VPN - Are they effective, which ones are best, how to best set them up

I think your points are good about specific patterns, as well as subscribing to multiple services - although as far as VPN goes that is pretty much normal by now I would think. I guess to prevent certain patterns it would be good to switch things up, perhaps use Whonix and then don't use it, use different OS's in VMs and without VM, run off USB sticks live, etc.

I think browsing around on onion sites is probably not that big of a deal, because how else could anyone in IT study it, or any students look at it, or people write articles about it, etc. Where it becomes hairy is probably where people start ordering products or services that involve crypto currencies and things along those lines, because those would represent another possible link to a real world ID and actual illegal activity. I read there are even people ordering legit stuff on darknet markets (not just illegal) which is almost funny but they are probably trying to unload crypto or something.

I agree doing anything nefarious from a home network is stupid, but that still doesn't make me understand exactly what the mechanics are that could expose that. It would seem unlikely to me that any of the data could become exposed UNLESS "they" are working back from purchases or transactions and have already dedicated resources to sellers or markets and have somehow been able to compromise these. Even then, thousands upon thousands of people buy stuff on darknets every day and it doesn't seem "they" are very good at shutting things down. Maybe they have the attitude that they are only going after market admins and at most big sellers but even that seems quite rare.

I'm interested what Freezer might add to this as well, because I think he made some of the TOR ssApps in the past if I'm not mistaken so he may have some experience with it.

 

Yeah all my comments are just opinions and not real world advice. But I agree with your observations, they would have to be working back from the results/event to find the proof and it would be more expensive than minor crimes could recover for them, so they wouldn't do it unless the public eye was on them. Like I stated tho, it's not the data that is required to prosecute, just the access and/or suggested intent. so my argument is that even if you do hide your data you will still be liable to show proof of what you were really doing if innocent, it's not the outcome of the courts that matter either, you will never be "clean" in the public eye and could lose jobs etc just for being associated with something like that. I am not willing to touch on the right/wrong side of things, just the reality. So in closing I would prefer the law monitor everything I do and leave me alone because they can't make any money from me than fight for the "perceived" protection of encryption that it falsely promises. I am interested to see what others think about this stuff, no need to give reasons or justification. just their view on VPN/Encryption/Anon and monitoring users activities. I did have plenty of opportunity to make money or mine data when tens of thousands of people were using LastOS's, but my personal values have always meant more to me than money. Money is fleeting and glory is forever - to borrow from Marvel - "Four or five moments, that's all it takes. To be a hero"

 

Here's an interesting way to see what IP address your torrent client "broadcasts". Especially useful if you're using a VPN and wish to check that it is working okay with torrents.

(Source: https://www.best-bittorrent-vpn.com/check-torrent-ip.html)
_______________________

HOW TO CHECK YOUR TORRENT IP ADDRESS
Simple truth.

Checking your torrent IP address is only useful if you're using a VPN or proxy in order to hide your true IP address.

If you're doing nothing to anonymize your torrents, then your torrent IP address will simply be the the IP address assigned to you by your ISP.

Now that we've got that cleared up...

Here are two free tools that let you check your torrent IP address quickly and easily:

• ipMagnet
• Check My Torrent IP

Both sites are essentially running a clone of the same tool, so it doesn't matter which one you choose. They work the same.

Here's how it works...

Step #1
Go to one of the free tools (we're using ipMagnet for this demo)

​

Step #2
Click the 'Magnet Link' hyperlink to generate a unique tracking link. Open it in your favorite torrent client.

Your torrent IP address and browser IP address both shown​

Step #3
Verify that your IP addresses for both browser and torrent client are what you would expect.

Here, the torrent IP is different from the browser IP address (both of which are different from my true IP address) because this setup is using an anonymous proxy for torrents and a VPN for the entire internet connection (maximum privacy).

Step #4
Once you've added the magnet link, you can easily check your torrent IP address without returning to the website.

1. Open your torrent client
2. Click on the tracking torrent
3. Go to the 'Trackers' tab
4. And you'll see something like this (this demo used utorrent but it works for any client):

Check your Torrent IP from inside your torrent client​

Just make sure your 'status' section is wide enough to display the full ip address, otherwise you might just see 'Failure'

 

I've signed up to NordVPN. I have set it up on the router so all devices connected to it will automatically have its Internet traffic VPN'd -- and allows me to have some spare VPN connections available for when I'm mobile or at a local hotspot. It was a concern to me if it would break the Vergitek server or what. But as BP says, it appears to be very well behaved and it doesn't seem to be affecting the Vergitek server. Except perhaps for speed. I haven't done any speed checks yet.

But if anyone notices something broken or weird, let me know.

 

Those of you using NordVPN for a while now... I'm curious what experiences you have on the various servers offered. I know the system can recommend or select the best server for you and you can set your server preferences. Specifically I'm looking at P2P versus Standard VPN; and wondering which might be have the better balance between the Vergitek-server and torrents/ed2k.

 

Back when I first started using NordVPN, a little over 2 years ago, it seemed that I had to switch servers fairly often as each "filled up" (my perception) and I switched to one that had less traffic for better speed. It was also more particular that I found a server that was compatible with the sites I used, audiblebookbay.nl was one that was persnickety. I haven't found either situation to be as much of an issue over the last year or more. Like @zdevilinside, I just pick the fastest PSP server in the US, check to make sure audiobookbay is OK, and go. You can set up favorites for the servers that work best for you. Lately, I've just used the same one each time and haven't had an issue. Most important, my ISP hasn't had a problem nor raised an issue with anything I've downloaded, ever.

I've resisted installing NordVPN on my router, afraid of speed impacts and the need to frequently switch servers based on my early experiences, so I'll be interested to hear how it works for you.

