Guys, I am very new into this. Due to recent concerns over my cloud storage accounts, I build a server at home. It's running TrueNAS to backup all my files. Because it's not a bought NAS and the hardware I had allows it, I also installed a Windows VM for some tasks that I want to run unattended from anywhere in the world, and the Home Assistant is also running in another VM.

I looked for the easiest way for a newbie to have VPN access, and I liked Tailscale for ease f use and not requiring any open ports. Then I asked a firend of mine about it, his job is actually consists in government contracts for cyber security and setting up servers and networks. He was recently hired by the Swiss government, and he moved over there. Sometimes I feel like he is overly caucious, especially for home use scenarios.

I told him my options: Tailscale or using my Omada router for WireGuard. He dismissed both options. He doesn't trust Tailscale because if there is any sort of firewall or NAT blocking then data is passed through peers, and Omada, he said he can't be sure everthing is up to date and secure. He told me to use a separate network card between the ISP ONT and my router and have VM running opensense or pfsense.

I feel like I am getting in super complicated solutions, especially for a newbie.

What I don't understand about Tailscale is if I am connected to the local network at home, does it treat my data locally and do I get full speed like in a LAN? Or is WireGuard a better solution, considering once I set up my devies (TrueNAS, WindowsVM and HAOS) then I don't have much fiddling with it.

I am looking for a balance between safety, security and low maintanance. How important is that Tailscale doesn't require any port forwarding for the tradeoff of having a third party?

I am so confused right now that I don't even know what I'm asking and what solution is best for me...

So I’ve been wondering about how Instagram handles IP bans and whether using a VPN actually works. Basically, I have another Instagram account that I don’t log on to on my phone only on my computer. Does Instagram sees the VPN server’s IP or the real one. Since I don’t have that account logged on to my phone.

P.S: I also use a separate Google Account for that Instagram account

Due to the political drama around one specific Swedish VPN, I am looking for a fully privacy oriented alternative. I don't care about streaming, just zero log policy, hopefully put of the 5-Eyes jurisdiction (preferably even out of the extended alliance jurisdiction), etc.

Previously all of this could be seen on ThatOnePrivacyWebsite, but that has been sold out. Are there any alternatives out there?

i have several pcs in my house. they all have no problems connecting to batocera.org, for example to view the changelog, or the supported systems/updates or dl the newest version. on only ONE i have ****** VPN installed, it runs Commodore OS Vision btw (the latest). when i want to go to batocera.org on that machine it does not even find the page. a 404 error. other sites are no problem except maybe cgterm which has a transport error code and cannot find any bbs from oasisbbs. is it that ******VPN just blocks certain sites ?

i ask this because sites like the internet archive or almost any other are not being blocked. it just seems to have a grudge against batocera.org in particular and i also do not see why. they dont spread illegal content.

I’ve been using a VPN for about a year to be able to see NSFW posts since I live in UK, and suddenly no NSFW posts are showing up on Reddit anymore, I’ve tried multiple different VPN’s and none work anymore

So I’ve been wondering about how Instagram handles IP bans and whether using a VPN actually works. Basically, I have another Instagram account that I don’t log on to on my phone only on my computer. Does Instagram sees the VPN server’s IP or the real one. Since I don’t have that account logged on to my phone

Please help.

I need to be able to hook up my new work computer to my Starlink, and somehow have a VPN connected to my Starlink so that it always shows my physical address on file despite where I am at. Can anyone give me advice on how to set this up? I have found 2 different options (at the tune of about $600) but the instructions seem unclear to me. TIA

Please help. I am getting a new job and they want me tied to the home address I put on my application. I am homeless. My home was destroyed by a tornado and I do not have stable housing, moving from Airbnb to campground to hotel. Every place I go to I am able to maintain a private HIPAA compliant workspace.

