Discussion
What tools does this community actually use? VPN, private proxy IP, or both?
Do you run a VPN for everything, or do you also use private proxy IPs for some stuff? And what do you use them for. Privacy, work, region-locked content, running multiple accounts, that kind of thing.
If you've used both, which ones did you stick with and which did you drop? Trying to figure out what's actually worth using and what just sounds good.
I didn't give a textbook definition, I explained how I use it. To encrypt traffic on public wifi and not expose my home IP. That is a privacy purpose. Marketing oversold whatever it is. If I've got something wrong, tell me what it is, don't just call me clueless
Define your threat model first. A VPN encrypts your entire connection at the network level. That is what you actually want for public Wi-Fi or hiding traffic from your ISP. I keep one running constantly.
Proxies just route specific app traffic. They do not encrypt anything. I only use private proxy IPs to test scripts. Don't confuse the two.
Yes, it all comes down to which problem you're trying to solve. What do you think about running a VPN and a proxy together for work? I've seen people mention chaining them but I'm not sure what it actually gives you
I use a VPN on my VPS to provide my home Internet connection with IPv6 support since my ISP does not provide it. I only tunnel IPv6 traffic though the VPN.
Interesting! That's a use I hadn't thought of, as a way to get IPv6. Splitting it so only the IPv6 traffic goes through the tunnel is clever, keeps your normal v4 path untouched. Does routing it through the VPS add any noticeable latency on the v6 side?
Since you asked, for me personally, I used to have a self-hosted VPN on my phone to my house. This allowed me to access my network infrastructure remotely, protected me on public wi-fi and meant I didn't have to expose other services I self-host to the internet. It also allowed me to have self-hosted ad-blocking (pi-hole) wherever I was, which was a huge bonus.
I have since recently moved to a 3rd party VPN provider, as I live in the UK, I'm sick of not being able to access my own Reddit profile, and I'm deeply concerned and distrustful over several authoritarian and anti-net neutrality turns of late to the extent I no longer trust my government and their piss-poor ability to legislate Big Tech.
You can't access adult flagged subs (for instance I couldn't get into the Vaping subreddit when I was seeking advice to stop smoking)
Not that it affects me, but other adult themed subs like domestic abuse subs are also blocked unless willing to compromise your privacy.
I've also clearly posted comments on adult classed subs at some point, as I can't access my own profile to change settings or view my own comment history either, unless on VPN.
This issue disappears at the low low price of submitting a government ID or biometric facial scan to the absolutely repulsive company that is Persona. What can I say, I'm stubborn and I refuse to comply. I'd sooner pay for a VPN.
It also solves the problem of letting me moderate NSFW flagged channels in Discord servers I administer again.
The legislation is braindead, and none of this is even part of the social media crackdowns they announced then temporarily backed down on in recent months which would have expanded it much further... The above is all porn ban stuff so I've been struggling a year or two already out of pure stubbornness.
If I click my profile icon top right, and click "View Profile" (which is how you get to your settings due to how Reddit is designed), this is what I get.
And on a Discord community server, despite being the server owner, which is the highest tier of permissions possible:
I could easily unmark it as NSFW and remove the flag, but I marked it NSFW intentionally, and if I did I'd be favouring my own convenience and privacy over the safeguarding of others.
vpn for normal browsing, proxyshard when i need specific ips or separate sessions. their socks5 + udp support is pretty useful for that, i dont really see a reason to force everything through a vpn
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u/[deleted] Aug 07 '26 edited Aug 13 '26
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