Just Give Me the Beans!
Originally Posted by sammiev
Thats weird. I just tested, and I am able to login, it changed my ip address and everything.
They offer the paid version and free version, maybe the are not accepting new free accounts, but is working right now for me.
http://help.comodo.com/topic-83-1-15...-On-Linux.html
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Don't use any free VPNs. They are slow, and they usually log the sites you visit, or inject adverts, etc. Also don't use a VPN with servers located in the USA (or similar privacy invasive countries), because of sh*t laws that allow the VPN company to log what goes through their servers. In general, I'd highly recommend a Swedish VPN, for example iPreditor, Anonine, VPNTunnel, or Mullvad. I use BTGuard myself (it's servers are located in Canada and Germany, although I never use the Canadian servers because of poor privacy laws) for torrents and casual browsing, and although it has decent speed and great up-time, the customer service is crappy (overall it's pretty good).
And yes, you should never use PPTP for any VPN.
Has an Ubuntu Drip
You are promoting some misinformation there.
WiTopia is based in Virginia, USA. They do not record or monitor their customers unless they are trying to start a telephone company while using their VPN gateway servers. On Saturdays at 6 PM EST, they perform maintenance and they clear out their logs completely for most of their customers.
Free VPN service providers usually do limit bandwidth and they place data caps. You should review their contracts and check the fine print to see if they monitor and record customer activities.
Has an Ubuntu Drip
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I do not see it as misinformation. I never said all VPNs with servers in the United States log traffic, I'm saying that they do not have the same privacy laws as places like Sweden and Germany. For example, if a government organization were to demand logs from a US VPN, they would have to provide those logs if they are kept, whereas Swedish VPNs do not. In fact, unless it changed, Swedish VPNs are legally not even allowed to log for more than what is required to protect their own servers from DDoS attacks, spam, etc.
I do not doubt that there are US-based VPN services that do not log, but my main point is that there's nothing stopping them from logging traffic, and honestly I don't trust every privacy policy I see a site advertise.
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Has an Ubuntu Drip
Again, you are making sweeping generalizations without providing any useful customer experience to back it up. This is why I called you out earlier.
Provide me with actual user experience with a US based VPN service provider in which you either can prove or disprove that they monitor and record customer activities. I have told you that WiTopia is based in Virginia, USA and they do not log customer activities unless you are trying to start a telephone company using their services.
You then go on to spew misinformation that makes sweeping generalizations about US based VPN service providers with no relevant and real customer experience to back it up.
How do you know for sure if that list of VPN service providers that you provided is legitimate? Have you tried several of them and their services to find out for sure yourself or not?
Don't make sweeping generalizations and expect not to get called out point blank.
As far as I am concerned, your are spreading FUD and it needs to stop right now.
You are taking this discussion in a direction that is not intended by the original poster and you are thread crapping.
Please stay on topic or refrain from commenting further.
WiTopia does not monitor or record customer activities. I should know because I am a WiTopia customer and I have done my fair share of peer to peer file sharing and I have downloaded data directly from websites. I won't specify what kind of data I have downloaded, but suffice it to say that WiTopia has not terminated my account with them yet. I am not going to elaborate further either.
Thank you.
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I never said WiTopia logs customer activities. I never even said most US based providers log activities. You cannot deny though that the privacy laws the US has in place allows servers to log and disclose information. And a quick Google search can reveal "actual user experience", as well as the privacy laws of those services. One extreme example would be the events with the hacktivist group "LulzSec" (Lulz Security), which allegedly had some of its users tracked down through the US based VPN provider "Hide My ***", which claimed it did not log yet still covertly collected personal information, enough information in fact that the US government was able to demand user logs from HMA, to the end of arresting some of the members of LulzSec. Now I'm not saying that anyone here would be as high profile as this hacktivist group, but it does prove that HMA does in fact log user data. And there are many similar sites which do the same. Any service with a privacy policy that says they will disclose personal information to comply with court order also logs, at least to some extent (such as keeping limited user information for 30 days in your VPN's case).
How is pointing out that the US law allows the logging and disclosing of such information "sweeping generalizations" and "spewing misinformation"?
The list I provided is legitimate. I have tried BTGuard, Anonine, VPNTunnel, and the trial version of Mullvad. I have never tried iPreditor though, so I'm just going of customer reviews on that one.
I'm not intending to spread FUD, and I don't see how pointing out current privacy laws in the US is spreading FUD. And how was I called out "point blank" anyways?
I think this is very much relevant to the thread. OP asked for a good VPN for Ubuntu, and this whole topic has not strayed from VPNs.
I do not doubt your claim. I never said "WiTopia logs", and I don't have enough information on that specific VPN to make an informed decision. And I have done my share of file sharing too. I do not care what kind of files you share, and I'm not asking that you elaborate on it either.
The main point is, I did not say "all US based VPNs log and disclose information", and I did not expect to see my posts read that way. There is no reason to get upset, I am not attacking WiTopia, and I am not attacking all US servers, I am pointing out that privacy laws do permit logging of activity, and that Swedish VPNs have stricter customer privacy laws than the US. If OP is looking for a VPN that is less likely to log, then the rule of thumb is that Swedish VPNs are the way to go, but if you find a VPN that better fits your needs for whatever reason, that's fine too.
