Proxies or VPN?

Private proxies is going to cost you a lot, its better to go with rotating proxies. It works best for scraping
 
Any given program or tool set has its uses for sure, but often you may find overlap in what these things can accomplish and what they cannot. Breaking the law online and leaving trails of any kind will definitely raise issues. HMA Pro is a legal provider of a service. Of course they log stuff for use so that if legal issues arise they can comply with the law. If this is a concern, probably you shouldn't be using any kind of online service as HMA Pro is no more likely than any other provider to out your information UNLESS it has to do with a legal investigation.

There are some providers in places outside various authorities jurisdictions, but if you have to go to these lengths - you're a criminal.

For scraping the things OP has said he needs these for - proxies are no more a viable solution than HMA pro. They'd both get the job done, and come with little to no headaches, so just do whichever you feel is a better option for you. I maintain multiple yearly memberships there, but also maintain a heavy active proxies subscription elsewhere. What tool you use just depends on personal preference, the solutions you are integrating your IPs into, and one's own technical aptitude.

Those guys getting "screwed" by HMA Pro - that's called Karma, and it happens to most deuchebags.

In my opinion you are likely to get captcha requests over time with this model regardless of using either proxies or a VPN supplier, so you probably need to look into a captcha solution such as DeathByCaptcha in addition to whatever you're doing now.
 
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You must have to use HMA Pro VPN.
It is best VPN software for every site. You can get a lot of IPs for using locations from all over the World. Must try it.
 
I use rotating proxies while I'm connected to VPN just in case the proxies are transparent. But this whole post has me doubting whether or not the VPN has any effect on my software. I thought that ANY information sent when VPN is connected is automatically through the VPNs proxyIP?
 
I use a VPN when ever I'm doing any scraping mostly out of paranoia and then I use private proxies on a slow scrape so that they don't get flagged.

If you are just scraping Proxies will do the job, if you want to help ensure anonymity put a VPN behind that.
 
I use a VPN when ever I'm doing any scraping mostly out of paranoia and then I use private proxies on a slow scrape so that they don't get flagged.

If you are just scraping Proxies will do the job, if you want to help ensure anonymity put a VPN behind that.

Proxies + a VPN would be so amazingly slow. You probably want to do just one or the other. Using two would be like using two condoms haha.
 
Proxies + a VPN would be so amazingly slow. You probably want to do just one or the other. Using two would be like using two condoms haha.

I never noticed it being that slow so I checked on SpeedTest and while my ping was higher from 20ms to 80ms my download/upload speeds were about half without. So not really that slow.

Apparently you haven't seen why I need 2 condoms. JK.
 
.....really? You consider these sources? "the FBI arrested two suspected hackers who allegedly participated in Anonymous and LulzSec attacks". If that's what you're doing for money, you're a tart, and deserve what you get.

Wow so much misinformation in this thread...
First @ OutOfTown: The other guy asked for sources for the claim that HMA would give out data / log data, I provided those sources, and I believe "the wire" is a valid source. Also the case of lulzsec went through all TV medias...

second there are many VPN and proxy providers who do not log any connection data at all, not for "criminal" reasons as you might think, but out of ethical reasons (this would be a long topic and somehow off-topic, but if you wish we could discuss this somewhere else). One would be perfect privacy (non-profit organization).

Third, in some countries scraping may be considered a crime (and BHW has an international audience, don't forget that)! And you never know what the future might bring, the internet does not forget (at least outside of the EU not lol). Hell, in some muslimic countries encryption is forbidden by death penalty!!

Fourth to the other questions here: A VPN as well as a proxy you can use both of them to automatically direct all your computers local traffic through it or just specific applications, it depends completely on the program you use to use the proxy or the VPN. Though for VPN I only know programs which reroute all the local traffic through it, for proxies you could use FreeCap or Proxifier, instead of just entering the proxy in the application you want to use it with, to define exactly which or if all programs should use it, and which exact proxy they should use, or to define even proxy chains (unlimited amount of proxies in a chain together).
A proxy as well as a VPN "has the ability" to change the Exit IP/server, to use different entry IP/server than the exit IP/server (even completely different countries), to have hundreds of server in between which no one can see from outside (check "reverse proxy"), etc etc. It depends only in the backend setup of the server structure. Also there are many different proxy and VPN protocols. For proxies socks5 over SSH (putty; in that case you have a local script that opens a port on localhost, so you only connect -always- to localhost / 127.0.0.1 with a port you can define yourself and the script/tool connects for you to the external entry proxy) is by far the safest, https is not really safe nowadays. VPN should always use OpenVPN with a very strong encryption (2048bit +), it is safer and faster than for example PPTP (windows internal protocol for VPN).

Fifth, it is not true generally that a VPN or proxy slows down your internet. The bandwidth (commonly known as "speed") of your internet has nearly nothing to do with the ping (ms, reaction time, actually speed), only indirect because of things like the TCP Window Size / TCP headers.
Most good VPN servers use at least 100mbit/s, some even 10gbit/s. Even if you would use three VPNs in a chain (yes it is possible; check the VPN Manager program of Perfect Privacy) and after that three proxies (all six servers combined, from all different locations in whole world if you please), you could still achieve maximum local speed; most home internet connections anyway do not have more than 16mbit/s nowadays (maybe some 25-50mbit/s), it only depends in the VPN/proxy provider / how much overused the access point / gateway /port is. If only one person would use all that six servers of my example, and they were all on unique 100mbit/s ports, the only thing that could slow the connection down (apart from routing failures and timeouts etc) is the distance (ms/ping) between them, IF the TCPWindowSize is too small (in linux this should not be an issue, as well as in newer windows OS not (Windows 7+)) or TTL too low (unlikely, as nowadays 1000ms can go one time all around the world easily). More information about this: http://www.speedguide.net/analyzer.php
-> So it is definetly possible to achieve 50mbit/s or more with VPN/proxy, even with many servers worldwide combined!

