Proton VPN set up

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  • grimnar15

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Jul 21, 2019
    1,645
    Can we have a training class so I can understand what y'all have be talking about. I think I like it but I can't wrap my brain around the entirety of the discussion....

    Bump
     

    ToolAA

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Jun 17, 2016
    10,500
    God's Country
    Holy smokes it is unbelievable that we are having these types of conversations, no longer as a hypothetical.

    I moved this response here because I figured it was more applicable to the VPN discussion. I downloaded it last night, which takes about an hour from their server. The website totally walks you through the entire setup. Installation takes about 10min onto a USB drive or you can burn to DVD if you want.

    e65996315cdb2738f67e1c5aa744ba60.jpg



    Here is the Tails OS on my laptop. For windows you just restart while holding down the Shift key to enable a special menu to boot from USB.

    94c1680f870bb5351fbd180e1693f2a8.jpg


    It takes about 90sec to boot up then maybe another 60sec for Tor to do some background connection to the internet. However once its done it looks like a fairly basic interface. There are a surprising number of built in apps. Email, word processor, file management, tor browser. There appears to be no access to my actual PC files while using this. However there is space on the USB drive to save encrypted files. All of this would fit on a 1gb thumb drive. I’m using 64gb.

    Once you shut it off nothing is saved unless you choose to save it in the encrypted file locker. It seems like a really secure way to access the internet without any way to expose your own personal data to intruders. If you need to disconnect quickly you can just yank the USB right from the PC and pull the plug.

    In already have an encrypted thumb drive where I save my personal info and things like instructions for my wife if tomorrow I got hit by a meteor on the way home from work. I’m envisioning that I’m going to actually modify that with Tails. Then the files wouldn’t solely rely on MS word/ Excel or windows at all. Everything would be totally self contained. I also have an old windows tablet pc that I might flash with this as well. It would be really usefull to remain
    In the go bag.

    I would really like some others to check this out and weigh in. I will take a deeper look probably this weekend.

    YouTube Video Explaining Tails
    YouTube Video demonstrating installation and setup
     
    Last edited:

    ToolAA

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Jun 17, 2016
    10,500
    God's Country
    Yup. Just install Tails and am using it now on my laptop. Pretty nice so far.


    Were you already familiar with it, or did you just try it out for the first time? The reason I’m asking is that I have no experience with linux so while the user interface seems quite intuitive I really have no idea what’s happening behind the scenes. I’m just curious to know what a professional IT person thinks.
     

    Norton

    NRA Endowment Member, Rifleman
    Staff member
    Admin
    Moderator
    May 22, 2005
    122,856
    Tagging. I've been thinking about a VPN for years and just never got around to doing it. That may change soon.

    I did a TON of reading on all of the paid services, and they are all basically good. There are trade offs in performance/price/privacy for each.

    I picked Proton based on reviews, but also because I'll likely go there for email at some point.
     

    shootin the breeze

    Missed it by that much
    Dec 22, 2012
    3,878
    Highland
    The tails OS looks very intriguing. I'm a total Luddite compared to ToolAA. He's a true Renaissance man with his high level knowledge of varied skills.

    Not to sidejack Norton's thread but has anyone with a 2 (or more) user account gone through the process of getting the other users onboard? I read the instructions but refer back to Luddite with tech.
     

    Erock

    Member
    Oct 18, 2020
    5
    Starting a new group under a VPN and using your real name I feel defeats the purpose of using a VPN. It is my understanding that they do not require you to give a legal name to create a vpn. This is a great idea though.
     

    ToolAA

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Jun 17, 2016
    10,500
    God's Country
    I have a question about payment. My reason for setting up a free Proton mail account was to have some personal identity protection. Now I am seriously considering doing like Norton and just paying for the service and simply stop using gmail/hotmail/yahoo.

    However is it still possible to remain somewhat a anonymous with a paid account?

    Do any of you recommend trying to pay for ProtonMail/VPN anonymously? I setup a Privacy.com virtual credit card using my real name, but I don’t think you have to use your real name when creating the virtual credit cards.

    Is this something that I shouldn’t worry about and just my debit card?
     

    Norton

    NRA Endowment Member, Rifleman
    Staff member
    Admin
    Moderator
    May 22, 2005
    122,856
    I have a question about payment. My reason for setting up a free Proton mail account was to have some personal identity protection. Now I am seriously considering doing like Norton and just paying for the service and simply stop using gmail/hotmail/yahoo.

