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Post by SA Hunter on Jun 29, 2017 0:43:44 GMT 10
Hi
In all honesty, I am a complete computer retard!!! I really am!! Anyway, a movie site I could watch movies on for free, well, there's problems now I try to connect.
I found another site to watch movies, but they recommend I get a VPN - what is this, and if it's a good thing, how do I get it??
Thanks
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Post by Joey on Jun 29, 2017 0:53:15 GMT 10
I use Private Internet Access or PIA VPN. Good low costs, about $40 something a year I think They have 2 Aussie servers (Syd/Melb) so not encountering massive lag from using overseas servers. I like it enough to run it on my phone as well, and doesn't slow it down at all on mobile data. Easy to install, just download the installer thing once you've paid and it sets itself up and auto starts when you turn the computer on, just wait for the green "successful login" box to appear and your right to go. www.privateinternetaccess.com/
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token
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Post by token on Jun 29, 2017 7:50:02 GMT 10
There are many reasons why you should do so, here are a few...
1) You are being profiled by companies such as Google, Faceplant, etc in order to sell you something. 2) You are or can be monitored by the Government. 3) You can be a victim of hacking and or identity theft a whole lot easier. 4) Your telco (ISP) by law now records and stores all of your meta-data which can lead straight to you and must hand it over to any organisation without question or warrant at their request. 5) Your location can be found. 6) You can access servers from other countries which allow you to access content specific to that country and not available elsewhere. 7) If you do not run a VPN on your phone, anyone can set up a wireless connection and if you connect to it, they have access to everything on your device and can watch everywhere you go. Someone did this in a McDonalds from memory, naming their connection McDonalds i think too, they stole a lot from people as a result.
As i said, these are just a few reasons, there are many more.
When you access the internet with a VPN, your connection goes straight through to that VPN server, from that point you access the web and your surfing is encrypted.
When choosing a VPN, ensure that you do not choose one registered in any nation that shares data such as the 5 Eyes Agreement (USA, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand). There are other Nations which will hand over data at a moments notice.
Find a VPN which does not log anything except amount of usage, if, they are looked into, they have nothing to share as there are no logs. Find a VPN which operates in a country which has laws which respect internet privacy, and dont share. If for instance a country that operates a VPN in a nation which does share, but boasts that they dont keep logs, the issue is that the Gov in that Nation may hijack the servers to then monitor the traffic and register the IP's that connect to it, in a country that doesnt work with these Nations, its unlikely.
Find a VPN with 'Kill Switch'. This means, if your connection to your VPN server fails, your internet drops out immediately until you reconnect, that way, your ISP is not exposed.
Find a VPN which has no limits on usage or you might be paying, and find a VPN which is fast as some servers can slow your connection down.
A VPN is the bare minimum standard for internet connection these days. If you operate Firefox or Chrome, you can also have WEBRTc leaks which can expose your Ip address regardless of running a VPN, so let me know via pm if thats you and i can run you through a couple of things to hide it on your browser.
There is a lot i could say on this, and a lot of free tools out there also to use which can make it difficult for anyone to hack you or track you. Hope that helps short term anyways.
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tomatoes
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Post by tomatoes on Jun 29, 2017 8:21:34 GMT 10
I've never heard of a vpn, but I'm watching this thread as it sounds like something I should know about.
But I need a step back from all the info from token and joey. What actually is it? Is it a way to access internet instead of Optus/Telstra/etc? Or is it something you have as well as those?
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token
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Post by token on Jun 29, 2017 8:32:48 GMT 10
I've never heard of a vpn, but I'm watching this thread as it sounds like something I should know about. But I need a step back from all the info from token and joey. What actually is it? Is it a way to access internet instead of Optus/Telstra/etc? Or is it something you have as well as those? You need one! You shouldnt be using the internet without one! Virtual Primary Network (VPN). It is software that you put on your computer and connect to before opening your web browser to surf (go online and try a free one like Tunnel Bear, that will give you the idea). Your internet service provider by law now must keep all of your metadata. In a recent study of meta data, a whole bunch of folk were given a random persons metadata, and they were able to find out who they were and their habits, locations and much more almost always and with frighteningly good results, their mothers house, how many kids they have, where they work, where they have coffee, who they bank with etc. When you go through a good VPN you become anonymous (theres a lot more that can give you up, but this is just the entry level). You are using the IP address that the VPN server assigns to you, from there any sight you hit records the IP address of the VPN server, not yours. Would you believe Canada put it out there to make them illegal lol. Thats how much Gov's hate them, as they want to watch you without warrant to do so. If you go to China, how will you get around the Governments inet censoring (the Great internet wall), you do so with a VPN.
