Anonymous Services - Can We Get A List Going And Feedback?

Discussion in 'privacy technology' started by DasFox, Nov 2, 2010.

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  1. 0strodamus

    0strodamus Registered Member

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    @luciddream: Sorry, I've been away for awhile. Did you get things working with mirimir's instructions?
     
  2. NormanN

    NormanN Registered Member

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    Mullvad:

    When I tried their client software for the free trial, I remember seeing the exit in Sweden.

    When using OpenVPN and the numerous scripts posted so far (about 7 so far) I see the exit as Holland.

    What's going on? As safe?

    As an aside, I want to send cash to them, but had a few questions. I emailed both info@mullvad.net and admin@mullvad.net...no reply. Has anyone contacted them or purchased?

    NN
     
  3. markedmanner

    markedmanner Registered Member

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  4. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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  5. LockBox

    LockBox Registered Member

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  6. markedmanner

    markedmanner Registered Member

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    I agree with this. The thing is if these VPN providers are not telling the truth eventually it will be shown that they indeed do keep logs. There business will lose ultimately and people will not trust them. (Just like Hidemyass recently) I personally believe most of these companies are telling the truth. I am also considering trying PRQ. Do you have a VPN that you recommend Lockbox?
     
  7. luciddream

    luciddream Registered Member

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    Actually I decided not to do it. It's to the point I have my username & password memorized, so it's better to just enter it when I have to than to store that info. in plain text on a file.

    But I appreciate the help.
     
  8. Eiso

    Eiso Registered Member

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    When choosing these services, it's important to research the company behind it and go with a reputable company that has been around for over a decade and preferably under the US jurisdiction. So long as you're not using it for abusive/illegal activies, the company simply will not budge you over, no matter how much your 'stalkers' are paying - their name and business is at stake. These factors are important if you're more than the average user, say a celebrity (or reside in a very competitive industry), and it's known that many celebrities use these services.

    Such companies also allow packages of upto 2048-bit encryption for your connection. With such a service on top of a robust security software setup, a bit of knowledge, you could keep your bank page open overnight and malicious stalkers will still be wondering where you're at (don't do that). ;)

    Basically, don't listen to online website reviews on this. Research the companies yourself (How long they've been around, what they offer). If you're into p2p, I think there are services that allow you to do as such, but I wouldn't trust them - they come across as too dollar-desperate already.
     
  9. DasFox

    DasFox Registered Member

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    [Hi Eiso thanks for your reply, but all these things have been discussed already...

    Also sorry, US jurisdiction is not good, this is also been discussed countless times...


    CHEERS
     
  10. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    What jurisdictions are good, in your opinion?
     
  11. Eiso

    Eiso Registered Member

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    My apologies, I haven't had time to go through the whole thread yet. Just listing my ideas. :)

    Still, as I said though, so long as you're using the service legally, under the US jurisdiction, you're the safest. They're regularly audited, yes, but that's a good thing in my opinion. Sorry if that comes across too ignorant. My aim with such services is to eliminate the man-in-the-middle, online stalkers etc. that are capable of spying, trolling and stealing your info. That's my focus.
     
  12. DasFox

    DasFox Registered Member

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    We've mentioned this in the past too, regardless of being legal or not, there is just to much corruption going in America to take chances...

    Homeland Security is one of the biggest examples of this, next Congress in America talking about censoring the net and the list goes on...

    Sometimes it's not about what you're doing, it's just about the possibility of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, that you feel is fine to be in...

    America is trying to take to much control away, this is why you want to stay away, so you don't become a wrong target.
     
  13. DasFox

    DasFox Registered Member

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    Here's what I'm now going to call the 'VPN Blacklist Report' and IVACY is the first to be on the list of pathetic VPNs...

    https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?p=1980896#post1980896

    BlackList Report (For other Bad VPNs);
    SwissVPN
    Hidemyass

    P.S. When I get some time I'll go back through this post and others and compile up the Blacklist Report of crap VPNs and in every reply I make I'll put the Blacklist Report in there, so no matter where someone looks they can see it in the Blacklist report on my replies...
     
    Last edited: Nov 30, 2011
  14. PaulyDefran

    PaulyDefran Registered Member

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    I'm a previous poster, but just did a new screen name/account now that I purchased a VPN service. I went with Mullvad using Bitcoin. The process was painless. Emails answered fast, account funded within minutes. (setting up Bitcoin however, was a royal PITA on the Mt. Gox end).

    PD
     
  15. The Oracle

    The Oracle Registered Member

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    This list is totally garbage as I have researched some of these companies myself. If they don't keep any logs, then why can you not sign up for BTGuard already connected through a VPN, without scanning and sending them a copy of your ID?? I have contacted other companies on this list, and they will lie and tell you anything. If a company sells different price plan packages based off the amount of data you download, how do they know when you have reached your max, and how to cut you off if nothing is logged??

