The Pros And Cons Of Using A VPN Or Proxy Service

[williamvw]

Here's a guide to using a virtual private network or proxy service to remain anonymous online, and the pros and cons of each solution.

The Pros And Cons Of Using A VPN Or Proxy Service : Read more

 

[PaulBags]

Eh. In NZ, I'm pretty sure the tics bill made it illegal to sell vpn service that the gcsb doesn't already have a back door to. I could possibly source a service from outside the country, but it will likely throw up a flag & be traceable back to me anyway, just because they can't see what's in the tunnel doesn't mean they can't see the tunnel.

I figure I'm better off being unassuming. They can't read _everything_, might as well stay in the open and be protected by the masses & luck.

Of course, I have nothing worth hiding...

 

[heffeque]

Eh. In NZ, I'm pretty sure the tics bill made it illegal to sell vpn service that the gcsb doesn't already have a back door to. I could possibly source a service from outside the country, but it will likely throw up a flag & be traceable back to me anyway, just because they can't see what's in the tunnel doesn't mean they can't see the tunnel.

I figure I'm better off being unassuming. They can't read _everything_, might as well stay in the open and be protected by the masses & luck.

Of course, I have nothing worth hiding...

We've gotten used to governments from all over the world spying on us.

Sad that things have come to this.

 

[knowom]

VPN for security and proxy for performance & content filtering.

 

[rayden54]

@heffeque
No, the sad part is that people ever thought there was such a thing as privacy on the internet. When I was a kid people knew better.

People shouting from the rooftops shouldn't get to be surprised when someone listens in. It isn't even spying when you're the one broadcasting the information.

 

[Reepca]

@heffeque
No, the sad part is that people ever thought there was such a thing as privacy on the internet. When I was a kid people knew better.

People shouting from the rooftops shouldn't get to be surprised when someone listens in. It isn't even spying when you're the one broadcasting the information.

I suppose the real question is why our only mode of efficient communication is shouting from the rooftops. Someone should do something about that...

 

[razor512]

Unless you are running your own VPN server, you can be sure that any paid VPN service will log just enough information in order to be able to link your actions back to your IP address.

If they did not, then they would be liable for the traffic for their customers. Imagine if a customer of the paid VPN service, decided to do something highly illegal like downloading or distributing child pornography. The VPN service will have enough bits and pieces logged in order to know which customer generated the illegal traffic.

They literally cannot do otherwise without becoming a safe heaven for crime, or or providing criminals at least a criminals with a 1 time free pass to do something highly illegal. Furthermore it can also be interpreted as allowing someone to mask their own illegal activity by blaming it on the customers who they are not logging the traffic of.

Overall, the VPN services will log information for their own network management needs, but you can bet that it is enough for them to figure out who did what on their network if the government comes knocking.
(They may not all be explicitly recording your session, but there is going to be enough logged to essentially allow them to rebuild the details session if they wanted to)

 

[PaulBags]

Eh. In NZ, I'm pretty sure the tics bill made it illegal to sell vpn service that the gcsb doesn't already have a back door to. I could possibly source a service from outside the country, but it will likely throw up a flag & be traceable back to me anyway, just because they can't see what's in the tunnel doesn't mean they can't see the tunnel.

I figure I'm better off being unassuming. They can't read _everything_, might as well stay in the open and be protected by the masses & luck.

Of course, I have nothing worth hiding...

We've gotten used to governments from all over the world spying on us.

Sad that things have come to this.

I acknowledge the reality, that doesn't mean I'm okay with it. I just see no point in fighting when no-one else will stand up by my side. I'm fine with the idea of even armed revolution, but if I stand up alone I'm just going to get chopped down. Better to smile & nod & bow, and enjoy what little freedom and comfort I have; and be ignored by the big power wielding entities.

 

[Vosgy]

"Australians will have two years of their metadata stored by phone and internet providers after the Abbott government's controversial data retention laws passed Parliament."

Yay for Australia, cost of Internet is already too high, now with go up more as the ISPs need to store years of data and will pass that cost on to the consumer. Loose loose for the consumer.

Damn backward country I live in.

 

[otokomae]

I'd really love to see a "VPN for Gaming Guide" or something like that, as many people use them and other, similar-sounding services to reduce lag or latency when playing online games.

 

[ctsboss]

Here is the real question, Can I use a VPN or Proxy to fool Pokerstars or Full Tilt into believing that I am NOT inside the US and allow me access and play on the site? I have heard of some people using this solution instead of actually moving to canada or mexico to play?

