Discussion
Dear all,
For a number of reasons, I'm looking at installing a VPN. Providers, seems to be a choice of either Nord, or Express.
However, choice of provider is not the reason for my post. What I would like to be advised on regards the possibility of switching the VPN on and off once installed. Basically, once installed, does the nature of the beast demand it is always on, or indeed, can it be switched on and off, as desired?
Hiding who I am is not my key purpose for my potential purchase.
Cheers
For a number of reasons, I'm looking at installing a VPN. Providers, seems to be a choice of either Nord, or Express.
However, choice of provider is not the reason for my post. What I would like to be advised on regards the possibility of switching the VPN on and off once installed. Basically, once installed, does the nature of the beast demand it is always on, or indeed, can it be switched on and off, as desired?
Hiding who I am is not my key purpose for my potential purchase.
Cheers
I would recommend you don’t use a VPN if you’re not trying to hide any activity as you mentioned in your post.
VPN’s are more often than not a security risk and lessen security rather that improve it on the basis you are only visiting HTTPS secured sites.
When you route traffic over a commercial/free VPN you are sending your traffic over a new network and many of these networks do not have to comply with British/European laws and may effectively do whatever they wish with your data and we have seen countless times these providers doing bad things without recourse.
You mentioned NordVPN who have been hacked at least once: https://techcrunch.com/2019/10/21/nordvpn-confirms...
And there’s the question of ownership, with Nords being particularly complicated. Many discussions have been had on the subject which are out there if you wish to research.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/meet-nordsec-the-com...
VPN’s are more often than not a security risk and lessen security rather that improve it on the basis you are only visiting HTTPS secured sites.
When you route traffic over a commercial/free VPN you are sending your traffic over a new network and many of these networks do not have to comply with British/European laws and may effectively do whatever they wish with your data and we have seen countless times these providers doing bad things without recourse.
You mentioned NordVPN who have been hacked at least once: https://techcrunch.com/2019/10/21/nordvpn-confirms...
And there’s the question of ownership, with Nords being particularly complicated. Many discussions have been had on the subject which are out there if you wish to research.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/meet-nordsec-the-com...
Indeed, if I were the Russian / Chinese (which I'm not) I'd set up a handful of international VPN providers and gather lots of metadata from people who want to be hidden. Using a VPN is like rejecting the regime in which you live and signing up to an uncontrolled one.
However, for selected usage such as accessing regional media, etc, then they can be useful.
Most VPN providers have some kind of app that you can run on your device (smartphone / laptop) and you can turn this on or off at any time. The same it true if you manually apply the VPN settings on your device - most VPN providers provide the raw info to configure yourself.
You can also install a VPN on some home routers where you can also turn it off and on, but obviously more involved as you'd normally need to log on to the router to do this.
With more advanced configuration you can apply VPN settings on a router to only apply to certain devices in a house (eg a smart TV that does not have the ability to run a VPN directly on it) or to only apply to certain domains (eg BBC iplayer). This can be useful if you need it for a particular service but do not want to use it for all your data (they can be quite slow for normal use). This is a bit involved to set up, but there's plenty of specialist forums with guides and help. I've previously used a Asus router to do this - at the time it was one of the few possible, but I think it'd much more common now.
If your use case is when you are away from home and you want to access services from your country then running your own VPN and connecting back to it can be a good way to go. I do this to get iPlayer, etc when I'm overseas as many media providers know all the VPN IPs and deny access from them. I use my QNAP NAS which has a VPN service built in, but again there are many other NAS and routers that can do this too, as well as setting up a PC left on a home to do it.
Finally, another way to get a pseudo VPN (again depending on your use case) is to use a cloud infrastructure service such as AWS. You essentially get a computer hosted in the cloud and you can remote in to it, or run a proxy on it, which means your connection to the outside internet as far as anyone is concerned comes from AWS - so generally achieves the same result as a VPN. AWS, Azure, are probably more trustworthy than hard to confirm VPN providers.
However, for selected usage such as accessing regional media, etc, then they can be useful.
Most VPN providers have some kind of app that you can run on your device (smartphone / laptop) and you can turn this on or off at any time. The same it true if you manually apply the VPN settings on your device - most VPN providers provide the raw info to configure yourself.
You can also install a VPN on some home routers where you can also turn it off and on, but obviously more involved as you'd normally need to log on to the router to do this.
With more advanced configuration you can apply VPN settings on a router to only apply to certain devices in a house (eg a smart TV that does not have the ability to run a VPN directly on it) or to only apply to certain domains (eg BBC iplayer). This can be useful if you need it for a particular service but do not want to use it for all your data (they can be quite slow for normal use). This is a bit involved to set up, but there's plenty of specialist forums with guides and help. I've previously used a Asus router to do this - at the time it was one of the few possible, but I think it'd much more common now.
