Privacy

32004 readers

696 users here now

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
Don't promote proprietary software
Try to keep things on topic
If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
Be nice :)

Related communities

Chat rooms

[Matrix/Element]Dead
Discord

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Mobile hotspot with VPN: is GL.iNet the only game in town and is it trustworthy? (lemmy.sdf.org)

submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

26 comments fedilink hide all child comments

So I'm on the market for a 4G or 5G mobile hotspot with a build-in VPN client I can carry around in my backpack and connect my cellphone to. I've looked far and wide, and really the only manufacturer that seems to make what I want is GL.iNet.

The two battery-powered models they offer that interest me are the Mudi v2 and the Puli: they only do 4G and I wish they did 5G too, but I can live with that. Other than that, they really tick all the boxes for me.

From what I could read, the GL.iNet company also seems very open and very responsive. That's a plus too.

But I have one giant problem that prevents me from whipping out the credit card: GL.iNet is a Chinese company, and those products are sensitive applications. I know I can flash OpenWRT separately on those devices to ensure they're not doing stuff behind my back, but I don't really want to do that because I'd lose the GL.iNet plugins and custom UI. Not to mention, I have no free time for that. I'm looking for a ready-made solution if possible with this one.

Anybody knows if GL.iNet can be trusted?

Also, has anybody ordered from Europe using their EU store? They say they ship direct from Europe but they give no details.

And finally, what do you think of those two mobile VPN routers if you own one. Do they work well? I read somewhere that they can be buggy with certain VPN providers. Do they work in Europe? I assume they do since they sell EU plugs but maybe there are caveats.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

There is no point in using a vpn if you don't care if your data leaks outside the tunnel.

Sharing VPN from a phone over a hotspot, means all of that traffic looks like it's coming from the phone.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (3 children)

Either you didn't read the github comments or dont understand how vpns work.

If the VPN over hotspot function leaks data outside the tunnel, then your phones data is going to be revealed in the clear.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

And yet even with that pitfall there is a valid benefit of using a shared VPN over the hotspot. Specifically making your data look like it's coming from the phone so it isn't throttled by the carrier as tethered data. The failure scenario being the data goes slower.

I recognize the problems you list as valid, and yet there is still a beneficial tradeoff decision to be made.

No need to insult me, I both read the GitHub and understand how VPNs work.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Sorry my bad, I should of responded in a more professional tone.

Yeah I totally agree there is a valid reason to have the function but its all moot if the function doesn't work correctly.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Even if it only works sometimes, there is still a use case with a benefit. I.e. speed throttling on tethering