How to protect myself.

[Amanda 0]

Hi I am a complete novice when it comes to this stuff and I do not understand any of the terminology. I keep getting hit offline and threatened to get doxed so I thought I would go this route to try and protect myself.

 

I downloaded everything. 

My first question is what is the best server to connect to? I picked one with 7 %. But I do not know. Will picking the correct server result in less lag? I stream online so I cant have too much lag. 

Also I noticed another tab that said ports or something. What is the difference in selecting that as opposed to a server?

 

Please help! Thanks!

[Amanda 0]

I just posted a topic about help for hackers and not getting doxed. I have a belkin router and a seperate modem as well as an xbox and other gaming systems, will all these be protected through this vpn program?

[amnesty 18]

Hi Amanda, welcome.

You would select both server and port with the AirVPN Client. If you do not select a port, it defaults to UDP 443 (I think). It would be a good idea to try the various ports. They recommend UDP 443 and UDP 53. Apparently these generally provide good speeds.

However, it depends (partially) on your Internet Service Provider. I spent about a day trying these ports and found UDP 53 would not even connect and many of the other ports were slower than TCP 80. But I get the best speed using UDP 2018 (which is not available with the AirVPN Client application). My speeds aren't nearly as good as others. Other users seem to get speeds a bit closer to their non VPN tunnel speeds than I do.

 

Some people will use a site (such as this) to test their speed without and with the VPN tunnel:

http://www.speedtest.net/

 

This is a page provided by AirVPN that is in development but test speeds both in and out of the tunnel:

https://airvpn.org/speedtest_ex/

 

I usually do not place too much value in these but they can provide a baseline if you (record the results and) test in the future.

Choosing a server with a low % works pretty well. The algorithms they use to determine these %'s take a few things into consideration, not just the usage (which you can check out on the Status page).

A factor (in addition to the port) would be distance. the servers I use are about 6300 Kilometers (4000 Miles) away. If I were to open/run cmd (in Windows) and ping a server (~ 4000 mls away) I connect to I get this result without a VPN tunnel:

ping tauri.airvpn.org

Pinging tauri.airvpn.org [46.165.208.65] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 46.165.208.65: bytes=32 time=123ms TTL=54
Reply from 46.165.208.65: bytes=32 time=113ms TTL=54
Reply from 46.165.208.65: bytes=32 time=117ms TTL=54
Reply from 46.165.208.65: bytes=32 time=114ms TTL=54

Ping statistics for 46.165.208.65:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 113ms, Maximum = 123ms, Average = 116ms


If I ping a server closer to me without the VPN tunnel, this is the result I get:

ping sirius.airvpn.org

Pinging sirius.airvpn.org [108.59.8.147] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 108.59.8.147: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=54
Reply from 108.59.8.147: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=54
Reply from 108.59.8.147: bytes=32 time=17ms TTL=54
Reply from 108.59.8.147: bytes=32 time=13ms TTL=54

Ping statistics for 108.59.8.147:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 13ms, Maximum = 17ms, Average = 14ms

The average difference (in milli-seconds) is about 100. This isn't a problem for me to stream. Sometimes the difference is 200-300 ms, which may still usually do-able.

Then you might also want to consider the distance from the VPN server to the web/streaming server. i.e. If someone was to be in California, connect to Amsterdam and then access a site in the U.S. the packets would be traveling a fairly good distance. But AirVPN's requirements for their servers (data centers) are very good.
I like their requirements as well as providing us the ability to change servers and/or select servers with more resources available. So the loss of speed (performance aka. latency) is less than other VPN providers.
 
There are other issues as well. The speed of your machine, router and local network. For optimal performance, some people use a machine as their router and not an appliance (i.e. Linksys, Netgear, Belkin). If you use wireless and your signal is weak, your local network speed is reduced. This is the nature of wireless, the better the signal the closer to max speed you will achieve.

I never heard the term 'doxed', that's pretty cool. I learn something new everyday (as long as I remain open-minded) :-) If you are really conerned about keeping people from gaining information about you, you'd also want to be careful with your browsing habits.

 

If you access a site without the VPN and with the VPN, you are sort of defeating the purpose (with respect to anonymity).

What type of trail you leave behind could also have a bearing (if you are extremely concerned about privacy).

Some examples could include the-
e-mail address you use
payment method you use

and how tracable they are back to you. I'm not too adept with that stuff. Perhaps others could elaborate more on that.

I suppose another issue could be what we'd install on our machines. Third-party apps and plug-ins could reveal things or make our machines more vulnerable.

I.E. Just about every month I see security issues with plug-ins like Java and Flash in a browser.
I've seen end-users install an app which a streaming site said was necessary to view their streams. This could be the case but I stay away from installing them unless it is a reputable site.

* Again, I am not to familiar with the privacy aspects in great detail.

 

Running the AirVPN client on a machine will not protect any other device. Some people install an open source firmware onto their routers and configure their VPN tunnel from it. Any devices behind these routers will use the VPN tunnel when accessing the Internet, so that communication would be encrypted (protected).

I just use it on one device at a time and may purchase a 2nd account.

 

These are a bit more technical:

 

My main concern to keep from being doxed would be if my VPN connection drops (disconnects) and I do not realize it (not at the machine). Some people call these (application) leaks and some people use firewall rules or manipulate IP Addresses / routing tables to prevent (application) leaks / Internet activity from their device (or network) when the VPN tunnel disconnects. Secondly, I am concerned with DNS leaks, which is usually an issue when using Windows (or applications like Tor).

Those solutions are a bit technical but are a available in this Forum for Linux, OS X and Windows. I'm not sure if there are any for (tablets, mobile phones, ereaders, etc).

Some (rather technical) posts for Windows regarding leaks are here:

Prevent both (application and DNS) leaks:
https://airvpn.org/topic/3405-windows-comodo-prevent-leaks/
https://airvpn.org/topic/9787-the-pros-and-the-cons/?p=11501


Prevent (application) leaks:
https://airvpn.org/topic/9797-blocking-non-vpn-traffic-without-firewall-using-routing-router/?hl=leaks

[Rileyk20 0]

I would suggest that you pick the location closest to you and the ports tab is to pick which port that you want to connect to the VPN server with. 

 

I would recommend that you use a VPN on things such as skype and other applications that give away your IP address.

[Flex 0]

 

I would suggest that you pick the location closest to you and the ports tab is to pick which port that you want to connect to the VPN server with. 

 

I would recommend that you use a VPN on things such as skype and other applications that give away your IP address.

I would like to add that when connecting to a server pick one that is not in your country/jurisdiction where you reside. And if you do choose to pick one in your own territory use OpenVPN over SSH or OpenVPN over SSL.