# VPN



## cremeegg (23 Feb 2019)

Is it a good idea to use a VPN. I don’t like the idea that my browsing history is available. 

Are VPNs effective ?  What do they cast ? Are they likely to cause my problems with viruses etc. 

Any info. suggestions welcome


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## dub_nerd (24 Feb 2019)

Who are you trying to hide your browsing history from? The police can get access to your ISP and can track via them to the VPN provider ... whether they can force the VPN provider to give up your browsing history depends on whether the VPN keeps logs, which you can't be sure of. Depending on your VPN's location and bandwidth it may also slow down your internet access. On the other hand, it might give you access to geofenced services like BBC iPlayer. The police can also access your emails, although it requires a warrant and possibly an international warrant. In general you are better off assuming that all online activities can be traced, even if the actual traffic between you and a website is encrypted.


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## gimp (25 Feb 2019)

VPN have many uses not just your browsing history.
Its main use could be security if you are on public wifi etc or security if you are at home also.
Hackers will find it harder to penetrate a VPN
Online banking etc comes to mind.
VPN cost may depend on what you use it for so may define which one you need. Express and Nord are high on the list
Some may have more server choice and less stream breakdown if streaming.
You would want to be doing something serious for the police to be bothered with you. Many VPN providers do not keep logs etc.


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## gnf_ireland (25 Feb 2019)

dub_nerd said:


> In general you are better off assuming that all online activities can be traced, even if the actual traffic between you and a website is encrypted.


I would agree with this, and to be honest the level of tracing is only increasing over time. If you want to stay 'safe' the only true means is to abstain from all internet activities.
However a VPN does offer an additional layer of security above a standard ISP service, and does offer a level of additional encryption of the data in transit. 
I use one most of the time, but occasionally I have to disable it as the performance drops off too much and my patience levels match it !


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## Leo (25 Feb 2019)

Do some research before choosing a VPN also, all aren't created equally, and the free ones are likely best avoided.


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## shipibo (15 Mar 2019)

As advised above, VPN is an encapsulated tunnel , you connect to a server for all internet connections and they are your source point out, meaning people do not have your location

You need a layered approach to internet security, and question yourself who are you looking to block ... Hackers, Advertiser, Government etc 

Harden browser, segregate functions, Work account from Play Account, use different browsers for both , close browsers regularly, clear cookies / history if appropriate

This is a good video regarding layered security


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLessJ4R6w8&t=

I use ProtonVPN, good company, and do not keep logs (if they are telling truth), also use OUTLINE , is a derivative of ShadowSocks

https://protonvpn.com/

[broken link removed]


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## TestLink (22 Mar 2019)

Express vpn or Nord vpn are the best. They are outside 5 eyes countries. No logs, no browsing history, shared ip address. Both have chat support. Avoid vpn service based in US, UK and other 5 eyes countries. Australia has recently passed a bill to put backdoor on all vpn services in that country.

Also use browsers like Brave, which has lots of features against browser fingerprinting, TOR support, Site based javascript setting etc.


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## Baby boomer (21 Jun 2019)

Been using ExpressVPN for while now and find it great.  Simultaneous use on multiple devices.  Very fast.  Use it a lot for BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub etc.  Will access sites blocked by Irish/UK ISPs.   Have used it for RTE Player when abroad.  No logs (they claim!) but caveat emptor on that!


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## NOAH (23 Jun 2019)

I could not get Express VPN to work with bbciplayer!!  I am with Eir.


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## Baby boomer (24 Jun 2019)

NOAH said:


> I could not get Express VPN to work with bbciplayer!!  I am with Eir.


It's fine on the web version of the iPlayer.  There seems to be some problem with the Android app, though.


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## Baby boomer (20 Jul 2019)

Baby boomer said:


> It's fine on the web version of the iPlayer.  There seems to be some problem with the Android app, though.


Right.  Been doing some playing around with this.  I now have it working on Android (Moto G6 phone) too.  The secret is you have to disable the Sim card AND use a VPN.  You can disable the Sim card easily from the settings menu. Hey presto, you're in the UK watching BBC iPlayer!  Re-enable the Sim and it stops again.
Obviously the iPlayer app must be able to check whether you're getting a mobile phone network signal independently of the VPN. 
Have tried it on Wi-Fi only Android tablet and it works fine too.  I can also cast to Chromecast to watch on TV screen.

