[Windows] My Personal VPN-Client Favorite: "VPN Gate Client"

[jwoegerbauer]

Thought you should know that, too: I've VPN Gate Client ( by University of Tsukuba, Japan ) in use. It allows me to be able to surf the Internet anonymously. VPN Gate Client program is a free-of-charge VPN solution - it's an Open Source project. No registration or like required. VPN Gate Client program uses the networking functions of the operating system for its core VPN capability. The VPN servers are not hosted at University of Tsukuba, Japan, they are hosted by volunteers. These are distributed over the world.

It's really easy to manage VPN Gate Client:





Actually you can select among 96 public VPN servers (August 31, 2015):




No significant losses in terms of speed: Probably because always choosing the right VPN server?

Works absolutely well in Windows 10.

VPN Gate Client comes as both 64-bit and 32-bit version.

More info & DL:


Note:
Because VPN Gate Client program uses the network functions of the operating system some anti-virus software or firewalls warn that such behavior might be dangerous. If your anti-virus software disturbs the VPN function, add the VPN program file or the installer to the exception list.

[jok11n]

will give this a try and see how it goes behind the Great Firewall of China

[Seymour Butts]

Jeeze, I dunno - I appreciate the effort Joey it's just that I'm a firm believer that if you get something for nothing then you get exactly what you paid for.
I feel somewhat more protected using something I've paid for.

[jok11n]

while I agree with what you're saying I have no guarantees that the paid services are any more private or protected, in my case I don't want to do any sneaky business, illegal downloads etc I just need a VPN to get to websites that are blocked, can't even access Google from China, for me it makes it hard to work while I'm away

[jwoegerbauer]

Jeeze, I dunno - I appreciate the effort Joey it's just that I'm a firm believer that if you get something for nothing then you get exactly what you paid for.
I feel somewhat more protected using something I've paid for.

Because "VPN Gate" acts like the "The Onion Router (AKA Tor)" your anonymity is like 99.9%.

The "VPN Gate" network runs through the computer servers of thousands (actually >10,000) of volunteers spread throughout the world. Because I've an unlimited bandwidth I became such a volunteer ( means a Virtual Internet Service Provider ), too. BTW: Running a "VPN Gate" relay only eats up ~10% of bandwidth.

The technique behind:

Your data is bundled into an encrypted packet when it enters the "VPN Gate" network. Then, unlike the case with normal Internet connections, "VPN Gate" strips away part of the packet's header, which is a part of the addressing information that could be used to learn things about the sender such as the operating system from which the message was sent.

Finally, "VPN Gate" encrypts the rest of the addressing information, called the packet wrapper. Regular Internet connections don't do this either.

The modified and encrypted data packet is then routed through many of these servers, called relays, on the way to its final destination. The roundabout way packets travel through the "VPN Gate" network is akin to a person taking a roundabout path through a city to shake a pursuer.


EDIT:

If you have a Windows computer, please kindly provide your computer as a Public VPN Relay Server, and join to "VPN Gate" Experiment. You can activate the VPN Gate Public VPN Relay Server Function on the" VPN Gate Client" which is disabled by default. You don't need to install SoftEther VPN Server if you want to host your computer as a Public VPN Server as a volunteer.

[Seymour Butts]

You're not teaching me anything new Joey - been there, done that you might say.

My question becomes why the need to keep (all) the connection logs. I realise each server volunteer can choose how long they want to keep logs and in practise I'm advised most (server Volunteers) choose 2 weeks but there is no way of guaranteeing the identity of a server volunteer, nor that they will dispose of logs when they promise to so.

I have mental pictures of Government agencies setting themselves up as 'Server Volunteers'
Just my 10c

[lsemmens]

On a side issue, if those server volunteers are determined by "the powers that be" to be "serving", say, kiddie porn. How are they protected from those for whom the internet is their perverted playhouse? From my understanding, the exit nodes of the tor network are the most vulnerable part and the owners of those nodes are prosecuted for distributing "illegal" services, i.e. porn, drugs, firearms etc.


Edit:
Keep us posted on your experiences Jokin.

[jwoegerbauer]

You're not teaching me anything new Joey - been there, done that you might say.

My question becomes why the need to keep (all) the connection logs. I realise each server volunteer can choose how long they want to keep logs and in practise I'm advised most (server Volunteers) choose 2 weeks but there is no way of guaranteeing the identity of a server volunteer, nor that they will dispose of logs when they promise to so.

I have mental pictures of Government agencies setting themselves up as 'Server Volunteers'
Just my 10c

Because not only skilled members/visitors come along here, I felt free to explain how "VPN Gate" operates in a very short manner (as I think). Was in your case, of course, superfluous, I therefore beg your pardon.

As said, I recently decided to become a "VPN Gate" volunteer (means I'm driving a Public VPN Relay Server on my Windows 10 Home laptop).
So anyone on the world can communicate to the Internet via my computer as a relay, means on my laptop data simply are received and then passed on.
In the volunteer's Public VPN Relay Server management console I only can see amount of incoming packages (Bytes) and amount of outgoing packages (Bytes). Nothing else. No log files are written, where IP-addresses are stored.

I've no chance to capture the incoming data and replace the incoming data by data of my own, or reverse.

