Where to start?

Come on, I know there’s a host of IT gurus lurking at the back! Show yourselves!

I know little of these things, but understand they can be useful. What I have read in the internet about them always leads very quickly in very technical stuff, that leaves me baffled

Can one of you chaps point me in the direction of a beginners guide, for want of a better term?

Possibly easier to explain the basics and how you might use onei if we know what you want to do with it

Here, let me Google that for you…

A Purdy girl to explain to to you

Three main uses:

From a work point of view it lets you connect to a network remotely with a secure connection. Your device appears to be just like being physically there. Similarly you might want the opposite to VPN into your home network.

Then there are anonymising VPN services. Basically useful when connecting to an open WiFi hotspot that you may not trust. All your traffic is encrypted and routed through the VPN service so cannot be spied upon.

Other one is where people want to get around regional blocks. e.g. a service is not available in your country, so you connect to a VPN server that is located in one where it is. It’s breaking their T&Cs, though not so sure it’s really breaking any laws. You’re circumventing regional market protection.

The main reason being I connect the internet through an employer provided network when away from home (for a month at a time). Despite this being th “Recreational” network you cant do anything involving media, like youtube etc. Not bothered too much about that, but the heavy handed approach also blocks downloading Podcasts, Apps, iTunes etc.
Would a VPN allow me to sneak around this embargo?

What is this employer provided network when you’re away from home (it may also not allow VPN tunnelling)?
You could vpn into your home network and download through there – but you’d need VPN capable hardware at home.
Easier to do it through you phone using it as a hotspot if you have decent mobile coverage – especially 4g – we’re out in the sticks but get a 30mbps 4g download while our home fibre can only muster 11mbps!

Possibly. Though if they are locking down access they might block VPN also. Then again VPN is a legitimate business tool.

Might be it’s restricted due to fears the bandwidth will be used up with streaming.

Don’t wear pants under your lycra all VPL issues solved

you cant do anything involving media, like youtube etc. Not bothered too much about that, but the heavy handed approach also blocks downloading Podcasts, Apps, iTunes etc.

I guess you work somewhere quite remote. If that’s the case, your employer is probably paying quite a bit for that internet access, especially if it’s not wired into the conventional internet. So, they pay for the bandwidth and if you start streaming media and downloading, you’d probably wipe out their monthly allowance in a single week – worse if everyone is using it.
So. You get most of the internet but not the data-heavy bit. If you screw with it, you might lose all of it. I very much doubt whether a VPN would help in this case.
Just download before you go and count all the money they pay you.

What is this employer provided network when you’re away from home (it may also not allow VPN tunnelling)?

It might be a VPN to start with…

The main reason being I connect the internet through an employer provided network when away from home (for a month at a time). Despite this being th “Recreational” network you cant do anything involving media, like youtube etc.

seadog – I’m guessing your offshore? DSV, OSV or similar?

So the data will be via Inmarsat or similar.

The reason that downloading media is banned, is that the data costs are massive compared by satellite compared to anything onshore.

I doubt a VPN would help you much, the system is probably set up to prevent their use and they also need significant extra bandwidth or the connection is painfully slow. The offshore system probably won’t allocate enough bandwidth to the “recreational” system for it to be effective?

Yep, you’ve guessed right, almost. Drill ship with pretty decent bandwidth on a dedicated Sat Comm system, not Inmarsat (no phone connection out here 100+miles offshore). However with 150+ people on board it doesn’t stretch too far. Especially as a lot of it is given over to the ‘Work’ network. The restriction is to prevent people streaming Youtube, Spotify, iPlayer, Skype and other bandwidth hungry stuff. Like I said, it seems a very heavy way that they’ve cut us off. I’d like to download a few podcasts a week, just to keep me sane, mainly News Quiz, Danny Baker, maybe the occasional move on scrabble etc.

The iPad gets stuffed full of iPlayer downloads and podcasts before I go, I would just like to get hold of something current every now and then.

I could try and get Mrs Seadog, to download the files and email them to me, but that might be a very long discussion. She doesn’t do technology too much.

External storage solutions?

How often are the helicopter flights? You could get some USB stick posted to you full of data. Sneakernet style. There may be a few days lag but better than a month!

I could try and get Mrs Seadog, to download the files and email them to me, but that might be a very long discussion. She doesn’t do technology too much.

File sizes quite likely too big I’m afraid. Given the network you’re on I’d imagine they’re concerned about the volume of data being downloaded rather than the content.
Even if you could find a way to bypass the restrictions to download what you want, they’d pretty quickly notice the data being downloaded and they’d know exactly which device was downloading it …. so you’re a bit stuffed.

So you’re being well paid, month on month off, they give you internet access and yet you think you’ve got it tough because you want to stream stuff and download big files?
If everyone downloaded ‘a few podcasts a week’ that would be a lot of expensive bandwidth.
😕

On a rig, can’t they drill down and hack into one of the fat undersea Internet pipes? 😀

A few podcasts per week.. Yes. Thatll really break it.

They stopped the streaming when the band width was busted by muppets streaming the 6 Nations coverage, living off Youtube because the TV was so shite.. Etc etc..

Anyways, having lookec at the internat usage policy, I think using a vpn will get me shouted at by the IT goons. Looks like its back to trying to fill the ipad with stuff before I leave home.

how about acess to dropbox / google drive etc? Is that possible?

Get together, form a download collective. Of the 150+ people on board, I’ll bet you close to half would like to share the same podcasts you’d like to download. Ask for special permission to download during idle/cheap hours, and then distribute to all those interested. Pick say 20 podcasts to cover a mix of tastes.

Either that of make the downloads onshore. in the month onshore download two months worth of podcasts (dont listen to them while onshore, waste). Bring on board on memory stick. Sorted. Or, if you want up to date things, get people coming back onboard to do it for you and bring them. Again the distribution thing would work well, share the love.