(My sim and Wi-Fi are both Virgin Media)


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## bunny_ (20 Jul 2019)

Can you not just turn mobile data off instead of disabling the sim?


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## Zenith63 (21 Jul 2019)

cremeegg said:


> Is it a good idea to use a VPN. I don’t like the idea that my browsing history is available.


Who are you concerned has access to your browsing history, this will determine whether a VPN will be helpful?

The vast majority of websites you will connect to use encrypted connections between your PC and their web server, all somebody in the middle will see is that you connected to askaboutmoney.com; not the thread you accessed, your username or anything like that, literally just “CONNECT askaboutmoney.com”. Adding a VPN into that mix will mean that somebody in the middle cannot see that CONNECT command, but the VPN provider will still see it and who are they?

There are lots of good reasons for using a VPN (lots mentioned above), but is it a good idea for your average Joe Public to use one who doesn’t have these needs, I’d say not. Extra cost, extra complexity, slower speeds, little real benefit.


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## Leo (22 Jul 2019)

bunny_ said:


> Can you not just turn mobile data off instead of disabling the sim?



Mobile data isn't the issue, as once wifi is available, it won't use mobile data anyway. The app is using details of the mobile network the device is connected to to determine if it is in the UK or not.


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## Funnyname (22 Jul 2019)

Is there a VPN switch type box I could get for the back of the TV whereby I can enter the VPN details into the box and anything connected to that goes through the VPN when required as I don't want all traffic going through the VPN, only when I want to watch progs outside of Ireland which is probably 10% of the time.


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## Baby boomer (25 Jul 2019)

Yes, such devices do exist.  Some of the VPN providers offer them.  I've never used one myself so I've no experience or knowledge to offer barring the fact they exist!


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## cautious (15 Nov 2019)

I've just bought a years subscription to Norton Secure VPN specifically to watch BBC Iplayer. I set up a Northern Ireland postcode and a UK virtual location. BBC Iplayer won't allow me to watch. I think it's detecting that I am using a VPN.

Can any recommend a VPN that will allow me to watch Iplayer on home TV network and on my PC. I have good things about Nord VPN and Express VPN.

Thanks.


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## horusd (16 Nov 2019)

cautious said:


> I've just bought a years subscription to Norton Secure VPN specifically to watch BBC Iplayer. I set up a Northern Ireland postcode and a UK virtual location. BBC Iplayer won't allow me to watch. I think it's detecting that I am using a VPN.
> 
> Can any recommend a VPN that will allow me to watch Iplayer on home TV network and on my PC. I have good things about Nord VPN and Express VPN.
> 
> Thanks.



I use Nord VPN as a matter of course. It is a paid subscription and routinely figures in the best leagues of VPN. It is consistent and it is good. I had heard it said that if you're getting the VPN for free then you are the product in terms of making money. Personally, I don't like the idea of anyone tracking me or using my data, so that's my rationale in using it. I had used it for a while to bypass the Geo-location on some TV sites like the BBC and Nord VPN worked a treat.


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## cautious (17 Nov 2019)

Thanks horusd.

Nord VPN sounds worth a punt.  I've seen them advertised on ebay for ridiculously low prices e.g £2.99 for 3 yrs subscription. 

Can these offers be genuine? Are there different grades of Nord VPN available, e.g basic, premium,etc? Can I lock my Geo-location to UK with Nord VPN and use a Northern Ireland post code with my BBC account?
I assume Nord VPN can hide from the BBC the fact that it is a VPN.

Thanks.


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## tallpaul (18 Nov 2019)

Nothing is certain with VPN's to work with BBC iPlayer as it depends on how active the VPN company is in changing its IP addresses. The BBC constantly plays whack-a-mole with IP addresses of VPN's to block their access. So you might have the iPlayer working one day and it will be gone the next until such time as the VPN provider changes the IP address to access the iPlayer and then the whole dance starts all over again!


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## Leo (18 Nov 2019)

cautious said:


> I've seen them advertised on ebay for ridiculously low prices e.g £2.99 for 3 yrs subscription.
> 
> Can these offers be genuine?



No! Anything selling for that price can't be offering a proper VPN service, and is almost certainly designed to farm your data. Remember, you are giving them full access to all the data you send back and forth over the web, and not every site uses encryption.

