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You can operate your own VPN (algovpn, openvpn, etc). There's low utility to doing so, but it's fairly straightforward these days. Or run Tailscale (and a sel

You can operate your own VPN (algovpn, openvpn, etc). There's low utility to doing so, but it's fairly straightforward these days. Or run Tailscale (and a self-hosted DERP relay).

martin_a 1y ago
I did this for a while in combination with a PiHole setup on a small vultr.com package. Utility in that was that the traffic of all devices was routed through a "PiHoled VPN", so very little advertisements came through...
- giobox 1y ago
  A cheap VPS instance + DNS with adblock + self hosted VPN used to be great until around ~5 years ago, when a great many websites (especially streaming sites) just started blocking any IP range associated with a VPS provider. I've given up using VPSes as VPN exit nodes now.
doublerabbit 1y ago
The caveat with this is you're going to encounter every Cloudflare capture possible.
jonny_eh 1y ago
> You can operate your own VPN On what infra? Can you trust that one? Doesn't that solution just move the problem down one level?
- 5f3cfa1a 1y ago
  The answer is always "maybe" until you bring your threat model to the table. I use a VPN to watch IPTV & download torrents without my ISP sending me nasty letters. Mullvad is great for that. I would trust it in conjunction with Tor to protect me from low-level crimes. I wouldn't run trust either it or Tor, alone or in combination, to run a marketplace the DEA would become interested in. If your threat model is obscuring your home IP to hide your IP from above board HTTPS sites, a DIY VPN probably is great. If it's to do low level crime, a cheap VPN is probably enough. Anything else, good luck.
  - busterarm 1y ago
    This. Between the parent and the other one, it's almost like I specifically pointed out the limited utility of this approach and all of the Well Acktshually posters had to spell it out anyway. I was responding to someone who said they were technical, so it should be assumed they can work this all out for themselves.
    - tomrod 1y ago
      You provided some great breadcrumbs. I appreciate your responses.
  - em-bee 1y ago
    a DYI VPN may hide my home IP but it does not hide my identity unless the server i route through is not owned by me. also any server that i can use is likely blocked by wikipedia, youtube, reddit, and others because they detect and block hosting services.
    - 5f3cfa1a 1y ago
      > a DYI VPN may hide my home IP but it does not hide my identity unless the server i route through is not owned by me. Again, threat model matters – hide your identity from whom? You certainly won't hide it from someone who can seize payment records. You will struggle to hide it from someone who has control of enough of the internet to correlate data across sites, like Google or Cloudflare. But if you're looking to be pseudonymous in the face of a single site, or a small set of sites that don't conspire to unmask users? It might work just fine. (unless as you rightly note they block your hosting service's ASN;-))
      - em-bee 1y ago
        sure, threat model matters. no protection is 100%, but more is better. using my own hosted proxy means that my identity is out in public. it's not even hidden. no need to even seize payment records. anyone can look up the ip address and eventually figure out who owns the server. i might hide it somewhat if i use that proxy only for this purpose, not point any DNS records at it, not reveal any public data, never use it for services where i log in, etc. truly anonymous hosters are high profile targets for law enforcement, so in my opinion they are higher risk than even VPN providers. not interested in getting caught up with that crowd. and for the good VPN providers at least a court order is necessary, and if the VPN doesn't log usage, they can't prove anything. there is no threat model where your own hosted proxy could ever provide better protection than any VPN. i use my own proxy because it's free, because i already have a server where i host my website, not because it provides me with any kind of protection. to get that, a VPN would be easier and cheaper.

You can operate your own VPN (algovpn, openvpn, etc). There's low utility to doing so, but it's fairly straightforward these days. Or run Tailscale (and a self-hosted DERP relay).

martin_a 1y ago

I did this for a while in combination with a PiHole setup on a small vultr.com package. Utility in that was that the traffic of all devices was routed through a "PiHoled VPN", so very little advertisements came through...

giobox 1y ago
A cheap VPS instance + DNS with adblock + self hosted VPN used to be great until around ~5 years ago, when a great many websites (especially streaming sites) just started blocking any IP range associated with a VPS provider. I've given up using VPSes as VPN exit nodes now.

doublerabbit 1y ago

The caveat with this is you're going to encounter every Cloudflare capture possible.

jonny_eh 1y ago

> You can operate your own VPN On what infra? Can you trust that one? Doesn't that solution just move the problem down one level?

5f3cfa1a 1y ago
The answer is always "maybe" until you bring your threat model to the table. I use a VPN to watch IPTV & download torrents without my ISP sending me nasty letters. Mullvad is great for that. I would trust it in conjunction with Tor to protect me from low-level crimes. I wouldn't run trust either it or Tor, alone or in combination, to run a marketplace the DEA would become interested in. If your threat model is obscuring your home IP to hide your IP from above board HTTPS sites, a DIY VPN probably is great. If it's to do low level crime, a cheap VPN is probably enough. Anything else, good luck.
- busterarm 1y ago
  This. Between the parent and the other one, it's almost like I specifically pointed out the limited utility of this approach and all of the Well Acktshually posters had to spell it out anyway. I was responding to someone who said they were technical, so it should be assumed they can work this all out for themselves.
  - tomrod 1y ago
    You provided some great breadcrumbs. I appreciate your responses.
- em-bee 1y ago
  a DYI VPN may hide my home IP but it does not hide my identity unless the server i route through is not owned by me. also any server that i can use is likely blocked by wikipedia, youtube, reddit, and others because they detect and block hosting services.
  - 5f3cfa1a 1y ago
    > a DYI VPN may hide my home IP but it does not hide my identity unless the server i route through is not owned by me. Again, threat model matters – hide your identity from whom? You certainly won't hide it from someone who can seize payment records. You will struggle to hide it from someone who has control of enough of the internet to correlate data across sites, like Google or Cloudflare. But if you're looking to be pseudonymous in the face of a single site, or a small set of sites that don't conspire to unmask users? It might work just fine. (unless as you rightly note they block your hosting service's ASN;-))
    - em-bee 1y ago
      sure, threat model matters. no protection is 100%, but more is better. using my own hosted proxy means that my identity is out in public. it's not even hidden. no need to even seize payment records. anyone can look up the ip address and eventually figure out who owns the server. i might hide it somewhat if i use that proxy only for this purpose, not point any DNS records at it, not reveal any public data, never use it for services where i log in, etc. truly anonymous hosters are high profile targets for law enforcement, so in my opinion they are higher risk than even VPN providers. not interested in getting caught up with that crowd. and for the good VPN providers at least a court order is necessary, and if the VPN doesn't log usage, they can't prove anything. there is no threat model where your own hosted proxy could ever provide better protection than any VPN. i use my own proxy because it's free, because i already have a server where i host my website, not because it provides me with any kind of protection. to get that, a VPN would be easier and cheaper.