120M : VPN

[gtfc1984]

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

Other cons: Sites that track users by IP will be annoyed, and some do not allow people from using shared (i.e. VPN) addresses.

The whole point of a VPN is users don't want to be tracked and stay protected, any sites that don't work just turn the VPN off temporally. All data coming through the VPN is encrypted hence slower speeds but stops your ISP from seeing what your downloading although some VPNs log activity.

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by gtfc1984

The whole point of a VPN is users don't want to be tracked and stay protected, any sites that don't work just turn the VPN off temporally. All data coming through the VPN is encrypted hence slower speeds but stops your ISP from seeing what your downloading although some VPNs log activity.

It's the bandwidth at the VPN provider that causes the slowdown rather than that it's encrypted.

Basic encryption isn't especially resource heavy now.

EDIT: Would be interesting to find out how many people use VPNs for generic privacy versus using them to get around geo-location restrictions versus using them to leech copyright content without the copyright police sending threat-o-grams.

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by gtfc1984

The whole point of a VPN is users don't want to be tracked and stay protected

Protected from what? Your VPN provider will know everything you're doing, the service/website you are using will know everything you're doing, and your ISP will know you're trying to hide what you're doing.

Regardless, turning off VPN every time you want to visit certain websites is hardly a practical solution, particularly given the security implications (who these days only ever opens one web page and tab at a time?)

---------- Post added at 16:17 ---------- Previous post was at 16:16 ----------

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

It's the bandwidth at the VPN provider that causes the slowdown rather than that it's encrypted.

Basic encryption isn't especially resource heavy now.

Indeed. And many modern (<5 years old) CPUs have encryption offload built-in that can easily handle over 10 gigabits per second.

[Milambar]

The only reason I use a VPN is to get around geo-location lockouts, such as those which courts of ordered. I'm not concerned with privacy, as I don't download warez/movies/tv shows/music.

There IS valid and legal content on some of the torrent trackers, believe it or not.

Speed isn't a huge issue for me either, as the files I access are usually quite small.

[General Maximus]

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

EDIT: Would be interesting to find out how many people use VPNs for generic privacy versus using them to get around geo-location restrictions versus using them to leech copyright content without the copyright police sending threat-o-grams.

I am all 3

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by Milambar

The only reason I use a VPN is to get around geo-location lockouts, such as those which courts of ordered.

Since when did courts order geo-location lockouts?

[Milambar]

I was referring to the court ordered blockades on tpb and other such sites mostly.

[ianch99]

Originally Posted by gtfc1984

Easy to setup, just install the software to your devices

Pros, unlock any blocked website, hide your IP, unlock content not available in your country by changing location.

Cons, possible slower speeds.

I use Hotspot Shield Elite, costs £2.99 a month and provides upto 5 devices to be protected on one account. Currently use this on my Mac and iPhone with no problems. It offers you to connect to the following countries UK, USA, Japan, Australia, Canada and Germany. So far I've found it great for the UK and USA sites. I am on 152mbps broadband with VM but you won't get that behind a VPN as previous comments state from others, you get around 60mbps thats fine for me at least other devices on the network won't slow down. No download data limits. Its available on Windows, Mac, Android and iOS. They offer a free trial for elite too.

Thanks for the reply. I was wondering if a VPN can help is accessing the US content for NetFlix and Amazon Prime? We have both accounts and it seems that there is more/newer content in the US

I use the Chrome Hola extension to access NetFlix from a PC. This can be (sometimes) (chrome) cast to the TV if the wind is in the right direction.

What do people think of Hola and is a VPN better? I am thinking here of setting VPN up on my Asus N66U router and use selective routing for nominated services - something like this. Looks very complicated and possible fragile so I guess if a VPN provider is the best out-of-country content provider then it would need installing and activating

[General Maximus]

it looks hardcore but it isn't. Anything after # doesn't matter because it is just a text descriptor for your reference and the router ignores it. As for everything else, it goes in the format of

ip address, subnet mask, destination

You are basically saying I want anything which falls within this specific ip range to go over the vpn

Originally Posted by Milambar

I was referring to the court ordered blockades on tpb and other such sites mostly.

I understand what you mean but geo-location blocks and restrictions put in place based on geographical location and nothing else. Perfect examples would be that you can only access bbc iplayer if you are within the UK and stuff like Showtime if you are in the US. Every country in the world apart from England hasn't blocked their population from accessing BBC, it is the BBC who have restricted it to UK access.

[Blairhoyle]

been thinking about this for "forums" etc.

[General Maximus]

you should have a look at the one I signed up to, it is only £26 for the whole year, everything is encrypted and there are server locations in multiple countries. I love it.

[Blairhoyle]

Originally Posted by General Maximus

you should have a look at the one I signed up to, it is only £26 for the whole year, everything is encrypted and there are server locations in multiple countries. I love it.

how much is your speed reduced by?

why is it reduced?

[dragon]

It's reduced because the server has to retrieve the data, encrypt it and then send it to you, then you need to receive and decrypt it.

Depending on the size of the Connection feeding the server, how many other users there are and how good the transit is will affect the speed.

[General Maximus]

I get a consistent 50mbits.

[Jumping]

I can easily get over 10Mb/s over my VPN connection, if I hadn't throttled my speed I would be able to get a bit more.

With a fast enough CPU you don't really take much hit in speed as long as the vpn node you are using isn't maxing out its bandwidth and not to far away like in another country, the speed above is me using a node in .nl