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Bbc: Isps should assume heavy vpn users are pirates

Ok this is all about statistics and a modicum of homework.

Some weeks I spend 20 hours if not 60 hours or more on VPN. That's because I'm on call for work and will get a call at 8:00PM at night, VPN in and leave it connected to work overnight. Take that time 3 or 4 nights a week and it's a lot of VPN *time*.

But if you look at my data, it's not that high. It's email, some RPD access, ect. Very low data for the most part. *AND* I connect to the same IP every time that is traceable back to a very prominent employer. That's very easy to understand by anyone with fraction of functioning brain cells.

And that's how 99% of all VPN traffic on a per user basis functions.

It's that 1% that are connecting to dubious IP's and moving huge amounts of data during those times that are the issue. And that *really* shouldn't be hard to figure out with any half ass monitoring and network policies on the ISP side.
 
vi edit said:
Ok this is all about statistics and a modicum of homework.

Some weeks I spend 20 hours if not 60 hours or more on VPN. That's because I'm on call for work and will get a call at 8:00PM at night, VPN in and leave it connected to work overnight. Take that time 3 or 4 nights a week and it's a lot of VPN *time*.

But if you look at my data, it's not that high. It's email, some RPD access, ect. Very low data for the most part. *AND* I connect to the same IP every time that is traceable back to a very prominent employer. That's very easy to understand by anyone with fraction of functioning brain cells.

And that's how 99% of all VPN traffic on a per user basis functions.

It's that 1% that are connecting to dubious IP's and moving huge amounts of data during those times that are the issue. And that *really* shouldn't be hard to figure out with any half ass monitoring and network policies on the ISP side.
Click to expand...

Ahhhhh ok. So it those who are trying to keep from being tracked and when they say heavy I guess that means a crap ton of data out of the normal. Thanks for the clarification.
 
OP, i have to congratulate you for keeping an eye on the corrupt cops flooding our streets. this is a tough job for me to do on my own here
 
vi edit said:
Ok this is all about statistics and a modicum of homework.

Some weeks I spend 20 hours if not 60 hours or more on VPN. That's because I'm on call for work and will get a call at 8:00PM at night, VPN in and leave it connected to work overnight. Take that time 3 or 4 nights a week and it's a lot of VPN *time*.

But if you look at my data, it's not that high. It's email, some RPD access, ect. Very low data for the most part. *AND* I connect to the same IP every time that is traceable back to a very prominent employer. That's very easy to understand by anyone with fraction of functioning brain cells.

And that's how 99% of all VPN traffic on a per user basis functions.

It's that 1% that are connecting to dubious IP's and moving huge amounts of data during those times that are the issue. And that *really* shouldn't be hard to figure out with any half ass monitoring and network policies on the ISP side.
Click to expand...

Nailed it.
 
First the uk said VPNs allow children to access pron (think of the children!) Now theyre pirates. STFU British media.
 
There's very basic flags that can go up on any ISP that does a bare minimum amount of monitoring.

They can tell that you are using a VPN, where you established it to, and how much data you are passing. From there it's a matter of interpretation and history. They can't tell *what* you are moving.
 
One thing *I don't* know is how it works if you can find a way to VPN into a legitimate gateway (say your employer) and then from there, tunnel into another VPN of a dubious nature that your employer has not blocked or caught you using.

At that point you've created a legitimate connection that is easy to explain and then encrypted any further connections of seedy nature that is not able to really track.

But again, you are going back to the law of numbers here. The percentage of people doing that are so small that it's almost insignificant in the grand scheme of things.
 
vi edit said:
One thing *I don't* know is how it works if you can find a way to VPN into a legitimate gateway (say your employer) and then from there, tunnel into another VPN of a dubious nature that your employer has not blocked or caught you using.

At that point you've created a legitimate connection that is easy to explain and then encrypted any further connections of seedy nature that is not able to really track.

But again, you are going back to the law of numbers here. The percentage of people doing that are so small that it's almost insignificant in the grand scheme of things.
Click to expand...

87Ul1BYcuszd.jpe
 
I can see it where VPNs and other similar things will simply become illegal. Instead of worrying about what is being done inside the VPNs they will just make the VPNs themselves illegal. Treat it the same way as piracy. Sadly I see this happen if VPNs or mesh networking become common enough. Physical mesh links will also be highly illegal. Running any such service will require some kind of ISP license and one of the requirements will be that the government has open access to all the data going through the network.
 
I *almost* agree with vi edit. However, not too long ago, I read an article by someone who claimed he did the following experiment: Netflix was running slow, constantly buffering, low quality, etc. "Our networks are congested!" He connected to Netflix via a VPN, and the problem went away.
 
