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Be aware, at least Nord clearly does something different with their client than with the OpenVPN files they provide ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21664

Be aware, at least Nord clearly does something different with their client than with the OpenVPN files they provide ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21664692 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21664692 ). When I dug into this, I found similar cases with other major VPN providers, but my notes are sufficiently out of date, they shouldn't be trusted anymore. Sometimes the differences are subtle, sometimes they're rather complex like this case. Personally, sketchy stuff like this is why I've moved all of my VPN use to a personal cloud instance running WireGuard.

rafale 4y ago
What cloud do you use? A lot of websites will flag any AWS or data center IP as a bot.
- banana_giraffe 4y ago
  So, I do have two VPN servers running, one on my home connection, and one on AWS, for just the reason you state. That said, I got back from a week long trip a few weeks ago. I kept my AWS tunnel up the entire trip. For the set of websites I visit for personal and work reasons, it was never an issue. I'm sure I could find some website that doesn't work, but for me, it's just not a problem. It's also super useful, since I can whitelist my AWS instance's IP on services that demand such things, and never have to worry about where I am as I move from network to network. I've also reserved the Elastic IP so I can stop/terminate my server when I want without needing to whitelist the IP again when I spin it back up
- yellowapple 4y ago
  Thankfully I never encountered that as an issue with e.g. Amazon Workspaces.
- runnerup 4y ago
  I use whatbox.ca as my global/universal VPN. So far I haven’t seen any issues. It works in places where most VPNs are banned or heavily throttled (like Saudi/Abu Dhabi/Qatar, my workplace, AT&T cellular data, etc)
  - charsi 4y ago
    Isn't whatbox.ca mainly aimed at hosting seedboxes? They are accordingly higher priced than a VPN. Whats the rationale for using them as a VPN ?
    - runnerup 4y ago
      1) It’s the only VPN that worked in areas where they work hard to block most VPNs 2) it’s still not very expensive 3) it’s absurdly fast for a “VPN”! Like 400Mbit symmetric. 4) I also use it as a seedbox. Speaking of…does anyone have an invitation a private tracker to replace what.cd because I miss that. Or a no/low compression movie tracker.
CSMastermind 4y ago
> ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21664692 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21664692 ) Is there any proof of this? It seems like the original author was wrong and deleted the article.
- banana_giraffe 4y ago
  I have no idea how right the author was about how Nord got ahold of the residential IPs. I was able to recreate the technical results, and noted at the time that the OpenVPN connection to the same Nord endpoint behaved differently (and, indeed, Disney+ blocked it). Of course, that was a while ago .. long enough I assume my notes no longer reflect the current state of things. It'd be interesting to try and recreate it with the latest stuff, but all of my VPN providers accounts have lapsed by this point.
ghostly_s 4y ago
"The author deleted this Medium story."

rafale 4y ago

What cloud do you use? A lot of websites will flag any AWS or data center IP as a bot.

banana_giraffe 4y ago
So, I do have two VPN servers running, one on my home connection, and one on AWS, for just the reason you state. That said, I got back from a week long trip a few weeks ago. I kept my AWS tunnel up the entire trip. For the set of websites I visit for personal and work reasons, it was never an issue. I'm sure I could find some website that doesn't work, but for me, it's just not a problem. It's also super useful, since I can whitelist my AWS instance's IP on services that demand such things, and never have to worry about where I am as I move from network to network. I've also reserved the Elastic IP so I can stop/terminate my server when I want without needing to whitelist the IP again when I spin it back up
yellowapple 4y ago
Thankfully I never encountered that as an issue with e.g. Amazon Workspaces.
runnerup 4y ago
I use whatbox.ca as my global/universal VPN. So far I haven’t seen any issues. It works in places where most VPNs are banned or heavily throttled (like Saudi/Abu Dhabi/Qatar, my workplace, AT&T cellular data, etc)
- charsi 4y ago
  Isn't whatbox.ca mainly aimed at hosting seedboxes? They are accordingly higher priced than a VPN. Whats the rationale for using them as a VPN ?
  - runnerup 4y ago
    1) It’s the only VPN that worked in areas where they work hard to block most VPNs 2) it’s still not very expensive 3) it’s absurdly fast for a “VPN”! Like 400Mbit symmetric. 4) I also use it as a seedbox. Speaking of…does anyone have an invitation a private tracker to replace what.cd because I miss that. Or a no/low compression movie tracker.

CSMastermind 4y ago

> ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21664692 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21664692 ) Is there any proof of this? It seems like the original author was wrong and deleted the article.

banana_giraffe 4y ago
I have no idea how right the author was about how Nord got ahold of the residential IPs. I was able to recreate the technical results, and noted at the time that the OpenVPN connection to the same Nord endpoint behaved differently (and, indeed, Disney+ blocked it). Of course, that was a while ago .. long enough I assume my notes no longer reflect the current state of things. It'd be interesting to try and recreate it with the latest stuff, but all of my VPN providers accounts have lapsed by this point.

ghostly_s 4y ago

"The author deleted this Medium story."