New to VPNs - tips accepted

[supersuspiciouscow 0]

Hello AirVPN

As stated in the title, I'm fairly new to this way of 'interneting' but hopefully this works out in the long run. My reason for joining AirVPN is due to my father working for my isp and I fear he may be spying on my downloads and internet browsing. I found this vpn via Reddit in search of ways to keep prying eyes out of my internet life. I guess I have just a few questions about just how private vpns are when it comes to things like that.

-Am I really invisible from my isp?

-What are the dangers of using VPNs?

-Can an ISP bypass a VPN to access someone's searches?

-How much can isp employees/supervisors see when looking at a client's internet usage?

(If this isn't supposed to be on this forum please let me know T_T)

Thank you in advance

SSC

[go558a83nk 362]

no, you're not invisible to your ISP.  They just can't decode the encrypted connection between you and the VPN server.

 

only danger I can think of are governments that deem them illegal

 

no, your connection is encrypted.  just make sure your DNS isn't leaking or they might have some idea what you are doing because they'd know the urls you've resolved.  if you're using Eddie you're probably not leaking, especially if you use the network lock

 

is your last question a repeat or do you mean regular usage not on a VPN?

[eyes878 43]

Anybody inspecting your traffic may be able to find out you are using a VPN and what VPN you are connecting to, but they will not be able to know what you are doing.

 

As long as you make sure you are definitely connecting (not forgetting/not realising a disconnection etc) then your activities will be appropriately secure.

 

An ISP cannot simply "bypass" a VPN as there is heavy encryption in place.

 

If you have any more questions or situations, please ask.

[supersuspiciouscow 0]

no, you're not invisible to your ISP.  They just can't decode the encrypted connection between you and the VPN server.

 

only danger I can think of are governments that deem them illegal

 

no, your connection is encrypted.  just make sure your DNS isn't leaking or they might have some idea what you are doing because they'd know the urls you've resolved.  if you're using Eddie you're probably not leaking, especially if you use the network lock

 

is your last question a repeat or do you mean regular usage not on a VPN?

I think you answered it pretty well. I was just worried about what all can be seen.

I guess it would be best to explain more fully. My father works for comcast (supervisor) and I suspect that he has been informing my mother of all the things that I look up. Whether it be simple things like checking my email or bank account to more private things like the things I watch and personal conversations on the internet with people in forums. I don't want him to have even the NOTION that he knows what I'm doing. I am an adult. I shouldn't be monitored by them at this point in my life.

 

Does AirVPN have built-in DNS leak protection or do I need to research a program for that?

[supersuspiciouscow 0]

Anybody inspecting your traffic may be able to find out you are using a VPN and what VPN you are connecting to, but they will not be able to know what you are doing.

 

As long as you make sure you are definitely connecting (not forgetting/not realising a disconnection etc) then your activities will be appropriately secure.

 

An ISP cannot simply "bypass" a VPN as there is heavy encryption in place.

 

If you have any more questions or situations, please ask.

Thank you!

[go558a83nk 362]

 

no, you're not invisible to your ISP.  They just can't decode the encrypted connection between you and the VPN server.

 

only danger I can think of are governments that deem them illegal

 

no, your connection is encrypted.  just make sure your DNS isn't leaking or they might have some idea what you are doing because they'd know the urls you've resolved.  if you're using Eddie you're probably not leaking, especially if you use the network lock

 

is your last question a repeat or do you mean regular usage not on a VPN?

I think you answered it pretty well. I was just worried about what all can be seen.

I guess it would be best to explain more fully. My father works for comcast (supervisor) and I suspect that he has been informing my mother of all the things that I look up. Whether it be simple things like checking my email or bank account to more private things like the things I watch and personal conversations on the internet with people in forums. I don't want him to have even the NOTION that he knows what I'm doing. I am an adult. I shouldn't be monitored by them at this point in my life.

 

Does AirVPN have built-in DNS leak protection or do I need to research a program for that?

 

go to ipleak.net to check if DNS is leaking.

[cm0s 118]

good to meet ya

 

every network is diff

 

just keep googling and try to mod for your threat model

[OpenSourcerer 1435]

-How much can isp employees/supervisors see when looking at a client's internet usage?

 

The only ones who know the answer to this are employees at ISPs. In Europe, being able to look at a client's internet usage is illegal.

[OmniNegro 155]

If you are using the Eddie client for AirVPN, then unless you set it not to, it will use AirVPN's own DNS servers and the odds of there being a leak are greatly decreased. But as go558a83nk said, you should still check for yourself. ipleak.net is your friend.

[S.O.A. 83]

 

-How much can isp employees/supervisors see when looking at a client's internet usage?

 

The only ones who know the answer to this are employees at ISPs. In Europe, being able to look at a client's internet usage is illegal.

 

You're right giganerd it's "illegal" (NSA and BND)     

[zhang888 1066]

Depending on which employee, but the amount of data an average ISP employee has access to is very limited and hard

to pin-point. Unless you are in the actual networking/abuse department or the law enforcement assistance department

(in larger ISPs). But no one with a clear mind will risk his job and a potential civil/criminal offense in order to "spy" on

your relatives, this doesn't make any sense.

 

The amounts of data pushed thru an ISP is huge, and any post-event analysis is very hard, since all those terabits per

second has to be stored somewhere and analyzed. An evil employee can push specific routes and assign fixed IPs and

DNS servers in order to attach them to a Netflow device at a later point, but this will again make it too much of a conspiracy.

[OpenSourcerer 1435]

 

 

-How much can isp employees/supervisors see when looking at a client's internet usage?

The only ones who know the answer to this are employees at ISPs. In Europe, being able to look at a client's internet usage is illegal.

You're right giganerd it's "illegal" (NSA and BND)

Well, it is. They just couldn't care less about laws.

 

(Sent via Tapatalk - this generally means I'm not sitting in front of my PC)

[supersuspiciouscow 0]

Depending on which employee, but the amount of data an average ISP employee has access to is very limited and hard

to pin-point. Unless you are in the actual networking/abuse department or the law enforcement assistance department

(in larger ISPs). But no one with a clear mind will risk his job and a potential civil/criminal offense in order to "spy" on

your relatives, this doesn't make any sense.

 

The amounts of data pushed thru an ISP is huge, and any post-event analysis is very hard, since all those terabits per

second has to be stored somewhere and analyzed. An evil employee can push specific routes and assign fixed IPs and

DNS servers in order to attach them to a Netflow device at a later point, but this will again make it too much of a conspiracy.

Well, that's alleviated then.

[supersuspiciouscow 0]

i feel yer pain brahh, more than you know

hang in there

 

cm0s

I appreciate this ^

[cm0s 118]

it ain't nuthin for an employee or contractor at an isp to pull xyz up on their screen

especially if they already know what to look for and under what contact info

 

what i'd do is grab toss away hardware, build some linux boxes off your lan, never associate that hardware to your local

same with any phones, keep what ya got but grab toss away and just send txt with whatever passes and keys

keep your current hardware and keep the use about the same so nothing looks out of the ordinary

snag some alfa cards and borrow the farthest local you can (with permission of course)

do not log into any accounts from your toss away full disk encrypted blah blah box

set up an email account maybe countermail and use calyx institute's xmpp server for chit chat

via ssl/openvpn/tor, forgot to mention, i wouldn't use the same vpn account on the toss away hardware