VPN for the streamings

[gaijinpunch]

There was another (very brief) thread here that suggested strongvpn.

I have a roku device and I'm looking to stream Netflix/Hulu/HBOGO maybe even. Anyone have any experience and hopefully feedback w/ the VPNs? I guess right now it's up between StrongVPN and Hide My Ass Pro.

OS is Linux but I'm going to look into a (rather pricey) router that handles all the VPN bullshit.

[Taro Toporific]

... I guess right now it's up between StrongVPN and Hide My Ass Pro.

According to my "friends" with a typical Japanese 100MB/s fiber connections, Hide My Ass Pro averages a little less than 100Kb/s. Also, Hide My Ass is known for enthusiastically complying with any request for information about their users.

BTW: What ever happened to the Japanese government crackdown with criminal penalties that was scheduled for September? I was expecting a few showcase busts to be showing up in the press by now.

[BigInJapan]

BTW: What ever happened to the Japanese government crackdown with criminal penalties that was scheduled for September? I was expecting a few showcase busts to be showing up in the press by now.

Well, if Coligny is smart enough to only download his pr0n from servers in China, he's probably safe (for now).

[Coligny]

Nevur underestimate the bandwith of a station wagon loaded with DVDs...

[Mike Oxlong]

BTW: What ever happened to the Japanese government crackdown with criminal penalties that was scheduled for September? I was expecting a few showcase busts to be showing up in the press by now.

Isn't it Oktober?

[gaijinpunch]

Yeah, law goes into effect in October.

[Coligny]

how does it addup with acta ? sumbody got a summary ?

[Taro Toporific]

... I guess right now it's up between StrongVPN and Hide My Ass Pro.

.. Hide My Ass is known for enthusiastically complying with any request for information about their users.

Via Slashdot
Most anonymizing and/or VPN services flat out state in their TOS that they will respond accordingly to all legal requests for information.

Some VPNs claim there IS NO information if the authorities come calling. See:

http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-providers-really-take-anonymity-seriously-111007/

[FG Lurker]

StrongVPN is a great service for quasi-legal purposes such as streaming US-based services like Hulu or Netflix or UK services like the BBC. They *do* log however and will provide logs to the authorities should they come knocking. I have one of their $55/year PPTP accounts and feel it's great value.

There are VPN providers that claim to not log and that they won't cooperate with the authorities. This is bullshit in my opinion. If the US Feds come knocking you can bet your ass that the VPN provider will start logging (if they don't already) and readily hand over everything. It's not worth it for them to stand up to the law.

If you are looking to, cough, "share" things online there are better options than a VPN which I won't go into here due to forum rules.

[Taro Toporific]

StrongVPN is a great service for quasi-legal purposes such as streaming US-based services like Hulu or Netflix or UK services like the BBC. They *do* log however and will provide logs to the authorities should they come knocking. I have one of their $55/year PPTP accounts and feel it's great value.

As said before, "with a typical Japanese 100Mbps fiber connections, Hide My Ass Pro averages a little less than 100Kbps." How badly does StrongVPN slow down your connection?

[FG Lurker]

As said before, "with a typical Japanese 100Mbps fiber connections, Hide My Ass Pro averages a little less than 100Kbps." How badly does StrongVPN slow down your connection?

One of the advantages of StrongVPN is that they don't oversell their servers like most every other VPN provider does.

Here's a speedtest.net result that I just ran over my StrongVPN San Francisco connection:

[Coligny]

If you are looking to, cough, "share" things online there are better options than a VPN which I won't go into here due to forum rules.

Pass the schpliff... seems the rules are not back in effect yet...

[Taro Toporific]

If you are looking to, cough, "share" things online there are better options than a VPN which I won't go into here due to forum rules.

Pass the schpliff... seems the rules are not back in effect yet...

The new Management is only worried if you folks start provide direct links to pirated material. If you provided a google link to "I'm Dreaming of a White President", the mighty TentacleOfDoom would most likely let such a post pass.

nonesuch.com...randy-newman-song-im-dreaming-available-for-free-download

[FG Lurker]

Pass the schpliff... seems the rules are not back in effect yet...

The safest way to "share" without worrying about a VPN going down and exposing your IP is to get a seedbox. Some providers allow payment by bitcoin for the truly paranoid.

[gaijinpunch]

It's not worth it for them to stand up to the law.

Indeed, for a US-based business, I agree. Many are not though, and AFAIK there is no law stating that they MUST log this information. They aren't in the financial industry where there are clear cut lines of how long you must keep transactions on the books (even hard copies if you can believe that).

I think one thing worth asking is how will the J-authorities go about it. Will they get search warrants on the IP level, and start researching the highest bandwidth users? My cloud storage could be seen as pretty high usage... I have 1TB there, of my photos and music I've legally purchased. Honestly, the only thing I share is TV, and if anything is worth rewatching, I will get it on BluRays so I may just got 100% streaming.

[FG Lurker]

> I think one thing worth asking is how will the J-authorities go about it.

It doesn't matter as all they can see is a strongly encrypted link heading out of Japan. Even China can't stop this sort of thing so I don't have much hope that Japan will be able to.

