VPNs becoming mainstream

[renhoek93]

Has anyone ever noticed that within the last few years VPNs have become more mainstream now?

Nord VPN especially is one of the most shilled for VPNs on YouTube which is a very shitty VPN.

Compared to like 5 to 10 years ago when VPNs were still mostly used by computer nerds like us VPNs have absolutely become a lot more mainstream now in recent years from what I've seen.

So i have to ask what exactly happened? and who is to blame for this?

[anon]

The average person uses a VPN for two purposes:

Consuming geo-restricted material, e.g. American Netflix, BBC iPlayer
Downloading torrents without getting prison-raped

Commercial VPN services provide a means to those ends that works well enough, have a large base of potential customers, and the barriers to entry are low (you could run one right in your home computer), to the point the market is oversaturated. That's it in a nutshell.

As for "computer nerds" who used them "5 to 10 years ago", I was hacking my own SecureIX premium accounts back on 2007, do I win Internet? :stuart:

[Prolife]

There are three main causes for this:
1. Govt Regulations
2. Trade War
3. Covid19

The growth in online business & internet users saw an upsurge in the last decade specifically during the pandemic. Earlier only "computer nerds" had to find a way to access the restricted or regulated contents. Now almost everyone has to something out of their reach.

Moreover evey national is trying to reduce the data flow (user info) & trade deficit (money flowing out to other countries via online). Like, US & China, India & China restrict certain app/sites. Whereas countries like UAE, North Korea has their own regulations.

Above all restrictions over porn sites. I found from a reliable source that approx 70% of the content in internet is errotic.

On top of it, covid19 pandemic limits our out door activities. So enjoy via VPN.

[anon]

Above all restrictions over porn sites. I found from a reliable source that approx 70% of the content in internet is errotic.

The other 30% is VPNs that unblock porn sites!

Seriously, though, 70% seems like a stretch... but it's all about how you define "content" and "erotic" and do your sampling, I guess.

[koolyt]

why is nord bad?

[anon]

The answers may be aggressive marketing, no support for port forwarding (despite having P2P-exclusive servers), and the fact one of their private keys got breached once. Reviews generally agree that the service is good, though, and also among the fastest.

[renhoek93]

why is nord bad?


I cannot trust it and its garbage simply because YouTubers shill for it way too often and that's annoying. :dry:

[soulreaper]

I'm using Hola VPN but it's not free. Are there any free VPNs as good as that?

[Caballero]

Hmmm. Any relation to the Hola plug-in for Firefox et al.? Because that one was gathering and selling your data, from what I heard.

[anon]

Hola is owned by a company called Bright (formerly Luminati) which sells private proxies. When you use it, your computer joins that network and others become able to route traffic through it, which potentially includes illegal content like kiddy porn and hacking attacks that then become traceable to your IP. It's the same dilemma Tor exit node operators face, except there was zero transparency regarding this behavior (which has since changed), hence the controversy.

Anyway, the only free ones I can recommend are ProtonVPN and Cryptofree. The former is fairly generous, but as usual, don't expect premium-tier service for $0.

[IdolEyes787]

ProtonVPN is good because it's operated from Switzerland so it doesn't collect or give out data, plus it's unlimited. The downside is that without the premium you are going to encounter slowdowns . Been thinking about trying Bitdefender VPN as it's relatively dirt cheap, you don't need to sign up for a long term plan and it's torrent friendly.

[anon]

Been thinking about trying Bitdefender VPN as it's relatively dirt cheap, you don't need to sign up for a long term plan and it's torrent friendly.

A little tip... whenever they advertise "P2P support", make sure that actually means port forwarding... because it often doesn't :wacko:

[IdolEyes787]

What about me possibly suggests to you that unless it involves either alcohol or ships that I know anything about ports, poindexter?

[anon]

Well, Meg said something about you having a boy in every port... :unsure:

[IdolEyes787]

You're pretty funny for a Sandinista.

[anon]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFV1uT-ihDo

I wanted to be with the Marios Contras :(

[incognito]

If you live where governments monitoring their citizens who can't have free will to express their opinions or do internet censorship or companies making lawsuits because copyrights infringement like pirating. VPN could save a lot regarding privacy and other things like security and money.

[anon]

If you live where governments monitoring their citizens who can't have free will to express their opinions or do internet censorship

For those cases, I'd recommend Tor instead... it provides anonymity by design (as opposed to by policy) and its usage can be concealed via pluggable transports.

[incognito]

If you live where governments monitoring their citizens who can't have free will to express their opinions or do internet censorship

For those cases, I'd recommend Tor instead... it provides anonymity by design (as opposed to by policy) and its usage can be concealed via pluggable transports.