    However is it still possible to remain somewhat a anonymous with a paid account?

    Do any of you recommend trying to pay for ProtonMail/VPN anonymously? I setup a Privacy.com virtual credit card using my real name, but I don’t think you have to use your real name when creating the virtual credit cards.

    Is this something that I shouldn’t worry about and just my debit card?

    I just went ahead and did it with my secondary credit card and figured, well at this point come and get me.
     

    bibitor

    Kulak
    MDS Supporter
    Oct 10, 2017
    1,894
    FEMA Region III
    FYI for those using the Windows Client:

    https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ne...dows-bsod-crashes-due-to-antivirus-conflicts/

    ProtonVPN is working on fixing a bug causing Windows blue screen crashes affecting customers using the latest versions of the company's Windows client software.

    The BSOD crashes don't affect all users and are caused due to conflicts with unnamed antivirus software solutions.

    "We have received reports that in particular circumstances the latest versions of ProtonVPN Windows clients (the stable version 1.18.2, and the early access version 1.18.3) might lead to Blue Screen crashes in Windows, due to a conflict with certain antiviruses," ProtonVPN said.

    "We are actively working on a fix that will be made available as soon as possible," the company added in the status incident ticket opened over the weekend.

    Impacted customers are advised to disable their antivirus to prevent system crashes or to downgrade their ProtonVPN client.

    "If you are affected by this situation we advise to either temporary disable the antivirus that might enter into conflict while using ProtonVPN, or to downgrade to the previous stable version," the company said.

    ...

    Also, if your using Windows 10, third party antivirus software is not really necessary, the baked-in stuff is pretty good. There is a simple and cost effective way to keep your computer safe while surfing porn and pirating software conducting important business on your computer. Set-up and use a non-admin user profile restricted from running executables.
     

    ToolAA

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Jun 17, 2016
    10,500
    God's Country
    I've pretty much decided we are going to start moving all of our emails to Proton at some point, therefore it looks like their VPN is where we'll go to.

    I wanted to ask you how you have been liking the transition after 9 months.

    I've been using Express VPN and a free Proton account for about a year now. Proton for stuff where more valuable personal information is disclosed or thinks like my bank/accounting related emails. However, I've still been using gmail for everything else and I have an almost 20yr old hotmail account that's my throwaway email address when registering for crap online.

    However lately I'm thinking this is really a foolish approach. Those throwaway email sites that I give my hotmail account to, are probably the least secure in the chain. I think it's time to move 100% over to a paid Proton account.

    Could I ask which option you went with and how much it cost with the VPN. I'm looking at the VPN Plus plan which is $6.63/Month with a 2yr commitment and the Professional email which is $6.25/month with a 1yr commitment. However I cannot find any mention of a package deal for both which would save a little more money.

    Also have you had any problems or things that you dislike after you switched?
     

    Norton

    NRA Endowment Member, Rifleman
    Staff member
    Admin
    Moderator
    May 22, 2005
    122,856
    I'm still only using the VPN and just haven't had the time or emotional energy to deal with switching stuff over.

    Plus, still being immersed in government ecosystems that make use of Google tools, it really would be best for me to first make an intermediary jump to a Gmail account and ditch the AOL run account.

    That being said, the VPN is easy to use. The lag on my desktop is noticeable at times, not terrible, but noticeable. It does play hell with things like remembering passwords, getting lit up with CAPTCHAs on sites, and so forth.

    That is amplified buy also using Brave browser and a TOR window when using MDShooters and ARFCOM which is where I usually armor up the most.

    It's absolutely transparent on my phone on either public wifi or cell data. It's impressive there.
     

    ToolAA

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Jun 17, 2016
    10,500
    God's Country
    I'm still only using the VPN and just haven't had the time or emotional energy to deal with switching stuff over.

    Plus, still being immersed in government ecosystems that make use of Google tools, it really would be best for me to first make an intermediary jump to a Gmail account and ditch the AOL run account.

    That being said, the VPN is easy to use. The lag on my desktop is noticeable at times, not terrible, but noticeable. It does play hell with things like remembering passwords, getting lit up with CAPTCHAs on sites, and so forth.

    That is amplified buy also using Brave browser and a TOR window when using MDShooters and ARFCOM which is where I usually armor up the most.

    It's absolutely transparent on my phone on either public wifi or cell data. It's impressive there.


