In the Lidl frustration thread, mention was made of using a VPN. AVG have been badgering me for years to use their offering! Can someone kindly explain the benefits/downsides of joining the club?
I have already spotted that there is a limited use level on the free versions.
Do you want to "sneakily" sign up for e.g. USA netflix to watch series not yet on UK netflix? if so you might want a VPN
Main scare tactic that the VPN providers mention is "privacy", but most websites use https:// nowadays, so are already encrypted, and you ought to use imaps/pops/smtps if your email provider offers it, beyond that there's little that a public VPN offers, it can encrypt your DNS lookups, but for most people nor worth it.
private VPNs are a different matter, e.g they let you tunnel into the office from home and do everything basically as if you were in the office.
I had trouble with a theatre booking site's chosen IT provider for some reason turning its nose up at my IP address.
To get round it I used Opera, which can run its own free VPN, and the problem went away.
Chris
+1 for using Opera.
I don't think that any one has explained the downsides. The first is that you are appearing to come from some one else's IP address. Generally the VPN will have a limited range of addresses, so its likely you will share this IP with many people.
If its been used by "bad" people then that IP may be black listed or be associated with hacks and treated "less well" than your normal address.
Second if you have a quick connection you may also notice a slow down in network speed.
I like
Dave
I wonder if one could work with an Amazon Echo, to allow us to actually listen to radio via tune in as its all blocked by the Sony/Warner ruling about links to stations not paying uk licences.
I personally think that is not in the spirit of an open internet myself, especially as if you are in the US the foreign stations still exist on their version of tune in. Brian
it could, but you'd have to have the VPN configured in your router, and it could then interfere e.g. with BBC radio thinking you were abroad and blocking you (or limiting what bitrate you can use) ... so swings and roundabouts.
OK Dave. I'm not doing anything secret and don't really care if my searches are monitored. Newsgroup posts are public anyway. I think I have discouraged my eldest from sending videos of the grandchildren having their baths!
AVG threaten that I am not protected from:- Hacker attacks, fake websites and that my privacy and payments are vulnerable.
I guess sites near the top of a search check for duplicates themselves. My banks seem secure with several layers of identification. I do routine backups.
VPN seems a bit oversold.
From an inexpert user POV I am trying to get a cost/benefit/risk evaluation:-)
Plus the main privacy risk they're protecting is from your ISP. Do you trust BT, Sky, Virgin, etc - or some sketchy VPN provider who advertises on Facebook?
If you live under a repressive regime, maybe you need one. But do you trust that sketchy VPN provider?
If you really want one, run your own server.
Theo
Also things like geofences on various web sites - like watching iplayer while abroad, or getting past youtube things "blocked in your country".
There are other valid use cases, say when on public wifi or a potentially hostile ISP. Even if the individual connections you make are encrypted, you still leave a trail of meta data such as a list of all the sites you visit and how long you spend on them.
(then there are all the slightly more dubious cases, like hiding your real IP while running bittorrent, or signing up for accounts on services with fake ID etc)
Indeed.
Here is a slightly less alarmist take on it:
In my case, John Lewis!
Thunderbird for mail.
I'll continue ticking the *no thanks* box on the AVG, C Cleaner pop ups!
OK Andy and John.
I'm reassured and will continue ticking the *no thanks* box on C Cleaner and AVG pop ups:-)
Thanks to all.
If it is on your router you can have specific routing rules, but a lot of streaming sites detect and block suspected VPN addresses.
I use a paid for VPN service. It was mainly due to wanting to evade Virgin throttling policies many years ago, they throttled usenet. Eventually I left Virgin, but I keep the VPN on as it is very cheap and all set up.
Speeds are generally good, I'm normally am unaware of using it, but some sites do block/discriminate. I can easily bypass it if I choose to.
yes, you've then created a part-time job keeping on top of BBC and CDN IP subnets and adjusting routing acordingly ...
Well, I don't have a BBC licence as a matter of principle. It is easy to have principles when one doesn't watch sport, like soaps or the drivel they have as live TV.
But to answer the question. I do use Amazon Prime which does as you suggest, blocks the VPN. It was indeed a task to identify the necessary Amazon IPs, even routing using pfBlockerBG automatically updated dnsbl lists failed to keep up, there were dozens of IPs and they changed.
Then I hit on a simple cunning idea: use a proxy server on the router to bypass the vpn and have an extension on a browser to make it use the proxy. Remarkably easy to set up and works painlessly for Amazon Prime Video, automatically based upon a Amazon DNS url. Also if another site poses a problem I can just click a button on the browser to evade the VPN, e.g. who-called.co.uk.
pfBlockerNG
You don't really need a VPN for this though, just a proxy. A proxy is pretty trivial to set up and, at the simplest level, all you actually need is an ssh login on a host in the country where you want to appear to be connecting from.
I do this fairly regularly from France (doesn't matter of course where it's from) to allow me to access my GP's web site to do repeat prescriptions and to access e-books from the library. (In neither case can I see any particularly good reason why they reject connections from overseas!)
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