Be very careful about your choice of VPN, only go for the big trusted names. Any of them advertising solely on eBay should be avoided like the plague, especially so if the eBay price is a tiny fraction of the official one! eBay and the likes are a scammers paradise with little oversight of what gets listed.

Carefully research any you're considering on the trusted tech review sites, TechRadar for example.



cautious said:


> I assume Nord VPN can hide from the BBC the fact that it is a VPN.



The likes of iPlayer detect the use of VPNs through lots of people arriving on their site from the same IP address. Some VPNs don't have a lot of infrastructure, so may only have a small range of IP addresses they can use in the UK. A few thousand people all using this small range of IP addresses signals to the BBC that this is a VPN, and they then block requests from that address.


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## cautious (18 Nov 2019)

cautious said:


> I've seen them advertised on ebay for ridiculously low prices e.g £2.99 for 3 yrs subscription.


When I wrote that I meant that I've seen NordVPN advertised on ebay for ridiculously low prices. Here's one for e.g

[broken link removed]

The picture looks genuine. Are these likely to be counterfeit or bogus copies?



tallpaul said:


> The BBC constantly plays whack-a-mole with IP addresses of VPN's to block their access. So you might have the iPlayer working one day and it will be gone the next until such time as the VPN provider changes the IP address to access the iPlayer and then the whole dance starts all over again!


NortonVPN changes my IP address at least once a day. (My IP address is different now than it was this morning). Can the BBC detect a bogus VPN that fast? Can NordVPN somehow overcome this?
I've set my location as United Kingdom with a Northern Ireland postcode. I cannot access BBC iplayer from my tv or direct from my computer. I've used my actual email address *********@eircom.net. Could the eircom.net part be a giveaway?


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## tallpaul (19 Nov 2019)

But is the IP address being assigned by NortonVPN in the United Kingdom (or appearing to be in the UK)? The email address will be irrelevant. Your VPN should list a couple of servers in the UK (to ease the traffic load on their end). Try a couple of them and see. Another check is to go to the ordinary BBC website when using the VPN and see does the homepage have a predominantly white background and look significantly different than the international page we normally see. That should tell you that the VPN is correctly placing your computer 'in the UK'. If so, there is some setting to change or the IP address is blocked.


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## Leo (19 Nov 2019)

cautious said:


> The picture looks genuine. Are these likely to be counterfeit or bogus copies?



You can't judge anything based on a picture posted on a listing. 



cautious said:


> NortonVPN changes my IP address at least once a day. (My IP address is different now than it was this morning). Can the BBC detect a bogus VPN that fast? Can NordVPN somehow overcome this?



They're not detecting a bogus VPN, they're just detecting that a VPN is being used and are choosing to block traffic from that IP address as they are unsure of where the traffic is originating from. Your provider will be cycling through a list of IP addresses. Some VPN providers change these more frequently than others.

@tallpaul is on the money with the location being reported for you IP address. The BBC or other sites cannot see what email address you used to register with your VPN. What I can see from the console here is that the IP you posted this message from is indeed located in the UK, but is registered to an organisation that provides network sharing and proxy services. So that is the reason you are being blocked by the iPlayer.


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## cautious (19 Nov 2019)

Thanks to all for the replies. Much food for thought.


Leo said:


> The BBC or other sites cannot see what email address you used to register with your VPN.


Sorry. I did not make this clear. Mea culpa. I've used my actual email address *********@eircom.net to sign up for my account with the BBC. Probably makes no difference.

I am thinking about going for this deal








						New year, new deal | NordVPN
					

Don't miss a limited-time New Year offer on NordVPN.




					nordvpn.com
				



which seems to be from the genuine NordVPN site.
However, I am reluctant to pay £101.76 up front for something that may not work.

Could an existing NordVPN user confirm that they are currently successfully using NordVPN to access BBC iplayer. If that is currently possible with NordVPN I will probably take a punt.


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## tallpaul (19 Nov 2019)

Have a look at VPN Unlimited from KeepSolid Inc. They usually have very good deals on stacksocial.com. I have been using it for years and it works well with both BBC iPlayer, Netflix and ITV Hub.


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## gipimann (19 Nov 2019)

I use Mailwasher from Firetrust for filtering email.  They also have a VPN product, called hideaway, which might be worth a look.






