VPN Service

[David L]

So I wanted to share a VPN Service that was brought to my attention. Surfshark

I am presently on ExpressVPN, and though I like the speed and service I had a coworker tell me about Surfshark. He was on ExpressVPN about the same time I have been on, about a year now, I think I bought the 15 month package since my subscription is up in Feb. 2021. Anyway, with their Holiday Special at 27 months for $65 I could not pass it up. Plus it is unlimited connections. Reviews seem to be good. I just tested my speeds and they are very close to or if not even the same as ExpressVPN. Speed is one the main issues with VPNs. Also, Surfshark unblocks Netflix too. Not trying to sell anything here, just sharing...

 

[fenderman]

Why would you pay 65 dollars a year to slow your internet service and place your data in the hands of a small company like surfshark. You might as well let your isp have it. You have no idea who has access to your info.
Moreover, unlocking netflix is unlawful. No different than shoplifting or stealing your neighbors lawnmower.

 

[SouthernYankee]

-----------------------------------------------
My general VPN post
There are two types of VPN, do not get them confused.
The type depends on where the traffic conversation (traffic) originates

1) origination: local home network, destination the internet.
This type of VPN is purpose to hides your activity from the internet, it is outbound, it normally costs a monthly fee to use. Direction is from your home PC to the internet, going to your bank, google, porn sites,,,, this not what you want. This VPN uses a VPN server that is in the middle of your communications.

2) Origination: the internet world wide web, destination: your home network.
This VPN type is used to provide a secure connection onto your local network, in bound to you local home network, from your office computer, your cell phone in your car, tablet at the coffee shop.. This is what you want, it does not have a monthly fee and is normally completely free. OpenVPN is this type of VPN.

If you home internet provider is a cellular network, then DDNS (dynamic Domain Name System) may not work, the DDNS is needed for most Inbound VPN services (OpenVpn) to get your home IP address (it is not static) so OpenVPN may not work for you.

A video on the paid VPN.

------------------------------------------------------
Hacked VPNs

Report: No-Log VPNs Reveal Users' Personal Data and Logs

A group of free VPN (virtual private network) apps left their server completely open and accessible, exposing private user data for anyone to see. This lack of basic security

www.vpnmentor.com

Naked Security – Sophos News

nakedsecurity.sophos.com

----------------------------------------------------

 

[David L]

Why would you pay 65 dollars a year to slow your internet service and place your data in the hands of a small company like surfshark. You might as well let your isp have it. You have no idea who has access to your info.
Moreover, unlocking netflix is unlawful. No different than shoplifting or stealing your neighbors lawnmower.

For me I mainly use a VPN when on someone else's network, like a public network, hotel, hotspot. This service is only $30 a year, maybe I don't understand the Netflix unblocking, I don't have Netflix, but I was told Netflix blocks VPN services, I just figured they worked out an agreement with the VPN company. I remember ExpressVPN being one of the only services back last year that advertised Netflix was not blocked. I am not even sure what libraries they are referring to, maybe account connections?, My ignorance.
As far as speed, I have found there really is not much difference in speed, I have tested my phone/tablets (turning on/off VPN) and I get around 5%, sometimes 10% at the most slower speed in most places. Of course it depends on which VPN server you are connected to. I am not using this service for my home network. I run an OpenVPN server on pfSense if I need to come back in my network. I know some do this to come in their network and go back out the Internet but I still have a slow Internet speed at home, not Gig yet.

Maybe $2 a month is a waste, just thinking encrypted traffic is hard to steal at Hotspots/Hotels.

Thanks...

 

[David L]

-----------------------------------------------
My general VPN post
There are two types of VPN, do not get them confused.
The type depends on where the traffic conversation (traffic) originates

1) origination: local home network, destination the internet.
This type of VPN is purpose to hides your activity from the internet, it is outbound, it normally costs a monthly fee to use. Direction is from your home PC to the internet, going to your bank, google, porn sites,,,, this not what you want. This VPN uses a VPN server that is in the middle of your communications.

2) Origination: the internet world wide web, destination: your home network.
This VPN type is used to provide a secure connection onto your local network, in bound to you local home network, from your office computer, your cell phone in your car, tablet at the coffee shop.. This is what you want, it does not have a monthly fee and is normally completely free. OpenVPN is this type of VPN.

If you home internet provider is a cellular network, then DDNS (dynamic Domain Name System) may not work, the DDNS is needed for most Inbound VPN services (OpenVpn) to get your home IP address (it is not static) so OpenVPN may not work for you.

A video on the paid VPN.

------------------------------------------------------
Hacked VPNs

Report: No-Log VPNs Reveal Users' Personal Data and Logs

A group of free VPN (virtual private network) apps left their server completely open and accessible, exposing private user data for anyone to see. This lack of basic security

www.vpnmentor.com

Naked Security – Sophos News

nakedsecurity.sophos.com

----------------------------------------------------

Thank you. I have actually watched that video before too, want to say about a year ago. I do need to rehash and check if he had any more tools added, thanks. Yeah I don't use a VPN on my local network, other than inbound. Mainly use it while on someone else's network...

 

[Jessie.slimer]

I used to pay to use a VPN service. I saw something on a thread here a while ago that made sense and stopped using it. The VPN service encrypts your data from your device to the vpn's server, but there is no encryption from their server to the web. Your sensitive data could still be taken.. So its no different than logging on to the wifi network at Nord VPN, Express VPN, etc. I guess its better than using the local coffee shop's wifi, but

You have to trust the vpn server (can you really?)

Unless you don't already have unlimited data on your device (becoming rare these days), you might be better using your cellular data.

It sucks paying for a service that simply changes your ip, while slowing down your data in the process.

