what is your opinion about Getlantern

[jonnymoon96 4]

their marketing mantra is better than a VPN

 

https://getlantern.org/index.html

[LZ1 672]

Hello!

 

My opinion is:

 

1. It's not a VPN. So it can't even be in the forum "Other VPN competitors or features" really and is not a competitor for Air, as it's an anti-blocking tool, not a VPN. So this is what I'll judge it on.
2. It's developed by Brave New Software, which is based in the US. That's strike 1 against it. It's also by the US government. Strike 2.
3. As stated on the above news link: "“Lantern is a tool to provide access – it is not designed to prevent monitoring,” - said one of the developers. Strike 3.
4. The lack of information, such as *what* encryption, how it's implemented and the level of it, is bad. Security is not its focus. Things like "speed" are.
5. Even the motto "Better than a VPN" is just misleading. Better at what? It may also serve to trick non-techy users into thinking VPNs are just for getting past blocks and nothing else.

But never mind the list. If we're skeptical, any US-government sponsoring should probably immediately add 10 strikes haha. It reminds me of Radio Free Asia - also sponsored by the US government. Maybe it's just me, but perhaps if the US government invested the same amount of resources into their own problems, they might in fact have some moral high ground; instead of just a foxhole. Note that many (if not most?) VPN reviewers these days count it as a con if a service is based in the US - thus I do too here.

[zhang888 1066]

Freemium. The 'MIUM' Is Latin for 'Not Really'.

[Khariz 109]

At least their code is on github:  https://github.com/getlantern/lantern

 

Encryption:  

 

Lantern uses the following cipher suite for all connections between peers: TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA. That is, we use elliptical curve because of its shorter key lengths along with ephemeral Diffie-Hellman key exchange to preserve forward secrecy. We then use AES 256 in CBC block cipher mode instead of stream ciphers such as RC4 due to the greater number of known attacks on RC4.

 

 

But it ONLY encrypts things that are blocked.  You use your standard connection to connect to unlocked things.

[Ricnvolved1956 51]

A huge "I AGREE!!" With LZ1 about avoiding VPN and email services based in the U.S. Now that I know better, I will never, ever, ever again use any VPN/encryption or email service here in the U.S. Of Bloody A. In fact, I will go so far as to say that I would PAY to use a Russian based VPN or email service before I would use an Amerikan service for free for a lifetime.

 

And damn right about the U.S government clowns getting their house in order on the moral high ground thingy instead of trying to beat everyone down with Soviet-style radio/television propaganda.