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VPN and DNS
Do we really need a VPN?
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<blockquote data-quote="MacDefender" data-source="post: 849612" data-attributes="member: 83059"><p>Correct in most jurisdictions it's not against the law unless it's copyrighted content...</p><p></p><p>With that said, some networks (particularly corporate ones, hotel rooms, and certain ISPs) have blanket ban against P2P services, regardless of reason. I've seen cases of our corporate network flagging Blizzard game transfers because they used to be BitTorrent powered. Sometimes this results in disciplinary action, other times it results in getting hassled by your IT dept or maybe being victim of an automated penalty box (bandwidth limit, etc).</p><p></p><p>As far as the original question, if you aren't hiding from your network operator or the services you use, you probably don't need a VPN. But OTOH if you, say, work for Apple and spend time at work posting on Macrumors, or something like that, it doesn't have to be illegal for you to feel like you want an extra layer of privacy from your network operator. Or if you work at a defense contractor and use Asian (particularly Chinese and Indian) services, I have personal experience that this sets off a lot of warning bells. Remember that HTTPS analytics are actually really advanced these days. A lot of Cisco and school-targeted solutions have the ability to analyze traffic patterns and detect activities like actively scrolling through Instagram feeds and paint a pretty good picture of when/what you're doing, even if they cannot see the traffic itself. Sending everything through a VPN pipe makes that a lot harder to do.</p><p></p><p>With that said, just flicking on a VPN switch is rarely adequate for online privacy. You also have to be somewhat mindful of signing into services that you've signed into on and off the VPN (Facebook/Google single-sign-on cookies are possibly the worst offenders).</p><p></p><p>Long story short, if you can't think of a reason why you want a VPN, you probably don't need one.</p><p></p><p>I've heard some folks complain about speeds of VPNs but the last 2 or 3 VPN providers I've tried, I was able to find a local mirror that added maybe 10-20% to the ping times and had nearly 400mbit throughput on a gigabit connection. I wouldn't say VPN has to have a significant speed impact, but that strongly depends on the type of VPN and your devices. OpenVPN, for example, is pretty much universally slow even on beefy hardware.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MacDefender, post: 849612, member: 83059"] Correct in most jurisdictions it's not against the law unless it's copyrighted content... With that said, some networks (particularly corporate ones, hotel rooms, and certain ISPs) have blanket ban against P2P services, regardless of reason. I've seen cases of our corporate network flagging Blizzard game transfers because they used to be BitTorrent powered. Sometimes this results in disciplinary action, other times it results in getting hassled by your IT dept or maybe being victim of an automated penalty box (bandwidth limit, etc). As far as the original question, if you aren't hiding from your network operator or the services you use, you probably don't need a VPN. But OTOH if you, say, work for Apple and spend time at work posting on Macrumors, or something like that, it doesn't have to be illegal for you to feel like you want an extra layer of privacy from your network operator. Or if you work at a defense contractor and use Asian (particularly Chinese and Indian) services, I have personal experience that this sets off a lot of warning bells. Remember that HTTPS analytics are actually really advanced these days. A lot of Cisco and school-targeted solutions have the ability to analyze traffic patterns and detect activities like actively scrolling through Instagram feeds and paint a pretty good picture of when/what you're doing, even if they cannot see the traffic itself. Sending everything through a VPN pipe makes that a lot harder to do. With that said, just flicking on a VPN switch is rarely adequate for online privacy. You also have to be somewhat mindful of signing into services that you've signed into on and off the VPN (Facebook/Google single-sign-on cookies are possibly the worst offenders). Long story short, if you can't think of a reason why you want a VPN, you probably don't need one. I've heard some folks complain about speeds of VPNs but the last 2 or 3 VPN providers I've tried, I was able to find a local mirror that added maybe 10-20% to the ping times and had nearly 400mbit throughput on a gigabit connection. I wouldn't say VPN has to have a significant speed impact, but that strongly depends on the type of VPN and your devices. OpenVPN, for example, is pretty much universally slow even on beefy hardware. [/QUOTE]
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