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Opera's built-in VPN

Started by canadagoose, April 13, 2017, 11:39:25 PM

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canadagoose

I've been using the VPN that comes with Opera over the last week or two, and I've been quite impressed about the performance of it. Speed tests seem to give me a similar speed as I get without the VPN[nb]This is on Virgin Media[/nb], which I wasn't expecting, especially considering the VPN service is free. Have any of you been using it? How are they making money if they're offering unlimited data to everyone that selects it in Opera?

Personally, I think I might stick with it and just use Chrome for things like YouTube and Netflix (i.e. things that can be Chromecast) and all the Google things (because they integrate nicely with Chrome). What are your thoughts?

Rev

I've been a bit of an evangelist about this, and have been using it for about a year to get around things like VirginMedia's blocks on certain websites (not what you're thinking, stop it).  It's almost too good to be true, but there it is.

Dusty Gozongas

It's a fantastic browser (it always has been!) and the VPN makes it even more of a second browser to Forefox for me than ever before.

Only things working against it? If I find satisfactorily similar Opera versions of Default Full Zoom Level[nb]I want that toolbar button baby![/nb] and Image Zoom[nb]What could be easier than r-click + scrollwheel for scaling images up or down? Nothing. That's what![/nb] then I'll switch immediately.

If and when it finally gets those two, I hope my assumption that there's a working YouTube Link Title userscript option is a reasonable one. Otherwise it's staying a close second forever.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Is firefox still unbelievably resource hogging and bloated?

olliebean

Quote from: Shoulders?-Stomach! on April 14, 2017, 06:03:16 AM
Is firefox still unbelievably resource hogging and bloated?

Less so than Chrome, which seems to be the browser du jour, ime.

touchingcloth

Quote from: olliebean on April 14, 2017, 08:13:42 AM
Less so than Chrome, which seems to be the browser du jour, ime.

Chrome has the advantage that each tab runs as a separate process. As a bit of a tab whore I used to find that my single Firefox process would routinely be multiple gigs in size, and closing tabs down seemed to have negligible effect on clearing up memory usage. It's easy to shutdown the thirstiest tabs in Chrome.

asids

I just downloaded it there and I'm actually posting this from Opera with the VPN. It's excellent. I did have Opera as a 2nd/3rd browser way back but it seems to have vastly improved now - built in ad-blocker, VPN, and it automatically picked up my saved logins from Chrome. I can see this potentially becoming my main browser.

Just discovered another neat little feature on YouTube, you can click near the top of the video window and it'll put the video on a little pop-out window which so you watch a video while viewing another tab. Good stuff.

olliebean

I suspect Chrome might get a massive boost later this year when Mozilla are planning to make most Firefox extensions stop working.

Cloud

Actually a proxy apparently but still, handy for when you're using someone else's network and want to avoid snooping, or to get around filters.  Only thing is you can't post on 4chan (cesspool of the internet I know but some boards aren't terrible) without buying a subscription as they ban VPNs.  This is a compromise for Sky Cloud hotspots (which class 4chan as "pornography" so don't let you near it) but is a read-only solution.   So in the end I set up a Pi with OpenVPN at home and just tunnel through to that most of the time.

The fact Opera's VPN is free troubles me as well.  "If you're not paying for it, you're the product"

biggytitbo

Opera and chrome use the same rendering engine now, although I don't know how much of the surrounding stuff is unique to opera.

Zetetic

QuoteActually a proxy apparently
Although Opera do actually offer free VPN apps for iOS and for Android.

Google also offer a 'compression' proxy on mobile versions of Chrome, I note.

Opera, I guess, can offer this relatively easily because they now own SurfEasy.



Zetetic

QuoteHow are they making money if they're offering unlimited data to everyone that selects it in Opera?
Is there any reason to believe that they're not intent on gathering usage info via this? I've not tried to track through their privacy policies or the like.

canadagoose

Quote from: Zetetic on April 14, 2017, 07:42:32 PM
Is there any reason to believe that they're not intent on gathering usage info via this? I've not tried to track through their privacy policies or the like.
I'd suspected that, but according to their privacy policy (which I just had to have a look at after you mentioned it):

QuoteThe SurfEasy network is a No Log network. SurfEasy does not store users originating IP address when connected to our service and therefore cannot identify users when provided IP addresses of our servers. Additionally, SurfEasy cannot disclose information about the applications, services or websites our users consume while connected to our services; as SurfEasy does not store this information.

SurfEasy may need to collect the following operational data in order to operate our Services.

Aggregate bandwidth usage for billing, network operations and support. Temporary usage data to assist with debugging a problem with the service. [...]
For the VPN in Opera Browser for Desktop, we create a subscriber ID (generated in sequential order across all subscribers) that allows us to manage that user on our system. If that user clears their browser cache/history, they're assigned a new generated subscriber ID.
So apparently your IP isn't stored, and data isn't collected about the sites you visit, but you get assigned a temporary subscriber ID until you clear your history or cache. That would imply that some data (about time and bandwidth, maybe?) is collected but it's not personally traceable, I imagine?

Zetetic

Cheers.

I'm not really sure what the temporary subscribe ID implies in the context of the stuff around it.

Mass_Panic

Just had another look at Opera for the first time in about 16 years because of this thread. I think I will switch to this permanently. Really nice browser and the vpn thing is just amazing. Only problem is there is no UK location so I still can't watch BBC iview.

olliebean

Quote from: Zetetic on April 14, 2017, 07:40:31 PM
Although Opera do actually offer free VPN apps for iOS and for Android.

Yes, I've found the Android one useful but have been unable to access the internet at all via the iOS one.

canadagoose

Quote from: Mass_Panic on April 14, 2017, 10:07:42 PM
Just had another look at Opera for the first time in about 16 years because of this thread. I think I will switch to this permanently. Really nice browser and the vpn thing is just amazing. Only problem is there is no UK location so I still can't watch BBC iview.
Yay, I'm glad my thread had a positive impact (rather than just making people groan like they probably usually do). The lack of UK nodes is a bit of a pain, but I guess you could use an alternative browser just for iPlayer. You might find that a pain, too, mind.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: touchingcloth on April 14, 2017, 12:06:45 PM
Chrome has the advantage that each tab runs as a separate process. As a bit of a tab whore I used to find that my single Firefox process would routinely be multiple gigs in size, and closing tabs down seemed to have negligible effect on clearing up memory usage. It's easy to shutdown the thirstiest tabs in Chrome.

Check out 'the great suspender' plugin.

touchingcloth

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on April 16, 2017, 07:59:48 AM
Check out 'the great suspender' plugin.

I used to use that, but I find that more often than not a tab gobbling up resources prompts me to clean up the tabs which I haven't revisited for a long time and probably won't again. Interestingly, it used to be Gmail on both Chrome and Firefox that resulted in huge memory footprints, but they must have cleaned it up a little lately because it no longer seems to be an offender.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Firefox has been annoying me recently, so I thought I'd give this a try. It seems to run well, even with the VPN switched on, although I've only been running it for a few hours, so I've no idea if that'll last.

So far the crappiest thing has been the bookmarks. All I want is a one-click drop-down menu, like I have in Firefox. All the methods I've discovered in Opera so far have been stupid and convoluted. I can get used to it, but why should I have to?

On the subject of the VPN/proxy, or whatever it actually is; I assume that it only covers browsing within Opera itself. Torrents aren't covered?

Zetetic

Yes, it only covers browsing within Opera itself.