True that, If someone uses tor he/she shouldn't use google's sites. And yes, he/she can use tor for everyday use, it is slower than any "normal" browser.

[anon]

True that, If someone uses tor he/she shouldn't use google's sites.

Don't worry, the multiple captchas and blocks will prevent you from doing that in the first place. Same goes for a lot of stuff that's behind Cloudflare :wacko:


And yes, he/she can use tor for everyday use, it is slower than any "normal" browser.

I've had slow Internet service for a large chunk of my life, so I'm used to that. But for others, it will be a deal breaker. Also, good look trying to stream video better than 360p. Nonetheless, when it comes to online anonymity, Tor and knowing how to use it are as good as it gets.

[soulreaper]

I think a time will come when the anti-piracy thugs will come after VPN services and pressure them to throttle sites that promote illegal activity like torrent sites etc.

[anon]

Most of them are incorporated on carefully-chosen jurisdictions precisely to avoid that sort of situation. At most, the less pirate-friendly countries can put pressure on individual servers within their territory (and it's happened), which usually results in the VPN service packing up and leaving, perhaps offering a virtual location as a replacement. Or at least, that's how it is for now ;)

[Zupper]

TweakNews comes with a VPN as part of the package. Anybody have any thoughts as if it is any good?

[anon]

Reviews agree they're generally doing things right, but there are a few caveats: relatively small selection of servers compared to the big players, no anonymous payments, no Wireguard support and no mention of port forwarding. The facts you're getting it as a bonus for purchasing a different service and until recently that was the only way to gain access at all, make it understandable that they'd have to cut some corners. But for casual usage it looks fine.

[Caballero]

My complaint with their VPN is that it's not a stable connection. Every so often you lose connectivity and it resets.

Not a big deal if you are grabbing stuff from usenet, but it really pisses me off when I am downloading some 2GB files from a one-click host and it kills the download at 99%.

[anon]

Awful scenario indeed, but as a downloader there's little reason to use VPNs on file hosts besides bypassing IP-based traffic limits? And personally, I'm rarely in a rush anyway...

[stargazindreamr]

I've been using Privado VPN; it came with my Newshosting sub (unlimited on VPN and News for $40/year). It maxes out around 30mb/s depending on the endpoint (US is fast, elsewhere not so much). P2P isn't so good; port-forwarding doesn't seem to work.

[jojobrown911]

I purchased a lifetime one from slickdeals a while back but never used it, and now AT&T offers a free one if you have their unlimited plan. I have yet to try it on the desktop and typically just use it on the iphone

[anon]

P2P isn't so good; port-forwarding doesn't seem to work.

Few services offer that. In most cases, when they claim to support P2P traffic, it merely means they don't disallow it.


AT&T offers a free one if you have their unlimited plan

How does that work exactly? Who supplies the actual VPN service?

[oldschool25]

I get a free one with my newsgroup provider, but its slow as molasses.

[freakynzb]

Can anyone recommend a fast VPN with minimum 1GB speed?

[anon]

Of the names that usually find their way to "top fastest VPNs" lists, Mullvad and Nord are the most reputable, but I don't think any of them is able to offer gigabit or even near-gigabit speeds for a single user. If this is a dealbreaker, consider renting a dedicated server in the location of your choice and setting it up yourself (there are scripts to easily automate it).

[freakynzb]

Of the names that usually find their way to "top fastest VPNs" lists, Mullvad and Nord are the most reputable, but I don't think any of them is able to offer gigabit or even near-gigabit speeds for a single user. If this is a dealbreaker, consider renting a dedicated server in the location of your choice and setting it up yourself (there are scripts to easily automate it).

Thanks anon i will check out those, and maybe read into how to setup own vpn if its easy i try it or else it will be a sub. vpn.

[anon]

https://github.com/StreisandEffect/streisand - was very good, but is no longer supported.
https://github.com/trailofbits/algo - actively maintained, but only has WireGuard and IPsec.

[MegaPain]

Is PIA VPN still crap?

[anon]

Like Express and CyberGhost, they were bought by Kape, which is a very untrustworthy company to put it mildly. Beware of any VPN review and ranking sites that has them among their top picks - Kape also owns several of those.

[raja1]

VPNs have been around since 1996. First crafted to protect the data transmissions of remote workers, they have been used widely in the developing world as censorship efforts like China’s Great Firewall have taken off.

Very nice

[Ebola]

I use IPVanish and I really like it.

[deids]

I use IPVanish as well, but it lacks Port Forwarding feature. I have heard good things about MullVad but have'nt tried.

[masterlord]

Surfshark also good, i use it daily and almost every time, feel safe browsing with vpn turn on.

[anon]

I have heard good things about MullVad but have'nt tried.

