How do you mask your wifi while streaming content at home?

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MelonSplitter

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I have VPN software on my computer which is hardwired to my router, so I feel I'm pretty well anonymous there. But sometimes I stream content on my phone
using the same router with wifi. Is there a way or a need to hide your wifi address when streaming questionable content using your home router?
 
You'd have to either encrypt the connection at the router level, if your router supports it (some more advanced routers have built-in VPN connectivity (such as OpenVPN) that you could use to route all/select traffic through the VPN), or you would have to encrypt it on the phone via a VPN client for that platform.
PrivateInternetAccess (PIA) for example, provides both the above options, as I imagine other popular VPN providers do.
 
Who are you trying to hide your activity from, other people on your private LAN or others on the internet?
 
Are you saying you are running a VPN from your workstation to your router? Who is on your internal network you are worried about snooping and why?
 
There is never going to be a safe way to really hide what you are doing. You can obscure it as much as possible. But anytime you go from one VPN to another, it sits in plain text at the junction for some amount of time. That being said, it's not very likely someone is going to intercept that information at that exact time (although possibly from cache, depending on how your router handles that). What you are really looking for here is either VPN from your phone to the router, or some other type of encryption that both your phone and router can handle.

EDIT: I do not condone or support any suspicious activity. :D
 
ChRoNo16 said:
Trying to hide kiddie porn or what? Im lost as to what your streaming.
Click to expand...
You are lost because he made no mention of it because it isn't relevant, though that didn't stop you from posting, twice and contributing exactly two fewer times than that.

OP, I don't know who your current VPN provider is but I know PIA and Torguard both provide VPN apps for mobile.


RE: Appearing to lack understanding of network security. No shit, that's why he asked the question, genius.
 
Mullvad supports router level VPN if your router supports it. Check it out.
 
If you are trying to obfuscate and encrypt your internet usage, you need a VPN service like Private Internet Access (PIA). This encrypts data from your home router as it traverses the internet to PIA's servers. From PIA's servers, information is sent unencrypted to your normal destination, where it gets encrypted as it makes its return trip (data is still unencrypted until it is encapsulated with PIA's servers) until it reaches the destination (your home router) where it again becomes unencrypted to your client devices.

How it looks if you run PIA on your home router:

(source) Wireless client -> not encrypted -> wireless router -> encrypted -> internet -> PIA servers -> not encrypted -> internet -> original destination ->

(return) original destination -> not encrypted -> internet -> PIA servers -> encrypted -> Internet -> your wireless router -> not encrypted -> wireless client

How it looks if you run PIA client on a wireless client (PC, Mac, etc):

(source) Wireless client -> encrypted -> wireless router -> internet -> PIA servers -> not encrypted -> internet -> original destination ->

(return) original destination -> not encrypted -> internet -> PIA servers -> encrypted -> Internet -> your wireless router -> wireless client

With the first method, traffic from your wireless client to your wireless router is unencrypted; meaning, anyone on that network can "snoop/sniff" the traffic and see what you are doing...save for anything being sent over encryted mediums (SSH, SSL/HTTPS, SFTP, etc.)

With the second option, all traffic from your wireless client is encrypted until it reaches PIAs servers where it becomes decrypted. It will then be encrypted again when it makes it return trip through PIA, and stays encrypted until it reaches the original host. Anything on your local network cannot inspect this traffic, unless you have some kind of MITM configured.

If you are trying to encrypt traffic from your wireless client to your home router, so no one on your wireless network can snoop the traffic, you need to configure local VPN on your router - refer to your router documentation for this (a lot of home routers do not support this). Information sent over the internet is not encrypted this way, as your gateway will decrypt the traffic before it sends it out.

Ignore the holier than thou posts on here, they would rather waste everyone's time by trying to incriminate you rather than be helpful.

It sounds like you are trying to hide your internet usage from your service provider, so I would suggest a VPN service like PIA. Do keep in mind though, not everything is perfect; the best you can do is a "best effort".
 
Last edited:
Sometimes it's just easier if they come out and say 'hey I want to DL some linux iso', or 'hey, I want to stream linux isos and make sure no one sees me/due to country restrictions'.

It's easier to help someone when they just come right out with it :)
 
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scobar said:
Sometimes it's just easier if they come out and say 'hey I want to DL some linux iso', or 'hey, I want to stream linux isos and make sure no one sees me/due to country restrictions'.

It's easier to help someone when they just come right out with it :)
Click to expand...

This is exactly what I asked without going into specifics. Also, I never said anything about DL. I said streaming. But since specifics is what you want, then its Kodi. I don't want to get caught using Kodi to stream NFL games on my phone and TV. Damn you guys are brutal.
 
Buy a VPN and use that on the phone and TV, instead of using it on the router use it local on the unit, that way everything is encrypted.

or stop watching NFL games :)
 
Cmustang87 said:
If you are trying to obfuscate and encrypt your internet usage, you need a VPN service like Private Internet Access (PIA). This encrypts data from your home router as it traverses the internet to PIA's servers. From PIA's servers, information is sent unencrypted to your normal destination, where it gets encrypted as it makes its return trip (data is still unencrypted until it is encapsulated with PIA's servers) until it reaches the destination (your home router) where it again becomes unencrypted to your client devices.

How it looks if you run PIA on your home router:

(source) Wireless client -> not encrypted -> wireless router -> encrypted -> internet -> PIA servers -> not encrypted -> internet -> original destination ->

(return) original destination -> not encrypted -> internet -> PIA servers -> encrypted -> Internet -> your wireless router -> not encrypted -> wireless client

How it looks if you run PIA client on a wireless client (PC, Mac, etc):

(source) Wireless client -> encrypted -> wireless router -> internet -> PIA servers -> not encrypted -> internet -> original destination ->

(return) original destination -> not encrypted -> internet -> PIA servers -> encrypted -> Internet -> your wireless router -> wireless client

With the first method, traffic from your wireless client to your wireless router is unencrypted; meaning, anyone on that network can "snoop/sniff" the traffic and see what you are doing...save for anything being sent over encryted mediums (SSH, SSL/HTTPS, SFTP, etc.)

With the second option, all traffic from your wireless client is encrypted until it reaches PIAs servers where it becomes decrypted. It will then be encrypted again when it makes it return trip through PIA, and stays encrypted until it reaches the original host. Anything on your local network cannot inspect this traffic, unless you have some kind of MITM configured.

If you are trying to encrypt traffic from your wireless client to your home router, so no one on your wireless network can snoop the traffic, you need to configure local VPN on your router - refer to your router documentation for this (a lot of home routers do not support this). Information sent over the internet is not encrypted this way, as your gateway will decrypt the traffic before it sends it out.

Ignore the holier than thou posts on here, they would rather waste everyone's time by trying to incriminate you rather than be helpful.

It sounds like you are trying to hide your internet usage from your service provider, so I would suggest a VPN service like PIA. Do keep in mind though, not everything is perfect; the best you can do is a "best effort".
Click to expand...
Thanks.
 
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