    The email switchover is daunting, but I’ve come to believe it’s probably a good decision, so I’m going to plow ahead. Like anything else if you listen to some people you would be creating a separate alias and or a forwarding address for every single online business/website that you need to register for. I’m not going that far, but what I’m doing now is downright sloppy and careless. If someone did happen to hack my gmail account I could really be screwed.

    The other thing I was debating was how to pay for the Proton Services. I tried to use a visa gift card but they will not accept that form of payment. I am toying with the idea of bitcoin but still a bit of a PITA. I don’t know if there is really any risk just using my own visa debit card, maybe that’a just me overthinking this too much.

    I’ll post a followup in a few weeks after I make some progress.
     

    shootin the breeze

    Missed it by that much
    Dec 22, 2012
    3,878
    Highland
    The email switchover is daunting, but I’ve come to believe it’s probably a good decision, so I’m going to plow ahead. Like anything else if you listen to some people you would be creating a separate alias and or a forwarding address for every single online business/website that you need to register for. I’m not going that far, but what I’m doing now is downright sloppy and careless. If someone did happen to hack my gmail account I could really be screwed.

    The other thing I was debating was how to pay for the Proton Services. I tried to use a visa gift card but they will not accept that form of payment. I am toying with the idea of bitcoin but still a bit of a PITA. I don’t know if there is really any risk just using my own visa debit card, maybe that’a just me overthinking this too much.

    I’ll post a followup in a few weeks after I make some progress.

    I'd be interested in your tutorial. You are a braniac in all things tech my friend. I have a paid account and the plan was (still is) to subdivide the account so my wife has one too. It's been awhile since I looked at it so I can't remember the terminology but you have to create something in order to be able to let others have addresses. I can't figure out how to do that. I know reading this will mean nothing until you start getting it set up for anyone other than yourself but then it will be obvious what I'm referring to. I'm no Luddite but sometimes it feels that way.
     

    Derek1320

    Active Member
    Nov 10, 2009
    791
    I bit the bullet and finally dumped Gmail and paid for ProtonMail last year. The switchover was a pain (from a logistics standpoint and remembering all the accounts to change, I didn’t alias/forward anything.)

    I just paid in advance for the year with my regular credit card. Too many potential exposure points to try to keep it clandestine and I’m using the account for all of my major credit cards and account administration purposes.
     

    Anotherpyr

    Ultimate Member
    I moved this response here because I figured it was more applicable to the VPN discussion. I downloaded it last night, which takes about an hour from their server. The website totally walks you through the entire setup. Installation takes about 10min onto a USB drive or you can burn to DVD if you want.

    e65996315cdb2738f67e1c5aa744ba60.jpg



    Here is the Tails OS on my laptop. For windows you just restart while holding down the Shift key to enable a special menu to boot from USB.

    94c1680f870bb5351fbd180e1693f2a8.jpg


    It takes about 90sec to boot up then maybe another 60sec for Tor to do some background connection to the internet. However once its done it looks like a fairly basic interface. There are a surprising number of built in apps. Email, word processor, file management, tor browser. There appears to be no access to my actual PC files while using this. However there is space on the USB drive to save encrypted files. All of this would fit on a 1gb thumb drive. I’m using 64gb.

    Once you shut it off nothing is saved unless you choose to save it in the encrypted file locker. It seems like a really secure way to access the internet without any way to expose your own personal data to intruders. If you need to disconnect quickly you can just yank the USB right from the PC and pull the plug.

    In already have an encrypted thumb drive where I save my personal info and things like instructions for my wife if tomorrow I got hit by a meteor on the way home from work. I’m envisioning that I’m going to actually modify that with Tails. Then the files wouldn’t solely rely on MS word/ Excel or windows at all. Everything would be totally self contained. I also have an old windows tablet pc that I might flash with this as well. It would be really usefull to remain
    In the go bag.

    I would really like some others to check this out and weigh in. I will take a deeper look probably this weekend.

    YouTube Video Explaining Tails
    YouTube Video demonstrating installation and setup

    The biggest weakness I see is the use of a USB drive. Since they aren’t read only devices, they can be compromised. There is a software switch to give them a read only behavior but it’s software so it can be changed without you knowing. A live dvd/cd version would be better with an encrypted usb for saving files. For that latter I’d want to see something more like a logging file system used so you could revert to an older version. But I haven’t given much thought to how you’d secure the prior versions from corruption which is the goal.

    Part 2: Who is behind it and what is their motivation? That’s the other question I’d want to have answered. Can they be trusted?
     

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