A VPN forces the hacker to use a “text” interface to attack their target instead of their preferred advanced 3D hacking interface, slowing their attacks, and allowing hackers to be thwarted with with simple low “firewalls” the hackers won’t be able to jump over.
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Jebus, sam, David, and I started a much more sophisticated vpn service… 11 years ago. Gawd I feel old.
Shoulda kept at it… And discounted at 96.8%.
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dumb, lazy question, but after reading the conversation, i feel it does (or could) help some people …
Can I run android apps through a VPN in order to hide what country I’m in? Will it work with any app?
You’d be perplexed and maybe surprised at just how many things you can’t run in the country I’m currently staying… I just wanna play some games!
Jolie can “hack my mainframe” any ol’ time… 
A proper VPN will make it look like your machine is on the network that the VPN server is on. If you need to run your software or app in Freedonia, you just need to make sure your VPN provider has a server in Freedonia. Note, however, that network speed usually takes a pretty big hit when you’re operating through a VPN.
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Thank you sir/madam. Since I’ve got you, may I ask one more? How does that compare to a “proxy”? Does a proxy have to also have servers in the other countries? I’m not sure I understand the difference between these two things… :-\
With a VPN, you are essentially on the network provided by the VPN server. Your own ISP provides transport, but that’s it; every other thing you looks like it emanates from the VPN server, because that’s the network you’re on. That’s how it looks to someone seeing traffic originating from you, and even how your own applications see your traffic.
There are many things that go under the name “proxy server”, but generally instead of providing general internet connectivity they just do some intermediate processing on select protocols. You have to set these protocols up, usually by settings in your browsers, email clients, etc. If you (machine A on network N) go through proxy B to talk to computer C, then C will see the proxified content emanating from B, but an app on your own machine will still know you are on network N, and might transmit that information through B to your game server or Netflix or whatever in some invisible-to-you way, such as in packet headers. This might or might not matter for any particular use you have in mind.
Do the servers need to be in another country, say Freedonia, for the target to think you are in Freedonia? That depends on how the target gets its region information. Even if it does, this might be invisible to you, for example the proxy server or VPN might have an entry server in your country and an exit node in Freedonia.
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Much thanks, d_r.
Proxies frequently pass along or ‘leak’ identifying network information. VPNs generally do not (I can go into detail if you’d like). Proxys are generally lighter weight, but many apps especially on phones don’t honor proxys.
Source: I’ve built, used, studied, tracked, and configured vpns and proxys for a third of my life, and its currently a large part of my day job 
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Well, I wouldn’t mind more info. I did study Comp Sci in college but not really this stuff. We still have “3 days” unti this discussion is shut down (what kind of crud is that, anyways, boing boing?)
By the way, I’m using an Android tablet…a tablet computer, not a phone. An Asus Memo Pad 7 (ME70CX)…therefore I should be able to do whatever is necessary, including root it, with no real worries. This is a cheap toy device for me…but it is a computer nonetheless, right?
I’d love to hear some expert info, japhroiag (your name sounds like some good Scotch my brother used to drink…)
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I assume it cuts down on having to monitor and mod threads into infinity. However, unlike many website comment forums, such as TechDirt or Gawker, users can start threads and PM each other. So, with the limitations come additional features.
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I see. But what good is a thread if it only lasts a few days, user-started or not? Honestly, I wasn’t complaining exactly, just seems sort of strange and I just noticed that warning like right now…
User started threads don’t expire in 5 days. And with most blog comment forums, most of the discussion is within the first few days of the post regardless.
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Proxys servers and light weight vpns (not openvpn, which is pretty much the open source standard these days) leak a couple of things:
- your real ip via X headers
- an http CONNECT header which is a telltale signature that you are proxying
- and DNS resolution leakage, since UDP (for short DNS requests) generally isn’t encapsulated.
- rewriting headers since they serve as an endpoint and recreate the connection. (So your connection says it is say an Android phone, but the fingerprint looks like an Nginx server, cause Nginx rewrote your connection)
Ssl and ipsec mitigate those issues by:
- creating a pass through circuit for all traffic
- they don’t rewrite
- and they apply at a true network layer, not a usermode layer that leaks data.
Downsides of a vpn:
- there are tons of different types that are better and worse, and not always interoperable.
- performance is rarely as good as a proxy, since it has to send more data over a virtual circuit
- as an operator I can still tell you are trying to deceive me, based on ASNs, window size, and packet traversal speed.
It gets into the weeds fast. But if you are interested check out digital ocean and their centos openvpn server config tutorials. It’s cheap. Or if you want to bypass region locking for legal means, pptp (not secure by any stretch) is the easiest to set up.
Edit to add
If you use vpns to bypass geo content restrictions… That’s up to you. The worst case is you may get blocked or banned.
But if you use tunneling for illicit activity, you will be noticed. So my advice is to stay legal as you possibly can.
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Thank you. A lot. I’m just trying to play some games that are geo-restricted.
Would you mind if I added you as a friend or something in case I have another question about this in the near future, japhroaig?
I guess I might ask you if you know much about “hola” though…it gets great reviews but computer people say it is bad for the Internet, or something…?
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No prob, msg me any time! Lete take a look at hola, that one is new to me.
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Hola is a browser plugin that lets you fake your geolocation.
The downside is that it’s essentially P2P - if you’re using it, someone may be using your connection to browse from your location. For that reason I’d personally avoid it, but each to their own.
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Hola has to be leaking DNS requests. Fine general non sensitive browsing… But that ain’t anonymous.
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Does that mean it wouldn’t work for a downloaded app, only a browser?
Actually I don’t see how to message you…I must be missing something but I did go to your page…hmm…?
