And if you use one, are you happy with it?

I’m trying to get more into privacy and security and VPN is currently a struggle for me (and it seems also for some people in my social circle). It’s mostly cost, effectiveness, but also connection issues (not being able to connect to servers, not reaching websites, sometimes slower speed.

  • PastafARRian@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    3 hours ago

    It’s not cost effective to lose your privacy, you’ve merely haven’t realized you’ve been paying all along. Also you are the product being sold.

  • JillyB@beehaw.org
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    4 hours ago

    My house has 2 other units and we all share one network. Without a VPN, my neighbors could see all my network traffic. I don’t think they know or care how to do that but it’s enough to keep me on a VPN at all times.

  • pineapple@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    5 hours ago

    I always use a vpn when downloading and managing my linux iso’s. For everything else I can’t really be bothered half the time.

  • Anna@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    8 hours ago

    Unfortunately I live in a country where they once banned whole google drive because someone was sharing a pirated movie through it. And just recently they banned proton mail because someone used proton mail to blackmail some one else. OK I don’t condone second one but still would they have banned gmail if those idiots had used that. Yeah I know I don’t need a VPN I need a new government but till then a VPN and Tor is all I have

  • OccasionallyFeralya@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    11
    ·
    12 hours ago

    I don’t think most ppl need a vpn for at home stuff but I do use Mullvad since I spend a lot of time on college WiFi and they might not like how I access my textbooks and research papers.

  • Coleslaw4145@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    10 hours ago

    The only VPN I use is:

    Wireguard and OpenVPN to connect to my home network.

    AirVPN for a server that I may or may not have on my home network that may or may not be sailing the high seas (allegedly).

  • djsoren19@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    10 hours ago

    absolutely crucial. All my devices are always connected through a VPN, and usually I try to route my traffic through a different country. When your country is paying for a service to monitor citizen’s internet traffic, anonymity is worth paying for.

  • irmadlad@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    11 hours ago

    Super duper important. I won’t run my network without one. So if we ever get to a point where a VPN is prohibited by law, I will unplug and go work on some of my other hobbies like creating bonsai. Any no, I don’t run the 'arr stack, I’m not a hacker, nor do I torrent. I just prefer the absolute minimum number of people knowing who I am or what I’m doing. I’m that way irl.

    sometimes slower speed.

    Indeed, anything you put between you and your target will slow speeds, especially if you’re running everything through a double hop Shadowsocks proxy. That is the trade off. All technology wields a double edged sword. Additionally, you will encounter more captcha than normal, tho 99% of what I see are Cloudflare verification. Again, yet another trade off. You might even be precluded from accessing some websites. Me personally, I’ll accept the captcha/verification, slower speeds, and occasional site blocks, for security, privacy and anonymity. Also, in regards to sites blocking a VPN ip, it’s not a common occurrence on my network, but when it does happen, I find that the information contained on the blocked site, is freely available somewhere else.

  • artyom@piefed.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    13 hours ago

    Very important, and becoming more important by the day as more and more regions agegate the internet. You need to change regions so you can access sites without guaranteed identity theft.

    If you don’t use one, it’s fairly trivial to link your activity across the internet, as well as trace any internet traffic back to you, personally.

    Connectivity is certainly a problem. For the most part, if they block my access, then I consider them not worth visiting.

  • Zoma@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    10 hours ago

    If you’re worried about slower speeds and higher ping you can split tunnel applications so they wont be affected by the VPN i do this for things like games and freetube(doesn’t seem to work with my vpn enabled).

  • waldo_was_here@piefed.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    31
    ·
    edit-2
    22 hours ago

    Very happy with mullvad VPN ,use it mostly for accessing annas archive with is blocked in my country ,thanks to cloudflare

  • Marthirial@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    12 hours ago

    Vital. I host my own VPN so I can have a dedicated IP which is firewall whitelisted to all my provisions to access Ssh and self hosted app ports.