If your use case is when you are away from home and you want to access services from your country then running your own VPN and connecting back to it can be a good way to go. I do this to get iPlayer, etc when I'm overseas as many media providers know all the VPN IPs and deny access from them. I use my QNAP NAS which has a VPN service built in, but again there are many other NAS and routers that can do this too, as well as setting up a PC left on a home to do it.
Finally, another way to get a pseudo VPN (again depending on your use case) is to use a cloud infrastructure service such as AWS. You essentially get a computer hosted in the cloud and you can remote in to it, or run a proxy on it, which means your connection to the outside internet as far as anyone is concerned comes from AWS - so generally achieves the same result as a VPN. AWS, Azure, are probably more trustworthy than hard to confirm VPN providers.
Good post.
That reminds me that a significant number of VPN providers are secretly owned by China/Russia, see the below article for example.
https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252466203/Top-...
That reminds me that a significant number of VPN providers are secretly owned by China/Russia, see the below article for example.
https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252466203/Top-...
Are torrents still a thing?
I built myself a linux laptop recently and when thinking about something that in the past i would have headed to the neared TB site, installed a client and off i popped.
anyway, I ended up finding a solution for what i had to do and do it legally but i still went and had a wee search.
Each any every site i visited recommended a VPN if course.
I used a torrent legally a while ago actually for a sat nav upgrade for my car that i had paid for and the result of my purchase was a torrent file that i had to go get myself, build the USB etc. I remember thinking to myself at the time that i've probably been had and this guy is raking it in.
I built myself a linux laptop recently and when thinking about something that in the past i would have headed to the neared TB site, installed a client and off i popped.
anyway, I ended up finding a solution for what i had to do and do it legally but i still went and had a wee search.
Each any every site i visited recommended a VPN if course.
I used a torrent legally a while ago actually for a sat nav upgrade for my car that i had paid for and the result of my purchase was a torrent file that i had to go get myself, build the USB etc. I remember thinking to myself at the time that i've probably been had and this guy is raking it in.
Torrents are still very much a thing, however they are not as good as they used to be.
This is due to many, many people moving to genuine paid for streaming services - this is the same change we saw 15-20 years ago when napster was eventually killed off not by litigation (Metallica) but instead by easy to use genuine services springing up. It turns out that people tend not to illegally download content due to cost, but just convenience. So when a sensibly priced easy to use service comes up people will just pay a few pounds and use that instead. A few things like dodgy copies of sat nav remain becuase the genuine ones are still so expensive.
This means that what remains in the torrent world now has a much higher ratio of bad stuff to clean stuff, so your chance of picking up something bad (ie malware) is much higher than before. The torrent world relies heavily on the ratings of users to depress the bad stuff. That herd immunity is not as good as it once was.
There's also a lot more blocking of torrent sites and detection of downloaders by content owners than there used to be as technical mechanisms to do those things are easier and cheaper for the enforcers than they used to be.
On a very modern car I would definetaly avoid dodgy sat nav downloads given how intergated car systems are and the ability for a malware to traverse from the sat nav system to the car controls or locking systems. Older cars with sat nav (prob 5+yrs) are probably ok as the sat nav was truely stand alone from other stuff.
This is due to many, many people moving to genuine paid for streaming services - this is the same change we saw 15-20 years ago when napster was eventually killed off not by litigation (Metallica) but instead by easy to use genuine services springing up. It turns out that people tend not to illegally download content due to cost, but just convenience. So when a sensibly priced easy to use service comes up people will just pay a few pounds and use that instead. A few things like dodgy copies of sat nav remain becuase the genuine ones are still so expensive.
This means that what remains in the torrent world now has a much higher ratio of bad stuff to clean stuff, so your chance of picking up something bad (ie malware) is much higher than before. The torrent world relies heavily on the ratings of users to depress the bad stuff. That herd immunity is not as good as it once was.
There's also a lot more blocking of torrent sites and detection of downloaders by content owners than there used to be as technical mechanisms to do those things are easier and cheaper for the enforcers than they used to be.
On a very modern car I would definetaly avoid dodgy sat nav downloads given how intergated car systems are and the ability for a malware to traverse from the sat nav system to the car controls or locking systems. Older cars with sat nav (prob 5+yrs) are probably ok as the sat nav was truely stand alone from other stuff.
I use PureVPN which works very well. There's a Chrome plugin for it so you can just click the icon and tell it which country you want, there's also a Firestick app for it isn't quite as reliable as on the PC but generally ok.
As above though on security concerns. I trust my ISP who have to conform to national/EU privacy and data laws with my data more than I trust a company based out of Hong Kong. I only really use it to access regionally locked stuff like iPlayer.
As above though on security concerns. I trust my ISP who have to conform to national/EU privacy and data laws with my data more than I trust a company based out of Hong Kong. I only really use it to access regionally locked stuff like iPlayer.
