[Cialug] VPN success

[Matthew Nuzum]

On Mon, Apr 6, 2015 at 10:10 AM, Jeffrey Ollie <jeff at ocjtech.us> wrote:

> Is the hotel blocking SSH connections?


I just want to tell people about a success I had. I'd been seeing these ads
for Atlantic.net offering a VPS for $0.99 per month. It only supports 256MB
of RAM and is an entry level product, possibly even a loss leader.

I thought to myself, "I used to run dozens of websites off of a Cobalt Raq
2 that had only 256MB of RAM, so certainly there's something fun I could do
with a VPS like this."

Not long after that I was sitting in Burger King with my laptop, using the
free Wifi and I was on Wikipedia and noticed banner ads for AT&T on the
page. My instant reaction was disgust because the ads really looked out of
place, like they were just tacked on. Sometimes they would pop over the
content.

Then I realized something fishy was happening. I realized I was using http
to visit Wikipedia so I switched to https and they went away. I realized
now that whoever Burger King uses to provide Wifi (AT&T?) was injecting the
ads.

So I had my idea for how to use a $0.99/mo VPS - a VPN server.

I set up a server, configured it as an IPSec VPN and then configured my
personal computer, my phone and my iPad to use it. I also set up my son's
computer and gave him user accounts for a couple of his friends so that
they could use it instead of Himachi.

Whenever I use a hotel or free hotspot I instantly connect to the VPN.
Everything I want to do works great.

Just a note: You can have only one of these "go" servers, the $0.99 level
VPS, at a time. If you want another server you have to step up to the
$4.97/mo server. I haven't had to deal with support, but from billing and
reliability perspectives, it's been fine. Their UI for admin is not pretty
nor very easy to use (contrast to Digital Ocean which has a far better UX),
but it gets the job done.

Sometimes when I connect to a website it thinks I'm in the UK, but not
always. It hasn't stopped me from doing anything I want.

-- 
Matthew Nuzum
newz2000 on freenode, skype, linkedin and twitter

♫ You're never fully dressed without a smile! ♫