VPN advice needed (May 2014)

[imron]

New members possibly have editing restrictions.

 

@joshssummers, actually that feature has been discussed, in relation with using SSH tunnels.  See for example this post where Manuel mentions that very feature.

[ChTTay]

Is 'MyEnTunnel' the same kind of thing as 'PuTTY'?

 

Any good tutorial in setting up a SHH proxy?

 

Once I buy a subscription from a provider ... they give me some details... I then wack those into something like PuTTY... and away I go?

[Manuel]

MyEnTunnel is basically a simplified front-end for PuTTY, and in my experience much easier to set up.

[imron]

Once I buy a subscription from a provider ... they give me some details... I then wack those into something like PuTTY... and away I go?

Basically, yes.  See the link in my earlier post for more details.

[ChTTay]

Thanks Manuel and Imron. Very helpful.

 

One last question ... Digital Ocean (mentioned on here as being a place to buy from) have various packages. I would be using this just to browse websites like youtube, facebook and also create/run my own simple website (articles only) on a free platform like weebly.

 

Would the lowest package be enough? I thought an SSD was a solid state drive? Hardware?

 

$ 5 / mo

• 512MBMemory
• 1 CoreProcessor
• 20GBSSD Disk
• 1TBTransfer

[gato]

I've tried recently to run SSH through a Digital Ocean server. The Singapore server lagged badly, so I switched to a San Francisco server. It worked better (YouTube somewhat watchable) but was still slower than Astrill VPN, so I have cancelled my Digital Ocean account.

[ChTTay]

Thanks Gato, are you in Beijing?

 

Any other SHH server recommendations? I don't really want to go through Taobao.

[gato]

Shanghai.

[imron]

Would the lowest package be enough?

Should be more than enough for SSH and a basic website.  If not, you can upgrade as necessary.  Also, you only pay for what you use so it should be very cheap to test if it works and if not just shut down the instance.

[Manuel]

If you can buy a 1-month subscription, get the $5 one and if it's not good enough you can always upgrade. The Taobao ones are not bad, been using it for several months now and I keep buying. The $5/month service may be a single-client service, so if you want to use several devices simultaneously it may not be possible. With my subscription I can connect all my devices simultaneously without problems. One of the reasons I like the Taobao ones is that there is no marketing bulllsh*t e.g. "Basic/Power/Pro service"... instead it's just a single one-size-fits-all service at a very reasonable price.

[imron]

Just a quick update on my earlier comments regarding Digital Ocean.  I've now been using them for another project and am pretty pleased with them and how relatively simple it is to get everything up and running.

 

If anyone is thinking about setting up a Digital Ocean account and wants some free credit, you can follow my referral link, which will give you $10 credit to start with (enough to run their cheapest droplets for 2 months).

[ChTTay]

Well, after a recent failed VPN attempt, I'll finally give this a try on my next day off in a week. Thanks for the referral.

[imron]

Let me know if you have any questions about setting things up.

[Manuel]

A friend wants to connect through SSH but he is on Mac, which I have no experience with. Any pointers would be appreciated:

- How to connect to the SSH server
- How to set up the SOCKS proxy

I believe all this is already built into the OS, being UNIX based. Basically I need a solution that's easy to use (e.g. running a script which requires one or two clicks max).

[imron]

From my previously linked post (third or fourth link in this thread alone):

 

For people using OSX/Linux, you can achieve the same thing as the Putty session by opening up a terminal and typing:

ssh -N -D 8080 user@myhost.com

where user and myhost.com are your SSH account details. (-N for non-interactive, -D for dynamic port forwarding).

Similar to the advice above, make sure you leave the terminal window open for as long as you want to stay connected to the proxy.

 

[Manuel]

Oops.... Thanks imron! I never really read the bits related to Mac as I am on Windows...

[Simon D]

Hi, I'm going to Hainan in March to study and I've been looking for best ways to get past the firewall. I have a work from home digital marketing job that I would like to continue doing but I need at least access to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to do so.

 

I've just signed up for Digital Ocean using the referral link you posted imron and I've managed to get things set up so I'm connected via Singapore. I have a few questions as my technical knowledge is limited in this area.

 

When I create the droplet what are the best settings to use under "Available Settings" (Private networking? IPv6?) and "Distribution" ? In my test set up I didn't select anything under the former, and chose the default Ubuntu 14.04 x64. 

 

I notice the speed isn't great while testing it from the UK viewing a YouTube video, obviously things will greatly depend on my internet connection speed in China (which I have no idea how good it will be), but would I expect faster or slower loading times when closer to Singapore?

 

Would paying more than the lowest $5/month package increase browsing speeds in any way?

 

Lastly, I have read through the thread and got a basic idea of security, but how safe will I be with logging into my companies website through the SSH tunnel? Also things such as credit card details and other sensitive information.

 

Hope someone could help me get these answered, I want to go prepared with at least a few different options at my disposal.

 

[imron]

Choosing the defaults is just fine, you don't need to worry about the other things (IP6 and so on) just for running your own ssh tunnel.

Paying more won't get you higher download speeds. It gives you more processing power and ram if you are running a website/database/mail server on the droplet.

Watching YouTube videoes is always going to be somewhat slow in china. You'll need to try creating droplets in different regions and seeing which one works best. Make sure you delete the droplets after you've tested them otherwise you'll be charged for each one. The same goes for your existing test droplet - once you've finished testing, delete it and you won't be charged anything more until you create a new one.

The ssh tunnel will be perfectly safe for credit card and sensitive info. Probably more so than without.