Double hop VPNs

I'm interested, especially in their promised multi-hop service. However, payment options are either non-anonymous (credit cards, transfers) or slow (cash). I'd be much happier with Pecunix or Liberty Reserve, or even a supposedly-anonymous third-party payment processor, such as DalPay.

 

The FAQ was last updated in Dec-09. Are they still in business?

In the FAQ, I'm informed that "VirtuCard Plus is welcome wherever major debit cards are accepted (except online gambling sites)." Do they exclude online-gambling to limit their money-laundering exposure?

Let's say that I want to subscribe to XYZ VPN, which accepts Visa, Master Card, Discover, etc. What would my Virtucard Plus qualify as?

Are these the cards that Mossad hit teams have reportedly used?

 

IMHO, Im not convinced personally that multi hops is more secure than a single hop. Either the servers are secure or they are not. If they are not then a hacker or governement agency has access to your alpha server and can access all the servers. If they are secure then no one can get
into your servers no matter what. Security is determined by the weakest link. Multi hops sounds good but its really just about server security and I, personally, wouldn't bother with it because it will slow down the connection appreciably.

 

It makes you more difficult to trace.

 

It's also about traffic analysis. [What caspian said.]

 

I've used VPN4ALL software for a month. It does not have multihop, but I've got them from bestvpnreviews.com. It is on the first place in their rating. This convicted me that I don't really need multihop. The software has fast servers, and it's very simple to use. They also propose some extra services like automatic anti-virus, anti-spam software,etc. By the way, you can try the trial version by the link: http://www.vpn4all.com/trial/.

 

When I first checked their website, they were promising a multi-hop pro service with multiplexing, crowding and so on -- and that's gone now. And they didn't reply to my email. Maybe they don't like xerobank addresses.

I don't understand the point of anti-virus, anti-spam etc. I want a VPN, not a nanny. I don't use that stuff from my ISP, even. I want to control what I block, rather than ceding control -- and I definitely won't pay extra for it. It's bloatware, IMHO. I do like the option to buy additional throughput, though.

 

A single hop VPN which assigns a single IP to all clients on each server would probably provide as much anonymity as a double or triple hop VPN, assuming there are many clients connected at any one time. Here is a provider which does exactly that. They have servers in Romania and Malaysia (as well as US and UK) and an impressive selection of anonymous payment options. They also throw in your own bittorrent seedbox with 20GB storage and an additional 20GB of FTP storage. All for $10/month.

 

I'm thinking of anonyproz, but unlike some other
vpn providers, he's awfully cagey about letting anyone find out who, where, and what he is. I'm worried that he might abuse my signup information (I want to use PayPal), or more problematically, my data going through his server.

Any comments?

Thanks.
C.

 

Well like any other privacy service, you need to be able to trust your provider. If you don't trust the service, then get out! Thats probably worse than just using your ISP. However, in terms of him stealing your signup info, I don't think thats likely. For example, if you use PayPal, then when you sign-off on that payment its all over SSL directly with PayPal. All he would see is your real email address (that is linked to your PayPal account). Now you still have to make sure you are actually connecting to the real PayPal site over SSL and that the certificate is legit, but that is the same for any online payment. So if all that checks out you should be fine.

In terms of the privacy of your data going over the VPN server, well really you have none. Unless you are on SSL (or using other end-to-end encryption like PGP) then they can see all your traffic in the clear. The secure tunnel is only protecting you from snooping between you and the VPN. After it leaves the VPN its anybody's game. However this goes the same for basically any VPN. So at some point you just have to trust one of them. Best thing to do is just try to read reviews and get recommendations from trusted sources (but then how can you trust those sources? It never ends!).

To get back on topic though: Don't you guys think simply chaining two independent VPN providers would offer more security than using a single provider multi-hop solution? Aside from the fact that you could actually verify that your connection was multi-hop (instead of just trusting a provider's "black-box" solution) I think it could have other benefits too. Its more unlikely that 2 different providers would be simultaneously compromised by the same attacker. Of course if the attacker was sniffing the exit node they could still see what was going on, but it would be a lot more difficult to link that back to you through 2 providers (especially if logs were not keep even at just one of them). And the most important aspect of using 2 different providers, is that the second VPN need not know your real IP. If you paid through anonymous means, and only ever connected to them through another VPN, then they would never have any trace of your identity. Even if their servers were completely compromised it would still be difficult to link back to you. With a single service you don't have that security. Am I making any sense here or did I miss something obvious?

