Hello,
So I’m living in a dorm, and have to use the internet the university provides. If I use a VPN would it make my history unintelligible to the university, or would it simple do that for my data, after it leaves the university.
Thank you.
Not an expert, but I believe all they would see is a constant stream of encrypted traffic going to and from the VPN provider’s IP address
all your traffic goes through a virtual network interface on your computer, is encrypted and then passed through your physical network interface. All your university can see is that there is an encrypted traffic stream from your computer to a specific IP address.
Since it is encrypted they can’t read it, but they could block it.
If everything on the computer uses that single vpn connection, the university will only see the initial connection to the vpn, after that i don’t believe they will see you make multiple connections thereafter
My campus flat out blocks torrent traffic. I download a lot of linux distros and prefer to torrent them whenever possible. I have one system running a vpn and get around the torrent blocksquite nicely.
No. Your uni would see your traffic as random 1’s and 0’s. They will be able to see that you are connecting to an outside VPN, and some universities do not allow VPN connections. They will not be able to see content though, that is completely encrypted.
This is true. I always use my VPN when on the school network. Don’t be a dick and run huge downloads or torrents though because it makes it worse for everyone.
That’s my understanding as well. I’m also not an expert.
even if I use the VPN provider’s Open VPN config? I have heard that it’s difficult to block.
Even if, and that’s a big IF, someone was watching the exit node (which, again, is very unlikely), everyone’s traffic would be lumped in there and there would be no way to link you to any of the content.
While I get that campuses want to prevent illegal file sharing, it pisses me off that their solution is to block the most efficient form of downloading that there is. Torrents are a pretty amazing tool, and I use them for legal purposes quite often.
Blocking it could be as easy as blocking the particular port your VPN provider is using.
My university states it blocks torrenting/various p2p technologies but I have had no issues regarding either.
so what is the solution to this problem? What can one do?
There’s no solution. The network administrator can always filter, block or somehow manipulate your traffic. You don’t have control over your traffic once it is sent from your physical network interface.
Using a VPN connection on a standard TCP port like 80 or 443 gives you a good chance to pass any firewall, but the network administrator could just simply block the IP you’re connecting to (the VPN IP).
Then there are possibilities to block VPN traffic based on the protocols, but that is more complicated and I do not know how exactly that would work.
I usually just download a new vpn
It would look like it was coming from the same source to anyone who wasn’t actually trying to trace you. As soon as someone took an interest in that traffic, and noted it was coming from a shared VPN IP, they would conclude that it might very well be from two different people.
That wouldn’t stop them from checking you out in some way if you were seen wandering about the general area of a digital crime.
Finished with college. Don’t really need a VPN anymore xD