Anonymous VPN

[Chuck in Indiana]

While we are talking computers, since I picked up a firestick and am thinking about cutting the cord (satellite) I've been reading about needing an anonymous VPN for a few bucks a month. Do I need one? If so, which?

[Higgins9875]

I have had good luck with privateinternetacce ss.com.  Many nodes and good throughput.

[Lannis]

While we are talking computers, since I picked up a firestick and am thinking about cutting the cord (satellite) ....

What is it you're doing, again?

Normally I just pass out when the jargon begins, but our landline costs are getting outrageous, and I'm looking for alternatives to my landline and Viasat satellite (no DSL, no cable and no cell service available at the house).   We spend about $62/mo for the landline (no long distance), $8/mo for Pioneer long-distance, $76/mo for the satellite (10 GB download/mo at 8 mbit/sec then telephone speed after that), and $5/mo for Fay's 'Trac-fone' (about 10 minutes per year).   So my budget's got room for $150 a month for that sort of thing in it.   No TV reception, cable, etc.

I'm considering getting a cell signal booster, a UPS that would run for days when the current goes out, and trying to use the cell signal for both internet and phone here at the house.

I don't think the technology is there yet, but I'm always looking for what other people do ...

Lannis

[Wayne Orwig]

While we are talking computers, since I picked up a firestick and am thinking about cutting the cord (satellite) I've been reading about needing an anonymous VPN for a few bucks a month. Do I need one? If so, which?

A VPN hides the web data that you are transferring.

What kind of web sites are you visiting?

[AJ Huff]

Why do you need or want a VPN for Roku or Netflix?

-AJ

[bad Chad]

Clearly,  Chuck is a Russian troll!

[jcctx]

What is it you're doing, again?

Normally I just pass out when the jargon begins, but our landline costs are getting outrageous, and I'm looking for alternatives to my landline and Viasat satellite (no DSL, no cable and no cell service available at the house).   We spend about $62/mo for the landline (no long distance), $8/mo for Pioneer long-distance, $76/mo for the satellite (10 GB download/mo at 8 mbit/sec then telephone speed after that), and $5/mo for Fay's 'Trac-fone' (about 10 minutes per year).   So my budget's got room for $150 a month for that sort of thing in it.   No TV reception, cable, etc.

I'm considering getting a cell signal booster, a UPS that would run for days when the current goes out, and trying to use the cell signal for both internet and phone here at the house.

I don't think the technology is there yet, but I'm always looking for what other people do ...

Lannis

I use ATT cell for most internet access as well as all long distance calling and general communication when traveling. I have a WECO amp that nets "four bars" if the phone is within a few inches of the inside antenna. We have a 16 gig family plan of shared data with my son, DIL, Janet and I; we get a 19% discount due to my son's employer. Also have a slow DSL line that is tolerable if only one of us is online that is used for software updates, etc. Janet also has an I-pad with a 2 gig Verizon cell plan for $30 bucks a month. All up we spend about $300 for cell and DSL as we pay the ATT bill for all of us (about the same cell cost for all four of us with the discount as the two of us would be without). The cell data drops to 2G levels if we exceed the 16gig amount plus any unused from the previous month. Verizon has a better signal here but does not offer the same discount???

[PeteS]

Why do you need or want a VPN for Roku or Netflix?

-AJ

I would ask the same question. VPN will just slow down your feed.

Pete

[ITSec]

Anonymous VPN can be had for free (TOR/Onion) or through one of the managed services, but it is primarily a privacy tool rather than a security tool. If you don't want to leave obvious tracks in the hands of your ISP, the search engines, or others, it's helpful. If you want to access sites your ISP may block, it's helpful. If you think it's going to make you more secure, it won't in most cases. If you think it will hide your browser's information, it mostly won't.

I don't use one most of the time, but I do use an anonymous / non-tracking search engine (DuckDuckGo, which is Yahoo Search with the tracking stripped out). I do use an anonymous VPN function (usually TOR) when I am doing security research or testing, or when I need to visit potentially 'dark' sites and don't want them to be able to trace me back.

Some of the current marketing for these services (*cough* NordVPN *cough*) seems to go out of its way to imply that the service will protect your personal information - they mostly don't. They will stop Cox, or Comcast, or ATT, or whoever your regular service is from associating your Internet activity with your service account. They will make it more difficult for Google and some other sites to connect your activity with a single identity (though this can also be done in the browser in many cases, and the VPN won't stop that). They won't prevent Facebook from giving away your information, or Experian from being breached, or an online merchant from harvesting your info in many cases.

I'm not sure these services offer enough value and protection to match the price they charge. And don't even get me started on LifeLock!

[Lannis]

I use ATT cell for most internet access as well as all long distance calling and general communication when traveling. I have a WECO amp that nets "four bars" if the phone is within a few inches of the inside antenna. We have a 16 gig family plan of shared data with my son, DIL, Janet and I; we get a 19% discount due to my son's employer. Also have a slow DSL line that is tolerable if only one of us is online that is used for software updates, etc. Janet also has an I-pad with a 2 gig Verizon cell plan for $30 bucks a month. All up we spend about $300 for cell and DSL as we pay the ATT bill for all of us (about the same cell cost for all four of us with the discount as the two of us would be without). The cell data drops to 2G levels if we exceed the 16gig amount plus any unused from the previous month. Verizon has a better signal here but does not offer the same discount???

I was considering Verizon (that's who my landline service is with and I could keep the number I've had for 30 years), but the same issues as you mention, and it's no bargain.

I'm like the old guy in Lynchburg a few years back who was perfectly happy with his coal-fired furnace; then the last company in town quit selling coal ...