 

[Xivilain]

I'd really love to see a "VPN for Gaming Guide" or something like that, as many people use them and other, similar-sounding services to reduce lag or latency when playing online games.

How would that even be possible? Wouldn't the VPN introduce even more latency in the speed?

 

[Cespenar]

In Australia, maybe the ISP's can send a billion hard copies to the govt. to store in a shed somewhere.
Maybe they could set up an automatic emailing system where the metadata is emailed directly to the govt. offices. Yeah! I like that idea!

 

[Tonylu1595]

Bad: Makes tomshardware site not trust you and makes you enter in a Captcha.

 

[wtfxxxgp]

I'd really love to see a "VPN for Gaming Guide" or something like that, as many people use them and other, similar-sounding services to reduce lag or latency when playing online games.

How would that even be possible? Wouldn't the VPN introduce even more latency in the speed?

I'd love an answer to these questions - the added latency presumption is logical, but, what if it meant that your overall UP-TIME was 300% better? Latency is such an issue in South Africa because all the cool games are always hosted very far from us. Part of the issue is that we have failed connections from time to time and packet loss (obviously). If a VPN solution adds less than 30ms to my already high latency (230-odd ms average for League of Legends for example) then I'd prefer to go with a VPN solution because sometimes the packet loss makes my mood less than desirable.

 

[Eggz]

It would be more helpful for Tom's to do an article on setting up a home server to run a VPN. I know there are a lot of steps, and there are different ways to do it, but seeing that laid out would be cool.

 

[Kadathan]

I'd really love to see a "VPN for Gaming Guide" or something like that, as many people use them and other, similar-sounding services to reduce lag or latency when playing online games.

How would that even be possible? Wouldn't the VPN introduce even more latency in the speed?

I'd love an answer to these questions - the added latency presumption is logical, but, what if it meant that your overall UP-TIME was 300% better? Latency is such an issue in South Africa because all the cool games are always hosted very far from us. Part of the issue is that we have failed connections from time to time and packet loss (obviously). If a VPN solution adds less than 30ms to my already high latency (230-odd ms average for League of Legends for example) then I'd prefer to go with a VPN solution because sometimes the packet loss makes my mood less than desirable.

It depends. The theoretical maximum speed a signal can travel is just under 300km/ms , so there is a hard minumum when it comes to latency between you and a server. Then there's computer cycles going to the network card, there's the input deay from your keyboard and output from your monitor... all of these things have and cause small latencies. But if you're strictly talking about server latency, VPNs often can reduce it when there is something between you and the server causing a slowdown, i.e. a high traffic datacenter. Taking a different route to circumvent these places is something a vpn is capable of being set to do, and is where most latency increases would come from. Under ideal conditions, you are right, they would add latency rather than remove it, but the internet is rarely, if ever, ideal.

 

[scify]

If one lives in any particular country, would it be best to use a VPN service that headquarters from outside of that country?

 

[Xivilain]

I'd really love to see a "VPN for Gaming Guide" or something like that, as many people use them and other, similar-sounding services to reduce lag or latency when playing online games.

How would that even be possible? Wouldn't the VPN introduce even more latency in the speed?

I'd love an answer to these questions - the added latency presumption is logical, but, what if it meant that your overall UP-TIME was 300% better? Latency is such an issue in South Africa because all the cool games are always hosted very far from us. Part of the issue is that we have failed connections from time to time and packet loss (obviously). If a VPN solution adds less than 30ms to my already high latency (230-odd ms average for League of Legends for example) then I'd prefer to go with a VPN solution because sometimes the packet loss makes my mood less than desirable.

It depends. The theoretical maximum speed a signal can travel is just under 300km/ms , so there is a hard minumum when it comes to latency between you and a server. Then there's computer cycles going to the network card, there's the input deay from your keyboard and output from your monitor... all of these things have and cause small latencies. But if you're strictly talking about server latency, VPNs often can reduce it when there is something between you and the server causing a slowdown, i.e. a high traffic datacenter. Taking a different route to circumvent these places is something a vpn is capable of being set to do, and is where most latency increases would come from. Under ideal conditions, you are right, they would add latency rather than remove it, but the internet is rarely, if ever, ideal.

So the bottom line is... it depends. Interesting. I'd like to know if its possible to find out where these latencies are in my internet connection and possibly circumvent them too, with a VPN. Trial and error testing would work, but takes some time.

 

[Kadathan]

tracert to the destination server, and you'll see where the heavy spots are. Then, same tracert using a vpn and see if it's improved. Sometimes I get better latency with it on, sometimes better with it off, but it's nice to have options for when the internet starts doing it's thing where it becomes terrible.