Hey, cool. Thanks a lot @stusser!
Oh fuck a spammer. This thread is gonna attract them.
Make sure before you go to China that you are in compliance with their tech rules. One key one (last I heard) is not to try to bring any encrypted systems into the country - they’ll pretty much assume you are a subversive (or even a spy).
So. I purchased PIA. went to the page to download. It says that there is already an account with my email address. I asked for a password reset. No email. I contacted their support. Did you have any issues like this @stusser? I’m getting a weird vibe from this. I checked that all of the payment pages were https. But still. I’m already paranoid, that’s why I’m getting it in the first place.
Nope. Contact support, I guess.
So my PIA subscription is up in a week, figured I’d look around to see what else is offered. I think I will switch to NordVPN which seems to be the new hotness. And is very highly reviewed on just about every site I can find. Anyone use them?
2 year special of $80 going on also, which is the same cost for 2 years of PIA:
Also this came out a few days ago:
Nord is a bit more expensive than PIA (depending on deals on both sides, of course) but it’s generally supposed to be a fine choice also.
My PIA expired last week and I happily let it auto-renew.
This thread on hackernews just reconfirmed my feelings. It is US based, which means vulnerable to our own government, but until a competing product comes out in a foreign state that is more trustworthy (ahaha) and at least in the same quality neighborhood as PIA I will just stay put.
So if I have a router that doesn’t seem to accept custom OSes, am I boned on the “whole-house” VPN solution front?
US-based is actually an advantage in some ways in that the US doesn’t have mandatory data-retention laws.
Some standard router firmware support client VPNs, so not necessarily.
Looks like my otherwise unremarkable AC1200 does support OpenVPN, which I’m guessing is a common standard. Might be time to finally go for it.
There are several standards, but OpenVPN is the one you actually want. You’re in luck!
I just read the original exchange between Farnsworth and Mr_Peach and found it remarkably civilized.
Still can’t decide if I want to make the switch to NordVPN… Might just do nothing and let my PIA renew. :p
Something I worry about in the back of my head sometimes is that the next step for digital surveillance is to ban the consumer use of VPNs. Has anyone heard anything about this?
Is it technically possible for them to do it? With my limited knowledge all I think they would have to do is for the ISPs to ban all IPs that are known VPNs, much like what Netflix has done very successfully.
No, it’s not. China is giving it a try, and failing. VPNs are in wide use across the country.
I have a VPN on Windows question…
My wife works from home and can print to our printer wirelessly. She has to use Cisco VPN software to connect to her office LAN and get on shared drives, use the software Cisco phone, etc. However, when connected to the VPN, she no longer can print wirelessly on our home network. Best I can figure is that the VPN routing is blocking the home network routing.
Any idea how to tweak this so that she can be on the VPN and print simultaneously?
Yes, you need her work to allow split routing. Many won’t do that for security reasons, however.