4 ms·

I could be on the wrong track here, but the MACE ad-blocker built into the PIA VPN seems to work very well by itself. It's not free like PiHole is, but pretty c

by binbag 8y ago

I could be on the wrong track here, but the MACE ad-blocker built into the PIA VPN seems to work very well by itself. It's not free like PiHole is, but pretty cheap, and a VPN is probably a better starting point for security than a local blocker. Am I missing something here?

jaxn 8y ago
I have a VPS with an Outline VPN that I use. I'm going to try to put PiHole on there and see if I can get it to work.
Fnoord 8y ago
> and a VPN is probably a better starting point for security than a local blocker. Am I missing something here? Why? A VPN is just another (S)POF. I'm not afraid my ISP will MITM me. With a VPN, who knows what they log or not? Also, OpenVPN's performance is terrible. If you want to avoid detection of BitTorrent, sure, but then just route only that over a VPN. If your ISP MITMs you, and you're paying them, consider to jump ship. I see uBlock being mentioned throughout this thread. uBlock Origin is (very) nice, but its client-side overhead and you can't use it on "apps". What I do is catch all DNS requests and forward them to my DNS-based adblocking (I basically run Pi-Hole on an ER-L) and forward that to DNS over TLS (which works with Quad9). This is all used even if I'm roaming (via WireGuard, ie. very low overhead). So it is irrelevant which network my roaming clients use.
- binbag 8y ago
  The performance of my network is certainly not terrible when connected to the VPN. Download speed is not noticeably affected and my ping to quake servers (I run VPN all the time, even while gaming) is often lower with the VPN connected. Regarding your 'why is it more secure' question - because I live in the UK where the government and a myriad of its approved bodies are now allowed to look at user traffic and see my IP and what websites I've visited. I don't have to worry about that now - although yes I need to trust that PIA really are not logging.
  - Fnoord 8y ago
    PIA is a company from the USA. The problem with "no logging" policy is you cannot verify it. They can log if they 1) want to 2) mistakenly do so 3) while claiming they really don't 4) are obliged to by (secret) court order (with whatever collateral damage). Its also not anonymous (e.g. correlation attacks). So it seems to be just snake oil to me. I'd rather depend on something like Tor.
    - binbag 8y ago
      Tor is way more secure and anonymous of course, but not at all practical for high bandwidth / low latency applications. Yes you need to trust the VPN that they don't log (your points 1-3). If you trust them not to log, then there is nothing they can reveal under court order (your point 4). It's not snake oil if it does what the seller says it does.
      - Fnoord 8y ago
        Yeah, that's why I use a VPN; for BitTorrent solely. Which here falls under private law; not criminal law. So the equiv of the RIAA cannot do the correlation attacks whereas (the equiv of) 3 letter agencies can. But the latter don't do private law cases. I also download over Usenet, over TLS. Its basically impossible to catch those who download over Usenet for copyright infringement since its again private law, and they don't have the power to sniff my ISP's network (though they'd also see encrypted data flowing from a Usenet server).

by binbag 8y ago

jaxn 8y ago

I have a VPS with an Outline VPN that I use. I'm going to try to put PiHole on there and see if I can get it to work.

Fnoord 8y ago

> and a VPN is probably a better starting point for security than a local blocker. Am I missing something here? Why? A VPN is just another (S)POF. I'm not afraid my ISP will MITM me. With a VPN, who knows what they log or not? Also, OpenVPN's performance is terrible. If you want to avoid detection of BitTorrent, sure, but then just route only that over a VPN. If your ISP MITMs you, and you're paying them, consider to jump ship. I see uBlock being mentioned throughout this thread. uBlock Origin is (very) nice, but its client-side overhead and you can't use it on "apps". What I do is catch all DNS requests and forward them to my DNS-based adblocking (I basically run Pi-Hole on an ER-L) and forward that to DNS over TLS (which works with Quad9). This is all used even if I'm roaming (via WireGuard, ie. very low overhead). So it is irrelevant which network my roaming clients use.

binbag 8y ago
The performance of my network is certainly not terrible when connected to the VPN. Download speed is not noticeably affected and my ping to quake servers (I run VPN all the time, even while gaming) is often lower with the VPN connected. Regarding your 'why is it more secure' question - because I live in the UK where the government and a myriad of its approved bodies are now allowed to look at user traffic and see my IP and what websites I've visited. I don't have to worry about that now - although yes I need to trust that PIA really are not logging.
- Fnoord 8y ago
  PIA is a company from the USA. The problem with "no logging" policy is you cannot verify it. They can log if they 1) want to 2) mistakenly do so 3) while claiming they really don't 4) are obliged to by (secret) court order (with whatever collateral damage). Its also not anonymous (e.g. correlation attacks). So it seems to be just snake oil to me. I'd rather depend on something like Tor.
  - binbag 8y ago
    Tor is way more secure and anonymous of course, but not at all practical for high bandwidth / low latency applications. Yes you need to trust the VPN that they don't log (your points 1-3). If you trust them not to log, then there is nothing they can reveal under court order (your point 4). It's not snake oil if it does what the seller says it does.
    - Fnoord 8y ago
      Yeah, that's why I use a VPN; for BitTorrent solely. Which here falls under private law; not criminal law. So the equiv of the RIAA cannot do the correlation attacks whereas (the equiv of) 3 letter agencies can. But the latter don't do private law cases. I also download over Usenet, over TLS. Its basically impossible to catch those who download over Usenet for copyright infringement since its again private law, and they don't have the power to sniff my ISP's network (though they'd also see encrypted data flowing from a Usenet server).