paid vpn service recommendation as of october '14?

Discussion in 'privacy technology' started by imdb, Oct 5, 2014.

  1. Overdone

    Overdone Registered Member

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    @caspian, I didn't understand why you would ignore AirVPN. Do they get frequent connection drops? I've been with them for 3 months and I've gotten 0 connection drops.
     
  2. guest

    guest Guest

    I would have a hard time to consider about PIA due to it being based on USA though.
     
  3. caspian

    caspian Registered Member

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    I have had a great many experiences where Air would disconnect and then reconnect. And others have reported this, too. They offered a fix on their website but it involved downloading Comodo firewall and learning how to create firewall rules for their VPN. Why? Almost none of their customers will even know this is happening much less know how to create firewall rules or want to download some special software just to make their VPN work the way that it should already work. Many VPN providers have a fixed built in. When I had Cryptohippie and my connection was interrupted, my internet was blocked. And it would not reconnect. I had to manually disconnect and reconnect. Riseup VPN is the same way. Mullvad and PIA have a box you can check to do this. I don't trust AirVPN. I'll never use them again.
     
  4. caspian

    caspian Registered Member

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    Yes I am having second thoughts about that too. I may switch. But for any sensitive stuff that I do, all they see is my connection to Mullvad. And of course I can use the TBB on top of that.
     
  5. Phil McCrevis

    Phil McCrevis Registered Member

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    Cryptohippie seems very expensive, do they offer better protection then say JonDoNYM? After looking through their site seems JonDo (premium version) would offer very similar if not better protection for a whole lot less.

    Maybr mirimir could chime in on this?
     
  6. Page42

    Page42 Registered Member

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    Someone please explain to me why HMA can't be trusted and why they have been "socially banned" in Wilders (whatever that means)?
    Thank you.
     
  7. Phil McCrevis

    Phil McCrevis Registered Member

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    You bet!
     
  8. guest

    guest Guest

    No idea about anybody else's references, but here's mine:
    https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/hidemyass-provides-fbi-with-logs-for-lulzsec.308290/

    And also the fact that it's based on UK.

    JFYI there was also the EarthVPN incident:
    https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/earthvpn-user-arrested.358345/

    Let's not jump ourselves into moral and ideal discussions here. ;) Bottom line is, they completely log you and will give the data when being asked to. When the VPN service provider said they do not log then they shouldn't have anything to provide. Sure, any VPN service providers can do the same, which is why multi-hop plan can be a great idea when trying to preserve privacy and anonymity.

    Yeah, basically a VPN service provider is only as good until the user gets arrested lol.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 10, 2014
  9. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    JonDonym provides stronger anonymity than VPNs can, because trust is distributed among multiple mix operators, in different countries. But Tor provides even stronger anonymity, because there are far more nodes and users. On the other hand, JonDonym is far slower than VPNs, but quite a bit faster than Tor. Nested VPN chains probably provide weaker anonymity than JonDonym does, because there's no mixing, but they are faster. I discuss this at length at https://www.ivpn.net/privacy-guides/adversaries-and-anonymity-systems-the-basics.
     
  10. Page42

    Page42 Registered Member

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    Just asking for simple clarification, is all. Still don't get the "socially banned" reference, unless you mean unpopular?
    Thank you for the links, btw.
     
  11. guest

    guest Guest

    Socially banned means we will get slapped three times consecutively when recommending them to anyone.
     
  12. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    They're unpopular because they've demonstrated that, quoting GrafZeppelin, "they completely log you and will give the data when being asked to". Good VPN services don't log, so there's nothing to provide when asked.
     
  13. Less

    Less Registered Member

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    by the way, do you guys keep the vpn running when performing banking transactions, e.g. bills / utilities payments, internet banking transfers, online purchases.... just to name a few.

    Assuming that these institutions and merchants do not block vpn connections.
    Will you guys run the vpn services when performing those transactions?
     
  14. Page42

    Page42 Registered Member

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    Got it. TY
     
  15. Phil McCrevis

    Phil McCrevis Registered Member

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    Thanks for the info and the link. Will check it out.
     
  16. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    It's appropriate to use VPN services for financial etc transactions under your true name when you trust the local network less than you trust the VPN provider. For example, WiFi hotspots are notoriously insecure, and sometimes spoofed (by some kid at the next table, perhaps).

    However, you shouldn't use the same VPN service that you use for anonymity, because true-name use would compromise you.
     
  17. MisterB

    MisterB Registered Member

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    It is also possible to set up your own private VPN connection to a VPN server you set up on your home internet connection. This can be done with OpenVPN on a router using Tomato or DD-WRT firmware that has OpenVPN. I've already done this on the client side and I plan to set up the server now that I'm getting a grip on OpenVPN and what can be done with it. Then I should be able to tunnel to my home internet connection and real IP from anywhere just by leaving my router on. It is a bit complicated but not as complicated as I first thought it would be. OpenVPN is awesome. So much power in such a small package.
     
  18. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    Right. Then you can safely access your data remotely, and also access the Internet through your home uplink. You configure two routes on the home router/firewall, one from VPN to LAN, and the other from VPN to WAN.
    Indeed :thumb:
     
  19. imdb

    imdb Registered Member

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    well i wanted to check it out but found nothing but these two websites from which i could get no info about vpn service.
    https://secure.cryptohippie.com
    www.cryptohippie.net

    am i missing something here? where is the vpn service here?
     
  20. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    It seems that they no longer offer consumer VPN service.
     
  21. dogbite

    dogbite Registered Member

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    PIA happy user here. I do not care they are US based, we have discussed this plenty of times, this means nothing from a privacy standpoint.
     
  22. MisterB

    MisterB Registered Member

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    PIA has really good options for paying anonymously. The gift card options are good for those who can't use bitcoins. I view the US as a better jurisdiction than the UK. There is no censorship whatsoever of the internet and the mass surveillance hasn't gone unquestioned or unchallenged since the Snowdon revelations. Europe continues on the trend of censorship and website blocking in the UK and many other countries. Piracy seems a rather trivial reason for censorship to me and the blocking is both ineffective and caters to special interests based in the US who haven't succeeding in imposing such censorship in their home country.
     
    Last edited: Oct 12, 2014
  23. imdb

    imdb Registered Member

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    well i thought so. but when i saw some mention it here i thought i was wrong.
    thanks for the info.
     
  24. guest

    guest Guest

    Every country must have some sort of internet censorship, it's just the level that varies. I do agree that US isn't much on the internet censorship business, and of course UK is up there on the medium-high level for both internet censorship and surveillance. But see it this way, if I'm a US citizen or live in a country with close relationship or even an ally to the USA, it would be easier for USA to get us when we look so sexy in their eyes. At least if we are making use of their political relationship status it will complicate things a little bit. Intelligent agencies are not too intelligent anyway.
     
  25. MisterB

    MisterB Registered Member

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    It's a strange world sometimes. The US has lots of censorship but it is not done on a national level like in the UK or China. There is plenty of institutional and regional censorship at different levels. If you use the internet in any corporate network, public institution or library, there is a lot of blocking. In regards to VPNs, there are lots of differing jurisdictions within the US with differing legal and social norms. I prefer large west coast cities as US exit nodes. This is due to the greater anonymity having my data mixed into large nodes and streams of data, the general liberal don't care attitude of these areas and the good bandwidth from these nodes.
     
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