Lannis

[geodoc]

I have Avast ant-virus on my home desktop & they offered VPN so I decided to give it a try. I do a lot of torrent downloading and have gotten nastygrams from a previous ISP about that (please withhold ethics slagging for later). That was part of the reason for getting VPN as well as the really irritating issue of not being able to look at various videos in Canada because of copyright issues.

As for Avast's product. I'd down vote it. It REALLY slowed down my connection speed, they sent me a nastygram about torrent traffic traced to my IP address (so what's the point of having a VPN with them then?). Also continuously drops off and has to re-connect or sometimes just stays disconnected. A really crap service.

[Chuck in Indiana]

It is my understanding that since you are streaming all tv except what you get on the antenna, you are using a lot of data, and your ISP might slow it down. Also, since (for instance) out of market NFL games would be available without paying hundreds of dollars to Direct TV  along with other shows that cable and satellite companies want you to pay for by using their service, an anonymous VPN is supposed to be a good idea. It's *not* illegal.. I've checked that out.
I know nothing about this stuff except I'd like to get rid of that stupid Direct TV monthly bill.

[cee2cee]

I use Express VPN, highly rated, and very good.  I used it often while in Italy.  Sites like Netflix for instance for whatever reason prevent some content from being shown in markets other than the US and they can tell by your IP address if you are in the US. If your are not they block your access.  When you use the VPN you can 'pretend' you are in the US and therefore gain access to your account.  Same goes for a lot of other sites which confine content to their local market. 

https://www.expressvpn.com/

And btw we did not seem to have any issues with slower speeds.

[Chuck in Indiana]

I use Express VPN, highly rated, and very good.  I used it often while in Italy.  Sites like Netflix for instance for whatever reason prevent some content from being shown in markets other than the US and they can tell by your IP address if you are in the US. If your are not they block your access.  When you use the VPN you can 'pretend' you are in the US and therefore gain access to your account.  Same goes for a lot of other sites which confine content to their local market. 

https://www.expressvpn.com/

And btw we did not seem to have any issues with slower speeds.

So, if I understand correctly.. I'd need to download express vpn to my router, and then everything on the network would be anonymous? For 100 bux a year?  Or.. would I download it directly to the (jailbroken) Firestick?
Obviously, I'm on a steep learning curve..

[AJ Huff]

I still don't get the why unless it's "just because." I get surfing anonymously, highly recommend TOR for that. But for movie watching.

We haven't had cable or DirecTV for two years now. Just a Roku with a Hulu and Netflix subscription. I pay for cable internet. I can tell you if you want to watch ESPN, NFL, really any type of sporting event, using one of the apps, you will need a TV subscriber log in. I'm not saying it has to be yours but you need one. A VPN won't get around that. I guess the VPN might keep you from getting caught.....

-AJ

[twowings]

I have used VyprVPN for about 5 years now with no adverse effects...another thing you can do for free is set your DNS server addresses to 1.1.1.1, 1.0.0.1 (cloudflare) or 208.67.222.222, 208.67.220.220 (OpenVPN) to anonomize your IP requests to some extent...

[cee2cee]

You download the VPN to your device, whether smartphone, laptop, or tablet.  How I use it is when I am in a public area and using public wi-fi for instance at an airport, I turn on the VPN which adds an additional level of security.   "Besides hiding your IP address and mixing your traffic with that of other users, VPNs also encrypts your traffic between secure VPN servers and your computer, smartphone, laptop etc, so that it cannot be read by third parties aka 'hackers'.  The other way I use a VPN is to gain access to things like movies, sporting events etc, from other countries which limit access only to those within their country.  For the record, I only use it for those two functions. 

• When in a public area
• When trying to access content from a site that restricts it to only those in their country-such as my US Netflix account when in Europe or access, for instance, a UK football match while in the US

Just found this online for those who are interested:

The best free VPN to download in 2018 - https://www.techradar.com/vpn/the-best-free-vpn-services-of-2018

[Chuck in Indiana]

Ok, thanks..

[Unkept]

It is my understanding that since you are streaming all tv except what you get on the antenna, you are using a lot of data, and your ISP might slow it down. Also, since (for instance) out of market NFL games would be available without paying hundreds of dollars to Direct TV  along with other shows that cable and satellite companies want you to pay for by using their service, an anonymous VPN is supposed to be a good idea. It's *not* illegal.. I've checked that out.
I know nothing about this stuff except I'd like to get rid of that stupid Direct TV monthly bill.

So a VPN allows you to trick what region you are in, so you can watch TV / Channels normally unavailable to your streaming service. I had to do this while I was in Germany if I wanted to watch some content from the US.

But in regards to data usage... however you have internet, using a VPN won't change the amount of data you are consuming. A VPN tunnel needs to use the amount of bandwidth you are requesting or sending, so your ISP could still throttle you based on your data consumption.

Now what some people are worried about, with the demise of Net Neutrality, is that your ISP may throttle your speeds based on what *specific content* it is you are consuming or accessing.

So Comcast, AT&T, etc. might not like that Chuck goes to WildGuzzi.com every day, and so they will slow speeds down for that site's access.

A VPN *would* stop them from being able to do that, as all they would see in encrypted traffic and not your internet final destination.

Personally I don't see the point of a VPN in your situation as I understand it, other than if a jailbroken device is investigated by your ISP and you are worried about those consequences. As you said though, you aren't worried about it being illegal.

I'm not really involved in that world but it's a game that's been played for years. My step-dad was stealing Direct-TV using re-flashed receivers/cards and every so often it would stop working and he would pay his friend for another hack job. lol

I just don't watch TV! 

-Joe