VPN Rookie needs some advice

[bod 0]

I'm very happy so far with AirVPN, but I have a few questions and maybe some of you guys can enlighten me.

 

I've done the standard installation and I'm using the AirVPN client. I see that there are other options to select, such as Open VPN through SSL or SSH. Mainly it seems the use of this extra layer of protection is to hide the Open VPN footprint. I have a number of questions, maybe you guys can help.

 

1) What sort of performance hit are we talking about when you add an extra layer of protection SSL or SSH?

 

2) If I have added an extra layer whether it is SSL or SSH and then use a service that also offers SSL encryption would that again effect performance.

 

3) If an ISP can see the OpenVPN footprint, what can it do? I assume the data is still encrypted and all they know is that you are using a VPN.

 

Thanks guys

[Guest]

1) I believe it's about 10% performance drop with the SSL

 

2) ???

 

3) If your ISP detect you are using OpenVPN, they can't do anything except maybe throttling the traffic speed for some reason. (assuming you are in a country where encrypting your web traffic is not illegal)

[knighthawk 19]

re: #2  If you mean you have the ssl tunnel to AirVPN and then are accessing for instance a ssl site\content via the tunnel, yes there would be another minor hit vs say accessing non-encrypted content via the tunnel, but you would have that minor hit without the vpn tunnel anyway when accessing such.

[OpenSourcerer 1409]

What sort of performance hit are we talking about when you add an extra layer of protection SSL or SSH?

 

An extra layer of data is being added to the signal. Also, due to OpenVPN and SSL being in need of constant encryption/decryption CPU usage increases on both the client and the server. On low-end devices this inevitably means slower speeds.

 

If I have added an extra layer whether it is SSL or SSH and then use a service that also offers SSL encryption would that again effect performance.

 

It depends on what kind of service you talk about. Basically, yes.

 

If an ISP can see the OpenVPN footprint, what can it do? I assume the data is still encrypted and all they know is that you are using a VPN.

If your ISP detect you are using OpenVPN, they can't do anything except maybe throttling the traffic speed for some reason.

 

The better question is: Are they allowed to see what you are doing? If yes, they will notice an encrypted connection to [Air.VPN.IP.here:Port]. Only if they try to identify what kind of service is causing it, for example via a side channel attack with pacumen, they will know it's OpenVPN.

[bod 0]

Thank you everyone for the help!!!