Do You Use a VPN for Internet?

[Vinnie]

To vpn or not to vpn, that is the question.  

 

It used to be that a person would use a vpn connection for example to connect to their at work network , the intranet, while they were at home. That is a private network and maintained and protected by the company you work for.

 

 The hidden and untold side of vpn. When you use a virtual private network, you are first connecting to a VPN server  across the street, across the country or in another country. From there you then can access the internet with a different ip address. And that's all there is to it. You still need to protect yourself in all things. The server that you connect to can still  log and keep all the places you have been to.  If that server you connected to is compromised in any way or you can still be vulnerable. So be cautious as to "free vpns and any claims of vpn's.

 

Here is a link to some things to consider first.

https://www.goldenfrog.com/blog/myths-about-vpn-logging-and-anonymity

 

Note: All windows computers from windows 95 and up  have the ability to make their own vpn connection through the internet to another computer. All you need is an ip address, and setup a username and password.  VPN Software now a days allows you to skip the username and password part which makes me wonder about it abit because the originating ip address has to be  used to connect to the server. As well, the VPN connection can be called anything they want. It can say Netherlands but are you really connecting to a server in the netherlands? Do you know what ip addresses are assigned to each country? Yes, each country is assigned a block of ip addresses that can be looked up for you to check on.  With all things, do your homework first.

 

  

 

[McKay]

I use ProtonVPN because I also use Proton Mail which I pay for. I know Google is free but I don't like my personal data being mined for whatever-they're-doing-in-secret. Proton's services are housed under a mountain in Switzerland. I've had people ask me, "What are you doing that you need to hide?" I say, "Why do you lock your door at night? What are you hiding?" They say, "I just want privacy and safety." Bravo! Now you know why a VPN is a good option.

[Shawnster]

On 5/3/2019 at 5:01 PM, EccentricM said:

I use a free Broswc VPN, just to access JWtalk, since for some reason on my browser, the site bugs out and doesn't load for me otherwise.

Send an email to Dismal Bliss with this bug, if you haven't done so already.  Include all the technical details like browser, etc..

[Memeber212]

But why would you use a vpn connection if you live in countries where is no ban? I understand Russians or Chinese. But why in the UK or USA?

 

Edited June 7, 2019 by tarcamion

[tuntun]

1 hour ago, tarcamion said:

But why would you use a vpn connection if you live in countries where is no ban? I understand Russians or Chinese. But why in the UK or USA?

 

Maybe for safety reason i think. using public Wifi is not completely safe, especially when you're doing online banking ...

[Beggar for the Spirit]

2 hours ago, tarcamion said:

But why would you use a vpn connection if you live in countries where is no ban? I understand Russians or Chinese. But why in the UK or USA?

Hi Maciej,

Along with Brother Tuntun's comment, I think you would enjoy reading some of the earlier posts(starting with Post #2) as there are some good descriptions/reasons for having VPN.  

Edited June 7, 2019 by Beggar for the Spirit

[Memeber212]

On 5/3/2019 at 8:49 PM, carlos said:

Opera Browser has a VPN included for free. You just have to activate it. In fact, it's activated by default when you browse in Private mode.

 

I don't know how good and how safe it is, though.

Opera belongs to a Chinese company now. That company quite likely is owned by the government so they may keep all the logs. I would rather avoid using it for theocratic purpose.

For online transactions, it is safer to use pre-paid cards. Any connection that is used between you and the website where you enter your card number should be HTTPS encrypted. Otherwise, don't pay online. That means is already encrypted. If you use a VPN then: 

YOU ---> PUBLIC WIFI --> VPN ---> BANK WEBSITE

YOU ---> PUBLIC WIFI --> BANK WEBSITE 

How would that make it safer?

 

Watching Netflix via VPN is very slow. Online providers often ban IPs used by VPN providers so there is no guarantee that you will be able to use one. Unless you know a good one.

I use a VPN network daily for my work but I don't think that it is a must-have solution for everyone, especially it costs money. So unless someone has very specific requirements, eg. to bypass censorship, hide their true location or need access intranet, there is not a real need for a VPN in daily use scenario. If someone is really paranoid it is easier to use the one that comes with Opera browser.

 

I am not an expert, can someone comment on my post, please?

 

 

 

[Beggar for the Spirit]

Here are some additional reasons to use a VPN. While a certain reason may seem minor to us, consider each reason an added bonus for having the package deal of having a VPN. 

 

Public WiFi and Traveling

If you log into a public wi-fi network and then connect to a personal VPN, all of your hotspot web use will then be encrypted and hidden from prying eyes. If you are a traveler or a user who is regularly using public wireless, then a VPN is a very wise investment in privacy. With a VPN you will more likely connect to public Wi-Fi at the library, Starbucks, hospital, etc, because of having VPN security. Also, a nice bonus of having a VPN when traveling is that you can access your favorite streaming television, sports games, and video feeds that could be locked out while you are away from your home country.

