Do you have a VPN? A PGP key? 2 factor authentication?

[ffr]

26. I think the definition of VPN should be explained a little more clearly

It's purpose is to tunnel from one location to another, encrypting information between a host and your machine. That's it. That's all.

It's primary use in name is Point To Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP), making your remote machine local to some other network, thus Virtual Private Network: your machine is local to the VPN host's network and your operating system will use two IP addresses to accomplish that communication.

Now, the communication beyond that host to other Internet addresses would still be dependent on that outside host, so DU for instance would be unencrypted HTTP. Again, tunneling and encryption is dependent upon destination. DU is over HTTP not HTTPS, so the VPN host cannot force that. Your host's only responsibility is for encrypting communication from your device and the VPN host.

The masking portion they talk about is for giving the appearance that whatever Internet activity you are doing is sourced back to them, not you. You're IP is masked, but all your activity is absolutely logged on their system. It has to be in order for your requested traffic to be destined back to your machine and decrypted on the fly. It's only anonymous to everyone but your VPN host.

Also, the encryption encapsulation of Internet packets, your browser activity for instance, causes about twice the Internet bandwidth overhead as none encrypted packets, so all your VPN activity's performance is about cut in half. This would basically be true of other encrypting technologies as well. The VPN would also have added Internet latency for traffic to always be routed through some other third party's physical geographical location, to and from, instead of simply following the Internet's quickest route to and from you and some Internet site. Thus, downloads will take noticeably longer and the overall experience will feel somewhat sluggish compared to what most of you would be accustomed to.

And some sites might be aware of your VPN host's WAN address and deny your requested Internet activity. I think this would be site dependent.

As handy and cool as it might seem to perform such activity using someone else's IP address, I would not recommend any of you do your online banking through a third party VPN service, such as these. It's always safer to use HTTPS directly to and from those sites using a machine you trust as being virus and malware free.

I just don't want people to think it's a free lunch with no downsides.