Of course if they get a warrant and seize your PC that's a different matter. They would need some sort of reason to do so, and seeing an encrypted link doesn't seem likely to be enough. (...at least under current law.)

[Coligny]

One aspect we might as usual underestimate...

With prosecutor love for high scores... If they arrest you but get nothing to put you in jail, they can search illicitly downloaded batman movies and manage to get you in the slammer for this...

[FG Lurker]

One aspect we might as usual underestimate...

With prosecutor love for high scores... If they arrest you but get nothing to put you in jail, they can search illicitly downloaded batman movies and manage to get you in the slammer for this...

People who are worried about this should use disk encryption in a way that is not visible. Details here:
http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/?s=hidden-volume

[Coligny]

One aspect we might as usual underestimate...

With prosecutor love for high scores... If they arrest you but get nothing to put you in jail, they can search illicitly downloaded batman movies and manage to get you in the slammer for this...

People who are worried about this should use disk encryption in a way that is not visible. Details here:
http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/?s=hidden-volume

That become a little overly complicamated/paranoid/annoying when it's for a local copy of Amurikun Pie XVII

[cstaylor]

One aspect we might as usual underestimate...

With prosecutor love for high scores... If they arrest you but get nothing to put you in jail, they can search copy into your seized computer illicitly downloaded batman movies then modify the file creation time and manage to get you in the slammer for this...

FTFY.

Paranoia? I think not.

[Coligny]

One aspect we might as usual underestimate...

With prosecutor love for high scores... If they arrest you but get nothing to put you in jail, they can search copy into your seized computer illicitly downloaded batman movies then modify the file creation time and manage to get you in the slammer for this...

FTFY.

Paranoia? I think not.

I totally agree and thank you for your correction...

[gaijinpunch]

> I think one thing worth asking is how will the J-authorities go about it.

It doesn't matter as all they can see is a strongly encrypted link heading out of Japan. Even China can't stop this sort of thing so I don't have much hope that Japan will be able to.

Of course if they get a warrant and seize your PC that's a different matter. They would need some sort of reason to do so, and seeing an encrypted link doesn't seem likely to be enough. (...at least under current law.)

That's exactly what I was getting at.

Paranoia? I think not.

Whatever happened to these guys? I thought they should cut their balls off (and I'm anti-capital punishment). Bottom of the food chain. Funny how in the America this would have tainted every case they worked on, all of which would have gone through lengthy appeals. In Japan, hardly anyone cries foul.

[gaijinpunch]

Back on topic, the easiest way for this to work if you're using a Roku (which cannot have a static IP set... yes... for real) is to get a router that allows real routing (noble that, eh?) or a router that can be hacked to run DD-WRT (open source Linux firmware). I'm doing the latter, in the form of a 2000 yen (used -- 12,000 yen new from Amazon ) router which should arrive in a few days.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

I thought they should cut their balls off (and I'm anti-capital punishment).

Just thought I'd better let you know...cutting off balls is not capital punishment (which requires death), though the idea of doing so for certain offenders would indeed be capital.

Sorry to be so fucking pedantic (and that doesn't mean I want to fuck little children).

[gaijinpunch]

Sorry to be so fucking pedantic (and that doesn't mean I want to fuck little children).

In that case, what are you baby sitting rates?

[matsuki]

One aspect we might as usual underestimate...

With prosecutor love for high scores... If they arrest you but get nothing to put you in jail, they can search illicitly downloaded batman movies and manage to get you in the slammer for this...

People who are worried about this should use disk encryption in a way that is not visible. Details here:
http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/?s=hidden-volume

I'm liking this....I'm probably averaging about 40gb up/down per day. I dunno what the average Japanese user that goes nuts on youtube averages but considering most of the Japanese I know not only turn off their PC when they're not using it, they unplug it from the outlets I think I might stick out like a sore thumb...

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

In that case, what are you baby sitting rates?

Just because I have no sexual interest in little children doesn't mean you can rest assured by having me around them (leave them in my hands for a couple of hours and they will probably swear like troopers by the time you get them back. Sons will be chauvinistic little sexists and daughters will be man-hating, hairy armpitt-ed feminazis.)

Due diligence and full disclosure over, I'm cheap!

[FG Lurker]

Back on topic, the easiest way for this to work if you're using a Roku (which cannot have a static IP set... yes... for real)

Set the IP via a DHCP reservation based on the device's MAC address. Much better than setting the IP on individual devices anyway.

is to get a router that allows real routing (noble that, eh?) or a router that can be hacked to run DD-WRT (open source Linux firmware). I'm doing the latter, in the form of a 2000 yen (used -- 12,000 yen new from Amazon ) router which should arrive in a few days.

All the cheap routers run linux. DD-WRT, Tomato, et al just provide more services and a better management interface. The actual routing though is exactly the same.

[cstaylor]

All the cheap routers run linux. DD-WRT, Tomato, et al just provide more services and a better management interface. The actual routing though is exactly the same.

Or you can run a real OS on some better hardware.

[yanpa]

PfSense does indeed rock.