Wond'ring aloud / on VPN

[Don B. Cilly]

Well, as I said, "I really don't care about privacy, real or imagined ". For me, it's just not worth the effort.
In my case - connecting via mobile hotspot in a very difficult place - the value is, my connections are fast. Without it, they're slow.
The why seems to have to do with claydoh's explanation: my provider has bad routes, the VPN shortcuts them.

I'm learning. With PIA, Amazon seems to work just fine. Except, it's OK for browsing. For buying, it seems to trigger checks and traps. But that's OK, as long as I know.

[TwoFistedJustice]

I have a similar problem to Don. I have crappy rural internet and I often switch over to my MVNO phone hotspot, which is marginally less terrible with a maximum speed of 5/5 but a more probable speed in the kilobit range. The only thing that ruins the nostalgia is the absence of the dial up modem sound.

I think I will give the VPN idea a shot. I haven't used a VPN. Would you guys be willing to help me past the initial learning curve bump? Bearing in mind that I am a recovering Windows user and you may have to type s l o w l y and in A L L C A P S ?

[claydoh]

I have a similar problem to Don. I have crappy rural internet and I often switch over to my MVNO phone hotspot, which is marginally less terrible with a maximum speed of 5/5 but a more probable speed in the kilobit range. The only thing that ruins the nostalgia is the absence of the dial up modem sound.

I think I will give the VPN idea a shot. I haven't used a VPN. Would you guys be willing to help me past the initial learning curve bump? Bearing in mind that I am a recovering Windows user and you may have to type s l o w l y and in A L L C A P S ?

Lol, that likely won't be necessary, depending on the VPN provider. Most often it is simply downloading their file and double-clicking on it. Then opening an app and clicking a button, more or less.
May be worth a try, if there is a free trial of some sort - I don't necessarily recommend most free services. I will guess, but not assume, this it likely will be of marginal use. Where Don is, many people use mobile connections for general internet usage, and his area probably has a more robust infrastructure for that, where coverage exists at least. Pure speculation of course. But not worth the cost to find out imo, unless there is a free period to test.

[Don B. Cilly]

To make it simple: get Private Internet Access. Pay for one month. Disable recurring billing.
For installation, see above. Just make the .run executable, and run it from terminal.
You only have to log in once. After which, the applet is really well made (well, for my taste). It's simple.

After which, that little ticker tape script I made, in the Kargos thread, it turns out it's quite good to determine the "fastest" server.... even though ping doesn't really tell the whole story, does it.

It seems - from what I've seen - the fastest is the one geographically closest to you (surprise surprise :-). Keep in mind Netflix and such will block you, etc. Just disconnect the VPN and reconnect to the site in the rare instances.

[EDIT] I got a full refund from Nord VPN, BTW). It only took one day.

[Don B. Cilly]

Where Don is, many people use mobile connections for general internet usage, and his area probably has a more robust infrastructure for that, where coverage exists at least.

Actually, just for general (dis)interest, in this particular black hole, nobody uses phones for data, and coverage is really sketchy even for voice.
Only one provider (the universally hated ********), works - for voice. And even that, it's like talking on an airport tarmac with planes constantly taking off.
A few people managed to get WiMax. I tried. - with three companies. Two looked at the location and just gave up before they tried. A third - reportedly the best, and the most widely used in the area - actually came, tested the spot, said sorry, no can do.

So I found an amplifier for the right frequencies. Found a spot where it could see the top of the right mountain. Pointed it. Got 4G - spotty, but I got it. Slowly tried and erred, and got it almost reliable.
In the end, it was a much better solution, as WiMax would have cost like €50/month just for the data, and I would have had to pay separately for the phone.
With my MVNO and the double-SIM deal, I get both for €22/month.
And WiMax were offering 7 Mbps top, with the mobile phone antenna I get 20-30. And with the VPN, fast response times.

[GreyGeek]

Thanks, Claydoh.
I'm very aware of how TOR works but never considered a VPN and never used one or even looked them up to see how they worked. My only info was the occasional VPN advert.

Your explanation led me to search for the differences between a TOR and VPN connection.

I was aware of how TOR (rings or layers of servers so that the destination never learns the IP of the source) and knew from experience that a TOR connection was slow ... until I started using a 500Mb/s connection. But, I rarely use TOR. The last time I used it was to learn about .onion website. My wife and I rarely travel anymore and we don't purchase streaming services like NetFlix, etc..., so there is little need for either TOR or VPN. Interestingly, totalitarian regimes, like China and Iran, prohibit the use of TOR and in countries that are not so totalitarian the law enforcement agences consider the use of TOR as possible evidence of criminal activity, so if you use TOR you may be monitored, in more ways than one.

A few years ago I also experimented with all the major open source P2P apps, like IPFS, FreeNet and ZeroNet. Personally, I didn't see a future for any of them, and most require a nerd to set up and run.

With IPFS I had well over 200 internet connections camping on my HD. Each was given 20Mb of space, which is nothing in today's terms, and combined, half of my Internet speed, which at the time was 40Mb/s. Below is an EtherApe image of those connections:


My ISP sent me an email asking what I was doing. They pointed to a paragraph in their ToS which prohibited using my HD as an Internet server, but the were more than willing to sell me a static IP address so I could set up my own Internet server on my PC or another machine. I declined. I checked my current ISP's ToS, and emailed them, and they had no problems with me running a P2P connection on my 500Mb/s connection. But, I also pay an additional $5/mo for a static IP address in case I want to use FreeNet or set up a proxy server. FreeNet has a configuration which allows an encrypted tunnel to be connected between your machine and one or more "Friend"'s. The option is (or was, the last time I tested it) called "Friends". I have little doubt that terrorists are using a VPN to push a FreeNet "Friends" connection, when they aren't using Facebook or Twitter.

[TwoFistedJustice]

I got PIA. I paid for the year since the 30 day refund is available no matter what. If I decide to keep it, that will be a less expensive than getting a month, then a year.

Initial results: connection seems to be more stable on the MVNO ( Visible Wireless ). My down speed seems unchanged. But my Up speed which is normally sitting around 0.3 Mb is at least double that now.

[jlittle]

I got PIA nearly three years ago, I like it.

I got it mostly for occasions when I connect to public wifi. This sometimes didn't work out; the access point sign on procedure would stall if using the VPN. I was using such wifi to conserve mobile data, but I changed mobile plan and that became less important.

It's good to have a VPN in the toolbox when I've got connection problems, For example, KFN's spam blocker was blacklisting my work's IP, and sometimes my ISP. I could always quickly find a PIA server that was not blocked.

[TwoFistedJustice]

I haven't found any difference in either stability or speed with the VPN on my particular crappy internet service. But since I still have a couple weeks to play with it before I need to ask for a refund. Sooo...

What are some of the cool things I can do with my shiny new VPN?

Are there free streaming services outside the US I can try? Any recommendations for me to try?