4 ms·
VPN and ISP are similar in term of middlemen, but there is an important difference downstream of said middlemen. With your ISP, you appear on the internet as a
by piaste 4y ago
VPN and ISP are similar in term of middlemen, but there is an important difference downstream of said middlemen.
With your ISP, you appear on the internet as a residential IP that provides your approximate location and most likely doesn't change very often. The requests you make can be easily correlated by PRISM or any other middleman, or by any CDN running the websites you visit.
With a VPN, your exit IP is unrelated to your geographic location, changes very often, and hopefully it is shared among many more users.
- DesiLurker 4y agoAlso you could use double VPN config from different VPN providers in separate geo locations with openDNS thrown in one of them. then it would be much harder to correlate your traffic out of the mix. its not about perfect secrecy its about becoming hard enough target.
- vel0city 4y agoGeoIP services are trash. My current IP on most GeoIP services gives a location >900 miles away. My last IP had a location in another country. I don't think I've ever had a GeoIP lookup resolve within 100 miles for any IP I've had.
- zmmmmm 4y agoMy single data point observation is that it gets my city correct nearly 100% of the time and sometimes is able to resolve to a nearby suburb.
- vel0city 4y agoMy several datapoints is wildly inconsistent and has never been within several hundred miles. My office: suburb of Chicago My home: downtown Atlanta My friend's house: just outside Phoenix The McDonald's free WiFi: Chicago A church's WiFi: Some random location in Arkansas. I'm in North Texas. Just a few examples I've remembered since making a point to test while I'm out.
- inetknght 4y ago> GeoIP services are trash. GeoIP is only necessary when seeing a new IP. But once the IP starts to build a reputation, then the specific location can be determined. It's especially true if you buy something online.