I’d prefer to get a VPN to avoid the risk of my internet getting shut down, but I’m not aware of what the options for Linux are. I figured this would be a good place to ask.
Proton and Mullvad have the best privacy record, but I want to suggest a different tool. VPNs are really only useful for tunneling and adding an extra layer of anonymity, there’s no total assurance they won’t rat on you or get breached.
Real-Debrid is a way to torrent without risking ISP shutting down. Other debrid services exist, I just prefer real-debrid. The debrid service does the illegal part and you download over high speed. It’s also more available since you can think of it like a very large scale seedbox. There’s also implementation for most media center apps.
I didn’t see anything about not keeping logs (please correct me if I just missed it). Also, they don’t have any built-in DNS protection, and it’s expensive at $8.34usd/month.
It’s an interesting idea to stratify your VPN and force individual apps to bind to their own tunnels, but seems like a lot of extra setup for little payoff, and if you can’t be certain they’re not keeping logs, there’s little benefit to having multiple VPN connections vs one.
Please, feel free to correct me if I’ve misunderstood something.
They do have built in DNS protection, it’s just not DNS servers controlled by them. You can pick presets from AdGuard, Cloudflare, etc. Or, use your own.
Regarding logging, I’m not sure I understand entirely how it’s relevant to a service such as SPN. Have you used Tor and wondered if the nodes are logging? SPN is also an onion router. So, the exit node will not know your origin, even if they are logging. Of course, we could go down rabbit holes about speculative traffic correlation and/or timing attacks, but that’s a separate discussion. A large portion of the SPN network is also community operated nodes.
SPN nodes can also be run by anyone without needing a large investment of staked cryptocurrency, unlike another onion router Lokinet. This lowers the barrier to entry for a more diverse number of community contributed nodes to SPN.
These aren’t necessarily multiple VPN connections. Instead, every network request is sprayed across the SPN network based upon your desired number of hops and other settings. This means one app might see you as being in Iceland while another in Australia, etc. It bounces every connection around the network. If someone were trying to track you, it’d make it just a little more difficult than a static location connection with a traditional VPN.
How is network speed? Even with a multihop VPN, each hop degrades the speed. If it’s operating like the Tor network, I would expect that it would experience the same kind of speed degradation.
And speaking of multihop, I wonder what extra benefit you’d get from a service like SPN and a VPN that offers multihop…?
Not trying to piss on your suggestion, just trying to scrutinize the benefits.
SPN has a maximum of 3 hops (same as Tor), unlike Proton, IVPN, Nord, etc that do a dual-VPN, multihop, whatever you want to call it, with only 2 hops.
I’ve added 2 additional hops via hardware network infra through VPN chaining and I still achieve upwards of 150mbps down on a 1gbps connection with a total of 5 hops. So, I feel the speed achieved considering so many hops is pretty amazing. Of course, depending on the locations routed, may have high ms ping.
Even if you just purchase 1 month, the worst case scenario is you’ve lost $8. The best case scenario is you’ve found your new fav open-source Linux network manager with an onion router like me.
Also, if you’re worried about logging, you could set up a bulletproof, anon VPS you paid for in cash/crypto from a host who doesn’t KYC. Then, set it as a community node, and then configure Portmaster to only accept your SPN entry node as your own VPS. That way, you can know that when you enter the SPN it’s through a VPS you’ve ensured isn’t tied to your identity, doesn’t log, and is your starting point before being routed through other random locations.
I use ProtonVPN with Ubuntu 23.10 and it works fine. I also use it with Windows and the only difference I’ve noticed between the two is that port forwarding is a lot more fiddly to setup in the Linux client, whereas it just works out-of-the-box with the Windows client. For that reason, if you’re doing a lot of torrenting you may wish to look at alternatives, though as I understand ProtonVPN is one or the few remaining good VPNs with port forwarding.
As you may read elsewhere, Mullvad and ProtonVPN are the go-to for many people. But what Linux distro are you running? both of them don’t have an OFFICIAL client for Arch, you can install them from the AUR though but I read the from proton rep in reddit that they don’t recommend these packages as they’re handled by the community.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: !piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
⚓ Dedicated to the discussion of digital piracy, including ethical problems and legal advancements.
Proton and Mullvad have the best privacy record, but I want to suggest a different tool. VPNs are really only useful for tunneling and adding an extra layer of anonymity, there’s no total assurance they won’t rat on you or get breached.
Real-Debrid is a way to torrent without risking ISP shutting down. Other debrid services exist, I just prefer real-debrid. The debrid service does the illegal part and you download over high speed. It’s also more available since you can think of it like a very large scale seedbox. There’s also implementation for most media center apps.
Real Debrid Link
I’ve never heard of this before, and it sounds interesting after a cursory search online. Why the downvotes?