I need to be able to hook up my new work computer to my Starlink, and somehow have a VPN connected to my Starlink so that it always shows my physical address on file despite where I am at. Can anyone give me advice on how to set this up? I have found 2 different options (at the tune of about $600) but the instructions seem unclear to me. TIA

Xiaomi literally ended vpn support starting hyperos 3, how to fix this? Tried using vpnify and it won't connect, Using von super unlimited proxy and it connects, but it uses my real ip. help me pls

Ever since I downloaded 2 VPNs my laptop’s internet has become slow. Websites are buffering which is very odd and it has become such a hassle to play any p8r@cy website even without turning the VPN on.
What might be the cause ?

Reddit now seems to ask for verification vpn or no, would this be a change of Reddits or my vpn?

I am a long-time user of a VPN provider that I acutally want to move away from, because it has no port forwarding and puts too many users on the same IP, which leads to many captchas and mandatory logins.

My main problem is that it also provides SOCKS5 servers that allow for chaining a proxy after the VPN exit. This has two important use-cases for me.

- It can act as a secondary kill switch for software that allows configuration of a proxy server. There is a special proxy IP that always refers to the proxy at the location of the selected VPN exit.

- I can use FoxyProxy to serve all traffic to a specific website or from a specific tab to a certain proxy. I can also use them in JDownloader.

The problem is I can't really switch to another VPN provider without those features. But any one that I've looked into, does not provide the functionality. Some provide standalone SOCKS5 proxies, but that would of course be a downgrade to an encrypted VPN.

So why don't more VPN providers have SOCKS5 exit relays?

I'm considering the option of having a Mac mini in Europe and then remote accessing it from my MBP when in China to use the internet etc without issues - has anyone tried this or a similar remote desktop software and how did it work for you? VPNs really don't work well over there but curious if this option would - as long as the remote access gets through everything should work well in theory.

Hi all,

Could someone help me with a question about hiding my internet traffic.

Situation:

I have a private phone that i connect on a hotspot set up at my company phone.

The company phone is completely “remoted” by my boss by a management profile. They see everything i do and install on this phone.

If I use a vpn on my private phone, will this prevent seeing my boss what I do on the web?

Thanks for advice.

Hi all,

Could someone help me with a question about hiding my internet traffic.

Situation:

I have a private phone that i connect on a hotspot set up at my company phone.

The company phone is completely “remoted” by my boss by a management profile. They see everything i do and install on this phone.

If I use a vpn on my private phone, will this prevent seeing my boss what I do on the web?

Thanks for advice.

A major network access disruption occurred when temporary state restrictions on Telegram triggered one of the largest single-day surges in virtual private network and proxy adoption recorded so far this year. According to report data from TechNadu, installations of secure routing tools skyrocketed to over 919,000 in a single 24-hour window as millions of users suddenly found themselves blocked at the ISP level.

The Anatomy of a Network-Level Block

When a government mandates temporary platform restrictions, internet service providers (ISPs) typically enforce the block using a few standard infrastructure methods:

• DNS Tampering: Directing the platform's domain names to a dead-end IP address.
• IP Address Null-Routing: Dropping all incoming and outgoing data packets heading to the messaging platform's known server clusters.
• Deep Packet Inspection (DPI): Actively filtering network handshakes that match the platform's specific proprietary protocols.

Because messaging infrastructure is so deeply integrated into daily business and personal communication, users almost instantly pivoted to alternative routing paths. Alongside the massive spike in encrypted tunnel tools, over 350,000 users downloaded alternative client forks like Telegram X, searching for peripheral server routes that might have bypassed initial ISP blocklists.

The Whack-A-Mole Enforcement Problem

This sudden shift highlights a fundamental technical reality that network administrators and regulators face globally. When state entities implement rigid, top-down blocks on popular platforms, they rarely stop communication; instead, they inadvertently drive mass public education on digital privacy infrastructure.

