Why do people use VPN's?

[xtrememc8]

The most obvious reasons would be avoid hot spot sniffing, access websites that are being blocked by the ISP or government, watch movies or videos that are not available to your region.
See Top 5 reasons why everyone should use VPN
Hope this helps.

[mjmacky]

The most obvious reasons would be avoid hot spot sniffing, access websites that are being blocked by the ISP or government, watch movies or videos that are not available to your region.
See Top 5 reasons why everyone should use VPN
Hope this helps.

Congratulations on your first 2 posts. It's an amazing feat, because neither of it was spam or drivel, instead you've managed to respond in a manner that shows you either read the subject and first post, or some part of the ongoing thread. This isn't sarcastic condescension mind you, just letting you know that post counts below 6 and above 10,000 are typically meaningless. This is me making a dig at older members for fun.

But since I'm still a dick, I need to point out that the Apple focus at the link you mentioned made my current post-200g-mayonnaise-ingestion nausea act up a little. That is all

[anon]

It's interesting to see how that blog post only refers to the HideMyAss VPN and contains what seem to be a bunch of referral links.

post counts below 6 and above 10,000 are typically meaningless.

That's just jealousy.

[mjmacky]

It's interesting to see how that blog post only refers to the HideMyAss VPN and contains what seem to be a bunch of referral links.

post counts below 6 and above 10,000 are typically meaningless.

That's just jealousy.

I only saw that there was some list, but noticing the Apple stuff I left immediately. Don't confuse jealousy with envy

[nntpjunkie]

Well, I assumed it was related to Giganews "free" VPN.

Giganews VPN is not free - you can only get the Giganews VPN by subscribing to their most expensive plan ($35/month) basically you get unlimited Usenet + VPN connectivity which actually no better than standard SSL that most other provider actually do offer completely free with their standard unlimited Usenet plans - Example - Newshosting($10/month), Astraweb($11/month) do not be mislead make you check things out before you jump in - there are many Usenet providers who offer a fantastic downloading experience at a very fair price because there are companies out there who actually care about seeing the Usenet grow and then there are those who don't care and are only out for the money.

[MultiForce]

Well, I assumed it was related to Giganews "free" VPN.

Giganews VPN is not free - you can only get the Giganews VPN by subscribing to their most expensive plan ($35/month) basically you get unlimited Usenet + VPN connectivity which actually no better than standard SSL that most other provider actually do offer completely free with their standard unlimited Usenet plans - Example - Newshosting($10/month), Astraweb($11/month) do not be mislead make you check things out before you jump in...

What on earth does AW SSL have to do with VPN?

If you're going to compare GN's VPN service with anything it should be other VPN services.

[nntpjunkie]

Giganews VPN is not free - you can only get the Giganews VPN by subscribing to their most expensive plan ($35/month) basically you get unlimited Usenet + VPN connectivity which actually no better than standard SSL that most other provider actually do offer completely free with their standard unlimited Usenet plans - Example - Newshosting($10/month), Astraweb($11/month) do not be mislead make you check things out before you jump in...

What on earth does AW SSL have to do with VPN?

If you're going to compare GN's VPN service with anything it should be other VPN services.

VPN is nothing more than a secure tunnel that your computer uses to talk to the rest of the internet, my point was that SSL (which is free for most if not all Usenet providers) does the same thing and gets you there securely SSL offers the same (at least 256bit) encryption as most VPN tunnels - SSL is nothing more than an encrypted path from your computer to whatever you are connecting to and so to it is the same with VPN, you have and encrypted path from your computer to the VPN house that then shoots you out to internet. Since SSL is free IMHO it's the best way to go

[MultiForce]

What on earth does AW SSL have to do with VPN?

If you're going to compare GN's VPN service with anything it should be other VPN services.

VPN is nothing more than a secure tunnel that your computer uses to talk to the rest of the internet, my point was that SSL (which is free for most if not all Usenet providers) does the same thing and gets you there securely

The only thing you can use that SSL for is to connect to the news server.
You get SSL no matter what you sign up for at GN and if you choose the diamond package you get VPN too so I don't get your point.

[nntpjunkie]

VPN is nothing more than a secure tunnel that your computer uses to talk to the rest of the internet, my point was that SSL (which is free for most if not all Usenet providers) does the same thing and gets you there securely

The only thing you can use that SSL for is to connect to the news server.
You get SSL no matter what you sign up for at GN and if you choose the diamond package you get VPN too so I don't get your point.

What I mean is, no one really uses the VPN for anything more than to make the traffic between their computer and the Usenet provider(example Giganews) private because they are really only concerned about hiding the traffic they are downloading so they can download in peace - well SSL which is free accomplishes the exact same goal - so why pay for VPN...just trying to save some folks a little money

[Beck38]

What I mean is, no one really uses the VPN for anything more than to make the traffic between their computer and the Usenet provider(example Giganews) private because they are really only concerned about hiding the traffic they are downloading so they can download in peace - well SSL which is free accomplishes the exact same goal - so why pay for VPN...just trying to save some folks a little money

Wrong. So wrong, I'll come visit you in the hoosegow.

Hiding the traffic is not the only thing. Hiding the ROUTE is much more important, which is what a VPN will do.

Most ISP's (in America at least) are much more interested in WHERE the traffic is coming from and going to; that, and the protocol.

Most if not all AUP's (Acceptable Use Policies) specifically list Usenet and P2P as 'infringing uses and traffic hogs' that will get your account pulled if 'overused'; exactly at what level that is, is hazy, but may be less than the stated 'cap' on the account. A user some 30 miles from me on the same ISP got his account yanked (and made the national news by complaining very loudly) while using about 1/10th of his 'cap', but the majority of his traffic was deemed 'infringing' simply by the protocol used.

SSL hides NEITHER the eventual destination IP address OR the protocol used.

VPN's do. In the age of most ISP's utilizing 'deep packet inspection' and other odious spying techniques, it's better to be safe than sorry.