Mobile (android) VPN service

[Ham]

Prompted by a forthcoming trip  to Cuba, I figger I need to look at VPN, which has wider use for any time you end up linking up through unknown wifi, wondered if anyone has considered.

There appears to be three options:

1) Free VPN app. Sounds dodgy for any number of reasons.

2) Paid VPN app. Yeah, but which and how much?

3) Set up a server at home, tunnel through the FW <-- probably not the most secure thing

Summat else? Not worrying about the limited times I have to use open wifi is a possibility, but as public wifi is pretty much the only way to get online to pay for bus tickets etc, it sounds a high risk thing, so (2) seems best, with a service that will let me pay for months as I need it.

[Kim]

Meh, this is what TLS is for.

If you need a VPN to stop important data flying around in the clear, then it's only going to help you if the VPN terminates at the (LAN of the) service you're accessing.

[Ham]

Open wifi is always subject to hijack, which could leave your https around your ankles, which paranoia can be fixed with VPN.

[Greenbank]

Meh, this is what TLS is for.

Can be unreliable though (e.g. sslstrip, etc).

HSTS/cert-stapling isn't implemented widely enough (or well enough) either.

[thing1]

IME the most practical uses of VPN are to get around location specific routing blocks. E.g.
- iPlayer when outside UK
- pretty much anything when inside China's great wall

I generally used liquidVPN on basis it had a PAYG model, but in practice that wasn't so convenient to use so would look around for another if I need one again.
I did recently find this useful looking VPN review site
https://vpnreviewer.com/best-vpn
https://vpnreviewer.com/not-use-free-vpn

[ian]

Note that Cuba has very limited external external internet (near to zero for residents, tourists have a seperate network available in hotels and resorts, but there's still limited bandwidth as they can't, as far as I know, connect via the big cables in the USA and have to go via Venezuela).

[jiberjaber]

Worth taking a look at Algo https://github.com/trailofbits/algo which I think it designed with your use case in mind.  You can use this to host a VPN in the cloud at your choice of provider or on your own server

DigitalOcean, Amazon EC2, Microsoft Azure, Google Compute Engine, or your own server

IIRC Amazon offer a 1 year free instance for example.  I went for a digitalocean 'droplet' server recently to try it out ($5/month) and it worked fine.  It's an IPSEC protocol so should not require any third party software on android for it to work (unlike an OpenVPN which will may well require a VPN client on your android device)

[Ham]

Worth taking a look at Algo https://github.com/trailofbits/algo which I think it designed with your use case in mind.  You can use this to host a VPN in the cloud at your choice of provider or on your own server

DigitalOcean, Amazon EC2, Microsoft Azure, Google Compute Engine, or your own server

IIRC Amazon offer a 1 year free instance for example.  I went for a digitalocean 'droplet' server recently to try it out ($5/month) and it worked fine.  It's an IPSEC protocol so should not require any third party software on android for it to work (unlike an OpenVPN which will may well require a VPN client on your android device)

Interesting, given the limited use I will have to decide whether I actually fancy fannying about or buy into one recommended on the VPN review

Certainly looks like what I wanted if I was going to build my own.

[bobb]

I'm looking at this for when I'm away next month.

NordVPN looks good as does Hidden 24

Hidden 24 is cheaper and offers a 1 month deal, so I might go for that. Only offers servers in the UK, but that's all I want...

[Ham]

And following up on my op.... VPN for Cuba? faghettabahit. I hadn't appreciated that there is actually no mobile access to the Internet in Cuba, with WiFi being available in a few public locations (parks, squares) which are frequently overrun with people and underrun with bandwidth. Access to sites isn't the issue, speed is.

[bobb]

Dumb question, but once I've set up the VPN on my phone, can I choose whether or not to connect using it?

[Ham]

All those I have seen allow you to do that