						Hideaway VPN - The Worlds Fastest VPN | Firetrust
					






					www.firetrust.com


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## kickstart (19 Nov 2019)

cautious said:


> Could an existing NordVPN user confirm that they are currently successfully using NordVPN to access BBC iplayer. If that is currently possible with NordVPN I will probably take a punt.



I can confirm that I've used BBC iplayer successfully using NordVPN, just now. It took a few goes though, and cycling through a number of NordVPN UK endpoints before it worked. As has been commented earlier, BBC is actively closing off access to known VPN endpoints.


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## horusd (19 Nov 2019)

cautious said:


> Thanks horusd.
> 
> Nord VPN sounds worth a punt.  I've seen them advertised on ebay for ridiculously low prices e.g £2.99 for 3 yrs subscription.
> 
> ...




I can't quite recall the deal I got, but it was for 3 yrs and cheap as chips, but it wasn't 2.99 for sure.  I had one problem logging into BBC, I raised it as an issue, and it was resolved PDQ.  From recollection, with the BBC player, you were asked to login to particular servers. That process is really easy, and the interface is very simple.   Here is the link from Nord VPN's site. https://support.nordvpn.com/General...72/How-to-securely-watch-BBC-with-NordVPN.htm.  I have to say I'm very happy with the service. It operates seamlessly in the background.   Whatever VPN you opt for, do a check online b4 buying to rule out problems with iplayer. I do know that some are better than others.


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## cautious (19 Nov 2019)

Thanks to all for the replies. I'm away for a few days and probably won't get back to this until next week.

One more question to horusd and brianb. Can you BBC iplayer direct from your TV with NordVPN or do you watch from your computer or mobile device?
Thanks.


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## kickstart (19 Nov 2019)

cautious said:


> Thanks to all for the replies. I'm away for a few days and probably won't get back to this until next week.
> 
> One more question to horusd and brianb. Can you BBC iplayer direct from your TV with NordVPN or do you watch from your computer or mobile device?
> Thanks.



I can only playback on the TV if I use a HDMI cable to connect my laptop to the TV. I guess there could well be a VPN client for smart TVs, but I haven't looked.


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## MrEarl (25 Nov 2019)

A new member joins 34 mins ago and then posts linking to a third party website ...that's either very helpful, or very suspicious


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## Daddy Ireland (25 Nov 2019)

Cybersecurity a very hot area.   Yes Techradar a reliable source.


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## cautious (11 Dec 2019)

Just bought NordVPN. Watching BBC IPlayer on my computer. Will try direct on my TV (or rather my Humax Freesat box) later.
I suspect I bought a bogus counterfeit version of Norton Secure VPN.

Thanks to all for your help.


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## Leo (12 Dec 2019)

cautious said:


> Just bought NordVPN. Watching BBC IPlayer on my computer. Will try direct on my TV (or rather my Humax Freesat box) later.



Unless your box is connected via the laptop, BBC Player will see your local IP.


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## AlbacoreA (16 Dec 2019)

Generally you set up a router to the VPN then everything connected to that router uses the VPN. Some people have two routers for this reason. 

Certain authorities can track people regardless of vpn and such. They pattern match the network traffic and activity before and after the VPN or whatever tunnel being used. Though I doubt they do that unless you are a person of interest to them.


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## mathepac (14 Feb 2020)

I see recent versions of Opera include an optional VPN free. You can turn it off and on in the browser preferences. I'm using it now to connect to AAM.

Does anyone know if this is viable alternative to TOR, which has somehow earned for itself a reputation for dark web access?


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## AlbacoreA (20 Feb 2020)

Define viable. 









						VPN necessity for hosting a hidden service & maintaining anonymity?
					

What are the pros/cons/necessity/redundancy for utilizing a VPN on top of TOR if hosting a hidden service?  I'm aware of the obvious concerns regarding logging if using a commercial VPN service, bu...




					tor.stackexchange.com


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## ThatNewGuy (20 Feb 2020)

cautious said:


> Thanks to all for the replies. I'm away for a few days and probably won't get back to this until next week.
> 
> One more question to horusd and brianb. Can you BBC iplayer direct from your TV with NordVPN or do you watch from your computer or mobile device?
> Thanks.



I know question a few months back, but no. Only reliable VPNs for this are ExpressVPN (expensive), or Ivacy which I currently use and am v happy with.


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