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So with net neutrality gone, are VPNs still useful? Can't the ISP just block the IP address if they want you to see only their approved/partner content?
Without making political comments, my answer is going to be short. Your ISP isn't going to be blocking a VPN and if they try, there are lots of ways to get around, mainly, good luck blocking 443.Excuse my ignorance, but isnt the ISP going to see the VPN's IP instead of yours? What stops them from blocking known VPN IPs, or even blocking the VPN IP that your account is showing up as, since its not the one they are assigning you?
You aren't wrong, but then again we got NN when we did because the ISPs were starting to dick around with things. They've been salivating for a couple years now over what they want to do, so it's not an unreasonable fear I feel.for god sakes....
We had NO net neutrality for like 2 decades before the last like 2 whopping years.
Did VPNs not work before ... ok then ... good god ... you guys act like NN being removed is the end of all energy in the universe.
You aren't wrong, but then again we got NN when we did because the ISPs were starting to dick around with things. They've been salivating for a couple years now over what they want to do, so it's not an unreasonable fear I feel.
Excuse my ignorance, but isnt the ISP going to see the VPN's IP instead of yours? What stops them from blocking known VPN IPs, or even blocking the VPN IP that your account is showing up as, since its not the one they are assigning you?
Not necessarily. It depends on where the endpoint for your VPN resides. For instance many people use VPNs in other countries that have laws preventing monitoring of traffic. I think the best way to answer your question is to try and simply explain what a VPN is and how it works (this is basic and not exact, its just an somewhat high level view).
PC (Yours): sends auth request to VPN server through ISP Gateway in clear text
ISP GW: Forwards request to VPN server in clear text
VPN Server: receives auth request, verifies, creates tunnel (there is some back and forth here between your system and the VPN server at this point in clear text)
PC: creates https request for bigboobies.com, request packet gets encrypted using the tunnel.
ISP: Sees encrypted traffic heading to VPN server, forwards it
VPN Server: Decrypts packet, sess https request for bigboobies.com and forwards request
VPN Server: Gets response from bigboobies.com and encrypts it using tunnel sending it back to PC.
ISP: Receives encrypted packet from VPN server heading to PC, forwards it.
PC: decrypts packet, opens https information to view page contents.
Once a VPN tunnel is established you are sending all your information through it and using the VPN server as a proxy server. So the ISP sees only that encrypted traffic is going between you and the VPN server, it does not see what is in the encrypted traffic.
The only way the ISP would know is if your VPN server company used the same ISP that you do. Then it could see the traffic between the VPN server and bigboobies.com and see the encrypted traffic between the VPN server and you, correlate the timestamps and make an educated guess that you are going to bigboobies.com through the VPN server.
Does that make more sense now?
Net Neutrality only plays a peripheral role in this situation in that the ISP may decided to throttle traffic to the VPN server. But even with Title II the ISP could use valid excuses why they would block or throttle traffic to a VPN server. So removing Title II does not really directly affect this particular situation.
Yes it wouldThanks for the great explanation without making it political (unlike others).
So hypothetically if comcast decides to throttle netflix, because they buy blockbuster, would using a VPN be able to get around that?
This is the question i should've asked in the OP, as i saw the deal on PIA VPN in the hot deals section and wondered if its something i should look into. Wasn't looking to start a political war.
Thanks for the great explanation without making it political (unlike others).
So hypothetically if comcast decides to throttle netflix, because they buy blockbuster, would using a VPN be able to get around that?
This is the question i should've asked in the OP, as i saw the deal on PIA VPN in the hot deals section and wondered if its something i should look into. Wasn't looking to start a political war.
Yes it would