I turned it off for 3 days and the difference was very noticeable.
No spending 2-3 minutes switching between servers to make a website work, no captchas before reading, no false "connection timed out" or "server blocked" notices.
Is everyone having the same experience, or am I doing something wrong?
*Oh but to add, any ads which slipped through unlock ended up being obviously better targeted, which I was repulsed by :)
*Edit: it looks like turning off Firefox's own DNS resolver managed to subside many of the captcha request, including for apps which are just browser overlays. Thanks @hansolo@lemmy.today :)
26 Comments
schwim@piefed.zip · 47 pts · 5d
As hosts continue to shift the burden of exploit protection onto the visitor, the automatic blocking of VPN exit nodes has exploded and for that reason, VPNs are increasingly often unwelcome. Each person will have to choose at which point an increase in their privacy is less valuable to them than what they get in a visit to a site that attempts to erode that.
There are a couple sites that I turn my VPN off for(like my bank) but for every other, when I see the "You've been blocked" error page, I just close the tab and move on.
Telorand@reddthat.com · 29 pts · 5d
This, every time. Unless I need it, it's probably just a time waster, anyway. If I'm so unwelcome that I can't use a VPN, then they don't really need my web traffic that badly.
saltesc@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 5d
A golden rule online for me is just remembering that value vs value ratio. If it exists but is low value for the user, then it exists as value for the producer. So if I have to drop my value on the negotiation table, then I know what I'll get in return will be of low value as well. At least most of the time. It's not worth gambling it for a one-off or FOMO, that's for sure.
crandall@lemmy.today · 21 pts · 5d
Privacy takes work unfortunately. I don't have too hard of a time. Takes me a few seconds to switch servers if something is blocked, not a few minutes. I take more pleasure in staying private than I do in getting things that much faster.
nymnympseudonym@piefed.social · 13 pts · 5d
Run your own VPN on a hosted VPS located at a major hub like NYC
You get the privacy and the blazing speeds and no need for any pinky-promise that logs are not being sold nor subpoenaed
Down side ofc is paying for the VPS
eleijeep@piefed.social · 19 pts · 5d
Another downside is that your traffic is no longer being mingled with other users on the same IP.
nymnympseudonym@piefed.social · 5 pts · 4d
TBF, anybody using IPv6 is ... uniquely identifiable, at least at that layer
Evotech@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 4d
That’s kind of the point of a vpn though? Your traffic will exit the same node as lot of other traffic. Ipv6 or not
eleijeep@piefed.social · 3 pts · 4d
How is that?
piccolo@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 4d
Have it "scrap" websites randomly and if anyone questions it. Just say its for training AI.
bignose@programming.dev · 6 pts · 4d
Another downside of self-hosted VPN is you only have those exit nodes you can afford to pay for.
Established commercial VPN services typically have their hundreds of exit nodes in dozens of countries, all included in what I pay, and allow very easy switching between those at will. I couldn't afford to run that many exit nodes nor keep on switching to new ones as the old ones get blocked.
nymnympseudonym@piefed.social · 6 pts · 4d
Yep. Selfhosted VPN is for privacy from surveillance capitalism and "dragnet" government searches (which corporate/paid VPNs are IMO not effective against)
My 1 node is still way more expensive than a VPN package and does not provide location switching nor plausible deniability via mixing with other traffic (the latter is what Tor and related mixnets are for)
IMO location switching is the sole benefit of paid VPNs.
Worth noting: neither selfhost nor corporate VPNs are effective defenses against targeted government surveillance. Arguably, nothing is.
otto_kartoffelsaft@slrpnk.net · 8 pts · 4d
My go-to exit node is in Albania, especially when using NewPipe. I heard that its illegal for YouTube to run ads in Albania, so if that's true they might not put in effort to block Albanian IPs.
Aside from that, I can sympathize as that happens very often to me as well. I have JS turned off by default so when I see a site asking me to turn it on its usually for the cloudflare bot check. I'm not doing any heavy duty website usage by any means, so I have some patience for that, but also I am far less likely to use a site that requires JS which makes VPN hurdles easier to manage. I basically only switch it off when I need to access a .gov site.
onlinepersona@programming.dev · 5 pts · 4d
My VPN is on when I need to be on. It's not on 24/7.
kingofras@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 5d
Where are you located?
You should know that WWIII is kind of underway now and underwater sea cables are being damaged in multiple locations, so inter continental lag increases are expected, VPN or not.
E: I noticed it’s easier to downvote than to do a quick search.
https://www.tomshardware.com/networking/two-undersea-cables-reportedly-damaged-off-the-coast-of-perth-following-suspicious-vessel-activity-company-ceo-says-faults-happened-straight-after-each-other-and-in-close-proximity
https://www.telecomreviewasia.com/news/industry-news/30159-vietnams-four-subsea-cable-faults-disrupt-30-of-international-capacity/
Flatworm7591@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 5d
Seems unlikely to be the issue though. Fact is that all VPNs will have some network overhead, and even the best provider often don't provide full upload speeds, so torrents in particular may not run at full bandwidth. But if you are using public trackers, it's well worth the tradeoff in speed. And if you are posting any political related content, it seems mad not to be using a VPN nowadays.
nymnympseudonym@piefed.social · 1 pts · 4d
Has been since 2014 or 2022, depending on which time you count Russia starting it.
ShutUpWesley@piefed.zip · 5 pts · 4d
I don't use a privacy VPN in my daily life. I don't trust any VPN company any more than my ISP, so i don't really see the point.
I do VPN back to my home network on my mobile decices, this is mostly for easier access to selfhosted services, but also has the advantage of not giving servers a mobile IP when I'm out, which I believe is a more critical datapoint to protect
AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 4d
Why do you consider the mobile IP a critical data point?
ShutUpWesley@piefed.zip · 5 pts · 4d
If all my traffic comes from a single IP, that's a single datapoint. If instead my traffic occasionally comes from a mobile source, that's suddenly multiple datapoints, that can be used to establish a pattern. It can be correlated to identify when am home VS when I'm not.
Evotech@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 4d
I use proton vpn on my home machine 24/7. never have to switch servers.
Trilogy3452@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 4d
I've used Proton VPN for over 2 years. I also usually get captchad with some websites, the cloudflare ones just ask to click a button, the google ones are annoying, yes.
I almost never have to switch servers, only exception is YouTube (through GrayJay) but servers in Chile worked 99.9% of the time (don't know why) so I didn't have to spend too much time on that.
I don't recall having connection issues, I can even game online with this VPN
Edit: some websites blocked the VPN, I usually either gave up on them or turned off VPN if I had to use them (very few financial institutions)
hansolo@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 4d
I also have a VPN on at the router level 24/7. Zero issues.
It could be your VPN, but could also be a conflict if you have another DNS selected on your browser or devices. Try turning off any custom DNS resolvers and see if of there's a difference.
oneser@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 4d
May I ask which one you use?
hansolo@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 4d
Proton paid. So I pick a server that specifically has a low fraud rating and run the house on that.
oneser@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 4d
I just double checked and Firefox had a custom DNS running on top of Mullvad's... Let's see if that cures a few of the issues.
Thanks!