[dannyw]

An even easier way is to subscribe to a reputable VPN. There are often various sales where you can pick up annual packages at steep discounts. Having a VPN is also useful for troubleshooting network connectivity, and bypassing content-based throttling.

I like Private Internet Access.

[js2]

Run Algo on a droplet.

https://blog.trailofbits.com/2016/12/12/meet-algo-the-vpn-th...

[thinkloop]

Any reason to use droplet in particular over other vms?

[paulgerhardt]

The price is competitive but I've found another important factor when VPN shopping for VMS's is if that data center tends to be abused by scraping projects.

Craigslist for instance is very slow when accessing via a VPN on Digital Ocean but quick when accessed via one hosted on Rackspace.

Google Scholar may send you through captcha hell for 10 rounds or so every few minutes if you're hoping on from a fishy ip.

The only time I had trouble with sites protected by Cloudflare was when viewing through Tor or AWS.

[js2]

Not particularly. Droplets are $5/mo and very easy to set up.

[radec]

Doesn't seem like this would be as anonymous as something like PIA....assuming you can trust pia.

Still thanks for the idea, going to look into it more.

[js2]

From Algo's readme: Does not claim to provide anonymity or censorship avoidance.

Algo’s use case is confidentiality, protecting your last mile connection including public wifi points. It is a solution to the problems given in “Want to use my wifi?”

Anonymity is a much harder problem to solve, and I personally wouldn’t be comfortable with any of the options claiming to offer anonymity, especially a commercial VPN provider.

[jwfxpr]

One will make different VPN/proxy choices depending on one's priorities and threat models — here, for example, the tension between anonymity, which is most likely to lead you to choose a commercial VPN with a large number of users at each endpoint, and privacy, which is most likely to lead you to choose a private VPN solution where you have full control over the endpont's settings, logging, etc. These aren't the only factors, and neither option perfectly solves either, but carefully thinking through what you actually expect a VPN to be protecting you from is important.

[corobo]

I love it when developers write web copy

> Setup is automated. Just answer a few questions, and Algo will build your VPN for you.

There are 5 steps before you get to the "Setup is automated" part! They're easy enough steps for someone with a bit of tech chops behind them and I will go easy on the first two (Set up VPS, download Algo) but come on, that is not automated!

[shujito]

how secure is it?

[jmiserez]

How would you know if it’s reputable? Better to run your own on a VPS (or even better a dedicated box at home).

[kqr]

I have strong confidence in my home ISP -- they have a track record of standing up for their customers, they are vocal about human rights to privacy and they generally are not easy to compel. So, naturally, I run a VPN server on my gateway machine.

But just looking at the market out there, I feel incredibly fortunate that I can choose such a good ISP. They are very rare.

[dazc]

'I like Private Internet Access'

Ironically, 50% of the time, I get access denied on Hacker News whenever I am on PIA (london)

[dalemyers]

The "MiniHack" iOS app totally fails for me on PIA. I can usually access the site from my desktop just fine though.

[confounded]

I’ve been getting a blank page, on mobile only, when on PIA in the last week or two (also about 50% of the time).