VPNs for Windows 10?

Curious · 19 Feb 2020

Is there a section in tenforums for discussing vpn in Windows 10? Searching in the search box only provdes results outside tenforums.

Barman58 · 19 Feb 2020

Not specifically, this forum is probably the appropriate one. (or maybe the Security Forum, I think due to it's association with less than legal activities members here has not discussed it that much.

I do not see any issues with discussing the basics of how it works and it's legitimate uses for personal security, but not links to providers etc which could see the forums sanctioned

dalchina · 19 Feb 2020

There are threads referring to VPNs in e.g. Browsers and Email, and Software and Apps - VPNs may be closely associated with browsers sometimes e.g. Opera's in-built VPN or may be considered as a separate program.

And yes, there are forum results e.g.

jimbo45 · 19 Feb 2020

Hi there

@Curious

I know this is a Windows Forum but IMO if you want to use a VPN why not create a Linux Virtual machine and use the free openvpn software. There's no reason why servers can't be run as VM's --in fact a lot of commercial and cloud servers are actually Virtual machines themselves.

Doing it on a Virtual Machine first in any case is a great idea -- anything you hose up just delete the VM and start again -- you can use VMWare player (Free) or Virtual Box (also free) to create the VM's --I'd shy away from HYPER-V initially -- don't try too many things at once otherwise you'll never be able to untangle things. Both VMWare and Virtual Box are easy to use and there's a lot of experience on these forums setting it up. I prefer vmware but others like VBOX -- both work on windows so try them both out.

Probably for a beginner setting openvpn up the easiest would be to use a ubuntu virtual machine as there's oodles of documentation all over the web.

This should get you started. (Note create the Virtual machine first !!!).

Installing OpenVPN Access Server on a Linux system | OpenVPN

(Free for up to 2 simultaneous connections -- for more there's a fee but this should show you the idea of using these things).

If it's just file access you need then filezilla is a great product espcially on a Windows Host - not sure though Windows can act as an SSL server so the sharing server will need to be linux. Otherwise remote RDP / SSH might be OK or whatever --just think what you want to do and why you actually need a VPN in the first place. Other choices might be a W.A.M.P or L.A.M.P server -- (Windows/Linux Apache MySql (mariadb these days --it's the same) PHP.

A nice "get around" to access remote Windows desktop with Linux SSH is to SSH logon to the Linux server and then XRDP (or equivalent) to your Windows desktop -- the internal connection will be at your internal LAN speed.

All sorts of things are "do-able" these days with decent Internet connections.

Cheers
jimbo

Curious · 19 Feb 2020

Thank you both. I access tenforums on a Duckduckgo browser and when I searched for vpn the results were empty, possibly due to its security settings.

Anyway, on my Windows 10 laptop I already have Ubuntu setup in a Virtual box emulation. I had set it up long ago just to learn more about linux though I never really use it. So that would certainly be a first step aboutlearning more about vpns. But since this is an appropriate forum to ask I would like to ask some generic questions.

1. I am uncomfortable with my internet provider (Verizon FiOS) keeping track of everywhere I go on the internet and everywhere I go on my android (firestick) smart TVs. It seems to me —perhaps erroneously — that using a vpn app on my laptops and even on the firesticks will not protect my activity from Verizon's scrutiny because it all ends up going out to the internet via the FiOS router the isp provides.

Am I wrong? For anonymity from Verizon I would need a vpn installed on the router itself, something I do not believe is possible with the Verizon supplied FiOS router.

Am I wrong?

2. Where do I find out which is 'truly' a good vpn that does not keep logs, has good speed, etc. When I search it is difficult to differentiate between paid lists and honest appraisals.

Thanks.

pparks1 · 19 Feb 2020

Curious said:

1. I am uncomfortable with my internet provider (Verizon FiOS) keeping track of everywhere I go on the internet and everywhere I go on my android (firestick) smart TVs. It seems to me —perhaps erroneously — that using a vpn app on my laptops and even on the firesticks will not protect my activity from Verizon's scrutiny because it all ends up going out to the internet via the FiOS router the isp provides.

While you technically are still in view of Verizon, all that they will see is "encrypted" traffic from your public IP address to the public IP address of the VPN server that you connect to. to. They cannot tell if you are reading tenforums, looking at porn, reading your email, torrenting videos, etc. They can just see that you did 22.5GB of traffic to x.x.x.x.

For example, I am using my work laptop right while working from home. Even though my laptop connects to my home wi-fi, it IMMEDIATELY makes a VPN Connection using SecureConnect back to our office. I don't have the ability to shut it off. So, all traffic from my work laptop, goes through our work VPN and out our work internet connection. So, the only thing that my ISP can see, is that I am sending X amount of traffic to an IP address in Detroit through my home office. Work however can see everything that I do on this laptop. Obviously the HTTPS stuff is encrypted, so they cannot see what I am doing when I am connected to my credit card company, but they can clearly see that I am on the credit card companies website and they can block if if they see fit.

Curious said:

For anonymity from Verizon I would need a vpn installed on the router itself, something I do not believe is possible with the Verizon supplied FiOS router.

No, nothing needs to be installed on the router itself. Having it on the router would simply mean that everything behind that connection will automagically use the VPN rather than having to set it up on all of your devices individually.

Curious said:

2. Where do I find out which is 'truly' a good vpn that does not keep logs, has good speed, etc. When I search it is difficult to differentiate between paid lists and honest appraisals.

Unfortunately, I am not educated in these areas to give you any suggestions. I personally don't have any concerns whatsoever with my ISP (WOW) seeing where I am going on the Interwebs.

z3r010 · 19 Feb 2020

Curious said:

2. Where do I find out which is 'truly' a good vpn that does not keep logs, has good speed, etc. When I search it is difficult to differentiate between paid lists and honest appraisals.

There is absolutely no way of knowing if a VPN provider is keeping logs, monitoring your communications and selling your data, you can check all the reviews you want but the only people who truly know if a network is secure or setup to harvest your data is the guys setting it up themselves.

What you need to think seriously about is who do you trust more with your data - some random unregulated company on the internet that says on it's website that it keeps no logs and is secure or your ISP that is heavily regulated by your government.

Barman58 · 19 Feb 2020

Curious said:

For anonymity from Verizon I would need a vpn installed on the router itself, something I do not believe is possible with the Verizon supplied FiOS router.

There are a number of Hardware routers which have a built in VPN you simply connect this to one of your Ethernet ports, on you master Router,(for those tied in to the ISP for a router), or can replace the original. and set it up.

This gives you a number of fully "protected & Encrypted" Ethernet and a seperate WiFi network where all connected devices are protected. this is useful if you have media devices which cannot accept apps

You still need to subscribe to a VPN providers, but most hardware suppliers will also provide this

Curious · 19 Feb 2020

Thanks to everone for the help.

I don't have major secrets so this is just my dislike of being spied on. So, your point about 'who' to trust is extremely pertinent to me. Who to trust is the major question. My ISP who I know is selling my data and will rat me out in a second if i download an occasional unauthorized movie on kodi, or an unknown vpn app which promises the world but is an unknown entity.

Really sad.

Golden · 19 Feb 2020

Curious said:

My ISP who I know is selling my data

Since you know this is the case, is it feasible to change ISP?

and will rat me out in a second if i download an occasional unauthorized movie on kodi

To be fair, your ISP is protecting itself from litigation - if I was providing a service, and someone was using that service for illegal purposes, I wouldn't hesitate to protect my interest.

Some light reading on VPN's:
Is your VPN secure?