VPNs and Privacy

L

Linkleman

n00b
Joined
Apr 21, 2012
Messages
19
Hi all,

Am new to this side of networking and was just wondering if people could break down the options for invisibly browsing the web etc.

Ive read up on VPN's and understand the concept but it seems that its not 100% and there are some shady VPN companies out there.

If the general consensus is these are the best option then thats fine, but what other options are there (big or small) for this practice. What do you lot do?
 
Invisibly from who? You can never be 100% invisible - even if your ISP or whoever can't see it, where ever your requests end up is public. Also, is this your own PC or a company/school PC? If it's not your PC, then you have no guarantee they don't have monitoring software *on* the PC itself - VPN be damned.
 
Between cookies, facebook, advertisements and a host of other tracking methods, if a shady government organization or large organization wants to track you, they can probably do so.

I can't find the article, but there was research done that just using the anonymous data presented by your browser is sometimes enough to track anonymous users; screen resolution, browser version, plugins and plugin versions, OS, etc...

It depends on what you're trying to do.

If you're in Syria trying to avoid being disappeared, then TOR on a laptop booted from a knopix CD on a random open wireless AP is your best bet.

If you're trying to pirate last week's episode of The Office, then using a browser in anonymous mode and not signing in to any services might be good enough.
 
No they are mine. Ok cool thats first question answered that I can never be 100%.

Next question, how do i be 99.9%? I wanted browse and connect without ISP's/prying eyes etc. knowing where/who I am as it makes me uneasy to know everything I do is logged somewhere. How would I go about setting up my own VPN and not using a 3rd party (maybe i have misunderstood the concept so please correct me).
 
lol ok thanks for your help.

Maybe i have made this sound incredibly dramatic. Its not. Its just trying to offer some privacy when browsing and downloading from the net from within home networks.

Just trying to find out some information and lot of what Im reading is contradictory. How good a solution is a VPN for this method really and what other options are there (not too heavy if possible but all considered as its all knowledge)
 
Linkleman said:
lol ok thanks for your help.

Maybe i have made this sound incredibly dramatic. Its not. Its just trying to offer some privacy when browsing and downloading from the net from within home networks.

Just trying to find out some information and lot of what Im reading is contradictory. How good a solution is a VPN for this method really and what other options are there (not too heavy if possible but all considered as its all knowledge)
Click to expand...

If all you need it for is web browsing, consider an SSH tunnel instead. It's less complicated than a VPN and more secure (IMO). Joining a VPN puts your entire PC on that foreign network. Sending page requests through an SSH tunnel is just that - sending requests and getting info back.

Very easy to set up with PuTTY & the browser of your choice, you'll just need a host - something like a cheap, private VPS would take care of it very nicely (as low as $4-$5 a month with specials) or there are tunneling services available out there.
 
Invisibility isn't really feasible for most of us, the best we can do is just to blend into the background and not be "easy" to track. I use a paid VPN that is in Europe which claims they don't keep logs. I feel this is a reasonable amount of protection because;

1) I'm not doing anything illegal. Criminal investigations are on a whole different level than just government or private industry "snooping".
2) The VPN is in Europe so any information request would be subject to European privacy standards (much stronger than here in the US). Even if the VPN provider is willing to talk to the US inquirer its going to be more complicated, time consuming, and inconvenient (read; expensive) to go fishing.
3) The VPN claims it keeps no logs. They could be lying, but if they are and they get caught out it will cost them all their clients who are paying for "privacy" that the VPN is not delivering. I like it when my interests and my service providers align.

The VPN option is cheap, easy to use, and provides me with pretty decent protection.
 
Franko said:
Invisibility isn't really feasible for most of us, the best we can do is just to blend into the background and not be "easy" to track. I use a paid VPN that is in Europe which claims they don't keep logs.


The VPN option is cheap, easy to use, and provides me with pretty decent protection.
Click to expand...

Can you shed light on who you are using?

It sounds sufficient enough, I just want a little protection thats all as I feel the being on the web is just a giant invasion of privacy at the moment
 
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