VPN Forum access and IP addresse Tests

[DocAElstein]

Doc.AElstein@t-online.de
Sep 6, 13:41 EEST

Some general questions about what VPN / NordVPN can do

Hello
I have been considering getting a VPN for use at home, possibly also a full paid membership. But at the moment I am totally confused as to how exactly VPN works and exactly what it does.
I can't seem to find any information that is easy enough for me to understand. I have limited computer Knowledge. I do understand the basic idea of VPNs hiding my IP address. But I want to understand a bit more about exactly what you can do with them: For examples:-
_(i) One thing that I would like to do is to be able register in different forums and web sites with both different usernames and different IP addresses. In other words, I want to use a specific IP address with each specific usernames when logging into a Forum or web site. I do not know if that is possible.
_(ii) Another thing that I would like to do is to possibly have the option for the IP address to change randomly every time I refresh , or move to another section in a website, or Thread, or article in a web site or a Forum. So this would mean that nobody could see what parts I am reading or how I am "moving around" the site or forum. So nobody could see a trend in the information which I am accessing. I do not know if that is possible.
_ (iii) I don't always want to hide my IP address. So I want to be able to switch easily and quickly from using the internet with my real IP address or a different one
Can you answer any of these questions ?

For info:
I have several computers in my Family with Operating systems of XP , Vista and Windows 7.
( All my computer work is for private personal projects. I am not involved in any business or paid work directly involving computers or software. (I give some free help on Internet Help Forums) )

Thanks
Alan Elston
Hof
Baveria
Germany

.
NordVPN6 (NordVPN)
Sep 7, 02:00 EEST
Hello, Alan,

Thank you for your letter.

A VPN is the best way to conceal your activity online. When you use a VPN, your data connection is encrypted, so ISPs, governments, NSA spies, and other third parties cannot see which websites you visit, what you download, or whether you use services such as Skype or a P2P application. NordVPN protects your privacy and prevents others from monitoring and controlling your online communications and browsing activity. With NordVPN, your location stays private and you can switch freely between multiple global VPN server locations.

NordVPN servers protect your IP address and hide your true location. You can choose from more than 5000+ Servers in 60+ Countries worldwide. With VPN, you can also hide Internet traffic data from your Internet service provider, as well as the government, NSA, and hackers. Even better, our fast and secure servers let you enjoy anonymous web browsing at the highest possible speeds.

For more information, you should read our beginners' guide to Virtual Private Networks:
https://nordvpn.com/what-is-a-vpn/

To answer your other questions, you can connect to the same server every time to get the same IP address so it would be possible to do the things mentioned in your first question.

As for the second one, unfortunately, that would not be possible as the IP that you get when connecting to our servers is static, you would not be able to change it every time you go to a different page on the Internet automatically.

Furthermore, if you want to get your normal IP then it is as simple as disconnecting from our servers and then reconnecting if you would need a different IP again.

Let us know if you have any further questions.

Best Regards,
Gonzalo Moruga
Customer Success Team
NordVPN.com

---

Doc.AElstein@t-online.de
Sep 6, 08:38 UTC
Hello
I am following the instruction here
https://hide.me/de/vpnsetup/windowsvista/openvpn/#step
At step 3, I click on „Konfigurationsdatei „ ( https://imgur.com/vl84o4m)
But that link takes me to a „Serverliste" ( https://imgur.com/dHHqU4G)
So I am stuck. I do not know what to do next????
Alan
Hallo
Ich folge den Anweisungen hier
https://hide.me/de/vpnsetup/windowsvista/openvpn/#step
In Schritt 3 klicke ich auf „Konfigurationsdatei" ( https://imgur.com/vl84o4m)
Aber dieser Link führt mich zu einer „Serverliste" ( https://imgur.com/dHHqU4G)
Also stecke ich fest. Ich weiß nicht, was ich als nächstes tun soll ????
Alan


Betreff: [hide.me Support] Re: [Technical] Website support request
Datum: 2019-09-06T11:13:24+0200
Von: "Nathan (hide.me Support)"
An: "Doc.AElstein@t-online.de"
Nathan (hide.me Support)
Sep 6, 09:13 UTC
Hello Alan,
For Windows Vista you can check this article here: https://hide.me/en/knowledgebase/hid...dows-xp-vista/
As mentioned in the article, if you are using free membership you can set up VPN connection using SoftEther protocol and this setup guide here: https://hide.me/en/vpnsetup/windowsxp/softether/
You just have to use one of the free VPN server address above, for example free-nl.hide.me to connect to our servers in the Netherlands.
With free plan you can connect to 5 of our VPN server locations: the Netherlands - in this case in the "Server name or address" field enter free-nl.hide.me
for Singapore enter free-sg.hide.me ; for Canada enter free-ca.hide.me and for US-East free-us-east.hide.me and US-West free-us-west.hide.me
The OpenVPN protocol is only available to our Free members through our own VPN client apps here and we no longer provide our native VPN client for Windows XP and Vista.
You can check this article here: https://hide.me/en/knowledgebase/where-can-i-download-openvpn-configuration-files/
We also recommend to upgrade to newer version of the operating system to be able to receive security patches and regular updates from Microsoft and also to use our latest VPN app.
If you would like to test OpenVPN setup I can activate a temporary paid membership on your account, free of charge, so you can download configuration files and complete OpenVPN setup. Just let me know your hide.me username you registered with and when would you like us to activate 1 day Premium trial.
If you would like to continue using free membership you can use SoftEther setup. If you need any further assistance feel free to contact me.
Sincerely,
Nathan
Customer Relations Manager
eVenture LimitedX2V-






