
Show HN: Easily connect to a VPN in a country of your choice - rodrigogs
https://github.com/rodrigogs/easyvpn
======
kobayashi
It's bad enough of an idea to connect to an open/untrusted WiFi network - now
we're showing HN how to connect to random VPNs all over the world? My cursory
opinion of this is that it's the worst idea ever I've ever seen make HN's
front page.

~~~
koolba
> My cursory opinion of this is that it's the worst idea ever I've ever seen
> make HN's front page.

Not disputing that it's the worst but it could be even _more_ worse.

It's missing the key component: a curl | bash install and upgrade script
running over HTTP (not HTTPS). In this case it'd be extra hilarious as
upgrades would presumably go over your existing VPN connection which could
then hijack the script and run arbitrary code on your machine.

~~~
hrrsn
I gotchu' (/s)

curl
[http://pastie.org/pastes/10992864/download](http://pastie.org/pastes/10992864/download)
| bash

------
hathawsh
I guess this tool is intended for command line operation and scripting. If all
you want to do is get around regional restrictions to watch videos, see
[http://hola.org/](http://hola.org/) .

EDIT: Also, you should assume that any anonymous VPN service has a good chance
of being spyware or even malware, so you should sandbox it in a virtual
machine or similar.

~~~
j_s
If you do (don't!) be sure you pay: [http://hola.org/faq#intro-
cost](http://hola.org/faq#intro-cost)

 _Hola VPN turns 10M users into exit nodes_ (2 years ago)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9614993](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9614993)

 _Hola VPN Already Exploited by “Bad Guys”, Security Firm Says_ (2 years ago)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9645050](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9645050)

------
simlevesque
> Automatically connect you to a random VPN in a country of your choice.

Why would someone do such a thing?

~~~
zhan_eg
The source of the VPN servers is vpngate.net - an academic research that
started 2013, at Graduate School of University of Tsukuba, Japan. From their
about [0] page:

    
    
       - You can get through the government's firewall to browse restricted web sites (e.g. YouTube).
       - You can disguise your IP address to hide your identity while surfing the Internet.
       - You can protect yourself by utilizing its strong encryption while using public Wi-Fi.
    

The list of servers (on the main url) gives throughput and others stats and
you can support them by creating a node [1].

They use SoftEther for VPN server - does someone have any experience with it?

[0]
[http://www.vpngate.net/en/about_overview.aspx](http://www.vpngate.net/en/about_overview.aspx)
[1] [http://www.vpngate.net/en/join.aspx](http://www.vpngate.net/en/join.aspx)

~~~
q3k
I've taken a cursory look at SoftEther a few months ago.

It looks like a research project that was then unsuccessfully commercialized,
and then released to the public somewhat hastily.

The code quality leaves a lot to be desired (there is nothing offensive, but
it still does not inspire confidence for there not being security bugs), and
the code style is not great either. The amount of marketing copytext is
disproportionately large to the amount of code comments and design
documentation.

It generally seems to go for a everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach in
terms of features (which is not a bad thing per se, but an approach that I
dislike). The SoftEther repository is 280k lines of C and headers, while
OpenVPN is 80k.

~~~
voltagex_
Bugger. I set up SoftEther because it was the only thing I could get working
reliably (by that, I mean only 2 disconnections per hour).

------
hwdsl2
For people seeking a more secure option:

You can easily build your own IPsec VPN server using a one-liner [1], with
support for both IPsec/L2TP and Cisco IPsec.

Disclosure: I am the author of this repo.

[1] [https://github.com/hwdsl2/setup-ipsec-
vpn](https://github.com/hwdsl2/setup-ipsec-vpn)

------
K0nserv
VPNs are great. Free VPNs from god knows who, are not that great. A VPN is
exactly the kind of thing you want to be paying a trustworthy entity for.

~~~
walrus01
or run yourself, you can put openvpn on a $2.50/month debian or centos VPS.

~~~
noonespecial
Do check that they have the tun/tap module included on the vps before signing
up or open VPN won't work on that vps host.

~~~
walrus01
Yes, that's essential. Assuming use of a vps that is not really a real vm (xen
pv, xen hvm or kvm), but more like a glorified jail, which is what most of the
cheap ones are that use openvz or similar.

------
whyagaindavid
I wonder if they are able to avoid misuse of regional content download by
different people. Who pays for bandwidth? Just wondering...

