Can My ISP See I’m Using a VPN?

✅ Virtual Private Networks have characteristics visible to your ISP. I'll discuss what they can and cannot see.

✅ ISPs and VPNs
Your ISP can see you’re using a VPN by noting the IP addresses and ports associated with VPN services. They can’t, however, see the content of your encrypted data. Essentially, using a VPN shifts your internet visibility from your ISP to your VPN provider.

Chapters
0:00 Can My ISP See I’m Using a VPN
0:10 Yes.
0:16 Connecting to a VPN
1:40 Your VPN can see

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#askleo #VPN #ISP

[raylopez]

Fun fact: (and Ask Leo should do an episode on it) when you are at a crooked hotel using their Wi-Fi, in theory a bad actor working for the crooked hotel can monitor all the traffic (including your emails like from Gmail you send, and if you are online banking what your bank balance is, and in theory when you are logged into the bank they can transfer money to themselves), however, once you stop using the crooked hotel Wi-Fi, the crooks at the hotel don't have your password nor can they log into your bank nor read your Gmail emails. This is because HTTPS uses "session" temporary passwords that expire once you log off. The actual passwords are not used. From what I understand, and having researched it a bit.

[ugcheleuce]

One thing some people forget is that you are still identifying yourself to the websites that you're visiting. E.g. if you log in to a website while using a VPN, the website still identifies you, and is able to communicate your "new" IP address to other websites that it shares data with.

[shaolinslumz]

When choosing a VPN service. Consider going for RAM servers instead of HDD-based servers.

[bobfk]

I need to access some commercial sites in the US that won't let me even view their home page if they think I'm in a foreign country.
I use a VPN and they are happy.
Sometimes it's the opposite, some foreign sites won't allow me to access if my VPN is set for the US.
If I turn off the VPN then I can access those sites, even thought I'm actually in a different foreign country,

For a while I used a VPN called "IP Vanish". After several months it got to where Google wouldn't let me search.
The bottom line is that content providers can tell if you're using a VPN. Maybe they care, maybe they don't.

[chinedumichael]

The WiFi , if you're connected to the WiFi is it the WiFi device they'll track or the phone connected to it?

And what are the boundaries between device connected to a WiFi hotspot amd the ISP

[Douglas_Gillette]

I hate the use of the term VPN. The technology is most accurate described as hairpinning your traffic through a proxy. The connection between your machine and the proxy is over the global internet and encrypted.

[msun]

So if, at home, you connect to a VPN server running on your home router, the situation becomes "VPN to ISP to Internet Site". There's no trust issue with the VPN as it is my own, but can the ISP see all the internet sites I visit via such a VPN connection?

[hammingdad]

Since tens of millions of people work from home every day using tens of thousands of different types of VPNs for their jobs... I think it is safe to assume that unless the administrative state is already targeting you, there is absolutely nothing "suspicious looking" about the average person using a VPN.

[Knards]

I seldom use a VPN, but when I do I use the paid Proton VPN. You have to trust someone

[ningayeti]

I need a VPN because the wifi in the coffee shop that I go IS CONFIGURED TO BLOCK all youtube videos that are "gun" or "violence" related.
The only way that I can watch these videos over their wifi is by connecting through my VPN. They can even block me if I'm using HTTPS if I'm not also using a VPN.

[roncaruso]

When you use a VPN, does it slow down your connection speed?

[NoEggu]

You are risking your privacy with any VPN service. You have zero ways of knowing if they keep logs -- no matter what they claim, you cannot verify anything.
And for a free VPN service, I will wager that they are logging everything, and selling your telemetry.

The only safe way to use a VPN service is via TOR (and by safe, keep in mind that nothing is 100% safe). TOR was designed specifically to keep your activities private.

Due to TOR's design, it will be slow. It is not a fault in the design. It is due to TOR's network bouncing your connections (three of them) around the planet, in order to keep anyone from identifying you.

Due to TOR's reputation, many sites will block traffic originating from a TOR exit node.

[stevencooper]

Not only can your ISP see that you're using a VPN, but the site on the other end can tell as well. I've often run into to sites that won't let me in because I'm using a VPN, or because of the specific VPN server I'm connecting through. Even YouTube has sometimes prevented me from posting a comment while I was connected through a specific VPN server.

[jerryfacts]

Whatever you do on line there is a trail of IP numbers that will appear in to the activity log of your account. The ISP by law in some countries has to keep a log of the activity. The contents of what you see or use cannot be seen. Only IP numbers would be traceable.

I don't use a VPN. I don't trust anything in the path of what I am doing on line. I am accessing services where the data to and from these services is encrypted to start with. I don't want a third party keeping logs of the sites I use.