Jump to content
Not connected, Your IP: 44.211.91.23

Ricnvolved1956

Members2
  • Content Count

    147
  • Joined

    ...
  • Last visited

    ...

Reputation Activity

  1. Like
    Ricnvolved1956 reacted to LZ1 in Poor PIA   ...
    Well as it happens, there's so many loopholes. They don't, for instance, have to *collect* it themselves, if they merely let one of their "intelligence partners" - another country - do the hard work. Then they simply swap datasets and call it "cooperation". It's a nifty way of side-stepping the law. There's many others. Often "oversight", not so much law, is what is mentioned as the counter-balance to all this collection. However as has been proven, oversight is often lacking and even if and when it's not, it won't mean things won't go wrong. Edward Snowden for instance, tried to tell his superiors about how wrong all the collection of data really was and he was silenced in a variety of ways. So while I get what you mean about there being differences, I think those differences are only skin-deep.
  2. Like
    Ricnvolved1956 reacted to LZ1 in Poor PIA   ...
    Well one could be a bit cocky and cynical and perhaps say that "reason" isn't even a theme here, since if it was, there wouldn't be such laws to begin with. But you know, I imagine it's much like with when the NSA says they won't collect information on their own citizens. However if during the dragnet surveillance a couple of their own citizens do get their data swept up, that's an unfortunate accident.
  3. Like
    Ricnvolved1956 reacted to Blade Runner in VPN Comparison chart - real competitive analysis effort   ...
    I wouldn't make an important decision like choosing a VPN based on an online spreadsheet. People are either lazy or indifferent when they do not read ToS.  
  4. Like
    Ricnvolved1956 reacted to mmmxx in VPN Comparison chart - real competitive analysis effort   ...
    now this for sure is the truth.
     
    I once googled for hours to find impartial VPN reviews with no luck whatsoever. This goes to show how abysmaly poor a capitalist market really performs - contrary to what MSM economist claim again and again.
  5. Like
    Ricnvolved1956 reacted to LZ1 in Ivacy VPN   ...
    Hello!
     
    Another run-of-the-mill "VPN", which can't be compared to AirVPN at all haha . I like how they have servers in Russia, China, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Indonesia, Colombia... Heck, they even managed Nigeria!(There goes that plan) . I think they're pretty much everything AirVPN isn't. Just another "Netflix VPN", judging by how they market themselves on their site. They have "all the protocols!" and "all the server locations!" so to speak and while they claim they don't log, they employ Google Analytics on their site. Not to mention they say they have "256-bit encryption" --- Which encryption? (They later mention it's AES). I also thought that this was funny: 

    Is P2P file sharing allowed on our servers?
    All our servers are P2P optimized except for the servers in UK, Canada, Mexico, India, Switzerland, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, France, Brazil, Egypt, Hong Kong, Italy, South Africa, Indonesia, Taiwan, South Korea, China, Czech, Finland, Jordan and Kuwait.
    Isn't that virtually all the servers? Haha. This also contradicts what it says on their main page, wherein the UK and Canada are listed as being two of the P2P optimized locations.
     
    They also don't offer free trials, which is curious. But a 7 day money back scheme, which as Lifehacker points out: "At $1.83 a month (when you purchase a yearly subscription) it's not a hard sell for anyone who might be strapped for cash. Just be careful about their 7-day money-back guarantee, which is only valid if less than 500mb in data transfers have been made." Maybe isn't the best.
     
    They refer to sites like Lifehacker having "mentioned" them, but give no links. I searched it and found that Lifehacker said a few things including:
    "It does have a slightly dodgy history of essentially bribing bloggers and reviewers with free subscriptions, however, so some of the more glowingly positive reviews and comments should be taken with a very large grain of salt." The only place they were "mentioned" on TechCrunch seems to be for a short commentary about using a VPN while gaming. Totally unrelated to their service. As for their "TechInAsia" review, it's actually authored by their marketing manager it seems. It's also funny to consider that the name of their marketing manager changed, between the Techcrunch article in June 2016 and the TechinAsia article or post in August 2016 - unless they have multiple marketing managers for some reason. Then there's the Geektime review, which reads like a paid-for review, as it lists Ivacy as the number 1 VPN for 2016. They also included PureVPN and other suchs legends in the top 5 .
     
