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 My VPN trial 
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Postby HumphreyBBear » Tue Sep 01, 2015 8:30 am


I've been thinking for a while now about taking the plunge and getting a VPN.

So, after doing a little research, I've signed up with Private Internet Access (PIA) for 12 months for US$ 39.95 (which works out to AU$ 57.80 at today's rates).

Setup was easy on the PC, and even my old Android (4.0.3) phone was easy. With PIA you can have up to 5 devices running concurrently via the VPN.

Using a local IP assigned by PIA I got a Speedtest result of 26.88 down/1.76 up. Which is quite a bit slower than the 100.71 down/1.64 up that I get when running unencrypted. When I set my IP to the UK I only got 3.15 down/0.91 up! (I don't think I'll be doing that a lot).

I checked for DNS leaks and there were none, although I had to tweak my browser in order to prevent WebRTC detection.

I have 7 days to trial. So far I'm happy with what I got. I know that I lose a lot of speed, especially if I'm using foreign IP's to hide my country of origin, but I'm more interested in preventing that fuckstick George Brandis from snooping on me via the backdoor than pretending to be from the UK. Besides, 27Mbps is not "bad" for download. If I really need the speed, I can just switch off the VPN.

Does anyone else here run a VPN, and if so what are your thoughts?

:cheerstothat:


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Postby sharkboi » Tue Sep 01, 2015 7:50 pm


I'm on my second VPN, the first I tried was Tunnelbear, it is a full system VPN.
It was great, but, kept regularly disconnecting, and I had to sit and wait until it reconnected, got sick of that real quick!
It has nice features though, it has a built in whitelist you can add sites to, so the VPN is bypassed for them, that way you can do stuff like internet banking, and visit sites like Whirlpool without problems.

I'm now using Zenmate, which is usable as a full system VPN, but can also be used for just your browser via Firefox addon, or a Google extension, which make the connection to the vpn when the browser is open, which is how I use it.
The Zenmate addon and extension also have the built in whitelist function for bypassing the vpn for certain sites, or you have the vpn turned off and have it set to turn on when you visit certain sites, which is the way I use it.

So that's where I'm at, Zenmate costs more, but it has never disconnected on me like Tunnelbear did, and has more functionality being usable for just the browser with the Firefox addon.

As for speeds, I downloaded a 1gig HD video from YouTube in only 2mins 20secs, so I ain't got no complaints there.


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Troy McLure
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Postby HumphreyBBear » Wed Sep 02, 2015 2:17 pm


Thanks for you input Sharkboi.

Am I right in saying that Zenmate is costing you about AU$125 p.a?
What sort of results do you get on Speedtest.net when you just select a random Australian IP address?
Are the German privacy laws better, or worse, than the US privacy laws?


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Postby sharkboi » Wed Sep 02, 2015 3:33 pm


HumphreyBBear wrote:
Thanks for you input Sharkboi.

Am I right in saying that Zenmate is costing you about AU$125 p.a?
What sort of results do you get on Speedtest.net when you just select a random Australian IP address?
Are the German privacy laws better, or worse, than the US privacy laws?

Yep, that's about what I pay, depending on currency changes.

I forgot to mention that ZenMate can be used for free, you don't have to pay, but, your limited in speed to whatever their servers can afford to give you at any given time.
I used it for free for a month just for browsing to check it out, and had no real problems except YouTube buffering etc.

I'm on 100/40 NBN and my usual speeds are...
http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/4629636828

Using the VPN connected to Germany my speeds are...
http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/4629633103
which is the same as my old ADSL2 connection, so no real problems.

I also plugged the WebTRC hole in Firefox, but there is flaw in FLASH too, if you go here http://www.cloakfish.com/?tab=proxy-analysis even when going through a VPN your real IP is leaked, unless you have a Flash Blocker turned on, for that I use https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/flash-control/

Of the connections you can choose, I use Germany because of their privacy laws being better than others, not that we can really trust anyone these days! and it's only going to get worse!


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Troy McLure
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Postby HumphreyBBear » Thu Sep 03, 2015 1:51 pm


Thanks for the info, Sharkboi.

I saw that you could use Zenmate for free, but I close alot of speed as it is so I wouldn't want to lose even more due to load throttling.

I'd rather pay and have the speed. (BTW I am envious of your upload speed; with or without the VPN! :thumleft: )

Thanks for the tip about the Flash leak. I tried the Cloakfish link, and the first test I thought that it showed an IP leak, but I have tried repeatedly to replicate that leak and it doesn't show anything. I haven't changed anything, so now I don't know what to believe. I'll keep an eye on it.

Regarding the Legal issues, I don't think it matters in which country your exit server resides, it is the country where the Provider is located that will determine the what Privacy Laws apply. It's funny because the yanks say the Europeans have looser laws than the US and vice-versa. I'll need to do a lot more reading if I want to find out the truth, but in the mean time at least George Brandis is kept in the dark!


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Postby sharkboi » Thu Sep 03, 2015 4:20 pm


Image

If you have a Flash leak the Cloakfish results look like this...
Quote:
Analysis of your current connection
Your IP is 46.165.210.39 (leaked ip=220.233.17.129 ), no proxy can be detected

If you have the Flash Blocker turned on, it looks like this...
Quote:
Analysis of your current connection
Your IP is 46.165.210.39 , no proxy can be detected

But sometimes it looks like this even when you've blocked Flash, , which is confusing!
Quote:
Analysis of your current connection
Your IP is 46.165.210.39 , no proxy can be detected
Your country is , (Unknown City)
Flash leaked your true IP: 220.233.17.129


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Troy McLure
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Postby sharkboi » Thu Sep 03, 2015 5:40 pm


Image

I've looked further into WebRTC and Flash control on the ZenMate site, and found this helpful page.
No matter what VPN is used, the info is valid.

https://support.zenmate.com/hc/en-us/articles/201259661-How-can-I-protect-myself-from-IP-leaks-caused-by-Flash-or-WebRTC-


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Postby HumphreyBBear » Thu Sep 03, 2015 5:40 pm


If I leave my IP as random Australian address, I get

Quote:
Analysis of your current connection

Your IP is 168.1.75.23 , no proxy can be detected
Your country is Switzerland, (Unknown City)
Your hostname is 168.1.75.23-static.reverse.softlayer.com
Your primary language is english


Which is not my IP, and I don't know why it says Switzerland. :dizzy:

If I set my IP to be a Gernman address, I get

Quote:
Analysis of your current connection

Your IP is 178.162.205.3 , no proxy can be detected
Your country is Germany, (Unknown City)
Your current IP does not have a reverse hostname
Your primary language is english


I have changed nothing on my system, but I am sure that when I first did the test it did show the line "Flash leaked your true IP", and it had indeed!
I suspect that there is a bit of lag between changing exit servers, or switching VPN off and on. I'll just have to keep that in mind.


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Postby sharkboi » Sat Sep 05, 2015 11:59 am


Image

IPLeak is another good site to check for vulnerabilities and what may be leaking.

Shows your seen IP address
Has WebRTC detection for any WebRTC leaks
DNS Address detection to check whether your ISP's DNS server is leaking
Geolocation detection to make sure it's disabled properly in your browser
Torrent Address detection to make sur your real IP isn't seen when downloading torrents
plus other assorted info on your browser etc

https://ipleak.net/


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Postby HumphreyBBear » Sat Sep 05, 2015 3:40 pm


sharkboi wrote:
IPLeak is another good site to check for vulnerabilities and what may be leaking.
https://ipleak.net/

Thanks for the link. I had already been to iplink, which is where I first heard about the WebRTC leaks.


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