Worth purchasing a VPN service for home computer

[petestan]

I am retired and have only one desktop I use at home. Is it worth it to purchase a VPN service? My internet provider is Comcast and I rent the modem from them.

Thanks

 

[timo2]

I tried that and for me it caused trouble with most commercial sites and all banking sites. I believe it is because the business sites saw me coming in from a non-personal server. And hackers use the non-personal servers in their hack attacks. So some of the sites would not let me on at all. The ones that did had obnoxious levels of multiple pages of the 'prove you are not a robot' photos of cars, bridges, etc. Considering that the router has it's own security it really turned out to be unnecessary from my home.

I do use the VPN on my cell and laptop when travelling and using stranger routers and modems.

 

[Golden sunsets]

There is a current string named "who uses a VPN" which discusses this issue. I use Norton 360 for security which includes a VPN in the annual subscription.

 

[freedomatlast]

I am retired and have only one desktop I use at home. Is it worth it to purchase a VPN service? My internet provider is Comcast and I rent the modem from them.

Thanks

I subscribe to PIA (Private Internet Access) and also have Comcast as my internet provider but bought my own modem. Well worth the minimal cost!

 

[timo2]

I subscribe to PIA (Private Internet Access) and also have Comcast as my internet provider but bought my own modem. Well worth the minimal cost!

I have PIA also. They were just purchased by Kape.
"Private Internet Access, a popular VPN provider, is set to have a new owner, after Kape Technologies announced its intention to acquire the parent company (and creator) of PIA, LTMI Holdings (London Trust Media).

The deal is for $95.5 million according to a report by Vox Markets, consisting of $52.9 million cash, and the issue of over 42.7 million new Kape shares which will also pay off London Trust Media’s existing $32.1 million debt (making the total enterprise value of LTMI $127.6 million in the acquisition).

Kape describes itself as a cybersecurity company focusing on giving consumers better digital protection, and the operation has already bought two other high-profile VPN providers previously – namely ZenMate (acquired last year) and CyberGhost (picked up the year before)."

https://www.techradar.com/news/cyberghost-owner-buys-pia-for-dollar955m-to-create-vpn-giant

 

[Ronstar]

Just got NordVPN. DW put it on her phone and iPad. I have it on 2 computers, phone and iPad. Caused a stir when I got into my IRA's site from an unrecognized country/ IP address and got a call from the account rep.

Sometimes surfing gets slow and I logout and get back in and everything is fine. Same with sending email.

 

[big-papa]

I often get a month subscription to NordVPN when I go on vacation. otherwise I use my work laptop which uses a product from Cisco.

Only issue with NordVPN for me is that MS Outlook app is sometimes blocked but easy to get around.

 

[camfused]

petestan, if you have a WiFi router behind that Comcast modem, check to see if it has a VPN server built into it. Many Netgear, TP-Link, etc routers do. If so, you can have a VPN for free.

 

[petestan]

Thanks for the info. Really appreciate it.

 

[easysurfer]

I tried that and for me it caused trouble with most commercial sites and all banking sites. I believe it is because the business sites saw me coming in from a non-personal server. And hackers use the non-personal servers in their hack attacks. So some of the sites would not let me on at all. The ones that did had obnoxious levels of multiple pages of the 'prove you are not a robot' photos of cars, bridges, etc. Considering that the router has it's own security it really turned out to be unnecessary from my home.

I do use the VPN on my cell and laptop when travelling and using stranger routers and modems.

Your experience is one of the main reasons why I've put off using a VPN. I don't want commercial and banking sites to start treating me like a hacker when I try to access my own accounts.

 

[camfused]

^^^^ If you VPN through your router, then the rest of the world sees the same IP address as if you were still at home, eliminating this problem.

 

[Sunset]

I don't see any need for vpn in OP's case, which is using the computer to go visit banks, email, etc from home. As all the info transmitted to and from banks, brokers, and other sites using https in the web address are encrypted.

OP does need a to have a long strong password on the router SSID (name), so nobody can drive by and long onto the network.

If OP downloads movies illegally, or visits porn sites, the use of VPN will stop comcast from knowing those sites are being visited.

 

[CoolRich59]

... and I rent the modem from them.

I don't use a VPN service because I keep detecting "lag" that slows down my connection.

However, I recommend you buy your own modem*. You are probably paying at least $10 a month. You can get a good modem for less than $100. So, it will pay for itself within a year. (I am still using my Motorola modem from 5 years ago and haven't paid Comcast a dime to rent one.)

* Your cable company's website should have a list of "compatible" modems.

 

[Sunset]

.....

However, I recommend you buy your own modem*. You are probably paying at least $10 a month. You can get a good modem for less than $100. So, it will pay for itself within a year. (I am still using my Motorola modem from 5 years ago and haven't paid Comcast a dime to rent one.)

* Your cable company's website should have a list of "compatible" modems.

++++
Same here, I own my own modem and save $120/yr for many years now and it only cost me ~ $70

 

[triangle]

I hear VPN's being advertised on radio more frequently over the past 6-12 months but IMO their benefits are way oversold and the average person does not need one, especially when at home and connected on a known network.

If someone travels frequently or connects to less trusted networks then it can provide some benefit. For example if you are sitting in the coffee shop using your device on their Wifi network; they can capture a log to know that you accessed (for example) bank-of-america, facebook, early-retirement.org, etc. but even then still not know your account name or passwords. If you were connecting to websites without encryption then more issues would come into play.

A secondary question is do you trust the VPN provider. I LoL'd when facebook first offered a free VPN service and encouraged people to use it. IMO it was clearly an effort to see every website a person visited in order to better serve up advertisements to them later,....even though they said it was primarily for users in countries with oppressive governments, to allow the user to hide their traffic from their government.

 

[zinger1457]

Agree with some of the comments above. Don't use a VPN when at home but sometimes it's needed when traveling overseas. I've been blocked trying to connect to email servers overseas, using a VPN helped.

 

[Car-Guy]

I hear VPN's being advertised on radio more frequently over the past 6-12 months but IMO their benefits are way oversold and the average person does not need one, especially when at home and connected on a known network.

If someone travels frequently or connects to less trusted networks then it can provide some benefit. For example if you are sitting in the coffee shop using your device on their Wifi network; they can capture a log to know that you accessed (for example) bank-of-america, facebook, early-retirement.org, etc. but even then still not know your account name or passwords. If you were connecting to websites without encryption then more issues would come into play.

A secondary question is do you trust the VPN provider. I LoL'd when facebook first offered a free VPN service and encouraged people to use it. IMO it was clearly an effort to see every website a person visited in order to better serve up advertisements to them later,....even though they said it was primarily for users in countries with oppressive governments, to allow the user to hide their traffic from their government.

"Generally" agree on all your points/paragraphs, each of which can become a deep discussion/debate on their own... I think VPN's have their place, particularly in the corporate world, but not so much for personal use. From my POV, while I know of special use cases for VPN's, I don't think general users in the US get much value of it, except maybe if you use a lot of public WiFi's. Even that value is minimal (IMO) considering the widespread use of HTTPS for so many websites. (as you eluded to in paragraph 2).