 

You can save money while shopping online

There are lots of online stores that display different prices to their website visitors. This is so because they’re tracking the country of each visitor and hence they decided to give a discount to some countries while excluding other countries. A VPN service will be handy in such situations. You should use a VPN service to unlock the lowest price available for the item you want to purchase. For example, you can connect to different countries to see the various prices that are available when booking flights. It’s a known fact that when booking flights prices vary by country even though the destination is the same. And if you want to get the best deal you want to use different VPN IP address other than your own location.

 

Avoid Reprisals and Traceback Because of Your Researching

Google and other search engines will store your searches for 'anti-depressants,' 'anger management', etc. Consider getting a VPN and cloak your IP address so you can keep your searches private. While there are some privacy focused search engines you could use instead of Google, again this is just an added bonus for having a VPN.
 

VOIP / Skype

Voice-over-IP (internet telephoning) is relatively easy to eavesdrop on. Even intermediate-level hackers can listen in to your VOIP calls. If you regularly use VOIP services like Skype, Lync, or online voice chatting, definitely consider implementing a VPN connection. Personal privacy is invaluable.

 

Prevent Throttling

Another reason for using VPN is to mask your presence to prevent an ISP from “Throttling Down” your bandwidth when accessing streaming videos or using programs.

 

For Your Business or Company

VPNs greatly reduce the risk of security breaches and cyberattacks. Getting targeted by a hacker might sound like something that happens to other people and other companies. However, only the biggest breaches make headlines. There are more cyberattacks than ever before, and Symantec reports that from 2014 to 2015, the number of zero-day vulnerabilities increased 125%. By using a VPN and keeping your employees off public networks, you are taking a big step in decreasing the likelihood your company will be targeted. VPNs make your clients feel secure. If you collect data from clients, customers or patients, you can help soothe their worries by utilizing a VPN. True, many of them might not understand what a VPN entails, but a little education can go a long way. Wouldn't you want to rely on a company that took the extra step to keep your data secure?

 

If you have Limited Data on Your Phone Plan

A VPN can reduce the amount of data you consume allowing your data allowance to go that bit further. A VPN uses encryption which makes anything not already encrypted slightly smaller. The result? Less data transfer.

 

Banking/Finances on Phone

Unlike accessing websites it’s almost impossible for the average person to know the security measures an app is using.When you login to your bank, Amazon account, Paypal or any other information sensitive site on a regular computer you can tell by your web-browser that the site is transmitting data securely. Just look for the little padlock in the address bar. But if you use a phone app, you have no such indication. A VPN will allow you to protect the security of your data. In many ways, smartphones are the engines of our lives. Yet, most of us do little to protect so much. One of the key ways to protect data flowing in and out of your smartphone is to use a Virtual Private Network (VPN). Antivirus apps and password managers go a long way toward keeping you safer, but a VPN is a uniquely powerful tool that you should definitely have in your personal security toolkit, especially in today's connected world. 

 

Your Rights

All the above reasons notwithstanding, if you are a firm believer in personal privacy and the right to broadcast and receive without being surveilled and cataloged by authorities, then this might be 1 of the best reasons to get a good VPN service. A VPN remains the primary point of defense for your privacy when you’re online. A VPN cloaks and encrypts your signal, making your online activity completely illegible to any eavesdroppers. Your ISP may already be involved in some of these spying operations, but there's an even-newer concern. In the U.S. the FCC has rolled back Obama-era rules that sought to protect net neutrality, and in doing so allowed ISPs to profit off your data. The ISPs wanted a slice of that big data monetization pie that has fueled the growth of companies like Facebook and Google. Those companies are able to gather huge amounts of information about users, and then use it to target advertising or even sell that data to other companies. ISPs now have the green light to bundle anonymized user data and put it up for sale.

Edited June 7, 2019 by Beggar for the Spirit

[tuntun]

5 hours ago, tarcamion said:

Opera belongs to a Chinese company now. That company quite likely is owned by the government so they may keep all the logs. I would rather avoid using it for theocratic purpose.

For online transactions, it is safer to use pre-paid cards. Any connection that is used between you and the website where you enter your card number should be HTTPS encrypted. Otherwise, don't pay online. That means is already encrypted. If you use a VPN then: 

YOU ---> PUBLIC WIFI --> VPN ---> BANK WEBSITE

YOU ---> PUBLIC WIFI --> BANK WEBSITE 

How would that make it safer?

 

Watching Netflix via VPN is very slow. Online providers often ban IPs used by VPN providers so there is no guarantee that you will be able to use one. Unless you know a good one.

I use a VPN network daily for my work but I don't think that it is a must-have solution for everyone, especially it costs money. So unless someone has very specific requirements, eg. to bypass censorship, hide their true location or need access intranet, there is not a real need for a VPN in daily use scenario. If someone is really paranoid it is easier to use the one that comes with Opera browser.

 

I am not an expert, can someone comment on my post, please?

That's why I don't use fancy VPN since it's not really an important need. I use VPN only to open several blocked sites.

I rarely do online shopping, if i do surely not through a browser.

 

Like you say watching videos from an service becomes slower through VPN but at least it can still be open.  I use VPN to download some Korean movies from certain sites that cannot be accessed from my area.

 

Doing online banking without VPN is risky especially when you are being in public WiFi. People can see what you're doing. VPN helps you doing online transaction although via public Wifi without fear for being tapped.

