Is a VPN necessary

[Rock N Roll Rebel]

Hi, please tell me what VPN is good and if one is even necessary. I used to use PIA but I have not used a VPN in a long time

 

[whereismymind]

Not really but it depends on the circumstance. If you want security in mcdonalds coffee shop wifi, its pretty unnecessary if you're on an https-encrypted website. even if you aren't, pretty sure it doesn't matter anyway since nobody would be able to get your password or data. vpns are good if youre in a country with censorship laws though

 

[iameatingjam]

I've tried a few vpns I always get frustrated from sites blocking the IPs that other people have probably used for scams or w/e. Nordvpn way overcharged me one time and I had to go through my bank to correct it. Now if I need to do something private I just use tor. Otherwise I just use the brave browser. Its not a like a vpn but it is a security focused browser and thats good enough for me most of the time.

 

[Rock N Roll Rebel]

yep I think VPN is a waste of money and I fell into paying PIA for a three-year license I won't do that again
Shebba my cat would of loved it if I would have spent the money on her treats

 

[AMF]

the best free vpn is proton. i even switched to proton mail i no longer use google anything. i dont sign in to anything but this site amazon etc if its mandatory. i dont browse web on my phone or make a google account on my phone. . to me no one needs my real ip address if i deem it so

 

[GerKNG]

the best free vpn is proton. i even switched to proton mail i no longer use google anything. i dont sign in to anything but this site amazon etc if its mandatory. i dont browse web on my phone or make a google account on my phone. . to me no one needs my real ip address if i deem it so

Proton?
the swiss "company" that works directly with LEA... "no logs, ever!" until the police asks for and they have a protocol of everything you did, ip adresses, "encrypted" mails, etc.
nothing if free.

 

[W1zzard]

Absolutely not, unless you use BitTorrent to pirate software

Everything on the web is HTTPS encrypted anyway

 

[Hugis]

Or you use a VPN to geo-unlock/unblock sites (example-uk vpn and iplayer)

 

[Ivan Bliminse]

Thought about it until one of my friends told me about his experiences with VPN sites, so no, never use them.

 

[Rock N Roll Rebel]

one good thing about not using a VPN is things are a lot faster. one thing I hate about VPNs is they slow

 

[lemonadesoda]

I use a VPN to go from MyLOCATION1--to--MyOtherLOCATION2 so that my computer/laptop at MyLOCATION1 can see all the devices at MyOtherLOCATION2 as "local" and therefore access them without complex router forwarding rules, which would be necessary and unique to each and every device if I didnt VPN. I can also exit out to of local to the internet from MyOtherLOCATION2 allowing me to spoof location when I need to. E.g. Germany to UK, which isnt often, but sometimes content is blocked or payments or language defaults based on the location the webserver thinks you are at. Example, banks, university servers, government sites, BBC iplayer etc.

The VPN server is private, ie mine, not a paid service. I use the inbuilt Windows VPN client, and a synology VPN server at the other end. When I click the wifi icon in the taskbar, I get to choose one of my VPN servers just like wifi SSID. Once set up it is effortless to connect/disconnect. When I am at location1 I can access location2. When I am at location2 I can access location1.

 

[Selaya]

i mean, if you just want to be (fully) anonymous - tor exists, and their exit nodes are of the same/similar quality (thanks tragedy of the commons) as those large paid vpn services public ips anyways so why pay for shit(ty) service

if you need/want a better public ip, you'll have to DIY from a vps or something instead

 

[kilo]

I use Proton mail's VPN since it includes other features with their email product. They have free VPN options but those are incredibly slow and don't reflect the paid VPN speeds.

The others are right saying you don't need a VPN for protecting your data or legal activities. My thinking is that the world and culture is changing so fast, you don't know what's going to be illegal or unacceptable or wrong think in 10 years. It's better to make it as difficult as possible for your ISP and email provider to sell your data and read your emails without your consent. It's illegal to open someone else's paper mail in the US but gmail is basically selling your mind.

 

[iameatingjam]

i mean, if you just want to be (fully) anonymous - tor exists, and their exit nodes are of the same/similar quality (thanks tragedy of the commons) as those large paid vpn services public ips anyways so why pay for shit(ty) service

if you need/want a better public ip, you'll have to DIY from a vps or something instead

Also tor reroutes your IP 3 times, if memory serves. And if you get brave ( sorry I never shut up about it) it has tor functionality built in. You can go open a new tab with tor like you can open a private tab in chrome, except this way its private in more ways than not just recording your browser history.

 

[Keullo-e]

Personally I haven't seen any reason for daily VPN usage. Though I've used a free VPN (Opera's own, installed it just for its VPN) few times when watching some geoblocked streams.

 

[the54thvoid]

It's better to make it as difficult as possible for your ISP and email provider to sell your data and read your emails without your consent. It's illegal to open someone paper mail in the US but gmail is basically selling your mind.

I was on gmail early on in its life and it practically sold itself on this premise. It picks out meaning from emails and sends advertising based on those emails your way, or in other aspects, when i book hotels or flights etc, through gmail, it sets auto reminders and gives me prompts about what's on nearby, As long as you know what it does, it's fine.

Simple choices abound - if you don't want to use gmail - don't use it.

As for VPN's - can be useful for avoiding the geographical software tax, and accessing (for me) US shows that can't be shown yet in the UK.