Unless you are doing something illegal or sketchy, there really isn't much of a difference if your provider versus the VPN company sees what you are doing.

 

[David L]

I used to pay to use a VPN service. I saw something on a thread here a while ago that made sense and stopped using it. The VPN service encrypts your data from your device to the vpn's server, but there is no encryption from their server to the web. Your sensitive data could still be taken.. So its no different than logging on to the wifi network at Nord VPN, Express VPN, etc. I guess its better than using the local coffee shop's wifi, but

You have to trust the vpn server (can you really?)

Unless you don't already have unlimited data on your device (becoming rare these days), you might be better using your cellular data.

It sucks paying for a service that simply changes your ip, while slowing down your data in the process.

Unless you are doing something illegal or sketchy, there really isn't much of a difference if your provider versus the VPN company sees what you are doing.

Yeah, it really only helps at Hotspots, Airports, Hotels. Trust; it is hard to trust anything or anybody now a days. I know the free VPN's like to sell your browsing/search habits.

So it is kind a like using StartPage the idea is you send them your search and they retrieve your search from Google and return it to you. Google sees their servers. How good this works? Cookies? Hard to say. I also use Disconnect.me (free version), now this has really helped in stopping Trackers, I know Firefox uses it.

Funny you mentioned unlimited data, we actually are still on an very old plan that has no data or traffic cap, it is with Sprint which will be going away in a few years though, also funny is we have a 1500 minute plan for landline (business) phones, cell phones are free, we never reach that limit anymore.

I hear ya, paying for encrypted traffic just to their servers don't make much sense, I just know we will be traveling more, once past this Pandemic, with the wife retiring next year, so we have a lot of airports/hotels/hotspots in our future

We are still very old school, paper bills, we write checks, no online banking, pay with cash when we can, etc. I know this may soon change, we just got a notice, Xfinity will no longer be sending paper bills next year. Cryptocurrency seems to be our future.

 

[wittaj]

Or use free OpenVPN and VPN back into your home network that you have more control over...

 

[David L]

Thanks everyone for your input, I do appreciate it. Back in the day I used to VPN into my work network and use their resources. Hopefully one day I will have a Gig Internet at home.

 

[Rakin]

Those vpn services are useful in many aspects for some people. If you have one you like and have a reason or need for it for what it is and don’t mind paying then I think that’s great. Lots of different reasons. But not really useful for what people here are generally trying to accomplish. But why not use both.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[David L]

Thank you for sharing information about this VPN service.

They had a good Black Friday Sale I saw, think Cyber Monday too, I have had the service for a year now, still happy with it. It seems just as fast as ExpressVPN.

 

[Arjun]

Why not make your own VPN server, instead of relying on third parties?

 

[pete_c]

Here for years now have run IPSec / OpenVPN servers on my firewall and not allowed any open ports. I do also have a VPN subscription to PIA which I use on my KODI boxes.

There are concerns lately...

TechRadar reports about a lawsuit that has been filed in a Virginia federal court. The suit targets VPN companies VPN Unlimited Surfshark, Zenmate, and ExpressVPN for their alleged complicity in copyright infringement.

The PFSense Firewall router runs a few apps which help some while surfing: DNS Resolver, Snort, PFBlocker (Maxmind), Squid, ....
Nowadays you need the CPU / RAM on a dedicated Firewall to run these apps and a typical SOHO router cannot do this.

I do use the home VPN to surf sometimes on my phone. I am not tethered to my cell phones and typically keep them off while at home.

Use an Onionskin router (custom OpenWRT TOR router) or a TOR browser sometimes for surfing.

A side note here on DNS highjacking....

Manipulation by ISPs
A number of consumer ISPs such as AT&T, Cablevision's Optimum Online, CenturyLink, Cox Communications, RCN, Rogers, Charter Communications (Spectrum), Plusnet, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile US, Virgin Media,Frontier Communications, Bell Sympatico,Deutsche Telekom AG, Optus, Mediacom, ONO, TalkTalk, Bigpond (Telstra), TTNET, Türksat, and Telkom Indonesia use or used DNS hijacking for their own purposes, such as displaying advertisements or collecting statistics. Dutch ISPs XS4ALL and Ziggo use DNS hijacking by court order: they were ordered to block access to The Pirate Bay and display a warning page instead. These practices violate the RFC standard for DNS (NXDOMAIN) responses, and can potentially open users to cross-site scripting attacks.

Every torrent site I come across now advertises some company's VPN service with disclaimers.

The concern with DNS hijacking involves this hijacking of the NXDOMAIN response. Internet and intranet applications rely on the NXDOMAIN response to describe the condition where the DNS has no entry for the specified host. If one were to query the invalid domain name (for example www.example.invalid), one should get an NXDOMAIN response – informing the application that the name is invalid and taking the appropriate action (for example, displaying an error or not attempting to connect to the server). However, if the domain name is queried on one of these non-compliant ISPs, one would always receive a fake IP address belonging to the ISP. In a web browser, this behavior can be annoying or offensive as connections to this IP address display the ISP redirect page of the provider, sometimes with advertising, instead of a proper error message. However, other applications that rely on the NXDOMAIN error will instead attempt to initiate connections to this spoofed IP address, potentially exposing sensitive information.

I would suggest to be vigilant but don't lose any sleep over this.

 

[David L]

Why not make your own VPN server, instead of relying on third parties?

If you have enough bandwidth at home to go back out to the Internet that would work, I don't have Gig service so I can't try that. I do VPN back into my network through OpenVPN but while away from my home network and anytime time I connect to/through someone else's network I use a VPN service. Surfshark has been a good service, although I have not used it that much since the Pandemic has slow down my traveling.