Only trust my frens, here. I thought using a VPN would mask one's actual location and ip address. But there are some sights that recognize my account with them whether or not I am using a vpn. Can someone explain? Thanks.
Comments (31)
sorted by:
Great suggestions here already.
Another possibility could be a "DNS leak". There are many online 'testers' to check for this. IE, https://dnsleak.com
Thank you! I'll check it out. If I have one, I may be back to ask you what to do, lol.
Lol you have one, it will check if it's leaking or not. Does your VPN have rotation available.
Lol. No, I meant, if I have a leak. The test did say I might have a leak. By rotation, do you mean the ability to choose difference proxy locations? If so, yes.
Well, it did say I might have a DNS leak. But I am already using a VPN - so I guess it's not a very good one. Rats. Thanks for putting me on to that. If you have any suggestions, I'd appreciate hearing them.
In most cases, this only a concern to help you hide from your provider and probably not causing your present issue. If your using google, clouldflare, etc. for dns, then I wouldn't trust anything and find a dns provider you can trust. They all talk to each other.
I steer clear of anything gurgle related. I didn't know choosing a DNS server was an option. I'll have to look into how one does that. If you have a recommendation, I'm all ears. Thanks for all your help, btw.
A VPN changing your traffic isn’t all that could be going on. If you use a device from home, then you take your device to work, that’s the same as using a work VPN. If you’re still using the same applications or web browser, things will behave the same from work.
If you’re referring to websites, sites store information locally in cookies and other forms of storage. Simply using a vpn doesn’t eliminate local storage and cookies.
There are other forms of tracking that are much more technical that I cannot explain here like browser fingerprinting and leaks via webrtc.
No, I don't take it back and forth - so it's not that. And I thought by using Brave that it wasn't saving cookies, but maybe that's the problem. Thanks for the comments.
I see some good advice here fren. However, not much about cell phones. If you use your cell phone to surf the net, you cannot hide even behind a vpn.
Interesting. I did not know that. I wasn't referring to my phone in this case, but that is very good to know. Appreciate the info, fren.
I use Brave and when I want to use the VPN, I open the site in 'private window' mode.
If you want to go full stealth, you need to be using linux tails, tor, and a vpn, along with scrubbing your cookies every time with something like bleachbit.
That will getbyou started, but I'm a bit out of touch so it might be best to look up some proper guides and educate yourself.
Interesting! I have wondered if people do use multiple layers like that, though it seems like it would really slow down your browser. Thanks.
The tor aspect will slow you down, but like I said, this approach is for full stealth.
If you just want to fly under the radar you can forgo that part and keep the performance.
When you really learn your stuff, you can use bitcoin to hire servers anonymously and run your own vpn gateway, that way you can be sure there are no logs.
I know someone who does all that and actually daisy chains three vpn servers, but that's for the seriously paranoid.
I've also tried explaining to him that it's like painting a big sign saying 'high value stuff worth your time to crack' for 5eyes.
Doing normal stuff and dampening the signal allows you to blend with the massive volumes of traffic, which in a way is more invisible. If they spot you they will have no trouble tapping your line, but it's less likely to make you visible in the first place.
His way might be a lot more challenging to crack, but they might think it's worthwhile expending the energy because he's spent so much energy in trying to hide his tracks if you know what I mean.
Still, he's good, but he only needs to screw up once.
Yeah, what you said makes sense. It's like a big neon sign saying, "Don't look here - but look here." Lol. It might help with some things though, I suppose.
Alright, I appreciate all you've said and the time you've taken - just one more question if I may. Where do you suggest a completely non-techie person go for some good, very basic level training to bone up on this stuff? Like you said, I should educate myself but I'm not sure where to start or where to look for training. Thanks.
Best way is to break it down into pieces.
Start off by looking for a general guide, search for something like 'how to stay anonymous online'.
Then, take each element and research it on its own (search for 'faq' as well - frequently asked questions).
You will build up your knowledge in layers. When you come across something you don't understand, make a note of it and come back to it later.
It will feel confusing at the outset, there is a lot of jargon to overcome (so research common jargon etc.) but that's totally normal. As you grasp one aspect, it will provide a key to understand more of another aspect, and so on.
Just an fyi, I've been in IT Security since '95 and I still keep a personal glossary of terms that I keep updating as something new comes along.
One hard aspect is that the same 'thing' has its terminolgy changed over time, just be aware that the thing that is confusing you might be something you understand already, just under a different name.
For example, 'cloud computing' was once called 'someone else's server' :)
Alright, good advice. Thanks again.
You're welcome
Also clear your cookies.
Well this is confusing because I thought Brave didn't save cookies. I'll check that though. Thanks.
Oh, I know they can get in. But I was thinking in some circumstances, they could be helpful. Thanks for explaining about Brave. I did not realize it saves cookies in Regular viewing mode. I actually thought that was one of the big 'features' about Brave, that it doesn't do that so you're not saddled with a bunch of ads and other junk. So let me ask you this. Say you have sites that you regularly visit and do so in Regular browsing mode. Apparently some cookies get saved. Now you switch to Private mode for a different site. But you've also visited that site in Regular mode, so picked up some cookies. Now when you're back in Private mode, can it recognize the cookies it put there in Regular mode?
Oh, okay. So it's all about user convenience only. I get it and it does make sense for the sites you visit a lot. But what about the question of picking up cookies while in Regular viewing mode and then that same site still recognizing you in Private mode? That seems like it would happen.
Honestly, I've been pretty disappointed in Brave search. It's pretty sucky for the things I need, which are just fairly basic things. I sometimes use gibiru, which I know gets results from google. I haven't tried yandex. I might do that.
Thanks for all your help and comments, fren. Very appreciated.
speedify allows you to split network traffic across multiple connections. so lets say half on your cell phone the other half on your cable modem. each isp only sees half of the packet and its encrypted.
Great info. Thanks for that.
What VPN are you using?
On a cellphone? What are you running? stock-Android, Apple, or Calyxos or something akin?
You see, not every VPN is quite up to the task. What is important is to use a VPN that has no DNS leakage, and a no log policy. Compare what you are using to Mullvad.
Then there is your phone. If you have no root access, it will be difficult to route all traffic through the VPN-tunnel.
Starting up your phone requires you VPN to start early in the sequences, otherwise your social media get' s the chance to connect and send you messages, thereby enjoying the pleasure of ripping your data.