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paranoia
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Post by paranoia on Jun 29, 2017 12:51:44 GMT 10
You still need your ISP to provide you with the connection. With a VPN (Virtual Private Network) you dial into a private server before accessing what you want. This means that the VPN server is doing all the data requests and interacting with the other servers. The data is then routed, encrypted, to you.
The ISP is no longer able to keep the meta data they would otherwise get because you're only connecting to the VPN.
It's just a way to put one step between you and whatever you're doing online.
I don't use one.
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Post by Pasta Deefa on Jun 29, 2017 13:25:28 GMT 10
If you do use a VPN it might be wise to suck up the latency and use one that has an endpoint out of one of the more liberal northern European countries. If you use an Australian or American end point all your metadata may be logged and even if it isn't you are one warrant away from the provider turning over all your details to the police. I work in a datacenter and we have the federal police here on a fairly regular basis with warrants for access to specific clients gear or trying to resolve an IP address to a client. They never tell us specifics and we are legally obligated to remain silent about their activities, but it's fairly easy to put two and two together and figure out that 99% of the people they are investigating are pedo's or white collar thieves.
Personally I try to maintain a seperate online identity as a matter of principle as much as infosec. Just because I have nothing to hide it it still doesn't mean I should let every corporation and government along the way hoover up the particulars of my life.
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fei
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Post by fei on Jun 29, 2017 21:04:13 GMT 10
Would you believe Canada put it out there to make them illegal lol. Thats how much Gov's hate them, as they want to watch you without warrant to do so. If you go to China, how will you get around the Governments inet censoring (the Great internet wall), you do so with a VPN. Yep, I'm in China, and have a company-issued VPN on my work laptop that's on all the time the puter is on...nice thing is our workplace doesn't really care if you're looking at Facebook, Twitter etc in work time, just as long as you're not using unapproved software, downloading or watching porn. VPNs are now illegal in China, but pretty much available and in use everywhere you look; although the internet police monitor them and periodically close them down when some magic metric (eg. user number) is met. Actually, I never used a VPN until we were provided with them about 5 years ago, which is why I never bothered getting a Facebook, Twitter etc page -- the malarkey of trying to get into them through proxies and other non-VPN methods was just too much trouble.
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grumble
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Post by grumble on Jul 3, 2017 9:33:37 GMT 10
To be totally honest I do not use one and I never will
my reasoning is very simple nothing I do online is all that interesting yes Google tries to sell me stuff via targeted marketing but guess what 3 people use my personal computer so YouTube and Google must think I am bit odd because 1 day I watch videos on firearms and visit gun sales pages and tent reviews the next day I look up baby care and live pregnancy announcements on YouTube and peppa pig video's
I don't care to be put simple I run do not track me in the back ground that stops most of the tracking and blocks a lot of stuff
no I am not naïve I understand the risks I also know the importance of having an identifiable digital profile vs having none or going to a lot of trouble to cover your tracks
A friends once freaked out because I was reading web pages about different types of explosives and asking a couple of questions on forum attached to one of the sites he was omg dude WTF are doing the feds will be watching you for this
my response was Um dude I have a firearms license and I part of my job currently is to make shape charges for industrial purposes and all of this has been approved and vetted by state police the federal police ASIO and Interpol they know everything about me and it was even bought up that a long time ago I was a know associate of the Odin's Warriors MC the point is they are not going to give a rats ass what I look up as long as its not venturing into known dangerous territory or doing anything illegal like downloading movies which I have never done and never will id rather pay for them
My point is if your worried about be brother watching you go use a torr and bam you have their attention and sit back and enjoy being watched
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token
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Post by token on Jul 3, 2017 19:29:19 GMT 10
To those who are limiting a vpn to 'tracking' only, there are a whole other bunch of reasons why you should run a vpn other than this. Its important to do some research on just how much they do and why its important to run one.
