VPN not what its hyped up to be

[robint]

Please comment

I was talking to a professional IT guy and he told me that installing a VPN on a private home network was unsound and a waste of money. Reason - the weak link between you and your ISP - in my case Virgin. He said when you installed one you immediately raised a red flag to the ISP who would then step up snooping on your traffic 1000 fold. You may even get your account terminated (as happens in the US). Curious how the much vaunted IP Vanish VPN is also the most expensive

He then said the best way for anonymous browsing was to use Torrent Onion (which I am testing now) and its free. He also advised to installed a paid for virus protection (not a free version) like AVG , Avast etc and also a good antoi malware Malware bytes etc

Can anyone advise if this is a good way to go

There is so much VPN hype and yada yada out there that I was immediately suspicious

Cheers

Robin

 

[dara]

It really depends on what you intend the VPN to do for you. You can browse anonymously through other means than a VPN which is true. Some use a VPN to get around geographic blocking, for example some US based sites do not allow non-US IPs to access them. Or in some cases, some governments do not want you to connect to sites outside of their country. As far as virus protection, the Microsoft provided solution in Windows 10 is more than adequate, what prevents you from getting viruses is your personal discipline in avoiding bad practices, such as visiting bad sites, and downloading crap software, and opening links you don't know about.

Sometimes, the ISPs or upstream relay points will block traffic, to certain destinations, and that may be a reason to use a proxy, like a VPN to shorten the route to the IPTV server. Now, that doesn't prevent your ISP from terminating you, but you still might be able to find another ISP.

I wouldn't use a VPN continuously, it slows your connection unnecessarily for most uses. However it may be the key to getting connected to the service when things are not lining up for you.

 

[robint]

It really depends on what you intend the VPN to do for you. You can browse anonymously through other means than a VPN which is true. Some use a VPN to get around geographic blocking, for example some US based sites do not allow non-US IPs to access them. Or in some cases, some governments do not want you to connect to sites outside of their country. As far as virus protection, the Microsoft provided solution in Windows 10 is more than adequate, what prevents you from getting viruses is your personal discipline in avoiding bad practices, such as visiting bad sites, and downloading crap software, and opening links you don't know about.

Indeed all sound advice. Let me stress that In no way am I up to any dirty business, its simply that I became aware of how much snooping waS associated with Kodi. What I really want to do is protect my privacy given the amount of data mining that occurs. It seems to me that you need to start with an alias as soon as you are born

I was a victim of identity theft some 10 years ago. Banks were throwing credit cards around like confetti and some crim managed to take one out in my name and maxed it out. I was out of country at the time and was able to prove it. It took 6 months to get the offending bank to cancel debt collectors and admit malfeasance. So my paranoia about personal privacy is that your details can be forged and fake black marks added to your record etc. Mt IT man told me that much of this malicious hacking comes out of the PRC (state sponsored) but western govs wont recognise this publicly

Kids who do stupid things on social media will wonder in 5 years time why they didnt get an interview or promotion etc

So I am looking for practical ways of fighting back which brings me to Kodi and an uneasy feeling because its going up against some very big media guys and Kodi is developed by (largely well intentioned - I hope - enthusiasts). I wonder about Kodi security

Robin

 

[dara]

There are really no guarantees about safety with Kodi add-ons, particularly those that have encrypted their source code, but on the other hand, the Kodi "community" will call people out if they are anything close to shady. If you stick with popular stuff, you can assume that they are pretty safe. There are scammers in every part of life, on the other hand people should be able to make a living, and fail doing it as well. VPNs sales are like that as well, 'free' has a cost, and those who charge are just more open about it, but sometimes they can be way overpriced.