I am in China all the time for work. I use a VPN to connect to the outside world almost constantly. When i use it for Hulu, there is a lot of traffic from streaming video. Facebook, not so much traffic.

Michael
 
Red Squirrel said:
I can see it where VPNs and other similar things will simply become illegal. Instead of worrying about what is being done inside the VPNs they will just make the VPNs themselves illegal. Treat it the same way as piracy. Sadly I see this happen if VPNs or mesh networking become common enough. Physical mesh links will also be highly illegal. Running any such service will require some kind of ISP license and one of the requirements will be that the government has open access to all the data going through the network.
Click to expand...
The way articles about it are written seems to imply that banning or regulation of VPN's is needed and so I can see where you're coming from. The masses don't even know what a VPN is or they may be indifferent so they'll be like "please keep our children safe from terrorists, porn, and free movies!"

DrPizza said:
I *almost* agree with vi edit. However, not too long ago, I read an article by someone who claimed he did the following experiment: Netflix was running slow, constantly buffering, low quality, etc. "Our networks are congested!" He connected to Netflix via a VPN, and the problem went away.
Click to expand...
Several people actually observed that phenomenon as a way to circumvent Verizon's throttle-through-crippling access to Netflix's Level 3 access.
 
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DrPizza said:
I *almost* agree with vi edit. However, not too long ago, I read an article by someone who claimed he did the following experiment: Netflix was running slow, constantly buffering, low quality, etc. "Our networks are congested!" He connected to Netflix via a VPN, and the problem went away.
Click to expand...

Again that can be some what shaken out in a couple different ways. If it's connecting to an employer's VPN then the employer is eventually going to wise up to it and block Netflix over their ports and kill it.

Or if enough people start using VPN services Verizon is going to catch on to it/care enough about it that they start throttling VPN connections to specific domains/IP ranges.
 
vi edit said:
But if you look at my data, it's not that high. It's email, some RPD access, ect. Very low data for the most part. *AND* I connect to the same IP every time that is traceable back to a very prominent employer. That's very easy to understand by anyone with fraction of functioning brain cells.
Click to expand...

Sure but are we going to trust them to appropriately weed out the valid heavy data use? The last company I worked for did site auditing around the world so it wasn't uncommon to have someone in India, Chile, South Korea, Germany, Saudi Arabia etc remote in from the site and upload audit reports which would contain pictures and videos or to download the previous report(s). Sure the main office was a big name for its industry but the satellite offices which the auditors often connected to were usually subsidiaries that very few would recognize

Where I work now we provide custom software for very data heavy equipment so its not uncommon for our field salespeople\techs to remote in from numerous customer sites and download a custom installer package or transfer gigabytes of logged data for analysis and adjustment
 
For every 10 users claiming "they are legit", about 9 are pirates. As a network engineer I get to see these things in real time and when you confront the end user it's always:

1) Must have been my kids/friends/etc

2) I was downloading all public/free movies/software

3) I already own these songs

etc.

Sad thing is many of these types have gigabytes of material they never even view/use...they just collect this stuff for whatever reasons they have.
 
The BBC is more upset that people are using them to get around geoblocking, since they charge for the BBC iPlayer outside of Britain. It pretty much is stealing cable. Contrast that with using a VPN to get US Netflix in Canada. You're still paying for it regardless, so nobody cares.

That said, Britain has been going on an authoritarian streak lately. I'm sure once they get an internet filter set up like China has, it will solve all their social ills. No more public drunkenness or jihadis running amok. 🙄
 
alkemyst said:
For every 10 users claiming "they are legit", about 9 are pirates. As a network engineer I get to see these things in real time and when you confront the end user it's always:

1) Must have been my kids/friends/etc

2) I was downloading all public/free movies/software

3) I already own these songs

etc.

Sad thing is many of these types have gigabytes of material they never even view/use...they just collect this stuff for whatever reasons they have.
Click to expand...

I disagree. 9 out of 10 pirates are too lazy/cheap to even do a VPN for it. Most VPN users are workers. I can vouch for at least 200k of them.
 
Define "heavy VPN" users. Do the meany people who connect to a VPN a lot, or people who use a lot of data through a VPN? I connect to a VPN very often for work. However, the amount of data I use is typically low.

If they are referring to people who get a spike in data usage after connecting to a VPN, I could guess they were pirates. But, I wouldn't assume as much.
 
ImpulsE69 said:
I disagree. 9 out of 10 pirates are too lazy/cheap to even do a VPN for it. Most VPN users are workers. I can vouch for at least 200k of them.
Click to expand...

Except the thread is about heavy vpn users.

Someone on a vpn consuming a megabyte every minute is not a pirate.

Someone on a vpn consuming a gigabyte every minute is a pirate 9 times out of 10. Consume a gigabyte nearly every minute of every day, that person is a pirate 100% of the time.
 
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