Took a fair sized step....

tanstaafl72555

tanstaafl72555

This Member's Account Has Been Permanently Banned
Life Member
Joined
Mar 1, 2017
Messages
7,213
Location
Spring Hope NC
Rating - 100%
10   0   0
today.
Normally, I just logged on, and if I had things I wanted to check on that were sensitive, or I did not want prying eyes getting flagged, I just used TAILS and TOR. I have decided that I want all my stuff redirected away from my own home base. Some stuff, like membership in here, is obviously me. Most stuff, even down to the sites I browse, I want to throw a wrench in the data hoover.

SO, after much research, I decided to go with NORD as a VPN provider. I like them b/c they are VERY linux friendly, they are based outside the long arm of Uncle Sam (at least his legal jurisdiction, for court orders to puke up data and all), have several hundred servers around the world (so if the mods start wondering why I am logging in from Osaka one day, Bulgaria the next, Kenya the next and Lima the next. That is why. You can choose your server with .... well, if not a click of the button, you can at least use the network manager and scroll.... very easy). Speeds are fabulous. I plan to stream a vid tonight and see if there are any latency issues.

I have also gone to BRAVE as the go to browser. It was "good enough" on first release, but a bit kludgy. The interface is nice and slick, and no one is collecting data on where you went and how much you spent to send you ads.

I know, I know. If they REALLY want me, they can overpower these, or maybe even have intel guys inside these vendors. Who knows? But guess what? I don't deal cocaine, nor am I planning to shoot up some target to accomplish some political target, or if I was, I would not not announce it on the web like a total Sheisskopf. I am just not worth enough to chase down. I just don't like them looking.... so now they don't.
 
I have been using NordVPN off and on for a couple of months. Seems to work fine.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Just out of curiosity did you look into CyberGhost or ExpressVPN for VPNs? How about the Epic Privacy Browser?
I use CyberGhost and Epic and like them well enough. Although Epic blocks a LOT of stuff, to the point where some websites can't/won't load content.
 
Been using Brave for awhile now. So much nicer than chrome on my phone. No constant onslaught of pop ups and videos bogging me down... and some level of privacy...
 
tanstaafl72555 said:
I know, I know. If they REALLY want me, they can overpower these, or maybe even have intel guys inside these vendors. Who knows? But guess what? I don't deal cocaine, nor am I planning to shoot up some target to accomplish some political target, or if I was, I would not not announce it on the web like a total Sheisskopf. I am just not worth enough to chase down. I just don't like them looking.... so now they don't.
Click to expand...
Privacy is an inherent right. Just because most of the world and 99% of the millennial generation post all their crap for public display doesn’t mean you should.

There is a reason we send mail in envelopes.
 
I've had NORD for a few months now as well. I've been pretty pleased so far.
 
Exile_D said:
Just out of curiosity did you look into CyberGhost or ExpressVPN for VPNs? How about the Epic Privacy Browser?
I use CyberGhost and Epic and like them well enough. Although Epic blocks a LOT of stuff, to the point where some websites can't/won't load content.
Click to expand...
Yes I did. In fact, I wavered between Express and Nord for a bit. I picked Nord for the following reasons.
1. I am a DEDICATED penguin. Nord went out of its way to make linux install so idiot proof even I could do it. Graphic illustrations on YouTube and all that.
2. Logging policy. ALL VPNs "log" in some manner or another. The difference seems to be the amount of care and diligence they use in how the logs they do have are maintained, where, and what policies they have when confronted with requests
3. Number and location of servers
4. Their attitude towards security. Rather than do a "well, that is sewed up!" approach, they hire outside firms to try to break them, and then share the results. Other folks may do that, but they called attention to it, and it got my attention.
5. They leak. Everyone does. They aggressively police the leaks and fix them.
6. Cost They were about 108 or so for three years. It was in the low one hundred dollar range, anyway

Like I said, I REALLY likedExpress VPN and considered them for a good while.

No, I have not used EPIC. Thanks for the rec. I will try it
 
My next "project" is going to be getting Nord set up on my phone. I am hoping it is easy. Then my wife's phone.

Right now I have two small remodeling projects I have to finish. I thought I had quit doing those, but customers called and told me how great I was, so my ego got the better of my brain. My back wishes it hadn't!
 
I would like to point out this case of the man who broke into the White House. This man was not tracked, or reported even with all the interactions with the police. We also have many reports of active shooters who are reported many times to the .gov and they can not put two dots together. These people are known for using the most common available platforms. Being a single number among 353 million is better than being a single number among 150.

