Why would I want a private VPN?

[Squisher]

Those dirty rotten Canadians won't let me watch videos on TSN without a VPN.

 

[WelshBloke]

Private Internet Access (PIA).

Thats what I use.

I use TorGuard but I've discovered some sites blacklist a few IPs I've been assigned... like Slickdeals for example. Any case of this with PIA?

I don't know about Slickdeals specifically but a few places block PIAs servers. This forum seems to do it sporadically! You can tweak a few settings for most places.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

How does the licensing on these work is it per device or per user?

 

[ch33zw1z]

It depends on your service.

I use PIA. If you run their software, then it's 5 devices supported.

PIA also supports connections from tomato, ddwrt, pfsense, and some others. In this configuration, you can connect whatever you want behind the vpn and they will only see it as one connection.

Netflix no longer allows proxies, and neither does VUDU, not sure about amazon.

Some of the IP'S from PIA, are blocked here at AT

 

[Grooveriding]

You generally get a certain amount of connections available for your account. At least across the three different providers I've used. Since the Netflix crackdown on DNS maskers for viewing out of region Netflix, I've gotten a dedicated IP VPN from Torguard for Netflix that is on our HTPC. Then I use Express VPN for the rest of our computers and cell phones.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

We (us ATguys) should start a $40 per year VPN service and sell the browsing data back to the ISPs

 

[ch33zw1z]

hehe, I don't want AT spying on me :ninja;

 

[Fanatical Meat]

hehe, I don't want AT spying on me :ninja;

No silly we'd use something good. Ours would be for everyone else.

 

[ch33zw1z]

I chose PIA because they claim to clear logs once per day. make it twice and I'm in

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Does it slow stuff down? Last work one I used definitely slowed down connections however the encrypted drive might carry more of the blame and its been years.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Any VPN can be subject to that. It seems the software I use on phone/PC can auto-select the best connection at the time. Sometimes, I'm routed through east coast, sometimes through Canada, sometimes mid-east somewhere, could be anywhere it wants. I can also manually pick the server if I want.

PIA has been able to max out my 100mbit connection for extended durations when needed. Sometimes it will keep picking the "best" server, and that server can be having issues, but most of the time it just works great.

I have an old Linksys E3000(running shibby tomato) I use to run a constant tunnel, it hasn't seem much of the slow down....but I don't use it nearly as much as a used to (or would) if Netflix wasn't blocking it.

 

[RossMAN]

I think I understand pretty much what it does.

There's one included in a humble bundle and trying to think of a use for it.

The main uses I can think of are people who want to cover their tracks more, or to impersonate a user from another region to get around limitations on content meant to be limited to another region.

I'm not all that concerned about that level of privacy/anonymity and don't want to do what seems to me defrauding, so I'm not seeing a need for it. Any other benefit?

I saw the following article on my Google feed and thought of this thread:
http://lifehacker.com/why-is-everyone-talking-about-vpns-1793768312

 

[lxskllr]

For kicks I tried loading this site through tor. It worked for about 5 minutes, then I was blocked. Really stupid. There's zero reason for that.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

Zero reason for why Anandtech is going to block you if you use Tor? Good point. Go ask them in the feedback section.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I can sorta understand why they would as it would be easy to come back and troll if you get banned, but at same time, don't punish legit users because of a few bad apples.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Trolls use vpns and tor to hide, eventually the ip will get blocked.

 

[Craig234]

I saw the following article on my Google feed and thought of this thread:
http://lifehacker.com/why-is-everyone-talking-about-vpns-1793768312

Thanks. With these Republicans, I see more reason for people to want to do this - interesting points in the article.

Though I still think we should note using a VPN to access otherwise blocked content is still stealing.

 

[lxskllr]

Trolls use vpns and tor to hide, eventually the ip will get blocked.

If you're logging in with account credentials, you aren't hiding from anything. It should be fairly trivial to conditionally ban ip blocks, letting in people with accounts older than N. It's not perfect, but better than a global ban. With some careful consideration, a secure system of initial signup would probably be possible also.

 

[ch33zw1z]

With VPN, it could be hundreds, or thousands logging in with the same IP.

It's not hard to see how a specific IP or range of IP'S gets banned.

I agree that there will be better methods in the future as more people move to vpn services

 

[Uppsala9496]

What about openvpn on my router? Or am I better off with a paid service like PIA? I have on average about 13 connected devices on my router (computers, phones, tv's, tablets).

 

[ch33zw1z]

Uppsala: what do you mean? Open vpn on your router as in while your out and about, vpn'ing into your home?

That makes your home your "exit" point, basically negating the vpn to protect from ISP snooping.

A service like PIA creates a tunnel to an "exit" point somewhere remote from your home

 

[momeNt]

Didn't you have a discussion on here a few years back about how fast forwarding commercials is theft?

Now having a VPN is defrauding? yeesh.

 

[Craig234]

Didn't you have a discussion on here a few years back about how fast forwarding commercials is theft?

Now having a VPN is defrauding? yeesh.

Man, I give you the recollection of the month award for that.

Not quite, but close.

The point is, entertainment like shows cost money to produce. If we don't pay for the shows directly - like an HBO subscription - there's an issue how we should pay.

And we should feel some obligation - basic fairness.

That's not a tight requirement - you must watch every commercial, you must purchase products advertised - but there is a good-faith exchange there where the money to pay for the entertainment comes from
the advertising and people purchasing based on that and if everyone 'skipped the ads', there would be no revenue - and you paid nothing for what you got that cost them money - and that's the issue.

It would also lead to the end of such shows, which is also bad.

And then there's the 'but not everyone WILL do that. I can skip the commercials but other suckers won't so it's all good'. And if you need that explained why it's not right I'm wasting time posting this.

So, I guess I would say skipping all commercials for a show where they're the revenue is a sort of moral theft - just be aware of some level of obligation for 'paying' for the show.

Your latest post though gets it more wrong.

I didn't say 'having a VPN' is, I said using a VPN to evade the region restriction on content is.

It's a judgment call for you to make whether it's ethical.

If the BBC puts those restrictions on because British citizens have paid for those shows with taxes, and they sell them in the US, the example in the article, yes I view that as theft.

 

[momeNt]

SNIP

I didn't say 'having a VPN' is, I said using a VPN to evade the region restriction on content is.

It's a judgment call for you to make whether it's ethical.

If the BBC puts those restrictions on because British citizens have paid for those shows with taxes, and they sell them in the US, the example in the article, yes I view that as theft.

How do you feel about hiding your identity or browsing habits from businesses that rely on cookies and selling your browsing data to keep producing content? Wouldn't a VPN be similar to fast forwarding in violating that basic fairness agreement?

 

[rh71]

Does it slow stuff down? Last work one I used definitely slowed down connections however the encrypted drive might carry more of the blame and its been years.

I'm in NY FIOS 50/50 on Torguard and just tested.
Connected to a NY VPN server, I was getting 55/58
Connected to a LA VPN server, I was getting 54/50

So the answer for Torguard seems to be no.