People get weird about VPNs. I think it’s the way that they’re marketed as security solution which is not really true these days.
OS doesn’t matter. And windows with crapware removed runs just as well. (OMG, there is so much crapware on the barebones install)
OP is not asking for windows
Safing.io portmaster with SPN. It’s better than any of the other recommendations so far.
I didn’t see anything about not keeping logs (please correct me if I just missed it). Also, they don’t have any built-in DNS protection, and it’s expensive at $8.34usd/month.
It’s an interesting idea to stratify your VPN and force individual apps to bind to their own tunnels, but seems like a lot of extra setup for little payoff, and if you can’t be certain they’re not keeping logs, there’s little benefit to having multiple VPN connections vs one.
Please, feel free to correct me if I’ve misunderstood something.
They do have built in DNS protection, it’s just not DNS servers controlled by them. You can pick presets from AdGuard, Cloudflare, etc. Or, use your own.
Regarding logging, I’m not sure I understand entirely how it’s relevant to a service such as SPN. Have you used Tor and wondered if the nodes are logging? SPN is also an onion router. So, the exit node will not know your origin, even if they are logging. Of course, we could go down rabbit holes about speculative traffic correlation and/or timing attacks, but that’s a separate discussion. A large portion of the SPN network is also community operated nodes.
SPN nodes can also be run by anyone without needing a large investment of staked cryptocurrency, unlike another onion router Lokinet. This lowers the barrier to entry for a more diverse number of community contributed nodes to SPN.
These aren’t necessarily multiple VPN connections. Instead, every network request is sprayed across the SPN network based upon your desired number of hops and other settings. This means one app might see you as being in Iceland while another in Australia, etc. It bounces every connection around the network. If someone were trying to track you, it’d make it just a little more difficult than a static location connection with a traditional VPN.
Hope this helps and you give it a try.
How is network speed? Even with a multihop VPN, each hop degrades the speed. If it’s operating like the Tor network, I would expect that it would experience the same kind of speed degradation.
And speaking of multihop, I wonder what extra benefit you’d get from a service like SPN and a VPN that offers multihop…?
Not trying to piss on your suggestion, just trying to scrutinize the benefits.
SPN has a maximum of 3 hops (same as Tor), unlike Proton, IVPN, Nord, etc that do a dual-VPN, multihop, whatever you want to call it, with only 2 hops.
I’ve added 2 additional hops via hardware network infra through VPN chaining and I still achieve upwards of 150mbps down on a 1gbps connection with a total of 5 hops. So, I feel the speed achieved considering so many hops is pretty amazing. Of course, depending on the locations routed, may have high ms ping.
Even if you just purchase 1 month, the worst case scenario is you’ve lost $8. The best case scenario is you’ve found your new fav open-source Linux network manager with an onion router like me.
Also, if you’re worried about logging, you could set up a bulletproof, anon VPS you paid for in cash/crypto from a host who doesn’t KYC. Then, set it as a community node, and then configure Portmaster to only accept your SPN entry node as your own VPS. That way, you can know that when you enter the SPN it’s through a VPS you’ve ensured isn’t tied to your identity, doesn’t log, and is your starting point before being routed through other random locations.
Proton VPN is good and has a good free plan, but os doesn’t matter when choosing a VPN
If you wanna torrent make sure it supports port forwarding.
Using torguard. Works well
I use ProtonVPN with Ubuntu 23.10 and it works fine. I also use it with Windows and the only difference I’ve noticed between the two is that port forwarding is a lot more fiddly to setup in the Linux client, whereas it just works out-of-the-box with the Windows client. For that reason, if you’re doing a lot of torrenting you may wish to look at alternatives, though as I understand ProtonVPN is one or the few remaining good VPNs with port forwarding.
Mullvad if you’re a stickler for privacy.
And when so such, pay in Monero.
AirVPN recommended here. Compatible with WireGuard and they have a Linux client, too.
+1 for air VPN, using it as well.
As you may read elsewhere, Mullvad and ProtonVPN are the go-to for many people. But what Linux distro are you running? both of them don’t have an OFFICIAL client for Arch, you can install them from the AUR though but I read the from proton rep in reddit that they don’t recommend these packages as they’re handled by the community.
I use Proton VPN to bypass censorship. Use Remote Torrenting for torrent.
Mullvad is good and has a decent price
Mullvad, it has ipv6 and works on linux even if you don’t use NetworkManager. Protonvpn doesn’t have ipv6 and only works with networkmanager
Also last I checked, mullvad wireguard works in the app, whereas proton requires special setup
Mullvad doesn’t offer port forwarding anymore if that’s important to you.
im having very good results with proton/openvpn using gluetun