Reasons for setting up a proxy as opposed to subscribing to a VPN service

[Rubberband 0]

Hi guys, I'm not a user of AirVPN but I'm just weighing my options here. My country managed to pull of some pretty sophisticated censorship to the point where connecting to tor bridges was not always possible, so censorship circumvention (with reasonable speed) is my priority (though, the restrictions seem to have been eased. Still, I'm afraid of the fact that they have the ability to pull something like this off). I've searched for "VPN vs proxy" online but nothing of substance turns up. So here are some practical considerations I've compiled for myself:
(By proxy I mean using software such us v2ray, xray, shadowsocks etc by renting a VPS)
Proxy Cons:

• Reachability: This might sound dumb, but more than internet censorship the biggest problem I've faced is not being able to load overengineered 'modern' websites due to a slow internet connection, and most VPS providers tend to have these websites, which poses a problem.
• Deployabilty: If saving money is the goal you can only have one VPS configured at a time, and if for some reason you can't connect to it, you'll have to set up everything from scratch on another machine (of course something like ANSIBLE could solve this, but I don't really want to learn ansible right now)
• No P2P: This shouldn't be too much of a problem for me (I'll expand on this in a bit).

Proxy Pros:

• Better censorship circumvention (?): I'm not sure how true this is, just a guess, but VPS servers are less likely to be blocked + it's easier to defend a VPS subscription on your credit card statement.

VPN Pros:

• Saves time because there's not much to configure
• P2P: In my country P2P is one of the things that isn't blocked, ironically. Even if I did have a VPN I probably wouldn't use it for P2P.
• Airvpn's website at least should be reachable on a slow internet connection, if I need to reach it at all.

VPN cons:

• Government actively throttling or outright blocking VPN connections: I suppose airvpn has some tricks up its sleeve in this regard? Of course it's not bulletproof but it should work I guess. However I did say that I'd like some speed as well, and it seems that my ISP has gotten really good at throttling VPNs. How good is airvpn at hiding the fact that it's making an openvpn connection? Are VPN over TLS / SSH good enough?

Please tell me if I missed anything/ made a mistake, and give me some advice if that is allowed.
 

[OpenSourcerer 1432]

I was interested in what kind of answer a Large Language Model would pull, and Kagi's Claude 3 Haiku answers "Proxy or VPN?" as follows (sourced from NordVPN and Medium; you can feel the bias ) :

Quote

Based on the information provided, the key differences between a proxy and a VPN are:

1. Scope of traffic routing: A proxy only routes the traffic of a specific application or browser, while a VPN routes all internet traffic from the user's device through the VPN tunnel. ¹²

2. Encryption: VPNs provide end-to-end encryption of the user's internet traffic, while proxies generally do not encrypt the traffic. ¹³

3. Security and privacy: VPNs offer stronger security and privacy features compared to proxies, as they protect the user's entire internet connection and hide their real IP address. ⁴³

4. Compatibility: Proxies typically work with a single application, while VPNs can secure all internet traffic on a user's device, making them a more comprehensive solution. ¹²

In summary, a VPN is a more robust and secure solution than a proxy, as it encrypts all internet traffic and protects the user's online activities and privacy more effectively. ¹⁴

"Shadowsocks or VPN?" is sourced from VPNMentor, Reddit and SurfShark; feels more neutral:

Quote

Based on the information provided, the key differences between Shadowsocks and VPNs are:

1. Purpose: Shadowsocks is primarily designed for circumventing internet censorship and bypassing content restrictions, while VPNs are focused on providing privacy, anonymity, and security for online activities. ¹²

2. Encryption: VPNs use more robust, military-grade encryption protocols to completely hide the user's traffic, while Shadowsocks has a more lightweight encryption approach. ¹

3. Functionality: VPNs can tunnel all network traffic, including ping traffic, while Shadowsocks is a proxy that cannot tunnel all types of network traffic. ²

4. Anonymity: VPNs offer higher levels of anonymity and privacy compared to Shadowsocks, which is more focused on bypassing content restrictions. ³

5. Latency: Shadowsocks generally has lower latency compared to some VPN protocols, allowing for higher internet speeds. ³

In summary, Shadowsocks is a more lightweight and faster solution for bypassing censorship, while VPNs provide a more comprehensive solution for online privacy, security, and anonymity. The choice between the two depends on the user's specific needs and priorities. ⁴⁵

So it depends on your use case. I do prefer VPNs since all traffic is routed which is also encrypted between you and the server.
 

2 hours ago, Rubberband said:

Saves time because there's not much to configure

I disagree with this. Bottlenecks are quickly and sorely felt with a VPN. Optimization takes some tremendous time and knowledge in some cases – you are routing all your traffic somewhere else. You cannot optimize much using a proxy, just enter it into your program and it's used. So proxies are the ones really saving time here.

One important point to make against proxies: There are different types. Unless it's a transparent proxy, they usually make it clear to the destination that they are a proxy forwarding traffic for someone else. Based on this the destination can simply shut out the incoming connection. VPNs are always "transparent" (in that it's never clear the connection comes from a VPN server).

Oh, and VPNs usually need privileges on your computer to work (they're altering the system's networking settings) while proxies don't.

[reversevpn 4]

Here's what you can do to take advantage of AirVPN's protections(no logging) and reachability while using ShadowSocks, or for that matter, any proxy software that AirVPN does not natively support:
1. Sign up for a 3-year AirVPN plan during Halloween, when you'll get a massive discount
2. Download a Wireguard config using AirVPN's configuration generator
3. Log in to your VPS and set up a Wireguard connection using the config you just downloaded; take extra steps to make sure you don't lock yourself out, such as putting the wireguard connection in a separate network namespace, either using systemd-nspawn or any containerization technology of your choice
4. Set up whatever proxy software you want(I personally recommend and use shadowsocks-rust)
5. Port-forward from your AirVPN account to whatever proxy you just set up
This way, you combine the reachability of AirVPN with the versatility of any proxy software of your choice. FYI, shadowsocks-rust can be configure to use chacha20-ietf-poly1305, the same cipher used in Wireguard, but now obscured by Shadowsocks.