Ask HN: Do you use a VPN? Does your family?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36044680

by asim • 3 years ago

10 12 3 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Curious to know who here uses a VPN and whether you get your family to use one as well. I think I'd struggle to get people to install it.

PaulHoule• 3 years ago

I use Tailscale on all my devices so I can access my "home" computer and the applications on it from anywhere.

My impression with the "VPN for outside traffic" is that somebody who wants to gather a lot of sketchy traffic for monitoring it might just start a VPN service to concentrate it.

KomoD• 3 years ago

Yep, no.

runjake2• 3 years ago

I use Tailscale on everything, instead of opening up ports on a firewall.

I use Mullvad for any unfriendly environments (public wi-fi, cellular networks, etc)

Family members use iCloud Private Relay[1] because it's almost completely seamless.

1. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212614

replwoacause• 3 years ago

Thanks for the link to the documentation on Private Relay. I didn’t know about that.

Raed667• 3 years ago

Curious why you consider cellular networks as an "unfriendly environment" ?

runjake2• 3 years ago

Because, at least in the US, cellular operators monitor customer traffic and sell it to marketers, along with your identity details.

ptsneves• 3 years ago

I do when i can. I have protonVPN but then most of the times i get banned from usual sites or get captioned to hell. I kind of gave up, as I believe this is the natural outcome of having real anonymity: abuse.

lapufifarre668• 3 years ago

Yes multiple ones. Trying to get my parents to use one, but guess they are to old to get the concept. Ideas how to explain it to them?

Aperocky• 3 years ago

Isn't using a commercial VPN exposing yourself to the same risk except simply to a different/single provider?

rozenmd• 3 years ago

I use a few:

WARP/1.1.1.1, Mullvad, and Blokada on Android

temp2022account• 3 years ago

I hate to be that guy, but the vast majority of people using "VPN"s are actually using Proxies. A VPN connects a laptop at starbucks to a printer at the office so you can print something. A Proxy forwards requests on your behalf to web servers and returns results. Modern VPNs are marketed as such because people love the "P" part without realizing that... they already had that with SSL.

asim• 3 years ago

Morale of the story, build a proxy and call it a vpn?

Ask HN: Do you use a VPN? Does your family?

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