Beware these VPNs
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Now working from home is more common than it’s ever been, many of us have turned to Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to keep our data and our web browsing completely private. If you’re an American living in China, for instance, it can be essential to use a VPN as the only way to access sites which the Chinese are not permitted to see. However, an untrusted VPN can be worse than none at all.
The Avast researchers said that three apps in the Apple App Store, all with high ratings scores of 4.7 to 4.8, were found to “overcharge users, do not provide the services they promote and appear to be 'fleeceware.’ ”
The apps, which are still available in the Apple App Store, are Beetle VPN, Buckler VPN and Hat VPN Pro.
Does anyone here use a VPN?
Which one?
Are you happy?
@George-K said in Beware these VPNs:
Now working from home is more common than it’s ever been, many of us have turned to Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to keep our data and our web browsing completely private. If you’re an American living in China, for instance, it can be essential to use a VPN as the only way to access sites which the Chinese are not permitted to see. However, an untrusted VPN can be worse than none at all.
The Avast researchers said that three apps in the Apple App Store, all with high ratings scores of 4.7 to 4.8, were found to “overcharge users, do not provide the services they promote and appear to be 'fleeceware.’ ”
The apps, which are still available in the Apple App Store, are Beetle VPN, Buckler VPN and Hat VPN Pro.
Does anyone here use a VPN?
Which one?
Are you happy?
Not even at work anymore. We see no need.
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I use tunnelbear every 4 years to watch the World Cup without a cable subscription
I’d pay to watch the World Cup, but nobody will let me, so I do this.
@jon-nyc said in Beware these VPNs:
I’d pay to watch the World Cup, but nobody will let me, so I do this.
What do you use to watch that really good German pr0n?
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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What do you mean watch it? He stars in it!
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I do occasionally. There are times when certain websites (Not the coffee room!) which are blocked that I would like to access.
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@Mik said in Beware these VPNs:
I use PIA, which is aptly named. Really slows things down.
I do too, but I've not noticed any real-time slowdowns. Running SpeedTest does show a hit, of course, but it's not serious enough to be an issue in routine use.
Unless, of course, you want that German pr0n, in which case speed is of the essence, as Jon will attest.
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My experience has been that anything over 25 is more than adequate for browsing, streaming etc. Probably anything more that 12.
Here's what I get right now with an ethernet connection to my router for Comcast:
Connecting to Washington DC via PIA, I get this. About half the speed, but more than adequate:
Let's go to Canada, eh?
A while ago, I saw an article, and I think I posted about it, how many people are paying for broadband they really don't need, or even use.
Does it really matter if you spend two minutes or eight minutes to download some JonPr0n? Probably not.
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I should add that, whenever we go out of town, I use a VPN to connect via the hotel's WiFi.
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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For personal use, I don't really see the need.
I do not see the need to "hide" which Internet sites I connect to. Using a commercial VPN service simply means that the VPN provider has a full record of which Internet sites I connect to.
For encryption, it's pretty much HTTPS (TLS) everywhere these days. I am comfortable enough with that to not bother with getting a VPN service.
The only caution I'd advise is this: be careful with public Wi-Fi hotspots. Most of the time you really do not know who operate these Wi-Fi hotspots and what data security and data privacy policies govern these hotspots, or if such policies exist at all. When you are not at home (where you operate the Wi-Fi network) and not at work (where your employer operates the Wi-Fi network), just use your mobile phone's cellular data to get onto the Internet, tether your laptop through your mobile phone if you need to get online with your laptop.
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For personal use, I don't really see the need.
I do not see the need to "hide" which Internet sites I connect to. Using a commercial VPN service simply means that the VPN provider has a full record of which Internet sites I connect to.
For encryption, it's pretty much HTTPS (TLS) everywhere these days. I am comfortable enough with that to not bother with getting a VPN service.
The only caution I'd advise is this: be careful with public Wi-Fi hotspots. Most of the time you really do not know who operate these Wi-Fi hotspots and what data security and data privacy policies govern these hotspots, or if such policies exist at all. When you are not at home (where you operate the Wi-Fi network) and not at work (where your employer operates the Wi-Fi network), just use your mobile phone's cellular data to get onto the Internet, tether your laptop through your mobile phone if you need to get online with your laptop.
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Re: cellular data cap ... short of doing an OS upgrade or MS Office upgrade, the only thing that takes a lot of bandwidth is video streaming. The typical music videos or meme videos on websites and social media platforms are usually fine. But streaming a full feature film or TV series episodes will put a big dent in the cellular data cap.
When I (used to) travel (in the pre-pandemic days), I switch to hotel Wi-Fi if I really want to stream a movie or stream TV episodes to avoid hitting my cellular data cap. Software upgrade can always wait until I get home. If I ever need to log into any service that requires better security (e.g., bank and credit card stuff), I do that only over cellular data.
Then there is email. If you use POP or IMAP, you need to know that you have property configured the security settings to encrypt not just your emails but also your login credentials. If you are not sure about that, then use POP or IMAP only over cellular data or with a VPN. If you’re using a web interface to access your email, you are generally OK if the web service uses HTTPS. Email access using mobile app (e.g., Apple Mail app, Gmail app) for well known providers (e.g., iCloud, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail) are also generally OK over hotel Wi-Fi.
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@jon-nyc said in Beware these VPNs:
I’d pay to watch the World Cup, but nobody will let me, so I do this.
What do you use to watch that really good German pr0n?
@George-K said in Beware these VPNs:
@jon-nyc said in Beware these VPNs:
I’d pay to watch the World Cup, but nobody will let me, so I do this.
that really good German pr0n?
"Ooh ya, pull that plow, baby! Pull it! Pull it!"
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@George-K said in Beware these VPNs:
@jon-nyc said in Beware these VPNs:
I’d pay to watch the World Cup, but nobody will let me, so I do this.
that really good German pr0n?
"Ooh ya, pull that plow, baby! Pull it! Pull it!"
@Larry said in Beware these VPNs:
@George-K said in Beware these VPNs:
@jon-nyc said in Beware these VPNs:
I’d pay to watch the World Cup, but nobody will let me, so I do this.
that really good German pr0n?
"Ooh ya, pull that plow, baby! Pull it! Pull it!"
You forgot the umlauts, heathen.
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I should add that, whenever we go out of town, I use a VPN to connect via the hotel's WiFi.
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Ax, do you trust the WiFi in, say, Hiltons? From what I can tell they have a contract with att to provide it everywhere.
Or Starbucks?
I regularly trust these and others but I don’t go to my bank or vanguard or whatever. I would only do that over the cell network
