I'm just now getting into VPN usage and I'm surprised how not straight forward it is.
So I paid NordVPN and downloaded these ovpn files and set my network manager to use these but to my surprise, IPv6 leaks my real location/country even if I disable IPv6 in the network manager for both the wired and the vpn connection? How can it be that easy to screw up VPN usage in 2025?
Don't use Nord or other "mainstream" VPNs. Use Mullvad, you can pay with Bitcoin and no info needed from you. Also it works better than all others. iVPN is another decent one but IMO mullvad is better
Will try it out. Nord did put me off when they needed me to verify my email address but I needed a very concrete detail - app availability in other countries - and didn't want to experiment too long.
Why do so many in the Bitcoin space recommend Nord then? They also accept bitcoin and of course I can put in an ephemeral email but still, for $12 I did at least expect it to shield my Chile IP from Google.
So with Nord, my speed was 10Mbps up and 5 down. With Mullvad it's 30% slower. But now the IPv6 also resolves to the VPN location.
What I actually want is to find out if https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bitgo.mobile is gone only for Chileans or for everybody and either Google is good at recognizing me even behind a VPN and with an "private" browser window or it's really gone for the US, too, despite https://app.sensortower.com/overview/com.bitgo.mobile?country=US&tab=ratings claiming otherwise.
I'm regularly freaking out over apps disappearing as I monitor thousands for WalletScrutiny and we list thousands as "removed" but ... how would I know for sure if Google tries everything to sabotage people from getting a complete picture?
Its gone for me as well, US. Google will only recognize you with or without VPN if you are logged in to the Google Play Store. I advise to only use open source wallets and get them and other open source apps through zapstore.dev or via Obtainuim.
Thanks for checking. If it is gone indeed, there was much noise about nothing and I got Mullvad and Nord for nothing concrete.
Anyway, I'm not planning to install this app for myself. I'm tracking this and thousands of other apps for https://walletscrutiny.com. We have scripts to detect delisting and that script triggered for that app and things looked inconsistent but the team member that reported it not gone, had it installed before, which is why google still shows it to him. Logged out, it's gone for him, too.
Fuck Nord. Mullvad is easy and requires nothing other than a payment.
When it really matters you should run tor over the VPN
I use headscale (or sometimes just plain wireguard) and a few cloud hosts as exit nodes. A real literal VPN not just a glorified proxy. 3rd party sites don't know my local IP; just the exit IPs that I control. The hosting provider could still maybe glean the link from the VPS to my other devices, but it seems safe enough especially if you pay for the VPS with ecash over another proxy channel.
Total cost is maybe a tad more than a Mull or Nord, but VPSs can do more too, so...
so tl;dr... I guess you're right, it's not straightforward at all. 🙄
You could try Obscura: https://obscura.net
Given Carl Dong's involvement they should have a reproducibly built client soon(tm).
I don't get why VPN providers all want me to run their software? Aren't they just "glorified relays" as nostr:npub17fnzd22p3xu5tg8sz343d38c5m8dxxe4npyyx0akxphc6mhvxessuw5ksh put it?