    Another thing I found really funny was when they answered the question
    What Level of Encryption Does Ivacy VPN Provide?
    Our network supports all encryption levels ranging from No Encryption to the highest SSL or AES 256 bit encryption. If you are using our Windows software, you can change encryption settings from the Settings tab. Mac users can adjust settings under System Preference –> Network –> Ivacy.
    For other devices, our server will go with the default settings which are usually encryption enabled.

    How can you list support for "No Encryption" as an encryption level hahahaha .
     
    Then there's some of the legal stuff:

    Ivacy does not limit bandwidth or data usage per user; however the use of service is subjected to fair usage. Creating automated or manual VPN sessions in a manner that would impersonate a bot or exerting excessive load on the network that may disturb other users on the network, or utilizing substantially excessive bandwidth that exceeds the average user bandwidth usage for an extended duration etc., all will be considered as unfair usage of the network. Ivacy reserves the right to temporary suspend or permanently terminate users found involved in unfair usage of its services.No bandwidth limitations, except if you use too much they'll ban you. Okay then.
     
    Oh, this is good:

    Anti-Fraud Policy
    Ivacy hereby notifies that, no accounts will be offered to clients residing in African nations except South Africa. Ivacy had to take this step because of increasing complaints regarding fraudulent activities originating from Nigeria. However, Ivacy reserves its right to allow any one as an exception to get an account, on receipt of government issued IDs or  landline phone. Anyone who tries to bypass the conditions therein, will immediately get his account terminated. All fraudulent activities may be reported to the respective police and related law enforcement authorities.
    Who knew there might be claims of fraudulent activities originating from Nigeria? Hahaha. So if you're an African user, no account for you. But if you give them your real ID, they can make an exception. Wow. Maybe one could be cheeky and ask... But if there's "no logging" and all that as you claim, how would you know where they reside? 
    On their main page, they also list their customers by their full name, which seems like a really odd thing for a VPN to do. All the customer reviews read like wholesale advertisements as well, unsurprisingly.
     
    Of the good things:
    They support pretty much all platforms. At least in a barebones sort of way it seems. Their website is pretty nice and makes things look appealing. Especially to the novice user I imagine. They do indeed support many locations and protocols. Although I doubt the locations are real nor effective. While the protocols aren't that groundbreaking. They have some nice how-to guides with pictures. Although perhaps this also is for substituting an active community and support system. They do have some nice blogs, wherein they touch on many facets of privacy. So from an educational standpoint, that's good. Ed Snowden is mentioned for example. They seem to support various payment methods, including maybe bitcoin. But there's no refunds this way. Of the bad:
    They're inconsistent with information. Some places they have 100+ servers, other places it's listed as 250+. But *real* info on their systems and infrastructure is scarce. They oversell, lie and actively distort reality, when they do things like listing review sites, simply because their name was mentioned on them. Their location policy and policies in general are abysmal to the say the least and as we know, PPTP and similar protocols aren't the most secure. They're all over the place in terms of their product and thus seem to lack focus. It would seem they're better suited to running a news site than a VPN. Their policies are unclear. They support P2P, but apparently don't care about DMCA's, yet dislike copyright infringement? I'm not sure honestly. Bottom line: Another horrible so-called "VPN" that probably introduces more insecurity than if you just avoided it altogether. Despite the good points, the bad points simply weigh much heavier.
     
    But of course, it's easy to be a nay-sayer, so maybe I'm just biased and being overly negative .
     
    EDIT: I found more reviews on Trustpilot and oddly enough, 99% of the reviews have this in common: reviewers profile is in the US, they've only ever reviewed Ivacy, they give 5 stars and think Ivacy is the most amazing thing ever. So, fake accounts I guess? Some of them even claimed they were from Canada, yet their account was showing US. While the remaining 1% of reviews were either 1 star or 4.5. Ones like Pete from the UK. All the 1 star reviews share the fact that the VPN is terrible and the refund policy is pretty much unworkable.
  6. Like
    Ricnvolved1956 reacted to serenacat in What countries do you want to see added in 2017?   ...
    @AgentSmith
    Running a few traceroutes from Antares Singapore and from my ISP it appears traffic to Hawaii goes via California - a bit like a high speed motorway has restricted access and a big expensive interchange far away even if it passes your backyard.
    Actually latency does not bother me that much if I am just web browsing, news video watching at 720p etc - using ImageBlock, uBlockOrigin and NoScript addons in Firefox makes the biggest difference to page load times and just disable selectively. Any bittorrent I usually do with my off-peak data quota while I sleep, and often use Netherlands VPN servers for peering efficiency "good netizen" reasons. But most of the crap in 2016 from the studios is not worth watching even if you get it for free - cuts down piracy if they just sell junk for childminds.
    @zhang888
    Internet connectivity has now a long and ugly history in party political warfare. There are some similarities to the story of healthcare in the USA.
    A "free market" bias toward oligopy and cherry-picking for restricted expensive services with many excluded. A "leftist" push for national infrastructure for economic benefits, social equity, ethical sort of reasons. A "rightist" campaign by vested interests denouncing such "socialist" activity. A change of government to the "rightists" and an ideological fanaticism to destroy any legacy of the "leftists", and benefits for the sponsors.
    So a highly political situation, with little constraint from logic or common sense or advice of economists.
    See https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=2593300
    "Federal Coalition "NBN"/MTM policy - Part 92" for more than you want to know.
     