 

[Tahagomizer]

I use a VPN on every device because why not? Not that I'm slightly paranoid (although I do have actual bulletproof door certified for arms storerooms in my apartment, so...).
I use NordVPN, they supply openvpn config files so are OS agnostic. Seems to be the fastest VPN provider, on my 300/30Mb/s connection I only lose 3-5% to overhead and go from 6-8ms to 10-11ms latency, so there is no noticeable performance impact.
For slightly more privacy my choice is Mullvad VPN, they have a very unique approach to doing business which I respect, but don't have a very robust infrastructure. For a reasonable maximum security there's TOR, of course. Or use Linode and roll your own... the possibilities are endless
VPN is definitely not necessary, it's just a bit of privacy in the world where your ISP sells your DNS history to marketing companies, email provider reads your emails to target ads, phone listens to everything you say looking for marketing keywords and so on.

 

[iameatingjam]

I use a VPN on every device because why not? Not that I'm slightly paranoid (although I do have actual bulletproof door certified for arms storerooms in my apartment, so...).
I use NordVPN, they supply openvpn config files so are OS agnostic. Seems to be the fastest VPN provider, on my 300/30Mb/s connection I only lose 3-5% to overhead and go from 6-8ms to 10-11ms latency, so there is no noticeable performance impact.
For slightly more privacy my choice is Mullvad VPN, they have a very unique approach to doing business which I respect, but don't have a very robust infrastructure. For a reasonable maximum security there's TOR, of course. Or use Linode and roll your own... the possibilities are endless
VPN is definitely not necessary, it's just a bit of privacy in the world where your ISP sells your DNS history to marketing companies, email provider reads your emails to target ads, phone listens to everything you say looking for marketing keywords and so on.

I'm biased against nord for overbilling me so keep that in mind, but just want to make sure you know they had a major data breach a few years ago and a bunch client data was stolen.

Well they deny that last part, but I dunno how they'd know when all they do is rent space from a server farm and sell it back to people ( I've always thought vpns must be very profitable because of the amount of them and also how much spare cash they seem to have for advertising). They would clearly have an incentive for lying or playing dumb in this situation.

Why would you break into nords rented servers if you did not intend to steal something, or hold something hostage?

Anyway with the minimum amount of conjecture, I can at least say their security is shit/non-existent.

Anyway, thought you should know, incase you didn't.

 

[kilo]

I was on gmail early on in its life and it practically sold itself on this premise.

Fair point. I was trying to use it as an example of a service that is less than "private." Older people (myself included) think of "mail" as private, therefore e"mail" implicitly should be private.

I'm biased against nord for overbilling me so keep that in mind, but just want to make sure you know they had a major data breach a few years ago and a bunch client data was stolen.

Nord will continue to be a high value target both due to signon price and their advertising reach.

There are a few VPN's that accept cash by mail. Combined with Tails, that might be the closest you get to reasonably secure on the internet.

 

[bug]

Hi, please tell me what VPN is good and if one is even necessary. I used to use PIA but I have not used a VPN in a long time

You could set up a VPN if you have a bunch of smart home devices that you want to access remotely. I wouldn't trust those with an open Internet connection.
It can also be useful if, for whatever reasons, you want your IP concealed.

 

[Bill_Bright]

Deja vu all over again!

As I noted just yesterday in this thread, (43) Do I need a VPN | TechPowerUp Forums,

No - maybe.

If you connect via your home network, you keep your operating system and security current, you don't let strangers use your computer, and you are not "click-happy" on every link you see, you avoid HTTP and only visit HTTPS sites, and you use a good ad blocker, you don't need one.

But if you frequently connect to wifi hotspots at coffee shops, hotels, airports, etc. using a VPN would be a good idea.

This Consumer Reports article is a couple years old but still relevant. I like it because CR is unbiased and has no financial incentive to push this or that security program on its readers.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Depends on your region or state in the US as a example
Some US states have restricted some sites to proof of age so using a vpn can go around that nonsense pretty easily with random private ip's or bouncing through other countries private ip's lol

Otherwise vpm will slow your internet speed down so they are a double edged sword not normally needed but they do serve some usefulness

I've been using proton free and it's served it's purpose but no I don't use it all the time for any added security mbam pro is all I need for that bit.

If I'm on a insecure network motel/... I just use my cell network with cell phone features.

Proton?
the swiss "company" that works directly with LEA... "no logs, ever!" until the police asks for and they have a protocol of everything you did, ip adresses, "encrypted" mails, etc.
nothing if free.

Dude so does microsoft and apple and google lol

yep I think VPN is a waste of money

Boom !

 

[bug]

Hi,
Depends on your region or state in the US as a example
Some US states have restricted some sites to proof of age so using a vpn can go around that nonsense pretty easily with random private ip's or bouncing through other countries private ip's lol

Can be useful when, for example, some stupid US store won't let you browse because you're not in the US.

Otherwise vpm will slow your internet speed down so they are a double edged sword not normally needed but they do serve some usefulness

Old VPNs, yes. Newer VPNs, based on the Wireguard protocol, have a very minor impact on your bandwidth. I know NordVPN supports that, I'm not sure about other providers. A number of them were "getting ready to support Wireguard", last I checked.
That said, the VPN my employer needs me to use, flat out halves my transfer rates.

 

[theFOoL]

I only use a VPN "Hide ME" to DL Movies (Now come on Guy's with the prices now) my ISP "AT&T" doesn't seem to Track but I know if I was on Cable like they certainly would

Like why isn't any ISP blocking torrent sites

 

[bug]

Like why isn't any ISP blocking torrent sites

Blocking torrent sites is useless. That's not where the content comes from.