Who doesn’t use a VPN?

I don’t use one either – but have been tempted.  The main use case being watching\listening to UK streaming services whilst overseas but also taking advantage of other international streaming services that are geo-blocked in the UK.  For example, you can watch live sport that sits behind a paywall in the UK using a VPN originating from a different country.  I’ve not researched in depth but suspect a monthly VPN subscription when stacked up against the cost of all the various UK sport channel subscriptions starts to make sense.

We had one at work for remote working during Covid if we were isolating. It was so slow to be practically unusable.

hoopsFull Member
I don’t use one either – but have been tempted.  The main use case being watching\listening to UK streaming services whilst overseas but also taking advantage of other international streaming services that are geo-blocked in the UK.  For example, you can watch live sport that sits behind a paywall in the UK using a VPN originating from a different country.  I’ve not researched in depth but suspect a monthly VPN subscription when stacked up against the cost of all the various UK sport channel subscriptions starts to make sense.

Beware using a VPN for avoiding geoblocks, lots of services are blocking this, or attempting to at least.

I setup an OpenVPN server on my PI so I could connect whilst outside the house to view webcams (security ones, no hanky panky) blocked from the internet, but it was also useful for watching iPlayer whilst abroad for the kids tv stuff. Also good for using pi-hole on the phone whilst out and about.

Also good for using pi-hole on the phone whilst out and about.

I’ve no idea what that is but I really want to believe its and app that shows the distance and direction to the nearest Greggs

Don’t see why  would need one.

We use a VPN to access some work systems.  I could use that for extra security to protect me on phone/laptop on public wifi (mostly I use 4/5G as its just easier and avoids spam but sometimes the signal is crap and wifi is ok).  I’ve never felt the need to use VPN in that circumstance.  I’ve never met anyone who has been hacked from using public wifi.  MFA is far more effective.  As someone else said, you place a lot of faith in the security of the commercial VPN provider if you use one.  Who is the greatest threat?  Some really clever local scammer in your costa? An organised hacking group focussed on a major VPN? US Gov backdoors into VPN providers? Rogue states attacking VPN providers.  LastPass getting hacked multiple times was the wake up message for our security team at work that we can’t assume that because someone claims to be secure and has a professional looking site that they are secure.  Its likely we had data loss through that.  Ironically – if we had written them in a little black book and kept in the office filing cabinet its almost inconceivable that any hacker would have bothered looking!

Visible Panty Nine?

I have a VPN on both my work laptop and mobile.

Thankfully my home network meets company requirements for security, so i don’t need to use the VPN. Which means all my programs work as they should. A couple get so slow as to be unusable, one just doesn’t work on a VPN.

Tried one for accessing geo blocked stuff. Was quicker and easier to wait for it to be unblocked. (and no, it’s not my network.)

We don’t, even though there are potential savings to be had on things like games and subscriptions. But then we usually look for deals before buying stuff anyway.

And have you been reading about the DHCP VPN vulnerability :).   I do use a VPN from time to time but not as a matter of habit as they are too faffy

I use one very occasionally for naughty (no, not that sort of naughty 😛 ) downloads. But hardly ever cos it’s so bleedin slow

I’m not so prudish, I use it for P**n on prudish hotel / AirBnB wi-fi.

I use one.

Means I can access iplayer, German broadcasters and I change to a random country when listening to podcasts or watching YouTube so that I don’t get annoying adverts… Adverts in Dutch, Norwegen or Italian are more bearable that in English or German.

I get free Google one VPN, it doesn’t make anything slower so I’ve left it on. Not sure if Google is any better than other VPN suppliers though.

I switch to 4G if checking banking in public areas.

That’s what SSL/TSL is for: end to end encryption.

I use one, I think the annual cost is £33ish. It paid for itself twice over on the savings from a Mubi subscription.

It’s not all that reliable for avoiding geo blocking, although the VPN company change the the server IPs around, streamers do chase the IPs down so what worked one day might not work the next.

outside of work, only thing I’d ever need one for is if i was doing something illegal…

I’m not interesting enough to be deliberately targeted in any way

I’m pretty IT savvy

Even logging in to my banking app requires so many layers of security that if a hacker can get into it, encrypting it over VPN even more won’t do nowt

At home , I don’t need the extra complexity, cost and latency

Also, you could argue you are giving the virtual keys to the kingdom to the VPN provider you are using as all of your traffic is going through them.

>I get free Google one VPN

Not for much longer, they’re taking it away

I have 1.1.1.1, the CloudFlare VPN, ‘cos it’s free, and doesn’t seem to slow things down any more than shonky cellular services do. It’s rare I’m using the phone network for anything other than streaming music when I’m out anywhere anyway, although I very occasionally need to use my banking app and also I have Apple OpenRelay, or whatever it’s called. My regular pub has it’s own WiFi, which they’ve recently upgraded and my phone logs on automatically now and it’s really fast, so I guess having the extra layer of security doesn’t hurt, as it’s not making any perceptible difference anyway. 🤷🏼

If a VPN isn’t costing you anything it would be worthwhile understanding where the value is in providing it to you

Only time i’ve thought about it was for access to Netflix USA a couple of years back, as they had old movies available that weren’t on the UK site, it never happened due to me not being great with IT and just ending up watching something else 😂

I subscribed to SurfShark for a year as Quidco were doing a big cashback offer which meant it is effectively free. I am quite impressed at how easy it is to use and have even configured my home router to be able to use it when I want it to. That obviously sends data from all devices via the VPN.