    But it is really mainly about moving electrons for work or entertainment, whereas the healthcare politics in the USA are about how many hundreds of thousands of Americans will be tortured and murdered by denial of access to healthcare when they must eventually become sick or old.
    "I don't know how such a big and economic country doesn't go to the streets because of that." - indeed.
  7. Like
    Ricnvolved1956 reacted to Veep Peep in My review on FN, we should all help AirVPN get noticed   ...
    FYI - I never heard of AV via any internet advertising.  I heard about it from the head of our security group.
     
    The main basis of his determination was not so much security but trust.  How do you know your information on the proxies are safe?  He thought chat from this group was a good indicator.
    For me, distribution of servers, cost, reliability.  I also got a trial.
    After further use - European laws are more privacy focused than NA.  
    Forums here offer a lot of help.
     
    Originally I was going to go with HideMyAss or one of those advertised ones basically because of the advertising I saw.
     
    While I understand advertising works, word of mouth is pretty solid too.
     
    Personally, the price is reasonable enough that I might get a subscription for my father, but he is less technical than me.  If something goes wrong, he is lost and lives far away from me.
     
    My fear is soon everyone will be on a VPN, and there will be many providers (like government, corporate partnered ones) but you just won't be able to trust the servers (and people who support them) they go through.....
     
    Thanks,
     
    Mr. V
  8. Like
    Ricnvolved1956 reacted to greenclaydog in South Carolina = insane asylum   ...
    And everyone always shouts "But i have a VPN!"
     
    Sorry folks, one day politicians are going to catch on and block those too and everything that comes after it.
     
    VPN's and other workarounds are no excuse not to vocally combat censorship and surveillance, because if we allow it to continue it will only become harder to get around and citizens will begin to face consequences for doing so.
  9. Like
    Ricnvolved1956 got a reaction from OmniNegro in South Carolina = insane asylum   ...
    Yes, Omni-- there really are people that stupid in Sowf Kakalakki. I live one state above that shit hole and while we have our share of stupid people, the ones down below are a special breed. The fact that Pedo Mcdickcheese and that other @ssclown co-sponsoring that legislation are elected to public office should be all the proof you need.
     
    Anyone familiar with the current state of the Amerikan political scene should be familiar by now with what's really going on with these weasels (and plenty others just like them). It's called catering to your political base, e.g. Sucking up to the lowest common denominator. I'm not kidding when I say this is what most republican politicians see as real governing. You come up with some kind of social issue that the great unwashed and unread will salivate over like Pavlov's dog. It gets the mouth breathers all riled up and braying like jackasses to get out the torches and pitchforks. Most of the republican politicians who concoct crazy sh*t like this proposed legislation know it has little to no chance of becoming law. In the unlikely event that it does, it will eventually be struck down. But that really doesn't matter very much to the fools who come up this kind of legislation. If it gets the base howling in outrage then the Chumleys have accomplished their purpose. That the legislation is defeated, or the law struck down, makes them look even more like a hero to the dummies.
     
    Conservative republicans are clever muthaf***ers; they know very well what the lizard brains respond to and get MIGHTILY worked up about. Trust me when I say that the Chumleys in the world find this much easier and much more ego-puffing than doing the actual hard job of real governing. I have claimed for 35 years that an elected politician is a pretty accurate reflection of the intelligence (or tremendous lack thereof) of those who elected him/her to office.
  10. Like
    Ricnvolved1956 reacted to OmniNegro in South Carolina = insane asylum   ...
    Also, how stupid are the people of South Carolina?
    "In its current form, the bill would mandate that anyone still willing to pay for the privilege of porn would not only pay the $20 but would have to verify that they are at least 18 years old and submit a written request that the filter be disabled after receiving a written warning of the potential dangers of disabling the blocker."
     