EDIT: FWIW, I tried to download a 112 MB file, OpenAudible, from github this morning while on NordVPN. It ran incredibly slow for over an hour before finally failing with a Network Error. I deleted the partial file, rebooted, did NOT log into NordVPN, and retried the download. It completed in seconds. Coincidence? I have no idea.

EDIT 2: My previous edit got me curious. I restarted NordVPN, connected to a different server, and retried the OpenAudible download. This time it completed successfully in 2-3 minutes.

EDIT 3: After a few more hours, I connected to yet a different server and tried again. This time the file downloaded in just a few seconds, maybe as fast as it did when NordVPN was not connected.

Based on this extremely limited sample, I guess I can say that it isn't always consistent. Whether it was based on the servers, the exact times I tried the various downloads, the web site involved, or what, I can't say. The speed is such that it is not noticeable in normal browsing nor my other usual casual downloads. It is also much safer and I won't work with torrents without NordVPN anymore. If download speed is the primary concern, try a different server if it seems slow, or do it without the VPN if you can do so safely.

 

When i was in another country, such as the far east, the loverly government had blocked various social media such as FB, Twitter, instagram etc because of gov paranoid thinking that people would be influenced maybe even brainwashed by western ways.
So I found that Astrill VPN worked well but sometimes the gov blocked the VPN and their website to download the latest version. I contacted their CS to inform them of the problem and they fixed the issue within hours. It was a constant battle between the gov and VPN provider but Astrill was always on top of the situation.

 

I did note that the VPN broke the email-service somehow -- being blocked, perhaps? Also the emule client quit downloading. It wasn't getting a high-ID and KAD was firewalled. Even when using the VPN's P2P-servers. It seemed okay though when I switched the port-forwards to the standard ed2k/KAD ports.

Both problems I never really got a chance to track down thoroughly before the Vergitek-server totally crashed -- Yes. Again.

Anyway, I'm still working on it's replacement so it might be awhile before I get back to playing around with those issues.

 

You really need to set up a HDD mirror, it's happening to often for it to be viable to work on if any sort of Data loss occurs for you as often as it fails.

 

From what I understand, this time it was NOT a drive crash, but rather a motherboard and RAM failure. I've always respected Freezer for continuing to use older hardware, (Why replace something that's working?), but as has been painfully evident for him, ANY hardware can fail, and eventually will. I believe that he has implemented Glenn's suggestion of a drive mirror, or at least multiple backups, but a working drive doesn't do much immediate good when the motherboard dies. To make sure that We as a community don't lose any info permanently, it's always a good idea for us all to keep copies of data that we each think is most important and/or useful so that it can be re-uploaded if necessary.

 

Yes, fortunately ALL the data is okay and intact. At the time this happened, I had been in the process of building a backup server so all I needed to do if something like this happened was switch over to the backup system. It was just about ready too. All that was needed was a power supply and some memory.

But then Murphy came to visit...

 

So likely the new System Disk in the new PC wouldn't start and/or let you boot from USB to repair/install it. or it stops copying and slows to 4kb/s saying 2 years until complete.

 

LMAO, you nearly predicted that one.

Those sorts of problems are why I tried to secure a backup system that was virtually identical to the old/primary. Well that didn't really work either... Got as far as booting to the desktop, but it would not recognize any keyboard or mouse. I could see the damn clock was running; that's it.

Turns out the old one was AMD-based and the new was Intel-based. So a lot of the drivers needed re-installed, starting with the keyboard/mouse HID's... an impossible chicken-or-egg situation that would of course require a complete re-install of the OS.

I opted instead to install Trouba's Last8.1-Ent-x64 especially since I'd gotten Win8.1 to a state I really liked. Ironically, not only did it install fast and without a hitch, but it recognized every single on-board device and expansion card and automatically installed them. I never had to go looking for any drivers somewhere on the Internet.

And with XAMPP being portable, plus all the existing ppApp's, I actually had very little to install and those were mostly ssApps. It kept the down-time very brief -- less than a week.

 

One of the things that's endeared me to NordVPN is every time they update their app their change-log has a bit of humor. (It reminds me of reading end credits to a Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker movie)

https://nordvpn.com/blog/nordvpn-windows-release-notes/

 

This.

 

Suggestion:

 

NordVPN 6.29 (latest)
An ultimate focus, a confident smile. Click – and the release is out. For us, it’s one of the most exciting app releases ever. The project we’ve been relentlessly working on comes into light today. We call it NordLynx.

NordLynx is our new technology built around the WireGuard® protocol (Wikipedia) to bring you blazing speeds in VPN connections. Fast, secure, and optimized for privacy, NordLynx is set to be a game-changer in your VPN experience.

Here’s how to take it for a test-drive: Go to Settings > Auto-connect > Disable “Choose a VPN protocol and server automatically” > VPN protocol > NordLynx

Even though this release is all about speeding up your VPN connections, we’ve also made a few other improvements:

• Faster and more smooth switching between servers.
• Fixed: The App Killswitch now activates only when disconnecting from VPN manually or if an unexpected connection drop happens. It means no more quitting the selected applications when switching to another VPN server.

 

LOL. I think you misunderstood the posting. I was just pointing out that their latest build is now implementing WireGuard -- currently well regarded over IPSec and even the venerable OpenVPN.

As far as I know, nobody's made an ssApp out of it. Yet.

 

Oh yeah, we'll send Glenn over there to grab it. LOL

 

Anyone else having issue(s) with Nord's VPN app? The recent releases seem to be breaking features or becoming more unstable (and getting worse). There's no way to turn off notifications for updates either so even if you roll back to an unbroken release, there's constant nags for "a new version is available".

It's gotten so bad that I've resorted to installing/using OpenVPN's client -- which has been totally rock solid for me.