    I wouldn't trust that list as far as I could pick up my house and throw it. They ALL lie and will say anything to get you to sign up! I have seen so much BAD information given in these threads it's not even funny. I don't know much about it and been researching for something safe for weeks now, and have come up with absolutely nothing. Some of the suggestions given out may be fine for folks across the pond, but it is useless for US folks. Like you are really going to sign up for service in Sweden from California? Just what I want is to go back to dialup speeds for security. Not to mention the site this guy keeps going on and on about in every thread about the server in Sweden and how Wikileaks used them and survived, has gotten horrible reviews on just about every other forum board out there, mainly their customer service and reliability to hold a connection.

    Bottom line is if you connect to US servers, I don't care where the companies corporate office is from, by law, they have to keep logs for those servers in the US you are connecting to. Then someone gave advice that they wouldn't trust any US VPN companies and to go elsewhere. Need I remind anyone that HMA is located in Europe and not only did they lie to the world about the physical location of their corporate offices, but they lied that they only keep log files for 7 days, then they lied and changed their position to 30 days, and then we find out they lied and it's actually kept indefinitely. They also handed over log files to the FBI without any type of warrant being given to them for those records. If you think because they are in Europe and they tell you that they don't keep log files, then they are lying to you. If they are inside the EU, they have to keep log files. Why do you think most companies won't tell you on their website where their corporate offices are?? For this specific reason! It's why the scumbags at HMA lied for so long about where they actually "really" are located out of. They won't even comment publicly or on their own forums about the Sony hack and them turning over the records. Don't believe anything any of them tell you! Oh yea, someone touched on this early and made a very good point people should be aware of. Who owns the servers?? Most of the servers you are connecting to are not physically owned by these companies, and usually are just other internet service providers, which means they are keeping logs period.

    One of the sites you all have mentioned a couple of times is iVPN. Anyone know where they are located out of? Can't find it on the net and it's not listed on their site. For such a great site, they don't even give you the numbers of servers and what specific countries they are in. In fact, their whole FAQ and privacy page is garbage compared to the information other sites provide (another red flag). The information provided is totally made for people who have no idea what to look for, and cater to them to sound good IMO.

    I do have concerns about this though:

    "iVPN.net does not store any log files containing personally identifying information relating to user activity on the iVPN.net network. The only logs we collect are for system performance analysis and in no way can be attributed to any individual. If a law enforcement agency with jurisdiction over our business presents us with a valid order from a confirmed judicial authority, we will comply with that order as written. However, we cannot be compelled to present information we do not store such as the network traffic logs."

    If there is no log files, what exactly would they "comply with as written?" They wouldn't have anything to turn over, so what could they possibly comply with? That's called a future back door for them if anything goes wrong.

    "As a provider of online-enabled services, we require users to provide contact information, such as their name and e-mail address, as well as other necessary data, dependent upon the service, to set up and maintain their services with iVPN.net."

    So if no logging is done, why do they "require users to provide...?" That is a monster red flag right there. The only time it is "required" is when you need to be tagged so that if anything down the line comes back to bite them, it bites you and not them.

    I am starting to think after weeks of research, and reading tons of threads like this, there is NO solution for US residents, and it is only going to get worse real soon ;)

    I don't understand why you can have untraceable phones like T-Mobile has where you don't have to give them a real name or address, but you can't get untraceable internet service! War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength!
     
  16. bryanjoe

    bryanjoe Registered Member

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    any VPN recommendations?
     
  17. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    @The Oracle

    Welcome to Wilders :)

    I do not rely on providers' terms of service and privacy policies. Your VPN provider knows your IP address, and has your payment information. Even if you pay anonymously for your VPN service, investigators can get your IP address, and then identify you through your ISP. Maybe some VPN providers really do keep no connection logs. But I wouldn't count on it.

    If you just want VPN protection for torrenting, BolehVPN (in Malaysia) is probably your best bet. Their VPN service is only one hop, however. If you want stronger anonymity, you can combine that (VPN1) with another VPN service (VPN2) that you purchase anonymously. Both iVPN and Insorg accept Liberty Reserve. Using such nested VPN setups, I commonly have ~200 ms pings, and 2-4 Mbps bandwidth in each direction. Here's a generic diagram of my current setup -http://www.4shared.com/photo/6K9zr22v/Network.html

    Investigators would need to work back from VPN2's exit IP address to VPN1's exit IP address (from VPN2's connection logs) and then to VPN1's entry IP address and your true IP address (from VPN1's connection logs). Given resources, they could use traffic analyis to help target their initial investigation, and to confirm their results.
     
