Question about VPN

[Lima]

Hello,

Recently a family member has been experiencing what seems to be reason for concern and I was looking into subscribing to a VPN service. Thing is I don't know much about this stuff. Am seeing lots of Nord advertising, see Linus advertising Tunnelbear and Jay from Jayz two cent mentions Astrill as a good recommendation.. would I be fine with either one?

Furthermore.. I am using my ISP router and was thinking bout keeping it for wireless but putting my older WRT54GL in front of it to run the VPN. Also wondering if I would experience a slowdown because WRT54GL due to it"s age.. Thoughts?

 

[Cannon Fodder]

It depends on exactly what you want to accomplish with your VPN. For instance, if the issue is due to downloading items of a somewhat illegal nature, i.e. peer to peer stuff, some VPN services don't allow that anyway, so it's best to do a little research on the VPNs you might want to try.

Personally, we use Private Internet Access, and have had no issues with them. Slowdowns also depend on your location, and the location of the VPN's server you're connecting to. For instance, we're located near Vancouver, and strange as it may seem, our connection to servers in California tends to be better than connecting to servers in Seattle. When I was looking for the same thing, someone else, that lives, IIRC, in Halifax, had used PIA, and found that their connection suffered significant slowdowns, so they switched to another VPN, and it was apparently much better.

Also, be sure to check each VPN out so far as allowed bandwidth, and whether or not they keep any logs of their customers' activities.

As for Tunnel Bear, I don't recall specifics, but I do recall checking them out, and I THINK they had a rather small bandwidth limit.

In doing some research, you'll also notice there's often a significant price difference between VPNs too.

Most of them have OS-specific apps to install, and some of them allow a 2 or 3 day trial, or you can subscribe for a week, just to try them out. They all generally allow several simultaneous connections, but some allow more than others.

I can't speak for the others, but PIA is actually pretty damn good - they have A LOT of servers worldwide, they're very reasonably priced, they don't log activities, they allow peer to peer, their app is VERY easy to config & run, and they allow several simultaneous connections. Some of the supposedly good ones include Nord, Pure, IP Vanish, but I'd suggest you do some research.... maybe Google "best vpn", or "top 10 vpn".

You don't really need to put that other router in the equation.... just install the app on the devices in question, and connect that way. You can connect & disconnect at will, or config the app to start at bootup, and auto-connect. If it's a matter of wanting to connect more devices simultaneously than their allowed number, or just wanting to make sure that anybody using your internet connection is using your VPN, THEN you might want to install a VPN config on your router.

Hope that helps :thumb: .... any more questions, just fire away. :biggrin:

 

[Lima]

Thanks Cannon Fodder, much appreciated :thumb:

Well, I definitely wanna blur the lines here.. so anyone targeting can't get a clear line of sight. My family member had to inform the police and was referred to a specialist and he confirmed something weird was going on. It was targeted it seems so am thinking to get the router it's self behind the VPN at home and just use the apps when in public.. does that sound about right?

 

[enaberif]

Thanks Cannon Fodder, much appreciated :thumb:

Well, I definitely wanna blur the lines here.. so anyone targeting can't get a clear line of sight. My family member had to inform the police and was referred to a specialist and he confirmed something weird was going on. It was targeted it seems so am thinking to get the router it's self behind the VPN at home would maybe serve us even better and just use the apps when in public.. does that about right?

I am curious of what is going on because there should be no possible way for anyone to get a persons information over the internet unless it was freely given or phished.

 

[Cannon Fodder]

Lima, if you want to run the VPN on your router, there are certainly ways to do it. Not having done it myself, I don't know enough about it, but again, if you do some research on various VPNs, you should be able to get it done.

In the case of PIA, if you go to their "Downloads & Support" page, and scroll down to the "Advanced Router Setup", you should be able to find the info needed for your particular router. Other VPNs likely have similar info on their sites as well.

https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/pages/client-support/​

 

[Lima]

In regards to my router question.. after some quick searching, I identified Tomato as the firmware most suitable for my needs

Guess I will just have to test out the service providers :biggrin:

 

[Lima]

In regards to my router question.. after some quick searching, I identified Tomato as the firmware most suitable for my needs

Guess I will just have to test out the service providers :biggrin:

I am curious of what is going on because there should be no possible way for anyone to get a persons information over the internet unless it was freely given or phished.

passwords being reset, mailing contacts.. hijacking like activities. As per members knowledge, no sensitive info was ever given freely

 

[enaberif]

In regards to my router question.. after some quick searching, I identified Tomato as the firmware most suitable for my needs

Guess I will just have to test out the service providers :biggrin:



passwords being reset, mailing contacts.. hijacking like activities. As per members knowledge, no sensitive info was ever given freely

This is definitely a time for education as something WAS given out intentionally or not. This stuff just doesn't happen.

 

[Lima]

This is definitely a time for education as something WAS given out intentionally or not. This stuff just doesn't happen.

Any tips on where to start? Really baffled here..

 

[enaberif]

Any tips on where to start? Really baffled here..

Better browsing habits, email do and don't... That sort of stuff. Nuke and pave the system including checking for viruses in bootsectors etc. If this computer is on a network with others then those should be treated the same.