 | I have been using DNSCrypt for some time now and among the servers offering is cryptstorm gaining lots of ground. I use their German server for DNSCrypt and they are clearly privacy minded, So they also offer free VPN and they use a new and pretty untraceable technology. |
You need to install OpenVPN and networkmanager-openvpn and download two files (certificates) that you use in your network setup.
But before I go into that a fair warning:
It is hard to say who is behind Cryptstorm.
CryptoStorm is a reincarnation of VPN service CryptoCloud, a subsidiary (or possibly close working partner) of Baneki Privacy Computing, the CTO of which was a certain Douglas Spink (it has been widely reported that Mr Spink was the owner of both CryptoCloud and Baneki Privacy Computing, but a current spokesperson for CryptoStorm maintains that ‘Baneki Privacy Labs is not “owned” by anyone. It’s a collective of security researchers, as it has been for many years.
Now this could be a good thing but that Douglas Spink guy has quite a history:
Spink, a once successful American entrepreneur and adrenaline junkie who lost his millions and filed for bankruptcy in 2002, was convicted of smuggling 375 pounds of cocaine (valued at $34 million) in 2005, and arrested for running a bestiality farm in Canada in 2010
He was released surprisingly early which indicates that he has been cooperating with the authorities in catching even wors guys...
His involvement in Cryptstorm is only a rumor and is in fact denied by the cryptstorm community. The cryptstorm top level domain is "is" as in Iceland - that does not indicate US intervention. Regarding VPN the general recommendation is to stay away from US based services due to the US surveillance program.
So now you know.The upside is that nobody seems to take your privacy more serious than cryptstorm check out this review
And their files are all open source and on github.
You need two files for setting up your vpn so I pulled cryptofree_linux-tcp.ovpn from github,
If you cannot use github just open the file there and copy the content and save it to the filename,
Next you need to download the CA certificate:
ca2.crt
Here is the content:
Now we are ready to go:
Here are the instructions for Ubuntu
Just don't use that config file - use the one from github (as described above).
To activate it just click on the nm in your panel and you will se that VPN is one of the options. Leave whatever connection you have and simply pick VPN.
It Works!
I set it up on my laptop that was running wireless and then picked the vpn from the network menu - and it worked right away
The beauty of picking whatever userid and password I want is even better - you can set what you want just not leave the fields empty. No hassle remembering anything!
And it was fairly fast too; this is written on the free vpn connection and I did not notice any delay.
If you are a gamer or heavy downloader you can pay for more speed or simply shut VPN off when you do that.
Cryptofree's private networking service is identical to full cryptostorm service in all regards - cryptographic suites deployed, server-side configuration, source code edits, logging disablement, and so on - with only one exception: connection speeds per-session are capped at 256kb downstream & 128kb upstream.
At least it is a good test before you buy.
To test it check here
You are now in the cryptstorm darknet if you have done everything right.,
There is a list at Privacytools over VPN services that give you that little extra,
They only recommend solutions outside the US and the Five eyes countries
Many of the site claim that you will be surfing completely invisible to your ISP but that is not the case.
Your ISP can identify IP's via the plain text DNS in some cases, so to make that true you need to run Dnscrypt in addition to VPN.