I would submit to you all that the untrackable internet stuff is designed by the NSA. Same as 23 and Me is ran by the FBI.

When the home grown or international terrorist asks "can you hear me know" its not on IE, because he read up on the cloak and dagger internet stuff.....
 
Last edited:
JBoyette said:
I would like to point out this case of the man who broke into the White House. This man was not tracked, or reported even with all the interactions with the police. We also have many reports of active shooters who are reported many times to the .gov and they can not put two dots together. These people are known for using the most common available platforms. Being a single number among 353 million is better than being a single number among 150.
Click to expand...
This is one of the arguments I saw regarding the use of Tor, which was initially an NSA project (back when they were a lot more focused on foreign activity, per their charter, and looked at exit nodes). The more people who use it, the more you hide in plain site.

I would submit to you all that the untrackable internet stuff is designed by the NSA. Same as 23 and Me is ran by the FBI.
Click to expand...
Any security measure needs to start with an assessment of your threat risk. A current threat is not state actors but your ISP that wants to analyze your traffic for marketing and other purposes. A VPN privatizes your data from that perspective. Also, think of this site. We know that they’ve tried using IP address blocking because innocent people have gotten caught up in it. VPN and Tor, as well as the simple nature of dynamic addressing are all examples of why it’s not effective, even if it is the go to solution for the novice.

Tor, for example, is not decrypt-able in real-time, even by nation states, unless they’ve managed to compromise the client. Even then, monitoring it still requires access beyond that of an ISP and requires the ability to see the stitching networks that bridge the ISP layers.
 
School me on VPN's, I've used them all my life and set them up professionally, my question is concerning these companies. If I buy a license can I use it on all my devices? Do they all work on android phones? Android tablets? Windows PC's? You say you can't use paypal?
 
Will VPN affect connection speed?
The international company i worked for before I went on my own had us connect via VPN into their system and boy did it choke down the connection speed.
 
NORD is all I use. Great service

Goofyfoot2001 said:
School me on VPN's, I've used them all my life and set them up professionally, my question is concerning these companies. If I buy a license can I use it on all my devices? Do they all work on android phones? Android tablets? Windows PC's? You say you can't use paypal?
Click to expand...

Nord allows up to 6 devices to be used per a subscription. Check google play for the APP for Android stuff. They have the software you can download on PC

They are accepting credit cards so...
 
12151791 said:
Will VPN affect connection speed?
The international company i worked for before I went on my own had us connect via VPN into their system and boy did it choke down the connection speed.
Click to expand...

Really depends on the server(s) you are connecting to. If it’s a local server, you may or may not notice reduced speeds. But you connect to a server say in the UK, um yah, you’ll notice a bit more time to load pages. Just the nature of ping
 
I used IPvanish years ago. It was slow af, even directly configured thru my router.....but it did have an easy to use app on both android and iphone.

I don't do stupid things online, stay off FB, don't post manifestos, and don't post huge videos on youtube showing guns and ammo stash. I do IT for a living and I can tell you, the entire industry doesn't really care about privacy just throughput.
Even in financial (especially some would say!) companies, privacy is a lip-service afterthought.
If you use credit cards, have a mortgage, SSN, etc. you're already completely logged into the Matrix lock stock and barrel.

That redundant data center in Utah can't even begin to be utilized efficiently due to the massive amounts of data and relatively outdated software they're using.
 
Last edited:
tanstaafl72555 said:
My next "project" is going to be getting Nord set up on my phone. I am hoping it is easy. Then my wife's phone.

Right now I have two small remodeling projects I have to finish. I thought I had quit doing those, but customers called and told me how great I was, so my ego got the better of my brain. My back wishes it hadn't!
Click to expand...
Nord was stupid easy to set up on my phone.
Easier than my desktop.

Questions came up about speed sacrifices.

One of the reasons I used NORD was the number of servers around the world. I am trying out several. Here are my observations. When I run ookla on my untethered connection, I get a "measured" (yeah, I know it is not really a good test) rate of about 24 mbs d/l and 12 u/l. Decent speed for a standard relatively rural connect. When I bounce off a server in London, Amsterdam, Oslo, Singapore, or Tokyo, normal speeds are between 17 and 22 down and 8-11 up. When I pick a server in the US (right now I am running through NYC, but there are servers in DC, Atlanta, SF, Houston etc etc), MOST of them are not appreciably slower at all.

Some of the servers, say, in Turkey, Kenya, Buenos Aires... etc, are either difficult to connect or appreciably slower, but the majority of my interactions with the web are in text, so that is not much of a problem for me.

In short, I don't find the speed difference to be much of a factor.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom