking for you.

Though, there's more than one way to skin a cat. Ex. if the government wanted to see when you logged into your bank account and what you did at that time, they could subpeona the records from the bank all the same and could give them a lot more info than than even an unencrypted view of your connections.

[pc_load_letter]

But they know you are connecting to something which in itself is going to be a violation of security policies.

Not with the dingleberries running security at our university.

@Fizz,

Cox only gives one address. Confirmed with them today. Never the less, for the little amount I game at home with buddies, the VPN works quickly, easily and effeciently.

[Fizz]

Not with the dingleberries running security at our university.

@Fizz,

Cox only gives one address. Confirmed with them today. Never the less, for the little amount I game at home with buddies, the VPN works quickly, easily and effeciently.

Just try it. Their Tier 1 support once asked me what a subnet is so don't take them at their word.

[fallfornoone]

Thanks guys, appreciate the feedback.

[kimber_ss]

Anyone running a security linux distro with a VPN. Like KKALII.