Someone recently shared an account with me, and I must say they're very good. My only complaint is that their IPv6 support comes in the form of a single ULA, which means no end-to-end connectivity and no subnetting (unless you resort to double NAT :shutup:). Then again, very few VPN services offer true IPv6.

[landau08]

are you guys using a vpn already to connect to this board or is this more related to later business?

[anon]

are you guys using a vpn already to connect to this board

Of course, wouldn't want the Internet police to rail me for dissing Idol and posting music videos.

[IdolEyes787]

Of course, wouldn't want the Internet police to rail me for dissing Idol .... But it's tradition.:(

[anon]

(Created with voice input) Don't worry idolize we still love you

[rubyruby]

As internet activity and remote working increased during the past year and a half, VPN services have become nearly as well-known as ISPs. Google Trends analysis shows that interest in VPNs has actually doubled over the past eight years. Daniel Markuson, a cybersecurity expert at NordVPN, believes VPNs may become as widely used as antivirus software.

“Spikes in the demand for VPNs usually concur with important political decisions related to internet surveillance or privacy in general,” Markuson said. “As people face dangers or restrictions, they tend to value their privacy, security, and freedom more. And that is why the demand for privacy products is growing.”

[NZBmee1]

Has anyone ever noticed that within the last few years VPNs have become more mainstream now?

Nord VPN especially is one of the most shilled for VPNs on YouTube which is a very shitty VPN.

Compared to like 5 to 10 years ago when VPNs were still mostly used by computer nerds like us VPNs have absolutely become a lot more mainstream now in recent years from what I've seen.

So i have to ask what exactly happened? and who is to blame for this?

I blame Nordvpn.

[anon]

I think a time will come when the anti-piracy thugs will come after VPN services and pressure them to throttle sites that promote illegal activity like torrent sites etc.


Most of them are incorporated on carefully-chosen jurisdictions precisely to avoid that sort of situation. At most, the less pirate-friendly countries can put pressure on individual servers within their territory (and it's happened), which usually results in the VPN service packing up and leaving, perhaps offering a virtual location as a replacement. Or at least, that's how it is for now ;)

https://techcrunch.com/2022/06/14/vpn-firms-are-removing-servers-in-india-ahead-of-new-rules/

No more Indian Netflix. :(

[Rerecros]

It's all that influencer marketing. They are willing to pay big affiliate fees and sponsorships so you have an endless machine of people shilling for more and more company's. Im torn on the issue cause it's nice that people want to care about security. But if they don't get the right VPN they could be doing more harm than good unless they are just hiding from DMCA email's

[anon]

Im torn on the issue cause it's nice that people want to care about security.

Depends on why they care and how you define "security". https://www.doineedavpn.com/ does an excellent job at explaining the whole situation.

[mrbill14]

I've tried ProtonVPN, but the free version didn't have too many free servers (what do you expect - for free...)

When I use a VPN, I use Windscribe now...

[cosimo]

not necessary, just be careful

[anon]

Which VPN Providers Really Take Privacy Seriously in 2023? (https://torrentfreak.com/best-vpn-anonymous-no-logging/)

Mullvad removed support for port forwarding some months ago, and Proton has yet to add it. Unfortunate, as they're otherwise excellent choices.

[MUNFAQQIHA]

I'm using Hola VPN but it's not free. Are there any free VPNs as good as that?

I'm usually use WindScribe and ProtonVPN. Both are quite fast.

[anon]

I've tried ProtonVPN, but the free version didn't have too many free servers (what do you expect - for free...)

It seems Romania and Poland were added to the location roster for free users.


Mullvad removed support for port forwarding some months ago, and Proton has yet to add it.

Proton added port forwarding for paid accounts, but it's quite limited: you must connect using their app and get one randomly assigned port.


I'm usually use WindScribe and ProtonVPN. Both are quite fast.

Cryptofree removed their (extremely low) speed limits a few years ago. Still only one server in France, though.

[specfreak]

Interesting posts here. I've never used VPN, but obvious NordVPN is plastered all over in various adds.
I've heard that if you use a VPN for say Netflix you can get more content that is otherwise supressed.

Are there any advantages to a paid one vs a freed one, or is it a case of "you get what you pay for... or not"?

[anon]

Are there any advantages to a paid one vs a freed one, or is it a case of "you get what you pay for... or not"?

With very few exceptions, it's more like "if you don't pay for the product, you are the product". All VPNs ultimately require you to place a large amount of trust on whoever operates them, irrespective of their price or privacy policy. But when they give the service away for free, you need to ask yourself what they've done to earn that trust, how such a scheme can be sustainable, and what they stand to lose from acting maliciously.

[specfreak]

Thanks for your wise words, very useful.