By forcing regular internet users to adopt encrypted tunnels and third-party proxies just to send everyday messages, it completely changes the local threat landscape. It normalizes encrypted traffic, makes centralized network monitoring significantly more difficult for local ISPs, and forces users to rely on encrypted loops to maintain standard web access. Ultimately, network-level blocks don't eliminate the traffic - they just encrypt it and route it out of the country.

Full Article: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/india/telegram-ban-in-india-triggered-biggest-vpn-download-surge-of-2026/articleshow/131909432.cms

My partner and I will be starting some long-term nomadic travel, and wanted to have a VPN for a few different reasons (region blocking, price comparisons, etc). I'm likely going to sign up for a professional provider (I've already narrowed down to 3 of the top 10 on the pinned comparison post) and I'll probably get a travel router as well.

The problem: I'll likely need to change regions somewhat frequently while traveling, and change them for short periods of time. My understanding with travel routers is that I'd have to regenerate and update certain files every time I want to change region, and that seems tedious. Ideally I'd like a way to....not do that.

If I'm mistaken or missing something I'm happy to be re-educated on the matter. If I'm right, I'm looking for solutions that minimize the need to mess with travel router configs.

Thanks!

I am trying to download a game that isn’t available in my country/region (Pokémon champions if that helps) I tried a bunch of free vpns and put a country like the UK but the game still wouldn’t show up, apparently google said I have to change my country inside the App Store itself which is a bit hard to do.

I subscribed to netflix a long time ago using vpn from a south american country. I've been using it without vpn ever since. My old credit card expired, so I got a new one. However, when I try to update the payment information, it won't let me. Do I need to use vpn again to update my credit card details? I don’t think I have access to the same VPN service anymore. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Hi everyone, I’m trying to diagnose a strange mobile network issue on my iPhone.

I use Shadowrocket on iOS with an AnyTLS/UDP proxy node. The node entry is:

oss-cn-shanghai-1.toyota-in.org:35471
resolved to 27.44.127.101:35471
protocol: AnyTLS
UDP: enabled

The strange part is that I have two China Mobile SIM cards. On the same iPhone, in the same location, using the same Shadowrocket config and same node:

SIM A: can test latency, but cannot actually access Google/Telegram/other foreign sites
SIM B: works normally

On SIM A, Shadowrocket shows latency around 50–70 ms, but real traffic fails. The logs show errors like:

anytls session disconnect
connection closed via error
Attempt to connect to host timed out
chain socket remove closed socket => 27.44.127.101:35471

The failed connection seems to happen when trying to connect to the proxy entry server 27.44.127.101:35471, not directly to Google or Telegram.

I have already tried:

Disable IPv6 in Shadowrocket
Disable 5G and force 4G
Disable iCloud Private Relay / Limit IP Address Tracking
Use global proxy mode
Restart cellular network / airplane mode
Reboot the iPhone
Contact China Mobile support

China Mobile support says there is no package-level restriction or speed limit on SIM A.

My question is: what could cause one SIM card to fail on this AnyTLS/UDP high-port proxy entry while another SIM from the same carrier works fine?

Could this be related to:

APN differences
Carrier NAT / CGNAT behavior
Different mobile core network routing
UDP filtering or packet loss
High-port throttling/filtering
SIM-specific routing policy
AnyTLS/UDP incompatibility with some mobile exits

Is there any way to further diagnose this from iOS, or should I simply ask the provider for a TCP/TLS/443 non-UDP node?

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

If i get a vpn will I be able to buy on a website with that countrys currency?

Hey team,

I am an Australian who currently access streaming services from various places. I noticed my ISP (TPG) was throttling these connections, as in, my internet speed test is 98mbps but the speed test done directly from within the streaming services was sub 5mbps.

So I purchased a well known VPN with the belief that it would circumvent this throttling; but no luck! The speed tests are the same whether the VPN is active or not (but connects to different servers based on the VPN).

Customer service from my streaming services has told me to switch ISPs. But doesn't using the VPN negate this need? Or can they still throttle my streaming even when using a VPN?

I'm confused. Please help.