On a side issue, if those server volunteers are determined by "the powers that be" to be "serving", say, kiddie porn. How are they protected from those for whom the internet is their perverted playhouse? From my understanding, the exit nodes of the tor network are the most vulnerable part and the owners of those nodes are prosecuted for distributing "illegal" services, i.e. porn, drugs, firearms etc.

A "VPN Gate" volunteer's Public VPN Relay Server isn't an Exit Node, in my understanding it's a Middle Relay and/or Bridge.

Yes, on the Tor network an Exit Relay is the final relay that Tor traffic passes through before it reaches its destination. So the Exit Relay may take the blame if a malicious user employs the Tor network to do something that might be objectionable or illegal. People who run Exit Relays should be prepared to deal with complaints, copyright takedown notices, and the possibility that their servers may attract the attention of law enforcement agencies. Because I'm not prepared to deal with potential issues like this, I decided to run a Middle Relay and/or Bridge instead. That means my Middle Relay and/or Bridge is generally safe to run in my home, on a computer with my personal files.

[lsemmens]

Thanks, Joe, then, how are the exit nodes handled, and where are they located?

[jwoegerbauer]

Thanks, Joe, then, how are the exit nodes handled, and where are they located?

To be honest: Don't know this.

[jok11n]

just for the record, tried this from China and it doesn't work

[jwoegerbauer]

just for the record, tried this from China and it doesn't work

Very vague. Please be more precise.

[jok11n]

Very vague. Please be more precise.

impossible to get a connection to any of the servers from China, everything just times out

[jwoegerbauer]

impossible to get a connection to any of the servers from China, everything just times out

At time of this writing 96 VPN Gate Public Relay Servers were listed.

Screenshot:


If a connetion you selected from the list couldn't be established then you get an error code shown in VPN Gate Client app.

As you say you always get "The connection has timed out" (Firefox) / "error 10060 connection timed out" (IE) or similar message shown in your browser, then your browser fails to connect to websites. It's not that VPN Gate Client doesn't work.

For me it seems to be a "DNS problem" you have, forced by Chinese authorities. It is well known that in China every DNS request is intercepted - for example when you try to visit from within China "www.facebook.com", you are redirected to an error page, etc.pp. Remember when you request a web site, your computer will ask a DNS (Domain Name System) server to look up the IP address for that website. Then your computer will call that IP to obtain the web page and files you wanted.

So: Have you used a free nameserver (DNS server) located outside China instead of the one used by your Chinese ISP?

[jok11n]

it was not possible to get a connection to any of the listed servers, never got to the stage of opening a browser, was worth a try but gave up in the end and just used a paid service

[jwoegerbauer]

it was not possible to get a connection to any of the listed servers, never got to the stage of opening a browser, was worth a try but gave up in the end and just used a paid service

Now I'm confused: What has a VPN connection to do with opening a browser?

Nevertheless, on my Windows 10 Home 64-bit machine my "VPN Downloader" solution ( VPN Gate Client v. 2015.08.31 64-bit, Firefox Nightly v. 44.0a1 64-bit, and qBittorrent v. 3.2.3 64-bit ) works perfectly. EDIT: Will not hide it, that I've noticed some of the VPN Gate Public Servers obviously have implemented filters (like OpenDNS), so you aren't able to visit porn sites for examples: you get redirected to an error page.

[Seymour Butts]

Your confused???
Christ Joey there are some here that actually drink from the fountain of knowledge, but from the look of things you've just admitted you did nothing more than gargle.

[jok11n]

Now I'm confused: What has a VPN connection to do with opening a browser?

Nevertheless, on my machine (Windows 10 Home 64-bit, Firefox Nightly v. 44.0a1 64-bit, VPN Gate Client v. 2015.08.31 64-bit) it works perfectly.

you brought that confusion on yourself by talking about error messages in browsers, I never got that stage as I mentioned, no point to open a browser when it's not even possible to get a connection to any of the servers, was nice of you to offer this alternative program to try but unfortunately it doesn't work from behind The Great Firewall of China

[tristen]

People seem to forget that jwoegerbauer's first language is German.

Now, I am no expert in German but have studied several other languages in addition to English, and have extensive experience in communicating with Europeans as well as those from Asia and other parts of the world, whose native language is not English.

The subtleties of language can be very confusing to say the least.

How often have we chuckled when reading the literal translation of an owner's manual accompanying the latest gizmo/acquisition from overseas, or thrown it down in frustration, when it failed to convey any useful or readily understood information to its English-speaking owner?

Languages do not all have the same rules regarding accidence and syntax.

One good example of this is rules regarding the use of, for example, verbs and their placement in a sentence, or of the tenses of verbs, (present, future, past, future-in-the-past etc.), their voices (active, passive), or of mood (indicative, subjunctive, imperative) etc.

The order of words in a sentence can also vary from one language to another, thus affecting the final meaning of the sentence.

It is quite erroneous for an English speaker to assume that a German speaker can successfully apply the same rules of grammar to interpret the meaning of an English sentence as he or she would to interpret the meaning of a sentence in a different language, in this case, German.

Add to this, the difficulty encountered when attempting to understand the various ways in which English speakers express themselves, not only due to regional use of the language but also due to its mis-use.

English has to be one of the most bastardized languages in existence today.

[lsemmens]

I think Tristen is correct here in that Joe has misunderstood some of the explanations. I have been playing with a vpn as part of my usenet account and have discovered that M$, for some reason, won't let my e-mail client (Outlook) talk to hotmail when I am running the VPN.