  18. luciddream

    luciddream Registered Member

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    I'm completely over the whole VPN thing. There are several reasons that I stopped using it all the time, but mainly, I felt that I was potentially sacrificing security for privacy. And, as several have pointed out, how can you be 100% sure you're really getting that privacy anyway? Is your information in safer hands with them than with your ISP?

    What I mean about sacrificing security: Normally I have no instances of svchost having to connect out. DHCP & DNS Clients disabled. DCOM disabled & System Event Not. disabled. Ports 445 & 135 closed. No ports "Listening" when I check in "netstat -an". I've always felt safe this way, but none of that stuff flies if you try to run a VPN, or at least... I haven't figured out how to. I feel like I'm sacrificing security to run it. I also don't like the idea of something perpetually connecting out "openvpn.exe".

    Also, I was losing my connection every 2-4 days. It was due to my ISP trying to release/renew my IP. When it happened I'd lose connectivity with my VPN, and the only way to get it back was to shut everything down (PC, modem, & router), and reboot. This became bothersome. I also got 2 BSOD's, and OpenVPN was the only change to my setup when they started to occur. I haven't gotten a BSOD since I ran Win98se, 8 years ago. Since I've uninstalled it, it hasn't happened since. I doubt this was a coincidence.

    It was a fad that I doubt I'll be indulging in anymore. I can only see it being useful for someone that's doing really shady stuff, or something where anonymity, privacy and discretion in regards to the information is vital. I don't do the former, and in the latter case, you'd better be darn sure you can trust the people... as in knowing them first-hand, or designing the service yourself. Torrenting/P2P is the main reason I was using it, but I've been doing it my entire life prior with no VPN and never had a problem. I think if you encrypt it outgoing, don't allow incoming legacy, don't use public trackers, make a tight set of firewall rules, and use a random port above 50K that you change each session... you'll be just fine. And if you want to run it through a proxy, do that too.
     
    Last edited: Dec 2, 2011
  19. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    @luciddream

    I don't trust my ISP either :) I don't trust VPNs any more than I trust Tor exit nodes. Maybe some, because they have reputations to protect. But for anything that matters, I use end to end encryption.

    I run VPN clients on dedicated pfSense router VMs, not on workstation VMs. The routers are set up like typical perimeter firewalls for ISP WANs: allow LAN to any rule, with outbound NAT for LAN to OpenVPN (instead of to WAN). No changes are required for workstations.

    pfSense router VM(s) get WAN IP address from VirtualBox's DHCP server. If your network setup can deal overall with changes in WAN IP address by your ISP, pfSense router VM(s) should be OK as well.
     
  20. DasFox

    DasFox Registered Member

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    luciddream and mirimir, if I've shared information to help, then it seems you both aren't getting this, so let me try and explain this all another way and then hopefully the both of you and others will better understand...

    This is also for anyone that is having a hard time!

    1. There are many big VPNs and I don't mean big in name, but big as real business! Comodo, OpenVPN, SwissVPN, these three as an example and there are others, but right now I can't think of them and when I do I'm going to make a list, that these are the only ones people stick to until they get the hang of this world...

    2. In regards to number one above, I always recommend that people look for a VPN with a real business and what I mean about a 'Real' business, are they established with a name and a credible reputation? Again big as you can imagine, big as Comodo, OpenVPN, etc, not just anyone...

    3. With regards to not being able to trust a VPN any more then Tor, that is absurd, because with many of the exit nodes on Tor, you can't establish credibility the same way you can, like going out to Comodo and OpenVPN and using their services...

    4. I'm talking about using a VPN that is just as big as your ISP and if people can't trust their ISP, then something is wrong and you either live in a very messed up part of the world or you've got a really screwed up ISP and you need to change it, but this has nothing to do with the quality of anyone else's services, like a VPN...

    You guys are going out there messing around with all these small named VPNs, wait let's back that up, many of them have a name, but are they really a big name in business like I'm trying to explain here? No they are not and this is what I'm trying to drive home, am I getting clear with this so you understand? Do they have a name like Comodo, OpenVPN, Apple, Microsoft, well Apple and Microsoft might be talking it a bit far, but this is my point these are BIG NAMES and this is what you need to be looking at, as BIG as possible! 'ESTABLISHED BIG CREDIBLE VPN COMPANIES!

    So what do you expect? I'm sorry you need to start looking at the ones who are a real business that we can verify and tell, and there are plenty of those. But even still, there can be problems, but it should not happen all that often, like HideMyAss as an example...