 

VPN is not preventing other people from 'reading' what you are doing, but the 'messages' you're sending become hard to read because it's like sending a letter that has been slices by a knife.

Encoding the special message is important. that's why Germany dan Japan experiencing the defeat so fast against allies at WW2 since they just couldn''t keep their secret well.

 

Edited June 7, 2019 by tuntun

[Memeber212]

Yes but all the bank sites are encrypted these days. What is the difference between the decryption of a bank and the vpn one?

Sent from my Mi A1 using Tapatalk

[carlos]

33 minutes ago, tarcamion said:

Yes but all the bank sites are encrypted these days. What is the difference between the decryption of a bank and the vpn one?

I don't think a VPN protects you from eavesdropping. As far as I know there isn't any advantage in using a VPN to access your online bank. What the VPN does is anonymizing you. Sites cannot trace your IP, so nobody can identify you by your IP. They won't know which country are you accessing from either.

 

This is useful if you wish to access a site which is not available from your location. For example, I live in Spain. I have a subscription to Netflix. If I'm traveling abroad and try to access Netflix, it will say my location is not allowed. In that case I can use a Spain-based VPN and Netflix will think I am accessing from Spain and let me in.

 

Another use is if you want to access JW.org from a country where our work is banned. The authorities could easily identify who you are by means of your IP. They just need to ask your service provider which customer was using that IP at that date and time. Yet by using a VPN you mask your IP and no one can identify you.

[tuntun]

1 hour ago, tarcamion said:

Yes but all the bank sites are encrypted these days. What is the difference between the decryption of a bank and the vpn one?

Encryption that used by a bank could increase security. but that's not absolutely, there is always person who could dechiper the encode message that transmitted via internet.

do you ever heard about the case of Bangladesh bank heist? Like Carlos says by using eavesdropper someone could put a malware to a legal software that would give access to an unauthorized person to a system. So they could send the money from the bank to anywhere or anyone they want. 

 

Or you can just send an email to someone who pretend to be an online shopping business that require for asking a email name and the password from someone who has access to a system.

[Memeber212]

29 minutes ago, tuntun said:

Encryption that used by a bank could increase security. but that's not absolutely, there is always person who could dechiper the encode message that transmitted via internet.

do you ever heard about the case of Bangladesh bank heist? Like Carlos says by using eavesdropper someone could put a malware to a legal software that would give access to an unauthorized person to a system. So they could send the money from the bank to anywhere or anyone they want. 

 

Or you can just send an email to someone who pretend to be an online shopping business that require for asking a email name and the password from someone who has access to a system.

But a VPN won't protect you from that. Banks and VPNs use the same encryption. My point is that VPNs may provide a person with a false feeling of security. I guess 95% of users don't need a VPN. Those who need them can precisely say why - accessing blocked websites, private networks, privacy. The rest will simply waste their money on something they don't really need. If that is purely for financial security, then it better to use prepaid cards, like Revolut, where you can generate virtual one-time use, disposable cards.

[tuntun]

4 hours ago, tarcamion said:

But a VPN won't protect you from that. Banks and VPNs use the same encryption. My point is that VPNs may provide a person with a false feeling of security. I guess 95% of users don't need a VPN. Those who need them can precisely say why - accessing blocked websites, private networks, privacy. The rest will simply waste their money on something they don't really need. If that is purely for financial security, then it better to use prepaid cards, like Revolut, where you can generate virtual one-time use, disposable cards.

That's definetely not for everybody ...

But for most people in certain countries which their government have very strict policy about the contents that can be view by their citizens, VPN is a paradise

in China, without the VPN, you are not able to use Facebook, twitter, Google, three quite famous ones and being used widely in the western world, that's why VPN is so popular there.

Since China has the biggest internet users in the world (more than 800 millions of internet users) that would contribute 25% of total world population who has access to the internet (around 3,2 billions internet users in this world by this year)

That just from one country.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Websites_blocked_in_mainland_China

Edited June 7, 2019 by tuntun

[Memeber212]

Thank you. That was my point. The companies try to sell VPNs to people who don't need them. I guess if someone needs a VPN they already know that.

[tuntun]

15 hours ago, tarcamion said:

Thank you. That was my point. The companies try to sell VPNs to people who don't need them. I guess if someone needs a VPN they already know that.

 

in countries like in China where software piracy is a common thing. Companies certainly doesn't expect that enough people want to buy their software legally.

Therefore they sell their products in different way to get profit; they offer free VPN services that can be downloaded for free either.

but that comes with another price; uninvited advertisements, annoying pop ups, and sometimes it may contain dangerous malwares.

therefore there are always people who want buy paid VPN software to get complete service.

[LuvDogz]

On 3/4/2019 at 1:15 AM, Beggar for the Spirit said:

their experience or recommendations.

I tried NORD but it interrupted my magicJack. I know there is a workaround but I am not very good at techy stuff.

 

On 5/3/2019 at 1:49 PM, carlos said:

pera Browser has a VPN included for free

I sometimes use OPERA with the built-in VPN option. Then, a leak add-on in the browser is needed. Prefer using Firefox browser so don't use it much.