 

And my full name.

I've only found about two customer reviews on the Net. They're both favorable, and my gut feeling is that they are genuine, but it bothers me that he's so cagey about identifying himself. 'Real' companies don't act like that.

Thanks again.
C.

 

WOT gives a poor rating on VPN4ALL website.... mmm.....

 

Vpn4all doesn't use 'crowding' despite what it advertises. Talk to their support people.

Anyone come across VPN providers that make use of crowding ?

 

Here is another multihop VPN. They will enable port forwarding on request.

https://www.ivpn.net/

 

IVPN looks interesting and i'll have to try out a month of their service.
The allure of dual hop vpn calls me, yet their claim of no logging bothers me
as most vpn companies have some form of backlog that may be striped of the users ip's but for business purposes.

Has anyone tried these guys yet?
Where are they located?

 

Well now.. I paid for the service but I can't connect for some odd reason and I submitted a ticket 6 hours ago, so this isn't going very well so far.

Edit: Solved the problem myself.. had to enable lzo
Double Edit: Ok now that everything is up and running the service is fast and they use different domain names which is good. You don't want to advertise that you are using a vpn. I'll be using this service for a while and report back.

 

They use crowding as well. I haven't tried their service although their support people were quick to respond and seem to be knowledgeable.

 

My bet is England.

I've found that the use of the word "whilst" is a fairly reliable way of pinpointing someone to England.

How fast is fast? What kind of sustained speeds do you have? Can you torrent?

 

Edit: The speed doesn't max out my connection, and last time I tested it was around 3mbps.
Mullvad isn't a two hop vpn but my connection is nearly maxed out.

You have to ask for port forwarding from iVPN because as it is an insecurity but I've used Skype and others so I think it should work well.

I am very happy with the service, not so much with the speed. The price is a bit much but it is dual hop and you have options like from the Netherlands to the UK or UK to the US

I'll keep this service for a few months to see if it is really worth it.

 

iVPN is based in Malta.

http://www.ivpn.net/faq.php#B1

This and the fact they accept cashU suggests a Middle East origin.

Mullvad uses 128-bit Blowfish rather than 256-bit AES.

https://mullvad.net/en/services.php

 

That I did not know, I must have missed it.

I am torrenting through iVPN with no issues currently and I like the service so far. It seems I am getting 80-85% of my bandwidth through iVPN. Their $15 price tag is high but not as much as others who offer dual hop VPN. There needs to be some inquires made for further details.

 

If I needed a multihop VPN with port forwarding I would probably use Anonyproz -- chain as many servers as you like any way you like.

http://www.anonyproz.com/supportsuite/index.php?_m=downloads&_a=viewdownload&downloaditemid=37&nav=0

They have a comprehensive knowledge base and downloads section and are one of the very few VPNs that accept Pecunix, which is probably superior in privacy to Liberty Reserve, esp. if you enable their options for PGP authentication and emails. Anonyproz is based in New Zealand so decide for yourself whether you are comfortable with that. They also offer OpenVPN Over SSH Tunnel for double encryption (see their sign-up page).

 

But do you really need multi hop vpn's for just watching the occasional torrent? I lightly torrent and am just trying to keep things safe so i dont get the letter from my IsP.. I dont have torrent farms or anything like that.. So for me-- do i really need a dual hop? I was with trilight and to be honest-- had a really good experience with them.. But after reading here-- it has be a little bit worried.. So im thinking about trying ivpn or anonypro... I read the tos on those services and of course they give the typical "you can use our service for torrent -- but no copyright stuff".. Of course they have to say that.. What is a good vpn to use that doesnt seem to mind torrents and yet still has good speed and is safe(wont share info)...

LoL--- i was feeling safe till i started reading the forums here -- now i dont know what to do

 

If all you are worried about is copyright infringement just use any of the €5 Swedish VPNs like Anonine, VPNtunnel.se, DarknetVPN or Mullvad. They are cheap, fast and will protect you from copyright infringement letters just as well as any VPN on the planet. Then sing the pirate song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AzpByR3MvI