Anonymous Me (or... How I used VPN to Hide the Real Me)

The Mad Monk and Bill "Zinger" Shorten seem to want to know about everything that I do on the internet therefore I have subscribed to a VPN service. Just tried it out and am pleased to report now I am located somewhere in California, USA. Good Eh? Costs me about $1 a week.

All the metadata will show is that I have encoded traffic, which won't be able to distinguish data from emails for example, going to the US from my router after which it will be untraceable, so stuff 'em! (especially their master Rupert Murdoch)


Tried it with a UK terminal and was able to watch the BBC iPlayer which is a nice bonus too. Can pick from about a dozen countries where I wish to appear to be.

Won't use it all the time but it is only a the click of a button away.

This message was written using it BTW. Google picked up on it straight away and asked me to verify who I was but Facebook, this site and other places I have tried don't seem to notice.

Re: Anonymous Me (or... How I used VPN to Hide the Real Me)

Sorry Bruce but I haven't got a clue as to what you are talking about.

Re: Anonymous Me (or... How I used VPN to Hide the Real Me)

There ain't no hiding place from the father of creation.

Re: Anonymous Me (or... How I used VPN to Hide the Real Me)

No Hiding Place? Sounds like a good name for a cop show.

Re: Anonymous Me (or... How I used VPN to Hide the Real Me)

You're not alone Alan.

Re: Anonymous Me (or... How I used VPN to Hide the Real Me)

VPN (Virtual Private Network) is basically a service which takes encoded output from my computer to a place faraway (or not as the case may be) then rebroadcasts it to its proper addressee as if the source was the service provider not me.

The return data is then encoded and sent to my computer.

Originally intended to safeguard a company's data by encoding it back to the safety of the company's network it now has much wider uses in the real world.

It is not all good - for example I could use it to send instructions to a criminal cell somewhere, me as the source being hidden behind this screen of anonymity (I am not doing that BTW).

One of the best uses is when using a free wifi hotspot such as McDonalds - for example because of the encryption you could do your banking safely using this method no matter how dodgy the wifi hotspot might be. Something you would never be wise to do without this service.

I had a similar service set up at home for when I travel because I use the local hotel wifi hotspot which is not secure for some purposes.

Re: Anonymous Me (or... How I used VPN to Hide the Real Me)

Interesting. Will look into this. Might come in handy.

Re: Anonymous Me (or... How I used VPN to Hide the Real Me)

Don't think I need to hide, don't do anything illegal or I would be ashamed of on the internet, if anything my history would likely bore anyone watching to death, same with phone usage etc. Let them watch I say they will soon get fed up and stop.

Re: Anonymous Me (or... How I used VPN to Hide the Real Me)

Most of the time that is true but there are circumstances which I mentioned before where the additional security is important.

There are other benefits: for example being able to appear as a British or US resident is very handy for seeing the local iPlayer equivalent for example or buying software/itunes/Netflix etc at American prices rather than the outrageous export price

Re: Anonymous Me (or... How I used VPN to Hide the Real Me)

BTW that explanatory film in my earlier message is a bit of an ad for a VPN company BUT it is not the company I have signed up with. As always if you want to know about these things YouTube is a good place to go.