Thanks for the suggestions, but what I am really after is an accessible open VPN client that I can put my own details in. I am not after a VPN which is linked to a VPN service.
On 7 Jun 2014, at 20:26, Paul Erkens <paul.erk...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi, > > Yes I tried 2 solutions, both of which do work. I'll add some explanations > for those who are curious what vpn can do for you. But in short, these are > usable for us: > www.proxpn.com, iphone as well as mac, and: > www.getcloak.com . > > So what does vpn do for us, normal iphone users? An example. > If you are at a coffee shop and you get your mail from an old server at your > provider, then your phone must log in to the mail service, so you can get > your own mail. To do that, the phone in your hand needs to send your email > credentials, i.e. your mail username and mail server password, over to the > email server from which you want your mail to be sent to you. By design, > email protocols do not encrypt anything. Normally, that is not an immediate > problem. But when you are on a wifi hotspot, to your phone that is the same > thing as if you connect to your private wifi lan at home. And at home, every > computer can see and connect to all others. Likewise, In a coffee shop, all > devices on the coffee shop's same wifi spot, can see each other as well. With > a specialized program running on a laptop or on an Android phone from someone > else in the shop, folks are able to see all traffic from all people, > including from your own phone, that runs by inside the coffee shop's wifi > network. Your phone is transmitting your email username and password through > the air, so everything and everyone around you, can catch that, if they know > how to do that. And it's not hard. > > If people have your email password, they can visit sites, and ask for a > password reset by email. And because the stranger now has access to your > mail, they can change your password on your important sites, and that account > of yours is then hacked. You don't want that to happen, do you? > > Luckily, modern email servers allow you to set up an encrypted connection, > starting from your phone all the way through the wifi and through the net, > over to your mail server, so that's a better deal if you can have encrypted > email, because no one along the way can read your traffic if it is encrypted. > For that to work, your email provider must support secure mail using > something called ssl. If you use ssl connections to get your mail while you > are on an untrusted wifi network, then you're good to go. Unfortunately, not > all and every internet service supports encrypted connections, so it would be > nice to have a general solution, that covers not just your email traffic for > your phone, but all traffic from and to the phone. And that's what vpn can > solve. > > A vpn eliminates this problem. Let me explain it this way. At home, your > network is safe, because you own it. So, how awesome would it be, if you > could make an encrypted connection from your phone in the coffee shop to your > house, and then get safely on to the internet from there.Then, no one can > look at your traffic. Well of course they can, but they will only see static > noise, rubbish, garbage coming by, because that's what encryption does. > > If you had a vpn server running at home, then you could connect to it using > your phone, while you are in a coffee shop, or in anotheruntrusted wifi > network, and because it's vpn, virtual private network, your phone encrypts > your traffic, sends it home, and the vpn server there, then throws it on to > the internet just as usual. So if you had a vpn server yourself, you could > communicate through it in a very safe way, because folks around you cannot > see what you are doing, and therefore not get a hold of your passwords as > they fly through the air, from your phone to the open wifi. > > Unfortunately, running a vpn server at home is not easy. I've tried it, and > boy is it frustrating. For me it worked, and then it stopped working. I > managed to fix it, and something else broke. You can have a vpn server using > a windows xp box at home, and you can also do it on a mac at home, and > probably on windows 7 or 8 but I'm not sure of those, but most people will > agree that it is troublesome. > > So therefore, commercial companies exist that do a good job. The principle is > the same. Now, you make an encrypted vpn tunnel using your phone, not to your > house, but into the commercial vpn server, run by the company you choose. > From there, your traffic is decrypted, and then sent on, through the regular > internet. To the service you are using, it will lokk as if you are physically > located at the same place where the vpn server is. > > It's not very expensive, a few bucks a month ranging from 3 or 4 to ten, > depending on who you choose. And it's a nice way to protect yourself from > other machines seeing your traffic. I was in Turky, and from my hotel, I > could not listen to Dutch radio streams. But when I turned on my vpn, which > was allowed, my tunnel ended in the Netherlands, and from there, the hotel > could not block me from listening to my favorite local news stream, because > the vpn connection is encrypted, so filters inside the hotel wifi prohibiting > me from doing stuff, can't catch the traffic. > > Pro xpn is a service that has a 7 day trial. If you like it, you can go > premium, which means that you then get access to your iphone vpn as well. > Within 7 days of purchase, no questions asked, you can get your money back. > Pro xpn has an iphone app, too. This app creates a profile for your iphone. > If you've never seen this before, it's something that changes all necessary > settings inside your iphone, in one single go. For instance, some time ago, > with pro xpn, you still had to go into your iphone vpn settings, and then > enter loads of stuff. A username, a password, ports, choice of protocol and > what not. But once you install the pro xpn iphone app, the app creates a > profile, and all we need to do now, is accept to install it, and off you go, > because the app creates all your necessary iphone vpn settings. That's a > breeze. If you now want to be protected by pro xpn, simply go into iphone > settings and turn on vpn. You can verify that it's working, if you see the > vpn icon in the iphone status bar. Pro xpn also has a mac app. It's > accessible and I'm using it daily. In this app, you can choose where you want > your vpn traffic to emerge on to the big internet. > > If you listen to Leo Laporte's podcast called security now, which is on > www.twit.tv , then you'll get a promo code, which gives you 20 percent off, > not for the first month, but for the lifetime of your account until you > cancel. I don't want to give out this promo code, because the security now > podcast is really a thing you will want to listen to, if you are security > aware, or at least interested in it, and I'd like not to spoil Leo's efforts. > I myself have pro xpn. > > There is also a thing called cloak. Basically the same thing. It creates a > profile, and setting up is a snap. You can buy a lasting subscription, but > this thing allows you to buy a month pass for 10 bucks, so that you can get > vpn when you want it, and not have it and not pay for it, if you decide so. > Cloak has the advantage of automatically protecting your traffic, if the app > sees that you are now connected to a wifi network that you did not explicitly > trust. In other words, you are always protected, unless you go off wifi, > which is normally reasonably safe, and all shields are also down if you > decide to trust your home wifi network. Cloak turn on and off your vpn > connection as needed. I did not personally try the cloak mac app, but I did > have it on my iphone and it works fine and accessibly. > > Hth, > Paul. > On Jun 5, 2014, at 12:23 PM, Chris Moore <apple.geek.ch...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> Hello, >> >> Anyone know of an accessible Open VPN client for the Mac? >> >> I have tried TunnelBlick, but I can't access the icon which appears in the >> menu. >> >> Any suggestions? >> >> Chris >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "MacVisionaries" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >> To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. >> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. 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