Always on for everything
I keep mine on almost always, runs fine so I usually don’t bother turning it off.
On when I need it. Otherwise I’m clicking captchas all day.
When I used Proton or Mullvad I usually had to switch it on and off when needed because of so many issues with sites/games/etc. blocking me. However, the last deal I picked up was for NordVPN and that one I’ve been able to leave connected at all times without any issue.
Bro Mullvad has split tunneling for applications you can just do that. Mullvad is superior in every possible way to NordVPN. I mean most VPNs today do a solid job but Mullvad is peak for more reasons than you can shake a stick at.
I will never ever use Nord or any company that floods every yt channel with sponsored ads
You’re seeing ads on YT? oO
The ones the channel themselves have. Sponsor block doesn’t work all the time either if you’re referring to that
Ah, okay. I guess plenty of podcasts and sponsored stuff do include those.
I’m just using vanilla AdBlock for non-Chrome browser to view mainly shorts. Thanks for explaining.
Usually on a needed basis. Some pages are blocked where i am and those do get the exception for my regional locking hatred.
Otherwise, i don’t really care. Though I’m open to reasons why i should care.
I default to on, and turn it off if I need something that is blocking me and there’s no workaround.
Although the traffic itself is protected, I find the signal of «I am doing something “secret” right now» to be best avoided both for passive metadata collection as well as active correlation attacks reasons; as well as to avoid leaks by clicking some link or just loading an image from some server that might be more “revealing” than I’d like. I’m not talking about anything super spicy, for example just by being a Lemmy user the image hosts you see more can depend on the comms/instances you use the most often - a pretty small segment.
Always on a VPN. My house sends all traffic out through one, and I VPN back to my house when I’m out which puts me on the same connection.
Tailscale exit node?
No, a VPN provider that supports WireGuard, plus another WireGuard to get me on my network, and a custom iptables to handle the routing.
Sounds like you rolled your own Tailscale. Good on you!
Mullvad on a router, so always on, because it’s nobody’s business who I am and what I do and where I do it. In there rare case that I need to use a service that blocks Mullvad, I just use my phone that has their toggleable app.

Other way around for me
If a website loads with a VPN, then it doesn’t exist?
or
If a website loads without a VPN, then it doesn’t exist?
It does not exist
if a website doesn’t load with a vpn…
I always had it on, and got banned from my favorite game server for possible alt-accounts. It’s a tight-knit community and the admin fixed it for me a few times until it got annoying. Now I start my game with a shell script that turns off the VPN via CLI before loading so I don’t get banned over and over. 90% of everything else goes through a VPN, not because it has to, but because I want my ISP to be blind by default, at least to the degree I can make that happen
I trust my ISP more than I trust a VPN. I only need a VPN when I need to appear like I’m in another country. That said, I’m very careful about who my ISP is, I have a choice in who my ISP is, and I pay more for that privilege, and I understand a lot of people don’t have that luxury.
i used to use it 24x7 before but now i just turn it on when i need it since it makes my internet significantly slower.
I have nonpublic services I host at home so I VPN home anytime I’m out.
I have a docker container for my Linux ISOs with a VPN.
if i paid for one i would have it on (if i pay for it i might as well use it + more privacy). but, since i just have proton free tier, i turn it on whenever “This content is not available in your region” shows up

(if i pay for it i might as well use it + more privacy)
I think you’d be paying for, but not using, your Internet bandwidth/speeds at that point
I have gigabit and can download through my VPN at 90+ megabytes per second
Edit: oh I glossed over “proton free tier”, yah a paid VPN is definitely going to be much better… I’d never use a free VPN unless it’s to get to my self-hosted stuff.
Def always on, with a kill switch that disconnects from the network if the VPN isn’t active
I use it 24/7 even though I’ve heard I’m not supposed to. It makes it really obvious to my ISP that I’m using a VPN provider for literally all my traffic.
I think for now I can get by because I’m shacked up with my parents and so the house is producing all kinds of Internet traffic. Mine will still be obviously going to an ISP but it’s at least not entirely just my ISP.
I’m sure intel agencies would have their ways to figure things out though. VPN itself is not total anonymity.











