VPNs

Discussion in 'privacy technology' started by max2, May 30, 2015.

  1. max2

    max2 Registered Member

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    Can you VPN just a web browser easily with any VPN ?
     
  2. NWOAbschaum

    NWOAbschaum Registered Member

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  3. max2

    max2 Registered Member

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    Is it safe ?
     
  4. krustytheclown2

    krustytheclown2 Registered Member

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    No, not really. Zenmate is just a proxy, not a VPN. Proxies tend to leak via DNS, Javascript, and/or Flash, I believe that SOCKS proxies are better than HTTP(S) but still not that good.

    You're best off with a real VPN that covers your entire connection, preferably OpenVPN but PPTP works in a pinch.
     
  5. max2

    max2 Registered Member

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    My problem is when I download with a VPN I never get my maximum download speed. That why I only want to filter my browser traffic through a VPN instead. Is it possible ?
     
  6. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    That's not unusual. But reputable VPN services are relatively fast. Check out https://airvpn.org/status/

    What's your direct download speed?
    Yes, it's possible. You could do it with routing and firewall rules. You'd point browsing-related ports (80 and 443) through the VPN, and torrent-related ports (whatever they are) through the physical network adapter. DNS (port 53) and time (port 123) would probably go through the VPN. And you'd need to decide how to handle other types of connections by port.

    But there's obviously less privacy, so it's a tradeoff. If there is some torrenting that you want to be fast, and if there's no need for privacy, it would be better to devote a separate VM to that.
     
  7. max2

    max2 Registered Member

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    Thanks.

    50 Mbps.
     
  8. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    With some experimentation, you can probably get at least 30Mbps through a VPN, maybe more. But it's hard for me to say, because I generally don't optimize for speed. Maybe others can share.

    Also, speedtest sites aren't accurate for torrenting. Torrenting will push VPN connections much closer to the direct link speed.
     
  9. MisterB

    MisterB Registered Member

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    You are always going to pay some sort of bandwidth penalty with a VPN. The more secure and private the connection, the greater the penalty in general.

    Online speed tests like speedtest.net are not accurate through a VPN connection. You will get the exit nodes speed and yours combined. I always get a faster speed reading than my actual ISP bandwidth but nowhere near the VPN's rated bandwidth. In your case it could go the other direction. If you want to measure the bandwidth accurately, use a multi connection download client and use at least 4 connections. Download a known file from a known and fast server. The speed you get will accurately reflect the whole connection. For each nested VPN , I get around a 20% speed reduction.

    If you want high privacy and high bandwidth, you are going to pay more for it. None of the free VPNs are going to give you 30mbs to download torrents for very long.
     
  10. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    Yes, as MisterB says, no free VPN will give you 30Mbps. Except as a limited-time trial.

    There are many ways to test throughput. And multiple connections do push VPNs better. But there can easily be 20 peers in a torrent swarm, and it's hard to test for that except by torrenting.
     
  11. Tyrizian

    Tyrizian Registered Member

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    Not true, I use the free version of CyberGhost VPN, and the connection speeds always range between 25Mbps - 35Mbps (Mostly 30 and above).

    I've been using it for awhile now and nothing has changed as far as the speeds go.

    Yes, this is a limitation in comparison to their monthly/yearly subs, as they offer higher speeds, But I would say CyberGhost is quite generous with the free version

    The only limitations are...

    Periodic GUI offers to paid versions (Every 2 hours)
    3 hour disconnects (Can re-connect every time it happens)
    80 free servers in 16 countries (More in paid version)
    17 second queue times.

    Benefits...

    Unlimited Bandwidth
    Unlimited Traffic
    AES 256-Bit Encryption
    Antifingerprinting system

    To me, this is probably the only free version of a vpn that offers an acceptable limitation set.
     
    Last edited: May 31, 2015
  12. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    @TyRizian

    You get 25-35Mbps for free?

    What's the catch?
     
  13. Tyrizian

    Tyrizian Registered Member

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    Look at the limitations in my previous post (edited).

    Those limitations might be enough to get people to upgrade, as for me those limitations don't bother me.
     
  14. MisterB

    MisterB Registered Member

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    I said that you wouldn't get 30 mbs for free for very long. 3 hours is not very long. Most free VPNs will either throttle speed or limit the total amount of data and disconnect you when you reach the limit. Free subscription offers to a paid service might be different.
     
  15. krustytheclown2

    krustytheclown2 Registered Member

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    I would recommend testmy.net for speed tests since it actually downloads and uploads files from your browser, flash and HTML5 speed tests are indeed rather inaccurate.

    Personally, I use a paid VPN, and I get around 60-80% of my speed when using a server that's relatively close to me, and about 30-50% when using a server across the ocean. It varies based on server load and the quality of the VPN service you choose. When I chain VPN's, then that hit applies yet again, for Tor over one VPN I get around 10% to 30% which isn't too awful.

    If OP wants something that's cheap and fast, I'd go with PIA, it may not be the absolute best for privacy but it isn't bad. They have a ton of servers and are very popular so their quality of service is going to be better than most. You also need to take throttling into account, ISP's in the US may slow down Netflix or Youtube connections slightly so the VPN may be a bit faster
     
  16. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    OK, thanks.

    With firewall rules to prevent leaks, needing to reconnect every three hours isn't so bad. BitTorrent, for example, tolerates transient disconnections quite well.
     
  17. Palancar

    Palancar Registered Member

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    I consistently get around 45-50 meg using Airvpn if I run a test with it as vpn1 only. IVPN performs similarly. Clarification: this is only a test with benchmarks for testing purposes. I almost never surf with one hop. 5 hops right now (entry to exit node) if you add vpn's and tor.
     
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