VPN Usage for Newsgroups or P2P

Recently, I had to change from (what was for me) super-stable, reliable, and inexpensive (read: CHEAP!) DSL line. To be sure, the speed wasn't anything to really write home about, but as I ran it full-bore 24/7 with ZERO problems for at least the last 5+ years, I wasn't complaining!

But, things change, and my carrier (big red, Verizon) took a hike on my entire state, and that got me to thinking just how well the new operator (Frontier Telecom, that 'invented' 5GB DSL 'caps') would run things. Or not.

FIOS? 2-3 miles in every direction, no further expansion, so unless I sold my home (!?) forget it. Clearwire? Tower is about 1000ft from me, but slow speeds plus eventual caps. Comcast?

That's the only real alternative. But consumer accounts have 250GB/month caps, along with anti-newsgroup and anti-P2P AUP's (acceptable use policies) clearly spelled out.

But, although those policies are also in their 'commercial' accounts, there are no spelled out usage caps (although there is vague language, and their adverts are clear that the service is usable for '8 or more employees'). Yes, more expensive; but less than the price I paid for DSL 'before' Verizon (read: Covad, ~$130/month for 4x1Mb/s)

So, off to commercial Comcast (upgraded last year to Docsis 3.0) I go. But to keep my traffic out of their 'Deep Packet Inspection' snooping, I hunted around first for a good VPN that would have no problem with high-speed transfers and such.

First stop: http://myvpnreviews.com/

Quickly came to the conclusion that StrongVPN was the only company that specifically was set up for high-speed VPN transfers, so got a PPTP account and tried it out.

Second stop: http://www.strongvpn.com/

Now, my 'new' commercial link runs at 22x5Mb/s, and I have no problem 'swamping' either the up or downlink, under PPTP.

Strong also supports the OPENvpn standard, and their are several ways to implement that, including the dd-wrt s/w for routers (which also does PPTP). A company called Sabai Technologies modifies a host of routers for StrongVPN use:

Third stop: http://www.sabaitechnology.com/

The fastest routers (right now the Asus RT-N16) tops out at around 8Mb/s, which is fine if your base ISP connection is less than that. Of course, it handles multiple machines, which is nice.

What I've ended up with is a dual account, PPTP for my main d/l machine, and the Asus router for all the other PC's and such.

So, as far as my ISP is concerned, all my traffic goes through 'reliablehosting.com' in S.F., and that's it. That includes my 'main' machine on the PPTP, with all the others (including things such as Shoutcast internet radio and video-on-demand from other vendors, i.e., non-Comcast) through the OPENvpn (Asus) router.

It all works like a champ.

Price? ~$15/month for both circuits. One could, with a smaller setup, just get a PPTP account for $7/month.

tunneling a LAN's traffic over openvpn with any consumer grade router will only give you at most 10-15Mbps. be warned.
the best solution for those whom have a 20+ Mbps i-net link from your ISP is to build your own low spec PC, and slap pfSense on it.

also, strongvpn is a good choice.
ive been eyeing 'witopia', and 'ace vpn' recently.

The US internet market seems as bad as the UKs, except with a much smaller selection of crappy providers to choose from.

I'm still with GN because of the VPN. Both the EU and the US servers (haven't tried the Asian one yet) are maxing out our 100Mbps at work so I'm happy and the EU one give me good enough ping for a round of CS too without any issues.

I soon need a fiber in my wall cause this blu-ray ISO crap is just taking too long to download and I'm ready to move for it :P

A bit of an update:

As it appears that Google is abandoning it's previous 'no holds barred' network neutrality stance, throwing in with the large US telecom firm Verizon in order to get preferential treatment for their 'droid' smart-phones on Verizon's wireless network, turning traffic carried on Verizon's network into a 'tiered' system.

So, if your internet feed is partially or fully controlled by Verizon (or any of the companies that jump on board after the deal is announced), you may soon find certain paths or sites slowed/blocked unless you utilize a VPN solution.

As a 'new' user of Comcast's internet services, I've already identified several sites/services/paths that are being 'manipulated' by Comcast when I attempt to utilize the connection without VPN, but where the VPN realizes around double the speed/throughput as the non-VPN connection.

Deal supposedly to be announced in the next few days. The usual 'news-media trying to slime business' types are in full tin-foil-hat mode out there; This in an era where between wall st., oil and drug companies are found almost daily to be pulling some form of theft of one type or another. Guess the telecoms/new-media types simply felt 'left out'.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MultiForce

I'm still with GN because of the VPN. Both the EU and the US servers (haven't tried the Asian one yet) are maxing out our 100Mbps at work so I'm happy and the EU one give me good enough ping for a round of CS too without any issues.

I soon need a fiber in my wall cause this blu-ray ISO crap is just taking too long to download and I'm ready to move for it :P

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so you'd recommend the vypr? i was considering it, because i want both newsgroups and VPN (mainly for p2p - i don't seem to have a problem with usenet throttling - i didn't realise anybody ever did?), and the two together sounds like a good deal. currently with astraweb, no VPN

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MultiForce

I'm still with GN because of the VPN. Both the EU and the US servers (haven't tried the Asian one yet) are maxing out our 100Mbps at work so I'm happy and the EU one give me good enough ping for a round of CS too without any issues.

I soon need a fiber in my wall cause this blu-ray ISO crap is just taking too long to download and I'm ready to move for it :P

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just an aside - do you burn to full dual-layer blu disks? or if not, which compression tools do you use? i'm thinking about how to set up - but i reckon the best (cheapest, least hassle) option is to play them direct from a laptop via HDMI into a tv

Quote:

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Originally Posted by noodles

so you'd recommend the vypr? i was considering it, because i want both newsgroups and VPN (mainly for p2p - i don't seem to have a problem with usenet throttling - i didn't realise anybody ever did?), and the two together sounds like a good deal. currently with astraweb, no VPN

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MultiForce

I'm still with GN because of the VPN. Both the EU and the US servers (haven't tried the Asian one yet) are maxing out our 100Mbps at work so I'm happy and the EU one give me good enough ping for a round of CS too without any issues.

I soon need a fiber in my wall cause this blu-ray ISO crap is just taking too long to download and I'm ready to move for it :P

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just an aside - do you burn to full dual-layer blu disks? or if not, which compression tools do you use? i'm thinking about how to set up - but i reckon the best (cheapest, least hassle) option is to play them direct from a laptop via HDMI into a tv

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I never burn the ISOs I just play them from disk/NAS on my popcorn hour (C-200).

I've used the VPN for some P2P too with the router (tomato firmware) handling the connection and I can't find anything wrong with it.
I'm sure it's possible to get something cheaper but I've tried a few others and can't say that worked out very well and it ended up costing more than GN anyway with free use etc.

You could get an OVH private server for $15, set it up as your own personal VPN and seedbox and SABnzbd client with an $11 astraweb account, get everything via FTP etc and it would still be cheaper than Giganews' stupid Diamond package.

feral hosting supports a vpn package as well if you join their irc channel,
honestly any seedbox company would let you buy a vpn from them for pretty cheap

good vpn service for this things like p2p, torrent is kebrum.com