What are you asking me??

[Pixilated]

Somebody online asked if I had tried to get a VPN and I didn't know whether they meant some technological gizmo or a new vaccine.

Anyway, it's the former. Has anybody here every gotten a VPN? Are they useful? More to the point, are they safe??

[Nunavut Pants]

With a VPN, instead of connecting from your computer to, say, customerssuck.com, you instead connect to the VPN provider. They route your traffic to a server they have in some other location, so it looks to customerssuck like your traffic is coming from that server specifically, instead of from you. If there was some feature in customerssuck that was only available to someone in Elbonia, and your VPN let you route your traffic from an Elbonian server, you could use that feature. (This is done to get around geo-locked things like media not available in a particular country or whatever.)

The VPN takes each small piece of your traffic to and from customerssuck and wraps it up in another layer of encryption while sending it from the place you're sending it to the Elbonian server. So it's harder for someone to "listen in" to your traffic. (Though it's hard to do when sites use "https" protocol, as that is encrypted once already.)

Someone at the VPN could undo that second layer of encryption, and at least figure out where your original traffic is coming from and where it is going to. And they have a very slightly better chance of undoing the https encryption--though still almost zero chance, frankly.

IMHO they can be useful if you need to get around some restrictions, like geographic restrictions. Otherwise, not really. They are as safe as the company is trustworthy, which varies massively.

[csquared]

So it's harder for someone to "listen in" to your traffic. (Though it's hard to do when sites use "https" protocol, as that is encrypted once already.)

Danger Will Robinson! Danger!
All the VPN providers want you to believe that you are at risk. Well, you are, but not as bad as they try to make it out to be. Mathematically speaking, a VPN provides only a moderate increase of security over just https (If a hacker can rip apart your https stream in a timely manner, the VPN will not be a problem either. It's the same technology). No major web site is NOT using https.

VPNs might be able to get around geo fencing. I was using one for a while (bittorrent and a blocked port). While using it, I tried to get to some UK only content. Didn't work. There might have been some leftover cookies or something. Didn't bother fighting it.

There are some good entry level packages. The one I used is now $40.00/year.

So, why do you need a VPN?

[Arcus]

Only time I found one useful was when a game I was playing was having a fight with an ISP. The ISP would block all traffic going to the game servers unless the developer paid for the extra traffic. A VPN allowed me to step around that dispute because the ISP didn't see what I was connecting to.

[RealUnimportant]

VPNs are much less about making it harder to see what the data is that you're sending, and much more about obscuring where you're sending/receiving it to/from; if they have the tools to dig into it (which isn't as easy as all that with HTTPS anyway) then they're going to be prepared to dig deeper if they find a VPN cloaking it anyway.

That said, there are still plenty of services that *don't* use encryption for a lot of their standard communication, and it also can't hurt to have the extra protection there if needed - that's always the caveat, how much do you need that protection? Chances are if your job really requires that much care, they already provide a suitable service that you're using anyway.

Still, it can come in useful for other things - gaming is one, getting past geolocks on YouTube videos or other sites that are restricted in your state/nation due to different laws, accessing region-specific content on streaming services, etc. and so forth. Any service offered as "free" isn't worth what you're paying, they'll probably only have a single gateway which means any provider who doesn't want to allow VPNed access can just block that one IP and be done - and most VPNs also keep full logs of what you do when you're using their service, and those can be subpoenad by law enforcement as and when required if you're attracting the wrong kind of attention.

I have one, I barely use it, but when I do need it it's exceptionally useful to me.

[Kit-Ginevra]

VPN-Visible Pantyline Notifier. If you're showing too much it emits a loud warning to alert you so you avoid underwear malfunctions

[Pixilated]

Thanks for all the techno-advice, folks!

Literally the ONLY reason this was recommended to me is because I am a Canadian and I am on the Book of Faces ... and The Zucker has a Big Mad at Canada right now and is blocking Canadians from seeing or sharing news items.

That's it.

So I'm pretty skeptical that the cost of a VPN is worth it for that alone.

[Pixilated]

VPN-Visible Pantyline Notifier. If you're showing too much it emits a loud warning to alert you so you avoid underwear malfunctions

Soooo ... I go "beeping" down the street, then ...

[dalesys]

Soooo ... I go "beeping" down the street, then ...

Singing do-wah-diddy-diddy-dum-diddy-do...

[RealUnimportant]

...I'm pretty skeptical that the cost of a VPN is worth it for that alone.

Your skepticism is well-founded, because it would make no difference whatsoever:

1. Farcebook already knows where you live, and will make its judgements based on that.
2. When they block a link from being posted, they usually block it from being posted from anywhere anyway, so even if you convince them you're in Timbuktu it still won't display.
3. In the unlikely event 1 and 2 are somehow defeated, they're still not going to show it to any friends that are still classed as being in an area they don't want it seen; it'll just become one of those "this content cannot be shared for no adequately explainable reason" boxes.

Definitely not the right usage case for a VPN, however we're defining that now on this page!