    So by definition, the bill is to "Stop Human Trafficking", and if you want to disregard that and traffic Humans, you get to pay $20 and have it removed? This makes it a TAX on Human Trafficking. Not a BAN.
     
    In addition, this part really made me laugh.
    "Rep. Bill Chumley (R-Spartanburg) made sure to give himself the Christmas present of pre-filing a bill that would block cellphones, tablets and computers from accessing pornography unless consumers pay an extra $20."
     
    No mention is made of any operating systems. None. So is this intended to be a hardware device? This bill is infantile and will never take effect, and even if it did, it would never have any effect. (Certainly not on "Human Trafficking.) And I bet it will result in lawsuits made by major OEMs like Dell long before it becomes law. It is aimed at requiring them to magically install unspecified blockers that magically catch all "porn" and block it. And would certainly result in huge fines to the device maker if it should ever fail.
     
    Representative Chumley needs to just back off and let his kids hate him since everyone will hate them for him trying to break all Internet devices. And I should point out that the Wikipedia page for him is being edited by people of like mind. "Pedo McDickCheese" is what DuckDuckGo shows him being called on Wikipedia in the site preview...
  11. Like
    Ricnvolved1956 reacted to greenclaydog in What countries do you want to see added in 2017?   ...
    Let's hear it: what countries should be added to the list of servers this year?
  12. Like
    Ricnvolved1956 reacted to pr1v in What countries do you want to see added in 2017?   ...
    If it's possible: Iceland, and some others in Spain.
  13. Like
    Ricnvolved1956 reacted to Casper31 in What countries do you want to see added in 2017?   ...
    Iceland or Norway but perhaps a server in Brazil would be nice.
    Brazil because its not a related country to the so called "western world".
     
    Wish everyone a healthy and secure 2017
     
    Gr,Casper
  14. Like
    Ricnvolved1956 reacted to LZ1 in What countries do you want to see added in 2017?   ...
    Hello!

    I think Air should definitely go ahead and add in Nigeria, why not?
     
    Nigeria is fairly centrally located, meaning lots of under-served African users can get access. Nigeria isn't (even) on PIAs list of server locations it seems, which is frankly incredible in and of itself if you know PIA . Nigeria is, as of 2015, the worlds 20th largest economy, so there's plenty of room for expansion! Nigeria would be AirVPNs first African server no?, so why not! Nigeria because... Nigeria? The shock factor alone would be something to watch.
    Jokes aside haha...
     
    Cheap answer: I think Air should add the server locations that Air deems to be best for their mission and current budget and options.
     
    But otherwise I agree Iceland would be a nice to have - but I definitely don't expect it, as it seems totally unrealistic. Perhaps we should see about getting the French servers back first, if possible . More Asian servers would be really cool as well, but again, reality hits back hard. It would seem Air already has lots of things planned. Of those that I know of: IPv6 support, Eddie 3, updating client software section, re-assessing France as a server location, EFF & FSF funding, getting back to some of the other projects after Eddie is updated and probably lots more. Australia would be cool, since Australians are
    always underserved in networking-related matters haha. But personally, I don't mind if no new servers are added. I'm content.  We shouldn't forget that Air, despite being Italian, also actually still
    doesn't have any Italian servers either! So perhaps they'll be adding that again, if they can get around the legal hurdles .
     
