RANT: I hate the fact that my ISP can restrict access to certain sites

How can it possibly be, that an ISP, which I’m paying for gets to decid, which sites I’m allowed to have access to, and which not?

All the torrenting sites are restricted. I know, I can use VPN, and such… but I want to do it because of my privacy concerns and not because of some higher-up decided to bend over for the lobbying industry.

While on the other hand, if there’s a data breach of a legit big-corp website (looking at you FB), I’m still able to access it, they get fined with a fraction of their revenue, and I’m still left empty-handed. What a hipocracy!!

What comes next? Are they gonna restrict me from using lemmy too, bc some lobbyist doesn’t like the fact that it’s a decentralized system which they have no control over?

Rant, over!

I didn’t even know that my router was using my ISPs DNS, and that I can just ditch it, even though I’m running AdGuard (selfhosted)

z00s,

Well you can buy a car but the gov’t will still make you drive on the correct side of the road.

Alby003,
@Alby003@lemmings.world avatar

Use vpn

wildcardology,

Torrent sites aren’t blocked in my country but some pr0n sites are.

pewgar_seemsimandroid,

calyx true unlimited hotspot prob will fix

lispi314,
@lispi314@mastodon.top avatar

@ad_on_is The problem you're hitting is that the / in general weren't adequately designed to handle malicious operators.

"The 'net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it" was a comment about , a / system with gossiped (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gossip_protocol) message exchange which wasn't particularly picky about its transport layer (indeed you could load a spool on a floppy and mail it), not the internet.

Ilikecheese,

I don’t know if you’re choosing to add those hashtags to your comment or if it’s just something that mastodon does automatically, but holy fuckweasels is that shit annoying.

ninchuka,

I wondered why I saw people reply like that as well as tagging the user at the start, that explains it now

nephs, (edited )

They already do restrict you from using lemmy by charging full Internet price for it, and allowing special free data plans for Facebook.

Net neutrality matters.

XTornado,

No offense but if they can do that you have to blame your government not the ISP… as those are the ones allowing this to happen.

Honytawk,

Those companies choose to do so as well.

XTornado,

Yeah… But if there were laws that prohibited it they couldn’t do it that is my point.

tonyn,

Companies will do whatever legal measure makes them the most money.

Blackmist,

The government are the ones telling the ISPs to do it, not just allowing it.

loudWaterEnjoyer,
@loudWaterEnjoyer@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

The government is elected by people who care or don’t care about certain topics

RogueBanana,

The only choice he have here are stupid people and tech illiterate ones. Not a lot we can do except face palm at the ridiculously stupid solutions they come up with.

XTornado,

In some cases yes, but I would say that is allowing it too… Idk… I don’t see the need to nitpick but yeah.

nephs, (edited )

As if the government wasn’t controlled by probate lobbyists.

Blame goes to private interests being allowed to influence public decision makers, in my opinion. Infrastructure companies should not be for-profit companies.

Banzai51,
@Banzai51@midwest.social avatar

This is why we need more competition in the ISP space. And use a VPN.

RealFknNito,
@RealFknNito@lemmy.world avatar

Or the FCC to make internet a utility and strip their ability to restrict access, throttle speeds, or be bias in any way. Always use a VPN. Getting Mullvad on my next paycheck.

dramaticcat,

Getting Mullvad on my next paycheck.

Good choice

DeltaTangoLima,
@DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.com avatar

Censorship is wrong. Every rational, adult human being should have the fundamental right to their autonomy, without third party intervention, with full awareness of the laws that apply to them.

If they decide to abuse that freedom and awareness by accessing illegal content (even CSAM), then they are taking the risk of being discovered, prosecuted, and punished accordingly. And, in many cases (like CSAM), I hope they are caught and punished.

Regardless of the outcome, it still starts with the freedom for that individual to make that decision for themselves.

RealFknNito,
@RealFknNito@lemmy.world avatar

That’s part of the price of freedom. Tor is a browser that makes it hard to be tracked down, so people use it to facilitate illegal activities. Crypto is a currency that makes it hard to be tracked down, so the same occurs. While most of us use and support these services for legal activities, just to be free from corporate and government oppression, there will always be people who use them to be from legal consequences.

Sadly, making it easier to find people who do things like post CSAM in turn makes it easier to find people who want to watch Porn without supplying a government ID. (Still can’t believe my state of Virginia passed that law.)