I did not attack your post, or your recommendation of WiTopia. I just posted advice relating to the privacy laws of these two countries, and recommendations of four VPNs which I have personally tried, and one which I have heard is good from many sources, but have not tried myself.
EDIT: I just looked up more about WiTopia, and read their privacy policy. They say they store limited login information for 30 days, and will store and disclose information if necessary to comply with court order. Compare that with the privacy policy of VPNTunnel, which says "In accordance with swedish law, we do not store any data at all on our swedish servers." You have to admit that not storing any data at all provides more privacy then "we store data for 30 days, and will disclose data in response to court order".
Last edited by Stonecold1995; October 8th, 2012 at 06:36 AM. Reason: More info
Has an Ubuntu Drip
Look, it's the end points that matter. These end points are outside of the scope of any VPN service provider especially if you leave behind a digital trail of evidence to collect and analyze data about you. One example would be to use social media outlets while connected to any VPN service provider's VPN gateway as evidence that you commmited a crime. In the US, you can not threaten to kill the US president or vice president or the GOP running mate on Facebook and expect to get away with that crime.
Peer to peer file sharing is not the same as login credentials. We are talking about network traffic here. WiTopia has to log your login credentials so it knows when you use their service. This is considered to be within the realm of acceptable logging in the United States and a lot of other VPN service providers do this as well in other countries except for Sweden. What we are more concerned with here is what kind of monitoring, recording, and logging of user's network traffic happens in accordance to a specific VPN service providers' contract with its users and how that information and data is handled in the event of a digital investigation.
WiTopia does not monitor or record your network traffic. This means that they don't keep tabs on me when I download or upload data even if it was copyrighted which I am not saying is happening here in my case or not. They clear their logs every Saturdays for maintenance.
Logging login credentials is pretty much useless information if you can not corroborate it with user's network activities and traffic.
You're making a bad assumption here. You're assuming that any type of logging is tantamount to monitoring and recording customer's network traffic data histories and you're assuming that all of those records get turned over to a court with a court order in the case of WiTopia. That is clearly not the case.
Finally, you have understand that it's your ISP that you should be much more concerned about. In the United States, most of the major ISPs do record and monitor their customer's network traffic and the MPAA and RIAA have agreements in place to alert and warn their customers of copyright infringment which could lead to law suits. VPN does not protect against this type of illegal behavior regardless of which VPN service provider because a lot of network traffic passes through the United States of America through a complex mesh of nodes and end points that you're not aware of.
This is the nature of P2P architecture. You have no idea who is sharing that data with you and where it traverses throughout the world.
VPNs also don't protect you if you register personally identifiable information on a web site that is not fully encrypted and located outside of the US and has its traffic routed outside of the US completely. This is an extreme example and it is an isolated case.
Bottom line: VPNs are useful for privacy and security, but don't think that you can't be attacked while connected to a VPN gateway by visiting malicious websites. VPNs don't control any data that is collected, analyzed, and eventually used to pinpoint users' location and activities outside of their entry and exit gateways. I would be much more concerned about this fact than a VPN service provider who logs all of my data.
I got news for you. Sweden is cracking down on copyright infringment. It won't be long before it bows to pressure from foreign governments and organizations to log users network traffic and identities. Don't make the assumption that connecting to a VPN service provider in Sweden guarantees anonymity, privacy, or security. That's a big caveat that's hard to ignore now that the Pirate Bay and its affiliates are getting hammered in courts worldwide.
Has an Ubuntu Drip
Look, I know a lot more about this subject than you do from a technical perspective because I have a lot of current IT certifications and most of them are in security specifically network security.
You are basing your information on what VPN service providers are willing to put into writing to advertise their services to potential customers and you are also making some big assumptions. Finally, you are negleting the open nature and architecture of the Internet itself. I doubt that you know enough about Swedish laws to tell me exactly how the founders of The Pirate Bay wound up getting caught and prosecuted and they were found guilty in Swedish courts. Mega Upload is based in New Zealand and they have pretty liberal laws regarding surveillance compared to the UK or USA or even PRC.
Once you access products or services or you access data that is located outside of your VPN service provider's gateway, you are fair game for anybody to target and attack you. This includes your network traffic history and data.
Do you have any idea how extremely expensive it would be to create an encrypted tunnel that extends throughout your entire network traffic worldwide? It's impossible.
The United States government has the most sophisticated digital investigative capabilities and technologies in the world. We have the most sophisticated surveillance systems worldwide. We can pretty much order almost any ISP or VPN service provider to divulge customer data at will especially if it relates to national security. The United Kingdom is not far behind either. Israel is pretty damn sophisticated too.
Look, a VPN service provider that logs your network traffic makes it more convenient for a government to request that they turn over their customer records. That's it. It reduces the amount of work that they have to do.
Finally, to belabor this point so that you understand it more clearly, it is important to note that no ISP or VPN service provider or web proxy or any future network technology can give your 100 percent foolproof privacy, security, anonymity, and safety. You take risks when you connect your PC and you create an identity on the Internet or any other network environment. Logging is considered to be low scale in terms of the pecking order. Logging makes it possible for active surveillance and targeted attacks to occur against people, individuals, organizations, groups, governments, corporations, etc. Logging is not necessarily negative and evil.
It comes down to who is after you and why. It also matters what kind of resources do they have and what kind of relationships do they have in their corner to make it easier for them to get to know you intimately.
VPN can not protect you against these types of threats. Best to keep a low profile.
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