Doc.AElstein@t-online.de
Sep 6, 10:01 UTC
Hello Nathan,
Thanks for the quick response and information.
I shall take another detailed look over the next few days. (Just now I am
bisy with something else).

I have several computers in my Family with Operating systems of XP , Vista
and Windows 7.

I have been considering getting a VPN for use at home, possibly also a full
paid membership. But at the moment I am totally confused as to how exactly
VPN works and exactly what it does.
I can't seem to find any information that is easy enough for me to
understand. I have limited computer Knowledge. I do understand the basic
idea of VPNs hiding my IP address. But I want to understand a bit more
about exactly what you can do with them: For examples:-
_(i) One thing that I would like to do is to be able register in different
forums and web sites with both different usernames and different IP
addresses. In other words, I want to use a specific IP address with each
specific usernames when logging into a Forum or web site. I do not know if
that is possible.
_(ii) Another thing that I would like to do is to possibly have the option
for the IP address to change randomly every time I refresh , or move to
another section in a website, or Thread, or article in a web site or a
Forum. So this would mean that nobody could see what parts I am reading or
how I am "moving around" the site or forum. So nobody could see a trend in
the information which I am accessing. I do not know if that is possible.
_ (iii) I don't always want to hide my IP address. So I want to be able to
switch easily and quickly from using the internet with my real IP address
or a different one

( All my computer work is for private personal projects. I am not involved
in any business or paid work directly involving computers or software. (I
give some free help on Internet Help Forums) )

The idea of a one day trial sounds a good idea. But I need to wait until
_a) I have a day free, so as to be able to test it thoroughly
and
_b) I need to try and understand more about VPNs in the meantime and find
out if it is possible to do the sorts of things that I have mentioned
above.

Thanks again.
Alan Elston
Hof
Baveria
Germany


( P.S: My hide.me username which I registered today is
TheDocIsHere
)




Nathan (hide.me Support)
Sep 6, 12:18 UTC
Hello Alan,
Our service works in a way that when you connect your device to our VPN server all your traffic is encrypted and your real location hidden.
That means that no one can see what you download or upload to the internet (including your Internet Service Provider) and depending on the VPN server that you connect to, your address will change.
So for example if you connect to our Canada VPN server you will get a Canadian IP address and to everyone on the internet it will look like you are accessing the internet from Canada.
When you connect your device to our servers, you can browse and use it as you normally would and once you're connected to our VPN, the data transfer will go through the VPN tunnel and your IP is now hidden behind our servers.
You can check for more information how our service works and what it is mostly used on our website here and here for example: https://hide.me/en/features/
You are assigned IP address randomly, you may get the same server but IP address can change when we have several servers in that location.
If a load is high on one server a load balancer automatically connects you to a VPN server that has the least connections. All servers will provide you with the best bandwidth available as we have a Load Balancer. This is used to distribute the server load between the servers in that location in order to ensure the best performance for our users.
So it is possible that you get the same IP address when you reconnect; then you may need to reconnect a couple of times to get a different address.
But with our Premium plan you can manually reserve a different IP address from the pool of addresses on that server in your Connection Settings.
You can easily connect and disconnect at your convenience with our VPN client apps or other setups. OpenVPN setup requires a little more work and since you're using old operating systems not many options are available to you. Please note that Microsoft will also end the support for Windows 7 after January 14th 2020 - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-windows-7-support
When you will have time please check these articles and with free membership you can continue using SoftEther setup on your Windows XP and Vista devices and for Windows 7 you can download our VPN client from here.
When you would like to try and set up OpenVPN on your devices just let me know and I will activate temporary Premium membership on your account.
Sincerely,
Nathan
Customer Relations Manager
eVenture Limited
Visit our community and share your experience:
https://community.hide.me




Doc.AElstein@t-online.de
Sep 7, 06:49 UTC
Hi
Thanks for the reply and extra info
I will look again at all this when I have time, hopefully in the next week
Alan

Nathan (hide.me Support)
Sep 7, 07:33 UTC
Hi Alan,
You are more than welcome and feel free to contact me if there is anything else I can help you with.
Sincerely,
Nathan
Customer Relations Manager
eVenture Limited
Visit our community and share your experience:
https://community.hide.me


Doc.AElstein@t-online.de
Sep 9, 08:51 UTC
Hello Natham
I have read through the articles that you suggested and I think I
understand most of it.