Anyone use a VPN?

[Radio Fixer]

Seems to offer a little more protection when on-line:

What is a VPN? How Does it Work and Why Do You Need One? (vpnoverview.com)

I watched the video.

thanks Gary

[Mike Watterson]

It's useful to have a home or work VPN server and then log into that at public WiFi, colleges etc. Stops email login being captured and prevents Man in the Middle HTTPS attacks. Some home routers support it as does any Linux system. It's possible also to set one up on Windows.

Then you 1st log into your home VPN and then you are using every internet feature and port as if you are at home (or the office).

We always made the VPN port be 80 so that nowhere would block it as that port is what websites use. I never found out why the local university and many WiFi places block the default VPN port.

It's a lot more protection.

The nefarious use is a 3rd party VPN so as to evade geolocation by IP, such as UK domestic services in USA or vice versa. It costs money and how can you trust a company selling dishonesty to not be harvesting all your logons etc?

[Nick]

A VPN has its uses, however it's not a security panacea...

The article you reference is essentially an advert for NordVPN, one of the major commercial VPN providers, and thus should be treated with a pinch of salt. There are several sweeping statements in there that many would take issue with. Kaspersky have a better article but still far from perfect: https://www.kaspersky.com/resource-cente...t-is-a-vpn

VPNs do have a place in providing an extra layer of security if you are using public WiFi - I always use a private VPN in such situations. Note they do not provide 100% protection against MITM attacks - depending on client and server setup, they are potentially still vulnerable to DNS poisoning and other attack vectors.

What VPNs do not do is provide guaranteed anonymity - by doing tricks with DNS etc, it's often possible to tell who is at the client end of a VPN tunnel. Target web sites can also often detect that a site user is actually coming over a VPN to get to them - the BBC is an example that does a lot of checking to ensure that UK-only content is protected - checks include are the timezone and language of the site the same as that of the user's browser; does the alleged  IP address' AS number match the language settings etc. To see what a web site can tell about you just from accessing it, have a look at https://whoer.net

Use of a VPN on it's own will not protect you against scams, phishing, viruses, ransomware, trojans stupidity and carelessness. It will help against tracking and various spoofing and intercept attacks.

This is a large and complex subject - VPNs have a place, but they really don't protect you from everything. Common sense is more valuable. The two together, even better.

[Mike Watterson]

Only a home or work VPN is worthwhile for secuity, and as Nick says no VPN gives protection against scams, phishing, drive by web based attacks. The idea of a VPN is not designed for anonymity, but to prevent intercept of traffic especially using any unknown or public internet access. The commercial 3rd party VPN suppliers are nearly worthless for security because their market is people wanting to circumvent geolocation and some content providers can now detect a VPN is used and refuse connection.

Legitimate VPN use isn't going to need a 3rd party supplier. I didn't watch the video.

In the days of dialup modem access the Office system would look at user login, hang-up, and use a predefined phone number to call back. This meant the correct location was used. VPN has replaced that, though it's not quite as secure unless the connecting user has a known static IP (which defeats use of a public connection like Wifi in hotel or cafe). Still a VPN (server software on home router/PC or Office system) does stop all intercept attacks. Public wifi can be deliberately intercept set up by owner or managed remotely by a bad actor.

[Mike Watterson]

A VPN has its uses, however it's not a security panacea... To see what a web site can tell about you just from accessing it, have a look at https://whoer.net

Use of a VPN on it's own will not protect you against scams, phishing, viruses, ransomware, trojans stupidity and carelessness. It will help against tracking and various spoofing and intercept attacks.

This is a large and complex subject - VPNs have a place, but they really don't protect you from everything. Common sense is more valuable. The two together, even better.

Ironically the link also has an ad triggered by the switch icon to a 3rd party VPN supplier, which is only really of use to evade geolocation by clueless suppliers. It doesn't make you anonymous. There is Browser fingerprinting. Browsers expose the screen resolution, window size, fonts available as well as things the user can lie about such as OS, Browser version and language.

[Diabolical Artificer]

I've used a VPN when downloading films and TV series using Torrent. Despite what some VPN ad's say BBC I player detects VPN's and won't let you log in so no watching programs on the Beeb if you don't have a license.

Andy.

[peter scott]

I've used a VPN when downloading films and TV series using Torrent. Despite what some VPN ad's say BBC I player detects VPN's and won't let you log in so no watching programs on the Beeb if you don't have a license.

Andy.

Even if you do have a license the BBC doesn't let you access its content abroad and I can confirm that the VPNs that I've tried are no deterrent to the Beeb detection.

Peter

[ppppenguin]

Looks like the BBC plays a cat and mouse game with VPN users: https://www.techadvisor.com/article/7265...broad.html

[Nick]

I did detail in my post above some of the techniques the BBC and others use to detect VPNs - I'm not too sure why people are surprised about this.

If you really want to illegally watch BBC programs, you'll need to do some work yourself - it's not all down to the VPN provider - there is no magic bullet. However we actively discourage copyright theft here, so no wandering off in that direction please.

The beeb make a lot of their income from overseas sales and quite rightly they want to protect their intellectual property.

[ppppenguin]

I'm not at all surprised that the BBC doesn't make it easy to illegally watch their programmes abroad. I cannot condone piracy like this. But is it illegal for a UK TV licence holder to use VPNs and other methods to watch BBC programmes while abroad? Especially since the BBC itself says you can record them in the UK for further viewing abroad.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/help/quest...outside-uk

They say, rather cryptically:

While we are interested in being able to allow UK licence fee payers to access BBC iPlayer when they are abroad, there are complex technical issues to resolve which we are investigating, and it will be dependent on what legislation is in effect in the UK in the future.

The BBC's entirely legitimate anti-piracy measures can also impact UK users: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/help/quest...uk-message