~Regards

(yes I am also in need of multiple "thanks"! :D )
 
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.....really? You consider these sources? "the FBI arrested two suspected hackers who allegedly participated in Anonymous and LulzSec attacks". If that's what you're doing for money, you're a tart, and deserve what you get.
Sorry for doublepost/quote, but just realized another massive misinterpretation / lack of reading here:
I read and heard much about this case when it was made public in TVs and heard different sides, some saying that these hacker groups did not do this for money, but actually spent massive amounts of money to do not only this one "attack". saying they did it for moral / ethical even political reasons. Some might even think/suggest they were supported by anti-imperialistic groups and governments.
One of their "victims" was the biggest international player in electronics and mass-surveillance, and by probably accessing their database and publishing millions of personal customer data / information they opened the eyes of many people, because that company actually stored that data (not only name, address etc but also payment information, including credit cards) completely unencrypted, even accessible by 14-year-old children, out there in the open for everyone to see, therefore breaking many laws themselves!

Some might say the punishing and persecution of some of those individuals was nothing else than a political farce, to justify more surveillance, to control the internet further (also to give in the end more power to fb and g00gl), not only because there were tens of thousands participants in those attacks (now takling about anonym0us) who were never even tried to be persecuted, but also because there are hundreds of similar cases where the people went free and did not get 20+ years jail for a simple click on a tool where it says "start" (talking about the case of a journalist "girl" who downloaded basically a trojan virus and clicked start) !
"Unequal Treatment Under the Law"

Sorry again for off-topic and double post but I felt this information was necessary and interesting for some. :-)

Regards
 
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Thanks Galleta,

Question, since you seem to know. Is there any benefit to using proxies behind a VPN?

This seems like a reasonable step to ensure anonymity but I'm not sure if there's any advantage to just using a proxy of VPN.
 
Thanks Galleta,

Question, since you seem to know. Is there any benefit to using proxies behind a VPN?

This seems like a reasonable step to ensure anonymity but I'm not sure if there's any advantage to just using a proxy of VPN.

The problem with VPNs is, that most, if not all of them are shared, you are sharing the IPs with others and most big websites (especially paypal) have the VPNs IPs and hostnames blacklisted. Lets say you are using stealth ebay or paypal, or facebook etc, this can get your accounts flagged or even banned.
So the benefit could be to not get your accounts flagged/banned by using a proxy behind the VPN that at least is in the same subnet or city as the one you used last time to login to that specific account (to appear from a specific location, but not wanting the servers to see you are using a VPN).

To answer your question: it depends completely in why and from what you want to be anonymous. Also for completion I have to state that most proxies won't provide anonymity, really depends in what you want to be anonymous from. I guess for Blackhat linkbuilding or so it should be good enough though, whereas free-speech in some countries is really a hot topic nowadays where I would recommend rather real anonymity (imagine you are from some muslimic country or north korea or so and want to speak about the government... good luck).
You always have to ask yourself, what ressources are they willing to invest into breaking ones anonymity.

Feel free to contact me by PM with more details and/or your skype to receive a more exact estimation. :-)

~Regards
 
So the benefit could be to not get your accounts flagged/banned by using a proxy behind the VPN that at least is in the same subnet or city as the one you used last time to login to that specific account (to appear from a specific location, but not wanting the servers to see you are using a VPN).

This was my rationale, thanks for the verification.

I appreciate the response and offer. First, I'm in a country where free speech isn't too much of a concern besides I'm only using this for link building.

It did occur to me that sites, knew the exit nodes, and this by itself probably sets off a flag. I use little known providers for this reason, figuring small shops won't be noticed, though I may be wrong.

If I ever do anything with large sites I always use my home city and PayPal I just use my straight IP. I guess I'm just paranoid about my IP being everywhere on the internet.
 
This was my rationale, thanks for the verification.

I appreciate the response and offer. First, I'm in a country where free speech isn't too much of a concern besides I'm only using this for link building.

It did occur to me that sites, knew the exit nodes, and this by itself probably sets off a flag. I use little known providers for this reason, figuring small shops won't be noticed, though I may be wrong.

If I ever do anything with large sites I always use my home city and PayPal I just use my straight IP. I guess I'm just paranoid about my IP being everywhere on the internet.

Yeah, it's never a bad idea to be aware of when and where your IP is being logged. Having something like PIA or one of those VPN's, which cost like 3 bucks a month, is nice because you can switch locations on the fly depending on what your needs are in terms of location and speeds.
 
Also did you know, that many proxies, especially free ones, display additional ads, even manipulate websites, like google search results, to make some money on site? also some sell marketing data (usage information, behaviour) to marketing companies?
IT is quite similar to the way some governments block specific websites and/or search results to specific keywords (especially political ones from opposition party). some even replace keywords automatically with other ones to influence public opinion.

regards
 
Yeah, I didn't know that but had my suspicions.

I don't use public anything. It's all private proxies and VPN.

Also, it's important for everybody to know that your VPN can still leak you IP. It's good to do some checks with a DNS Checker site.
 
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