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Speaking of VPNs and technology, I will be be spending a lot of time in Thailand starting in April or May if my O-A visa gets approved.

 

What do people use to pay bills and do online banking? Or other secure transactions? I'm thinking along the lines of security. Is the standard https fine? I have 'https everywhere' enabled in my browsers. I think that is 128 bit encryption. (Oddly the cryptoware virus uses 2048 bit encryption :)

 

If https is the low end of things maybe it is wise to have a VPN for added security and be able to dl porn once in a while.

 

I know I have to make arrangements with each bank and credit card company telling them I will be living in Thailand and travelling.

 

I do not use Windows. I use Linux so I have a bit more security built in, though nothing is 100% secure.

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I've used purevpn on both computer and phone..works great. The cost is about $8USD / month.

 

Make sure you cancel the autocharge if you use paypal for any of the vpns as most like to debit your account every month automatically.

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I use VPN unlimited. You can download it from the App Store on Apple or for Windows as well. It works cross platforms as well, so if you buy the package for your windows computer, it will work on your iPad/Macbook/iPhone as well.

 

They have different packages but the one that I subscribed to cost $24.99 for 1 year which works out to slightly more than $2 a month. Well worth the money if you ask me.

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I use SurfEasy - a USB VPN. Beyond a VPN, it also opens a secure browser so anything you do stays within that and when you remove the USB, all traces are gone.....great for work and family computers :-)

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Thanks for the suggestions. Looks like all 3 options will work with Linux in one way or another. The SurfEasy seems like a Tor browser kind of setup.

 

Purevpn and VPN Unlimited might be easy as well as it installs on your system. I'll check them out.

 

The only thing I do not like about Hola is it appears more like a file sharing application only instead of routing specific files through one's computer it appears to route internet traffic through your computer.

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I use SurfEasy - a USB VPN. Beyond a VPN, it also opens a secure browser so anything you do stays within that and when you remove the USB, all traces are gone.....great for work and family computers :-)

Mike can you tell us more about how it works?

Thanks

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As an alternative you could try freegate (google freegate). Doesn't need a VPN and can be ran from HD or a USB stick. You can surf anonimously and access blocked sites from anywhere. The only cons are that it's Windows only. The pros are that it's completely free of charge.
Otherwise, if a VPN and different platforms is what you require, try witopia. I use it since 2010 when I could not access facebook from China. Costs about USD40/yr and has connection gateways all over the world.

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So I've noticed that many LB/porn sites are blocked in Thailand. Has anyone ever used a commercial VPN to circumvent this? Any recommendations for VPN providers?

 

Thanks!

For porno, I do fine with Zenmate and it's free. It runs on Firefox and Google Chrome (perhaps more browsers) and runs on Macs too, since it's a browser addon. I use it on Linux, since that's what I drive. It runs every porn site I've ever visited in Thailand (I live here and have for many years). I used to use Hola (another freebie) but Zenmate is much more reliable (perhaps Hola's improved). An aside: shemaletube.com never seems to be blocked in Thailand and IMO it has the best content (for my needs :).

 

Download and install for 1) Chrome, 2 Firefox...

 

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/zenmate-security-privacy/fdcgdnkidjaadafnichfpabhfomcebme?hl=en

 

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/zenmate-security-privacy-vpn/

 

Of course VPNs are classified as "easy" breakins by the NSA, so if you've got huge privacy concerns...you'd be better off with Tor or Tails (but you'll suffer as far as speed goes. Tor runs slower than the regular Net). I usually (given the slow speed of my hotel connection) download a video rather than try to watch it streaming. Both Chrome and Firefox have good tools to download anything off porno sites or youtube (but Firefox tools are better IMO.).

Edited by DeepnHard

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Speaking of VPNs and technology, I will be be spending a lot of time in Thailand starting in April or May if my O-A visa gets approved.

 

What do people use to pay bills and do online banking? Or other secure transactions? I'm thinking along the lines of security. Is the standard https fine? I have 'https everywhere' enabled in my browsers. I think that is 128 bit encryption. (Oddly the cryptoware virus uses 2048 bit encryption :)

 

If https is the low end of things maybe it is wise to have a VPN for added security and be able to dl porn once in a while.

 

I know I have to make arrangements with each bank and credit card company telling them I will be living in Thailand and travelling.

 

I do not use Windows. I use Linux so I have a bit more security built in, though nothing is 100% secure.

That's a concern with banks. So far I've ignored the possibility. Every bank I know forces you to an https link anyway, but I use HTTPS Everywhere too anyway. Of course as came out with Snowden, https is no match for state (in)security services like the NSA since the NSA just strongarms to ISPs into handing over the SSL keys, or uses other attacks. Supposedly they can crack 1024 bit keys, so Google has just doubled that to 2048 bit. But HTTPS is probably still safe against Mafia and exwives. :)

 

VPNs are even less safe but again may be fine for the average user not pursued by a nuclear armed superpower. Zenmate is a VPN (as is Hola, I think).

 

For reference, here's a good summary of the state of the art in computer communications security around "Snowden time":

 

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/inside-the-nsa-s-war-on-internet-security-a-1010361.html

 

A good "howto" guide here from EFF:

 

https://ssd.eff.org/en

Edited by DeepnHard

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Zenmate's worked fine for me, free with the occasional nag screen. No trouble with porn sights or political sites (if you could call the Daily Mail a political site).

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What stands Wangle out from the others is the promised speed & data optimisation .

For some reason my connection speeds and throughput (eg download time) don't go down when I connect through Zonealarm.

 

It's main virtue of ZA is it's free and I don't need to trust it (eg for bank transactions) I use HTTPS Everywhere (addon) anyway, which forces https connections, which are encrypted (but as others have said, not invulnerable to "large malicious state entities" (eg my government) or at 1024 bits perhaps from Mafia types. I used to know more about computer security than I do now, having forgotten most of it, and the articles....well, I'd rather read a good novel these days.

Edited by DeepnHard

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I always use ExpressVPN when I travel abroad at least to ensure that media block isn't on services I enjoy US versions of e.g. Netflix. If you are somewhat technically proficient and have a router that supports vpn, it isn't too difficult of a process to set up your own free vpn, and bandwidth should be even better since you're the only one accessing from that address.

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For some reason my connection speeds and throughput (eg download time) don't go down when I connect through Zonealarm.

 

It's main virtue of ZA is it's free and I don't need to trust it (eg for bank transactions) I use HTTPS Everywhere (addon) anyway, which forces https connections, which are encrypted (but as others have said, not invulnerable to "large malicious state entities" (eg my government) or at 1024 bits perhaps from Mafia types. I used to know more about computer security than I do now, having forgotten most of it, and the articles....well, I'd rather read a good novel these days.

To me it is amazing that banks and financial services do not push for 2048 bit or even 4096 bit. Plus... none of my banks offer 2 factor authentication. Disaster in the making.

 

I'm slowly switching everything over to encrypted protocols. I'm lazy... it will take a while.

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I bought and used PureVPN. Don’t know much about technicalities but seems to work fine.  I was able to listen to Sirius XM, watched some espn college football games live and other pro us sports and accessed all other normal stuff I access in US - including the forum- via my iPad. Says it has a separate server for Netflix but didn’t try it. Was 60 dollars US for 60 months. I use it back home too, couple of minor issues but support was very good and issues resolved quickly. 

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