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gziggla
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Post by gziggla on Aug 16, 2017 23:30:19 GMT 10
First up, VPN means virtual private network. Like the name suggests, it creates a private network where the content is only accessible by those who share the network. VPNs work by passing all your data through a secure tunnel. The data within the tunnel gets mixed with proverbial junk so it's almost impossible for spies to make sense of it, thus securing your connection and the data. thought the concept is simple, people have been using it for multitude of reasons, including but not limited to 1. Securing connections over public places because public WiFis are prone to phishing attacks. Phishing is an attack where people are conned into entering their sensitive credentials. Think click-bait 2. Making sure no site like Google or authorities like NSA are spying on you. 3. Bypassing region lock to access content like Xbox US Store, or accessing American library of Netflix since you get a new IP (though Netflix is trying to make things harder) With that said, there are multiple things to look for in a VPN, again not limtied to: 1. Encryption - the data needs to be encrypted in order to attain a secure transfer of information 2. Log Policy - Your provider shouldn't be keeping all your activity logs. If they are doing so, and are registered from some region where the law asks them to provide the data, they'll be bound by the law to provide it. The way around it is to get a vpn that has a server in the region you're trying to connect, yet isn't registered from that region. That would ensure they aren't bound by local authorities. having no-log policy is also a bonus because there will be nothing to produce if they aren't maintaining it in the first place. you can try and read up more over vpn by googling vpns. and while you're at it, also read up on Edward Snowden's stance on privacy. that'll give you a fair idea. you can begin your reading from this point if you'd like :/ www.ivacy.com/anonymous-vpn/3. Servers - As a rule, the more, the merrier. If you like logging from Australia and want to stream UK's content, you'll need a VPN that has servers in UK. 4. Kill Switch - It's actually the most important element because it "kills" your internet connection altogether as soon as the VPN connection drops thus ensuring you don't end up accidentally browsing with your real IP (it's traceable). There's so much more to explain here. But I guess it'll give you some idea.
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token
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Post by token on Aug 17, 2017 0:53:38 GMT 10
If vpn's arent such a good idea, why did Russia just make them illegal? Why has Apple now had to comply with China's laws in removing almost all of its apps which have vpn's except those which the Chinese Gov accept?
VPN's are a statement of human rights and human decency. They are a protest to anyone who gets too big for their boots in positions over people that they cannot control them. Privacy is yours, it belongs to you, and it should be only you who decide what aspects of such you reveal and that which you dont.
Im all for real crime getting busted, but when you realize how many folk get trampled on in the process, its not worth it. Catch criminals, go after them, but dont raid millions of peoples privacy in doing so, its the equivalent of your house being raided to find criminals.
A VPN is the starting point for online privacy, safety and more, there is a lot more needed.
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landy
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Post by landy on Oct 15, 2017 12:53:33 GMT 10
I use PIA (Private Internet Access) so I'm with Joey on this one. At least I know they are sort of battle tested. helpdesk.privateinternetaccess.com/hc/en-us/articles/229705288-Is-Private-Internet-Access-Located-In-A-Fourteen-Eyes-Country-This is why at PIA, we have designed our operations to prevent this from happening in the first place. There are no logs. There is no identifying information that can be collected, regardless of the amount of force applied. There are several companies who claim they don’t log, but do anyway at the end of the day. In contrast, we have public court records to prove we don’t log anything, available for anyone to read (pages 11-12): “All of the responses from 1&1, Facebook, Twitter, and Tracfone have been traced back by IP address to … privateinternetaccess.com. […] A subpoena was sent […] and the only information they could provide is that the cluster of IP addresses being used was from the east coast of the United States. However, [PIA] did provide that they accept payment for their services with a vendor company of Stripe and/or Amazon. They also accept forms of payment online through paypal, bitpay, bitcoin, cashyou, ripple, ok pay, and pay garden.” With the added security of end-to-end encryption and with nothing logged that can identify our users, with public court records to show for it, the question remains what to do if PIA is coerced into something – or rather, if authorities try to coerce PIA into something, such as was the case with Yahoo recently, when the NSA had forced it into spying on its own users. There is a precedent for this, and it is Lavabit choosing to shut down operations instead of selling out its users (specifically, selling out Edward Snowden). That’s also exactly what Private Internet Access has already done once, when Russia demanded that we start logging our users’ identities, after seizing PIA servers. Our response was to immediately shut down operations in Russia:
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Post by selfsufficient on Oct 20, 2017 9:04:35 GMT 10
I Have been using purevpn for several years. main reason is to bypass the torrent block that has been put in place. Torrents had alot of potential besides the demonized reasons of piracy. Also I can set my browsing origin to any country in the world.
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paranoia
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Post by paranoia on Oct 20, 2017 12:08:38 GMT 10
I Have been using purevpn for several years ... I can set my browsing origin to any country in the world. OK, now you've peaked my interest... There are a few things that this could be very handy for. Will have to do some research tonight...
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Post by selfsufficient on Oct 20, 2017 12:17:53 GMT 10
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