I am not a gamer but the real time stuff I do – calls, videos, streaming all works ok.

I got it so that I could test web traffic hitting an Internet service I am working on from different countries and it works well for that.

I am not convinced that anyone who is reasonably sensible about web use needs one.

If a VPN isn’t costing you anything it would be worthwhile understanding where the value is in providing it to you

Presumably in getting you onto the subscription service once your free 1GB/month is up or you want a faster service than a server in Timbukto.

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I’d just like to point out that we’re sixty-odd posts in, onto the second page, and no input from Cougar.

Cougar, love, are you ill?

Yup. I pay for ExpressVPN to access geo-blocked content. I have it installed on my Amazon Firestick, 2 PCs, a couple of phones and a tablet

As others have pointed out, it’s questionable whether it actually improves security but I’m not using it for that purpose anyway…

and one of the things they always say is DO NOT USE FREE Wi-Fi.

Because the corporate spyware they always install replaces all certs with invalid ones, then hides this fact. So when you are on a work machine you can’t actually validate SSL/TLS connections.

For normal people without spyware SSL/TLS is perfectly good security protocol!

What is such a thing even? Yes I could ask Google but…meh

Don’t we use Tor for this?

I don’t know if we do, but opera has a VPN built in, should one need it.

Cougar, love, are you ill?

Oh hai.

Actually, yes I am ill, but by the by.

I see little cause to use a VPN day-to-day for tinfoil hat reasons because frankly I’m just not that interesting. I came to the conclusion decades ago that anything I post automatically may be in the public domain and if I’m in any way concerned then I’ll just not post it in the first place.

I do use a VPN for “this content is not available in your country” reasons because bollocks to that petty nonsense. I picked up a lifetime subscription from some random “$2000 down to $40” offer and it’s served me well.

The one thing it’s failed on, I want to watch an episode of an Australian TV show and it refuses to stream. If anyone has got such a thing and would be willing to loan it to me on a temporary password for an hour or so, I’ll be your friend.

Use one for remote access when working off site. Other than that I can’t see where I would want or need to.

I have 1.1.1.1, the CloudFlare VPN, ‘cos it’s free

Are you sure that’s a VPN and not just an alternative DNS service?

What is 1.1.1.1? | Cloudflare

I have a Nord account, but only use it when I’m working abroad to watch Discovery+ etc. Never use public WiFi

Pretty much all VPN providers are just preying on fear imo. Public wifi has it’s risks, sure – but https traffic is encrypted end-to-end, just make sure the website you’re connecting to is presenting a valid cert.

Are you sure that’s a VPN and not just an alternative DNS service?

What is 1.1.1.1? | Cloudflare

Probably WARP

I subscribe to “smart DNS”, which works really well with the various streaming apps on my smart/apple TV – you can set it so different apps think you’re in different regions.  I don’t know how it works, but it just does – set and forget.  it’s also just on the TV – so it doesn’t interfere with any of my other computing needs.

I suspect one of the biggest uses is the illicit downloading of movies to stash on something like plex.

You don’t need a VPN for usenet, which is (ironically) what all the kids are using these days.

 I want to watch an episode of an Australian TV show

Hey, we won’t judge

Pointless unless you’re trying to evade geoblocking (or a work VPN that provides a secure link to your work network). You’re just shifting the risk from a wifi/broadband provider that you shouldn’t trust to a VPN provider that you shouldn’t trust. And the bit of internet between the VPN endpoint and the site you’re trying to access remains insecure.

Almost all internet traffic is now end-to-end encrypted by default (HTTPS, IMAPS, POPS, SSH), which is a much better thing to rely on than hoping that the network is secure.

We recently had some IT security auditors ask us what our policy was on employees using untrusted public wifi to access our systems. We explained that they can use it in exactly the same way as any other network connection, because if we’re relying on any connection being secure, we’ve failed.

Also use a VPN for work, never noticed any slowness. Can also use any public WiFi hotspot as it all gets encrypted and funnelled to the company servers.

Only reason I can see to use my own would be for pihole on the go.

I’ve used one when abroad to watch the rugby world cup and TdF.

Otherwise no.

I’ve got Nord, it will auto connect when using untrusted / unsecure wifi.

It’s part of a suite of cyber security tools we use. I enjoy the irony of the fact you can use it to by-pass elements of the MDM tool.

TBH it’s more of a work thing, usually a sensible requirement for accessing cloud tools like 365 from mobile devices etc.