How does it fare in comparison to paid vpn’s?
You can bet they will log every little thing you do and give it to anyone who asks.
I would never use a service like HSS
Its slow and crap. Downloading with that is useless and some trackers may not allow that because it uses public proxies.
You get what you pay for.
It’s the best you can get for free at least.
Edit: TorrentFreak seems to have covered an article on how to make VPNs even more secure. Maybe that’ll help give some idea on what to choose.
I use it to access library genesis and a few other sites not allowed in the US. That is all I use it for. I have a feeling your anonymity is not very safe with HSS. I’ve never had a paid vpn, but I use a vnc on my seedbox
I would recommend https://ipredator.se/ - Hosted in Sweden, decently priced, and no logs kept (Or so they say). Only catch is PPTP only.
edit: Missed out the ‘free’ part…so my answer is more about the vpn I ended up with (and reasons why).
I went with privatvpn.se
~20US/3 months, servers in US, Sweden, Germany, France, UK, and a couple other places; no logs anywhere outside the US (where it’s legally required). It’s been working flawlessly for me for ~month now, and you can protect your privacy from government eyes safely. It uses openvps and has all that stuff, but other experts could tell you more there.
I’m in Canada btw, where we have US-style surveillance laws being pushed through now etc., which is why I didn’t go with one of the Canadian VPNs.
I live in a Middle Eastern country, so most adult websites are blocked here. And I haven’t gotten around to learning how to use the other VPN’s yet, so I use Hotspot Shield since it simple as hell to use. But the ads are really annoying, be warned.
Their Privacy Policy explicitly states that they don’t log any personally identifiable information. It seems like the only info they do log is related to ads, and considering the paid service doesn’t have any, they may not even log that stuff for paid accounts. Most of that stuff can be easily disabled with addons/plugins too.
They also don’t mention anything about complying with any requests/subpoenas for user information (I guess because presumably there isn’t any to hand over).
It looks like the company (or part of it) is based in Switzerland, but all of their IP addresses are located in the US, so I’m not sure what kind of the advantages/disadvantages they might be subject to geographically speaking.
I suppose they could just be straight out lying, or maybe taking advantage of some loophole in their terms. But if they do what they claim and aren’t being intentionally deceptive, then they are actually better about anonymity than most VPN’s I’ve come across (paid or otherwise).
This. That bandwidth is not free and I question what you’d do to offer it “free”. Even if you’re only adding 5Mbit on a 95th, that’s at least $8/mo out of pocket, typically more.
Why VNC and not just an SSH-Tunnel?
Much easier.
Small correction: Library Genesis is not blocked BY the US but Library Genesis blocks visitors FROM the US.
If it’s US based, they have to keep logs of users tied to their activity, don’t they? So a US court can subpoena the logs and they’ll be provided, I believe. (Please correct me if I’m wrong here.)
When I was seeking out a VPN a month ago, I was referred to a few news/blog articles about the logging practices of different VPNs. A number of them talk about privacy, but in the end, they do keep logs, and all of them do for any activity based from servers on US soil (not sure about UK/France/Germany) - this includes tying your account to the ips etc. it contacts using that US server.
There were only a couple (that I found, anyway) that specified very clearly their logging policies, and that didn’t keep logs outside of the US, at least for a week or two. Privatvpn (outside of US) doesn’t keep the logs, and you can actually mail them cash for your 100% anonymous account if you want.
I’m definitely no expert, this was just the basic stuff I figured out and hopefully understood correctly.
Even if you’re not downloading something you shouldn’t, or doing something else that’s actually illegal, I think it’s important more people take action to reclaim their privacy, or at the very least, protect themselves from illegal and unconscionable government snooping.
The DO log and they do not even state what they log.
“IPredator does not store any subscription information about you except what you entered when signing up for the service. We minimize the use of logs within our systems and only grant access to them to a selected number of staff for debugging when service quality is an issue.”
From here: IPredator is moving to Njalla
I think the iPredator guys can be trusted, but always do you research.
You could use adblocker… but idk if it affects the hotspot ads
I SSH tunnel when transferring files from my box to computer and vice versa. How would you use a tunnel for a the purposes of vpn/vnc?
Ah correct. Thank you for fixing that for me
That’s not necessarily true, no. All providers will comply with subpeonas…to the point they’re enforceable. It’s your call to use logging or not. We host multiple VPN providers, and I can certainly tell you at least half don’t log. We do request that they be able to track issues immediately, but that’s to stem abuse. Very few if any of US-based providers marketing to P2P clients will do any substantial logging.
No, it doesn’t. It was one of the first things I tried. And I have AdBlock Plus on all the time anyway.