I've been experimenting with some free VPNs, and it looks like Riseup is legit. I'm able to torrent on it without issue and the speeds are acceptable for my connection.

How come we don't recommend this more? Everyone is always saying "no free vpns," but how many of you have actually tried them? I feel like I've been wasting money on my VPN ever since I found Riseup.

Are we just being hustled by the viral marketers and their useful idiots?

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[–] orca@orcas.enjoying.yachts 17 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Free = you’re the product. I’d rather continue to pay for Mullvad at $5 per month.

[–] sonalder@lemmy.ml 16 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Riseup VPN is not a commercial VPN and works in a different way that most VPN, basically it allow you to root traffic through their foundation's servers. You have no guarantee to have great speed at any time or based on your current geolocation. Remember that a VPN does not bring privacy or anonymity but yes for a free VPN it's better than the majority of options.

[–] liliumstar@lemmy.dbzer0.com 28 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The primary reason free VPNs/proxies are not recommended is due to the high amount of abuse that flows through them. As a sysop, it's just easier to blanket ban all those IPs.

I have ethical concerns with your use of RiseUp as well. They are trying to offer a useful service to people on a donation basis, and you are funnelling a large amount of traffic through them.

[+] commander@lemmings.world -53 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Ethical concerns? Lmao. Are you trying to argue they don't want people using their service?

Have you even read anything about them?

Edit for the useful idiots (of which there are a lot of you): "At Riseup, we believe it is important for everyone to use some technology like VPN or Tor to encrypt their internet traffic. Why? Because the internet is being broken by governments, internet service providers (ISPs), and corporations. RiseupVPN will fight that"

[–] DebatableRaccoon@lemmy.ca 22 points 1 week ago (1 children)

So because their blurb is anti-establishment-inclined, we're meant to blindly trust it? What about in 2016 where they willingly gave up user's information because the FBI asked nicely? That doesn't sound like a very secure service to my ears. In fact, it paints a certain picture that Riseup isn't a no-logs service.

The reason we value a no-logs service so highly is because without logs, a service couldn't snitch on a user even if they wanted to, even if the person(s) behind the company had ethical issues with what one of their users was doing with their service and decided they don't meet the criteria of people who should have access to privacy while using the internet. A no-logs policy allows for an agnostic service. The inherent risk of true privacy on the internet is that someone is going to use it to break the law but does that mean a singular person or entity should have the right to decide whether that person is entitled to privacy? To me, that sounds a lot like the antithesis of what Riseup's goal is. Are you going to keep advertising them knowing that?

[+] commander@lemmings.world -32 points 6 days ago (1 children)

The fuck? The commenter was saying they don't want people using their service, and now you're saying we shouldn't trust them when they say why they provide it?

At some point, it's easier to acknowledge that most of you don't want to admit you're paying for something that you could be getting for free.

It's okay, I see it all the time and don't expect more from the average internet user at this point.

[–] DebatableRaccoon@lemmy.ca 21 points 6 days ago (1 children)

liliumstar explained why free VPNs aren't a recommended option, not that they had any personal preference either towards or against Riseup but it's clear you just read what you want to read, whether any of those words are there or not.

It's also clear that your little advertisement... or war march isn't being received well here. You can take that as some sense of misplaced pride if you want - as said above, you've made it obvious you read what you want - but any of us who know enough about VPNs to know how to identify a good one are also aware we can self-host one (for free) if we wish to and make the choice to pay for a service because we've identified the flaws of a free service.

It's okay if you want to be some advertiser's statistic that is also your choice and what I expect from the average internet user. The rest of us 'idiots' will keep paying for a service we know we can trust instead of giving our private information to a company that has made it obvious they can't be trusted.

[–] DebatableRaccoon@lemmy.ca 26 points 1 week ago

It's a pairing of the old batch of free ones being garbage and the addage "If it's free, you're the product". Running a VPN at scale isn't a cheap affair so you should ask where they're making the money. Are they a proven no-logs VPN or are you operating under a 'Trust me bro'?

[–] glowie@h4x0r.host 11 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I think the best battle-tested VPN providers have been Mullvad and IVPN

[–] viking@infosec.pub 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Proton and Astrill are very good as well.

[–] TheFermentalist@lemm.ee 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I have used rise up for nearly a decade. VPN as well as email, and it is legit. I donate more, sporadically, than it would cost me to subscribe to equivalent alternatives, but that’s a choice. When I was poor and couldn’t afford to contribute, there was no question.

When a server was confiscated and subsequently returned, they wrote the server off rather than risk reconnecting it and potentially installing spyware.

There are limits: exit nodes are limited to (from memory), four or five.

For me, it’s a 4.5 out of five, and would only improve with more exit node functionality