    Having a VPN, that has your IP because you connect to them and you aren't sure about trust, well if you're using someone like Comodo, then there could be lawsuits against a company like this if they were doing something illegal towards compromising your safety, now just consider that and that is a fact, there are laws to protect on both sides, this is why you go with a big business so you have protection, not just from the VPN but help from the law if you need it.

    Ok so you aren't sure about a VPN, then you still have to look at any big business VPNs out there to see if any of them have proven what they say and this is where I pointed out in the past PRQ, that held up against the law that tried to take them down and they had nothing to offer, gave no assistance and they did not compromise the security, privacy and integrity of their clients and stood up to the law, proved themselves and protected their clients and business! But here's the tricky side, PRQ, are they really as a big a name of business I've been talking about? I'm not too sure they are, but what they've done is proven themselves, so if you find a small company like this, then I say you should be pretty safe, because they've shown you their colors and how serious they are!

    Also, I know many of you use Windows and there are Pros & Cons with every system but the truth of the matter is there are more exploits on the Windows system then in Unix based systems. Unix based system are safer and more hardened out the box then Windows, that's a fact. Sure you can get Windows pretty hardened and I'm sure with experience maybe as good as Unix, but let me tell you, in my 20 years of using Windows and 11 years in Unix, I have not been able to make Windows as secure and I'd never mess around with Windows anymore when it comes to matters of security, privacy and safety, you're taking a bigger risk. So you guys that are really serious about all this, really need to start looking at using Linux or Unix.

    I'm sorry also that you guys think you need a VPN because you're doing something wrong and the people who do nothing wrong have nothing to fear, nothing could be so far from the truth, because honest decent people are at risk all the time when using the internet and just because they don't do anything means nothing. In fact this sounds so much like Propaganda that big governments want you to believe, if you're doing nothing wrong, then you have nothing to fear. The TRUTH is, we have the corrupted governments around the world to fear and this is why the good and smart people around the world use a VPN or Tor to stay safe and free from corruption that wants to endanger us...

    So I'm sorry you guys are having a rough go at this, but I can see you also lack the experience that I've been trying to share and help you with, but you're not taking it and you're going on your own instincts and what is it getting you? --> NOTHING!

    We all have to make choices, but start learning to make the right choices, going with BIG CREDIBLE VPN BUSINESSES and then taking it from there, so in time with experience you'll know better.

    So like I said before, when I can remember the other big named business VPNs out there I'll make a list and tell people just to stick to them until you start getting an understanding of this better and how to deal with it...

    Using a VPN is just like anything thing else on the computer, it takes time, effort and experience to get good at it, don't expect to jump in over night night and have it all figured out, because just when you have the 'Good Business' side of it figured out, then there's the technology side you need to deal with, to make sure it's all working right, to help keep you safe...


    CHEERS
     
    Last edited: Dec 2, 2011
  21. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    I do trust big name VPNs more than random Tor exit nodes, it's true. But I'm happier when I don't need to.

    I do "live in a very messed up part of the world" :'(
     
  22. The Oracle

    The Oracle Registered Member

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    I don't at all. For US customers, I haven't found anything that I feel comfortable with yet. That is how I ended up here ;)
     
  23. The Oracle

    The Oracle Registered Member

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    Thanks this was helpful, and thanks for the pic! I am going to give ivpn a trial run and see how their US servers are. I would still like to know exactly where they reside though (inside or outside EU).
     
  24. The Oracle

    The Oracle Registered Member

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    OK, I have tried to sign up 3 times now, and every time I click on submit after checking off my payment option, and it just sits there saying "please wait" and does nothing else and it doesn't go any further. Yea this is a service (iVPN) I want to sign up for that is reliable LOL. Next!
     
  25. luciddream

    luciddream Registered Member

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    Well FWIW, my experience with iVPN was great, and so was everyone elses I've talked to. Your encounter is the exception. Their customer service was by far the best of the ones I looked into. They always got back to me within 24 hours. Sign up/set up was seamless. Speeds were great. I saw you say you expect dial up speeds for oversea servers... using their multi-hop UK to Netherlands servers I experienced barely any slowdown from my normal ISP speeds. Just a slight delay. And they never asked me for any personally identifiable information, as I saw you suggest. Of course you need an email addy for correspondence, but just don't link it to your real name (dummy account).

    They're based offshore from Italy, in Malta btw. They have servers in France, UK, Netherlands, US (don't recall which cities).

    Anyhow, the reasons I don't use one anymore consist of more things than mere "trust", as mentioned. Honestly, I trusted iVPN more than the next guy. More than my ISP, probably. They said & did all the right things, anyway.

    btw... do you have 1'st party scripts and/or cookies disabled? That could impede your progress. Of course, you'd have probably thought of that.
     
    Last edited: Dec 3, 2011
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