Can someone explain to me the advantages of using a VPN?
Can someone explain to me the advantages of using a VPN?
I've been using one but I'm not sure what benefits I'm getting from it. I feel like the only thing happening is I'm adding a little bit of latency to all my requests for no reason.
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Pros:
- Websites can't see your real IP and thus can't figure out your real location that easily
- You might also be able to blend in with other users who use the same VPN server
- Your ISP can't see what you're websites you're connecting to
- Your Network operator (e.g. a coffee shop offering public wifi) and you're ISP can't see your unencrypted connections (e.g. HTTP, Telnet)
- You can bypass regional censorship or other forms of content unavailability
Cons:
- Your VPN provider can see everything you're connecting to (but not the content if you use HTTPS, which thankfully has become very common), so you need to be able to trust them
- A good and trustworthy VPN usually costs money
- Slightly slower connection and higher latency
Things to look out for when choosing a VPN provider:
- No-log policy
- Regular security audits
- Open source client applications
- Private/anonymous payment options (crypto currency)
- Monero is the best option if you want to stay fully anonymous
- Minimal information required for signing up, ideally none (some providers don't even require an email address, they just give you a random generated Account ID)
your* ISP
Mullvad is the gold standard for VPNs in my book
No port forwarding BTW for anyone looking at this.
They recently gave up the fight against groups (copyright groups) accusing them of aiding with CSAM so they stopped port forwarding
AirVPN has port forwarding if you need that. You can also do it with Proton, but last time I used it, it was quite janky.
The fact that they allow you to order a physical voucher with a product key, and that product key serves as your only authentication makes it especially anonymous. I love it.
And ProtonVPN IMO.
Yeah. Proton, Mullvad and IVPN are the three best providers out there. That's also why they're recommended by privacy/security enthusiasts: https://www.privacyguides.org/en/vpn/?h=vpn#recommended-providers
It matches all the criteria I outlined. IVPN too btw: https://www.ivpn.net/
They're also on Mastodon, which is also a plus in my opinion (not really significant though) @ivpn@mastodon.social
Cash is the best payment option. Only mullvad and proton take cash.
Monero has yet to prove its privacy. Math nerds can’t crack an anonymous letter with cash.
In the cons there's also an increase of the attack surface since you'll be using a program to run the VPN
On the pros, some offer DNS blocking
WireGuard is now even part of the Linux kernel. The protocol and the reference implementation are fully open source, you can just download a WG profile from your provider and you won't even have to use their application.
On the pros, some offer DNS blocking
You can also set that up without a VPN, or independently of your VPN. The standard WireGuard client doesn't interfere with your DNS setup.
Wireguard and openvpn both have open source clients.
That may make it more secure than other clients, but the surface is still larger. Any time you add an executable
- Websites can't see your real IP and thus can't figure out your real location that easily