Poor Man's VPN
Security and privacy
vpn
SHOW HN2014
85points
68comments
#341of 2,272 in 2014
Top 16%of 2014 by points
How HN took it
CuriousMostly questions and neutral comments
6 positive, 15 neutral or asking, 0 mixed, 8 critical, out of 29 comments about the project. Thread score -0.10.
Idea: 3 for, 2 againstPrivacy: 1 for, 3 againstPricing: 0 for, 2 againstPerformance: 0 for, 1 againstExecution: 1 for, 0 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Simple and effective; SSH SOCKS proxy works well
From 2 comments
I've been using this method to Internet from China with better success than paid VPN solutions. So simple, and I can debug myself! Hint: if things are mysteriously hanging, add…
derwiki on HNOr just ssh -D localport -fN user@vps Then for chrome/chromium: chromium --proxy-server="socks5:localhost:localport" If you need multiple instances running different proxy…
yogo on HN
Objections
Cheaper or commercial VPNs exist
From 2 comments
For $20 LESS per year than this "poor man's VPN", I can get an actual VPN that I don't have to maintain, has multiple world-wide POP's, and doesn't log customer usage:…
colinbartlett on HNThis should be called a lazy man's VPN, not poor. You can run a VPN on the same $5/m VPS.
driverdan on HN
Not anonymous; VPS owner can be traced
From 2 comments
This sort of VPN is useful for getting around filtering and blockades but is not good for deniability. Tor and or a commercial VPN that doesn't keep logs is for being more…
sitkack on HNWell, the commercial VPN may or may not log traffic, so let's say it's 50/50. Your VPS, on the other hand, is your VPS. If the police comes to your server, the company has no…
probably_wrong on HN
TCP-over-TCP performance problems with SSH tunnels
From 2 comments
>Am I crazy for using PPP over SSH for this? Yes. You'll get all kinds of performance weirdness running TCP-over-TCP[1] [1] http://sites.inka.de/~W1011/devel/tcp-tcp.html
plantain on HNOpenVPN is nice too and will work on the same cheap VPS. They have a command line version, and a paid product, Connect, which has a web UI for configuration. It's free for a low…
Karunamon on HN
Questions
Does SSH SOCKS proxy handle Flash or UDP traffic?
From 2 comments
Does that actually proxy the connections opened by flash these days?
Dylan16807 on HNIt does not. For that, you need to change your routing table so that anything destined for 0.0.0.0 goes through the tunnel. This is basically what sshuttle does. One downside is…
meowface on HN
Alternatives named
ssh -D SOCKS proxy
From 1 comment
Or just ssh -D localport -fN user@vps Then for chrome/chromium: chromium --proxy-server="socks5:localhost:localport" If you need multiple instances running different proxy…
yogo on HN
sshuttle
From 2 comments
Or just ssh -D localport -fN user@vps Then for chrome/chromium: chromium --proxy-server="socks5:localhost:localport" If you need multiple instances running different proxy…
yogo on HNIt does not. For that, you need to change your routing table so that anything destined for 0.0.0.0 goes through the tunnel. This is basically what sshuttle does. One downside is…
meowface on HN
OpenVPN
From 2 comments
OpenVPN is nice too and will work on the same cheap VPS. They have a command line version, and a paid product, Connect, which has a web UI for configuration. It's free for a low…
Karunamon on HNWe built an incredibly easy single click OpenVPN setup tool for DigitalOcean and Rackspace during Sochi: http://www.tinfoilsecurity.com/vpn Enter API key creds, it makes the box…
borski on HN
tinc
From 1 comment
Always wonder how come tinc is not as popular as other VPN solutions. Peer to peer network routing via tun/tap interfaces, all traffic encrypted, each host has a public/private…
kh_hk on HN
SoftEther
From 1 comment
SoftEther is really simple to configure and works very well using normal VPN clients, which is easier for non-tech friends/colleagues to access vs SSH.
robk on HN
Commercial VPNs such as PrivateInternetAccess and IVPN
From 2 comments
For $20 LESS per year than this "poor man's VPN", I can get an actual VPN that I don't have to maintain, has multiple world-wide POP's, and doesn't log customer usage:…
colinbartlett on HNAfter some research, I ended up going with IVPN (https://www.ivpn.net/). It's pretty affordable too.
MikeCapone on HN