    Happy New Year to you all ! I hope everyone, including AirVPN & Staff will have a good 2017 .
  15. Like
    Ricnvolved1956 reacted to FromtheWalls in What countries do you want to see added in 2017?   ...
    I second Norway and Iceland, but I'll love you guys even if it doesn't happen   Happy New Year to everyone!
  16. Like
    Ricnvolved1956 reacted to ma65547 in What countries do you want to see added in 2017?   ...
    Finland, of course.
    Hyvää uutta vuotta / Happy new year!
  17. Like
    Ricnvolved1956 reacted to LZ1 in Fake News   ...
    Takes a big man to concede anything these days. Then I bow my virtual hat to you in return. I always found CGP Greys videos on voting quite instructive for explaining all the voting-related issues. (For people who read this comment and don't know the issues with the voting systems).
  18. Like
    Ricnvolved1956 got a reaction from OmniNegro in Merry Christmas and a happy 2017!   ...
    giganerd-- Спасибо за исправление.
  19. Like
    Ricnvolved1956 got a reaction from OmniNegro in Merry Christmas and a happy 2017!   ...
    S Rozhdestvom; God Jul; Buon Natale; meri-kurisumasu; sheng dan jie kuai le; Gelukkig Kerstfeest; Joyeux Noel; Kala Christougenna; Frohe Weihnacht; Gleoileg jol; Nollaig Shona; shobas gilotsavt; felican Kristnaskon; Nadolig Llawen; Bon Nadal; Iloista joulua; 메리 크리스마스; Feliz Navidad; חג מולד שמח; krisamasa mubaraka ho; Feliz Natal; l ' b ' dyq nytl; felicem natalem Christi............
     
    Merry Christmas
  20. Like
    Ricnvolved1956 reacted to OmniNegro in Merry Christmas and a happy 2017!   ...
    May the holidays you choose to observe be better than you expect, and may 2017 be remembered for your privacy finally being taken seriously by those in a position to stop the theft of personal information that the Internet has turned into.
  21. Like
    Ricnvolved1956 reacted to FromtheWalls in Merry Christmas and a happy 2017!   ...
    Merry Christmas to everyone
  22. Like
    Ricnvolved1956 got a reaction from Khariz in Secure alternatives to Skype that have video chat?   ...
    You go, Signal!!
     
    https://www.wired.com/2016/12/encryption-app-signal-fights-censorship-clever-workaround/amp/
  23. Like
    Ricnvolved1956 got a reaction from Khariz in Secure alternatives to Skype that have video chat?   ...
    You go, Signal!!
     
    https://www.wired.com/2016/12/encryption-app-signal-fights-censorship-clever-workaround/amp/
  24. Like
    Ricnvolved1956 got a reaction from OmniNegro in South Carolina = insane asylum   ...
    Yes, Omni-- there really are people that stupid in Sowf Kakalakki. I live one state above that shit hole and while we have our share of stupid people, the ones down below are a special breed. The fact that Pedo Mcdickcheese and that other @ssclown co-sponsoring that legislation are elected to public office should be all the proof you need.
     
    Anyone familiar with the current state of the Amerikan political scene should be familiar by now with what's really going on with these weasels (and plenty others just like them). It's called catering to your political base, e.g. Sucking up to the lowest common denominator. I'm not kidding when I say this is what most republican politicians see as real governing. You come up with some kind of social issue that the great unwashed and unread will salivate over like Pavlov's dog. It gets the mouth breathers all riled up and braying like jackasses to get out the torches and pitchforks. Most of the republican politicians who concoct crazy sh*t like this proposed legislation know it has little to no chance of becoming law. In the unlikely event that it does, it will eventually be struck down. But that really doesn't matter very much to the fools who come up this kind of legislation. If it gets the base howling in outrage then the Chumleys have accomplished their purpose. That the legislation is defeated, or the law struck down, makes them look even more like a hero to the dummies.
     
    Conservative republicans are clever muthaf***ers; they know very well what the lizard brains respond to and get MIGHTILY worked up about. Trust me when I say that the Chumleys in the world find this much easier and much more ego-puffing than doing the actual hard job of real governing. I have claimed for 35 years that an elected politician is a pretty accurate reflection of the intelligence (or tremendous lack thereof) of those who elected him/her to office.
  25. Like
    Ricnvolved1956 reacted to OmniNegro in South Carolina = insane asylum   ...
    http://brobible.com/life/article/south-carolina-prn-bill-chumley-wtf/
    "
    Upon further inspection, it appears as if Rep. Bill Chumley might just using his bullshit anti-porn stance as a means to extract more money from computer and tablet manufacturers. The bill comes with an ‘opt out’ option which allows manufacturers to pay the state of South Carolina $20/device for every device sold without the porn-blocking software. And buyers will also have the option of spending an additional $20 to purchase a device without the porn-blocking software.
    So, if you’re reading between the lines, it appears as if this fuckboi’s using his hatred of porn as a means to suck money out of the very people who voted for him in the first place, and it’s fucking bullshit if you ask me."
     
    So this greedy shitbag is just extorting everyone for $20 per device in the entire state.
×
×
  • Create New...