RizzoTheRat said:
I use PureVPN which works very well. There's a Chrome plugin for it so you can just click the icon and tell it which country you want, there's also a Firestick app for it isn't quite as reliable as on the PC but generally ok.
As above though on security concerns. I trust my ISP who have to conform to national/EU privacy and data laws with my data more than I trust a company based out of Hong Kong. I only really use it to access regionally locked stuff like iPlayer.
With so many websites being encrypted it’s not like they can see anything anyway.As above though on security concerns. I trust my ISP who have to conform to national/EU privacy and data laws with my data more than I trust a company based out of Hong Kong. I only really use it to access regionally locked stuff like iPlayer.
It’s especially useful when travelling. When trying to access a website using a dagestani IP address causes issues so you can just use a vpn
Thanks all for the input, just about every query I had well covered. My primary reason for looking at a VPN is regarding local content . Whatever that content may be. Plus, I don't like the EU censoring web search results. Point taken regarding opening my devices up to the internet "wild west" , but I have a good commercial security suite, so should be ok in that respect.
Many thanks.
Many thanks.
jamoor said:
With so many websites being encrypted it’s not like they can see anything anyway.
It’s especially useful when travelling. When trying to access a website using a dagestani IP address causes issues so you can just use a vpn
Unless your DNS lookups are secure then your ISP (and anyone with access to view ISP records) can see what sites you're visiting.It’s especially useful when travelling. When trying to access a website using a dagestani IP address causes issues so you can just use a vpn
I agree though that using a VPN is not necessarily any more private than not doing so - it just changes who can see what you're doing.
There are other means of torrenting without having to use a VPN. For example, Cloud downloading services.
eein said:
This means that what remains in the torrent world now has a much higher ratio of bad stuff to clean stuff, so your chance of picking up something bad (ie malware) is much higher than before.
Some torrent sites are just as high quality as they were a decade ago (YIFY, rarbg etc). PB and defunct sites like WINmx were always dodgy. However I'm talking movies/series here - not software downloads that could carry malware.eein said:
The torrent world relies heavily on the ratings of users to depress the bad stuff.
Some torrent sites, not all.eein said:
There's also a lot more blocking of torrent sites and detection of downloaders by content owners than there used to be as technical mechanisms to do those things are easier and cheaper for the enforcers than they used to be.
True. A VPN is mandatory if you're downloading a lot from torrent sites. I've had warning letters from internet providers, but never when using NORD. NORD is good enough, but I've not tried any other.nmd87 said:
jamoor said:
With so many websites being encrypted it’s not like they can see anything anyway.
It’s especially useful when travelling. When trying to access a website using a dagestani IP address causes issues so you can just use a vpn
Unless your DNS lookups are secure then your ISP (and anyone with access to view ISP records) can see what sites you're visiting.It’s especially useful when travelling. When trying to access a website using a dagestani IP address causes issues so you can just use a vpn
I agree though that using a VPN is not necessarily any more private than not doing so - it just changes who can see what you're doing.
There are other means of torrenting without having to use a VPN. For example, Cloud downloading services.
Edited by Scobblelotcher on Wednesday 26th August 11:13
Personally I use Windscribe. They offered a free trial for a month and I just paid the $50 a year since then.
Based in Canada, but they have servers all over the world, so if a UK server blocks me I just log onto one of their EU servers and no problems.
And yes, you can turn it on or off at will.
Based in Canada, but they have servers all over the world, so if a UK server blocks me I just log onto one of their EU servers and no problems.
And yes, you can turn it on or off at will.
Scobblelotcher said:
I would further this with DNS-Over-HTTPS (DoH) if the user is comfortable doing it. I run a Pi-Hole in my network that blocks adds to all devices i.e. laptops, phones, TV's and any other internet connected device. I also in the same device use CloudFlared's free DNS-Over-HTTPS facility so my ISP can't see my DNS requests. Most ISP's use DNS as a method of identifying sites visited so routing DNS queries over HTTPS effectively stops them seeing which sites you visit.
The VPN endpoint (where your traffic exits) still has visibility of the destination of your traffic.Edited by Scobblelotcher on Wednesday 26th August 11:13
So hiding your DNS queries doesn't really help.
TonyRPH said:
Scobblelotcher said:
I would further this with DNS-Over-HTTPS (DoH) if the user is comfortable doing it. I run a Pi-Hole in my network that blocks adds to all devices i.e. laptops, phones, TV's and any other internet connected device. I also in the same device use CloudFlared's free DNS-Over-HTTPS facility so my ISP can't see my DNS requests. Most ISP's use DNS as a method of identifying sites visited so routing DNS queries over HTTPS effectively stops them seeing which sites you visit.
The VPN endpoint (where your traffic exits) still has visibility of the destination of your traffic.Edited by Scobblelotcher on Wednesday 26th August 11:13
So hiding your DNS queries doesn't really help.
Gassing Station | Computers, Gadgets & Stuff | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff