Can firewalls detect VPN through SSL Tunnels?

[Eloquence101 0]

Hi all, I’m currently in some kind of institution that censors/monitors internet usage and blocks some sites, namely SNS such as facebook and game sites. So I decided to find out if a paid VPN can get through the firewall.

 

I recently installed AirVPN and had some connection issues, but I managed to figure that out on my own. In the process, I found out that the institution’s firewall seems to be blocking nearly all ports except 443 and 444, and all network preferences in Eddie failed except for SSL tunneling through 443.

 

Now the real questions:

 

1. Can the network administrator find out that I’m using a VPN service, and connect that fact to my pc’s IP?

 

2. Also, can the admin see what has been sent through SSL tunnels, if they detect the usage?

 

 

note: I also recently found out that the admin seems to be oblivious of traffic sent through Chrome addon ‘Browsec’, but I cannot find what encryption method they are using. Just added that to give you a better grasp of the admin’s capabilities

[greenclaydog 6]

Hi all, I’m currently in some kind of institution that censors/monitors internet usage and blocks some sites, namely SNS such as facebook and game sites. So I decided to find out if a paid VPN can get through the firewall.

 

I recently installed AirVPN and had some connection issues, but I managed to figure that out on my own. In the process, I found out that the institution’s firewall seems to be blocking nearly all ports except 443 and 444, and all network preferences in Eddie failed except for SSL tunneling through 443.

 

Now the real questions:

 

1. Can the network administrator find out that I’m using a VPN service, and connect that fact to my pc’s IP?

 

2. Also, can the admin see what has been sent through SSL tunnels, if they detect the usage?

 

 

note: I also recently found out that the admin seems to be oblivious of traffic sent through Chrome addon ‘Browsec’, but I cannot find what encryption method they are using. Just added that to give you a better grasp of the admin’s capabilities

 

All of your traffic is still going through one ip address. If the network admin himself sat down and looked at your traffic it would be painfully obvious. They still could not see any of the data, but it would be plain as day that you are hiding it from him, in which case he would likely block the VPN's ip or kick you off the network completely. Since all traffic contains a origin and a destination, yes they would know which computer on the local network was doing it. 

[Eloquence101 0]

All of your traffic is still going through one ip address. If the network admin himself sat down and looked at your traffic it would be painfully obvious. They still could not see any of the data, but it would be plain as day that you are hiding it from him, in which case he would likely block the VPN's ip or kick you off the network completely. Since all traffic contains a origin and a destination, yes they would know which computer on the local network was doing it. 

 

Thanks for the reply, that seems reasonable when I think about it. As long as they can’t see what I’m doing exactly, I think I’ll be fine. But are there any methods in firewalls to automatically detect vpn use, or any tactics that I can use to circumvent them? Would changing servers every 30 minutes or so help?

[greenclaydog 6]

 

All of your traffic is still going through one ip address. If the network admin himself sat down and looked at your traffic it would be painfully obvious. They still could not see any of the data, but it would be plain as day that you are hiding it from him, in which case he would likely block the VPN's ip or kick you off the network completely. Since all traffic contains a origin and a destination, yes they would know which computer on the local network was doing it. 

 

Thanks for the reply, that seems reasonable when I think about it. As long as they can’t see what I’m doing exactly, I think I’ll be fine. But are there any methods in firewalls to automatically detect vpn use, or any tactics that I can use to circumvent them? Would changing servers every 30 minutes or so help?

 

 

SSL/SSH tunnel in the protocols tab should make your VPN use undetectable to the network but not to a human network administrator.

 

The network will only see standard SSL or SSH traffic so it would have no way to know its a VPN and therefore not block it 

 

If a network administrator were monitoring your connection, they would see that its SSL or SSH traffic but it would be very obvious to them that you are using a VPN because your computer is only connecting to one IP address 

[lahey 0]

so, may be there is a opportunity to divide traffic? for exapmle browser will go through vpn, and othe application not?

[flat4 79]

so, may be there is a opportunity to divide traffic? for exapmle browser will go through vpn, and othe application not?

 

you can but its going to take more than a few clicks here and there to accomplish this.