Forum: Bug Report and Feature Requests

Thanks for information... Yes, Tor on phone wonder if picking up some other user settings...
Will be on laptop later and see if my settings return!
Cheers,
Myth

OK slightly weird... Went into Chrome on phone to test difference and I am getting the same 3 story limit - and no theme applied at all.
On my phone site usuall looks like desktop, not in a two column table. Strikes me that I don't actually know what anyone else sees in mobile but for me it felt very cluttered.
Will check laptop soon!
Thanks again
Myth

Yes, logged in, but wondering if another old device of minee is maybe going all zombie on me and using same TOR proxy/exit. There are several candidates in the lab including my old phone which *appears* to be dead (doesn't light screen at all), but is maybe not as dead as I thought...
Anyway now I know what to look out for, and all well on home laptop including my theme. Yay!
Myth

Ah that makes more sense! Pretty sure that S8 is toast!
Being in the trade I can understand protections against TOR exits ;)
Most VPN tunnels are blocked on the public networks I mostly rely on - but TOR is not, which surprised me. Good surprise...
Myth

Most VPN tunnels are blocked on the public networks I mostly rely on

That seems strange.

Many corporations use VPNs to give employees secure remote access to the company network. And it not just for work from home. If you are traveling for work and need to access the company network using Hotel WiFi you'd use the VPN.

That seems strange.

Many corporations use VPNs to give employees secure remote access to the company network. And it not just for work from home. If you are traveling for work and need to access the company network using Hotel WiFi you'd use the VPN.

That's the other way around: employee to work. Most sites that use geo-fencing block VPN to disallow you appearing to come from another country. Most video streaming sites do this.

Most sites that use geo-fencing block VPN to disallow you appearing to come from another country.

That's a web site blocking access through a VPN. Lazeez suggested a VPN, so I presume SOL does not do that kink of blocking.

That does nothing to explain why a public WiFi network (like WiFi for guests at a hotel or restaurant) would block VPNs from their end, which is what tablet.dobson claimed was happening.

The public WiFi network would have no way of knowing whats on the other end of the VPN, so I seriously doubt they could block public VPNs used for inter net anonymization while allowing corporate VPNs.

The public WiFi network would have no way of knowing whats on the other end of the VPN, so I seriously doubt they could block public VPNs used for inter net anonymization while allowing corporate VPNs.

The public wifi network doesn't know what's on the other end but is does know the VPN provider ip's, that's how they recognize VPN's, they simply have a list of all ip's of most of the known VPN providers. If you connect FROM a corporate VPN to the public wifi it most likely doesn't have those ip's in the list and thus doesn't block it. What you should always be able to do is set up a VPN tunnel through the wifi network TO the corporate servers, that's specifically what corporate VPN's are for.

Corporations don't build their own VPN. The get VPN software from outside vendors. Likely the same ones used by the public VPNs used for online anonymization.

I don't think the kind of whitelist you are talking about would be workable.

Corporations don't build their own VPN. The get VPN software from outside vendors. Likely the same ones used by the public VPNs used for online anonymization.

Of course they use existing software but they run it on their own server(s) and thus expose their own ip(s). Even if they outsource it, it is separate from the big VPN providers and still have different ip's.
As for how for example netflix blocks VPN's: https://www.tomsguide.com/features/how-does-netflix-block-vpns:

There are a number of ways in which Netflix can detect and block a VPN. The first and most basic method is by simply cataloguing IP addresses with a known association to a VPN server. Whenever a user connects through an IP address that Netflix knows (or suspects) belongs to a VPN, they interrupt the connection and you'll see an error message.

That's going to be a constant cold war, unlikely they could ever block everything. Netflix may well block corporate VPNs as well. They have little reason not to.

I still don't see any reason why a public WiFi network would even care if anyone is using a VPN for any reason.

That's going to be a constant cold war, unlikely they could ever block everything.

Yep, they can never block everything but they sure try.

I still don't see any reason why a public WiFi network would even care if anyone is using a VPN for any reason.

Might be a legal thing. If the user does something illegal he can't be traced back through a public VPN. Corporate VPN's still shouldn't be a problem though unless they have that ip listed too. Other ways of testing if it's a VPN connection seem way over the top for a simple public wifi network.

If the user does something illegal he can't be traced back through a public VPN.

That doesn't make any sense. It shouldn't be traceable back to the public WiFi network (that's half the point of a VPN) and even if it was, it's highly unlikely that there would be any legal liability for the public network operator.

Even the Netflix approach seems way to much work for the public WiFi network operator.

That doesn't make any sense. It shouldn't be traceable back to the public WiFi network (that's half the point of a VPN) and even if it was, it's highly unlikely that there would be any legal liability for the public network operator.

It could have a number of reasons where liability is only one of them. VPN makes it impossible to snoop: for marketing, ad-injection, traffic management, deep-packet inspection (i.e. spying), DNS logging, etc. In short, with VPN they can't control how you use their network.

It could have a number of reasons where liability is only one of them.

For liability to be one of them, you'd have to identify a plausible basis for liability to fall on the network operator.

As for the others, corporate VPNs would be no different then public VPNs on those counts.

It is a city wide WiFi for members of the public that is ubiquitous across my work environs, but has to defend against bandwidth hogs aggressively.
The intention was to provide service for consumers on the streets using the businesses that (part) fund it. So it doesn't like anything that might camp on the network - so bans most VPN. There used to be daily download limits and registration and more, now mostly gone as more people use mobile data. But still anti bandwidth/anti camping.
Myth

Looks to me like another reason NOT to use Tor :-)

Ian

Don't have a lot of choice if I want to browse ANYTHING not directly and absolutely plain vanilla over the public WiFi network my phone spends most time glommed onto. Contrary to Microsoft's view of the world we are NOT all in reach of 4G (hell I can't even get 2G - or edge - indoors here!)
Just getting TOR onto the phone required a change request and official sanction but when the tech sites I need are block because "hacking" related and the city don't care... They signed off.
Myth.

First thought was that I must be logged out... THEN I got really confused!