DeltaTangoLima,
@DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.com avatar

people who want to watch Porn without supplying a government ID

Yeah, and this is where the part of my comment that discussed “laws that apply” is nuanced. If the laws that apply are designed to abridge people’s autonomy, and right to privacy, then that’s an unjust law.

RealFknNito,
@RealFknNito@lemmy.world avatar

No disagreement here, just unsure if there will ever be a way to grant freedom to the common man without enabling unsavory actors as well.

DeltaTangoLima,
@DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.com avatar

Yeah, sadly there isn’t. I don’t envy lawmakers - there’s a knife edge they have to walk, between enabling them to catch the bad guys, but without infringing on the rights of the innocent.

hardcoreufo,

Unsavory actors will find ways around any restriction put in their way. So these restrictions only serve to remove freedoms from the rest of us not commiting unsavory acts.

Gordon,

My state of residence restricts access to certain sites. It’s all bullshit.

Anyway… The ISP is either a common carrier or a content provider. Pick a fucking lane. You can’t have half and half. Either you are responsible for ALL content provided or NONE.

If you choose none then you MUST NOT restrict access to any content.

If you chose ALL then you may restrict content based on what you are willing to take responsibility for. But in that case if someone does something illegal with content you provided you are liable.

Shea,

Utah?

MorrisonMotel6,

California. The internet contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.

thirteene,

The list is growing: Utah, Florida, Kansas, South Dakota, and West Virginia, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Virginia all have legislation in progress

WeLoveCastingSpellz,

github.com/ValdikSS/GoodbyeDPI, www.f-droid.org/…/ru.evgeniy.dpitunnelcli/ enjoy. Fuck cencorship!

angrymouse,

This your ISP or your government? Or your rant is about the feeling?

kokesh,
@kokesh@lemmy.world avatar

I’ve got AdGuard home and everything works. Switching to ISP DNS and Thepiratebay.com doesn’t work.

cecilkorik,
@cecilkorik@lemmy.ca avatar

Counter rant: This is why we built encryption and VPNs many years ago. This is a solved problem, but rather than solving it you’d rather just complain ineffectually about it. The solution, the product of years of work of technical people and privacy people, is sitting right there staring you in the face available for you to use as a free service, a paid service, or your own self-hosted service. Use a VPN, that’s what it’s for.

Ottomateeverything,

Counter counter rant: both can be true.

Just because there’s a workaround doesn’t mean there isn’t a problem.

pete_the_cat,

The problem is that VPNs can be a lot slower (for example large downloads) than a “normal” connection, at least iny experience.

charliegrahamm,

Decent VPNs should be mostly unnoticeable

prole,

Dunno why this comment is being downvoted. Y’all must have some shit VPNs

fubbernuckin,

I only notice my vpn when I’m gaming with friends. Otherwise video streaming and downloads are unchanged.

folkrav,

Free VPNs should be avoided at all costs for many reasons, and the alternatives are an additional service to pay for, to fix another service you already pay for too that doesn’t work the way it should work in the first place.

I don’t see what’s ineffectual about the complaints. Of course people will, and should, complain. Loudly.

netchami,

The ProtonVPN free plan is good though. There’s no reason not to trust them, Proton is a privacy company and their business model is very clear. Also, their apps are completely free and open source. Windscribe might also be an option, but they have bandwidth limits. Proton doesn’t limit bandwidth, instead they only allow you to connect to a small amount servers in only 3 countries. They also block P2P on the free plan, but it’s fine if you just want to get around censorship and browse the web.

folkrav,

Yeah, fair enough. My point still stands though: VPNs are a mere band-aid to the underlying issue, not a solution. You’re merely shifting your trust from your ISP to another company, not fixing the problem.

netchami,

I always use a VPN, no matter what network I’m on. I don’t need or want to trust my ISP, I just need to trust my VPN company. And when I don’t trust my VPN anymore, I can easily switch to another one, while I can’t switch ISPs that easily, because they actually own the fiber-optic cable that runs to my house. Censorship is not the only issue with ISPs, privacy is another reason why a trustworthy VPN is mandatory for me. You can’t fix ISPs, they are garbage, and they will always be. But you can use a VPN, so you don’t have to care about your ISP.

folkrav,

Which is exactly my point. Not all VPN companies are trustworthy (I’d say most are not, tbh). You’re still stuck trusting some third-party. The problem lies elsewhere. VPNs are a band aid.

netchami,

Sure, but were never gonna fix ISPs, so I’m happily using this band-aid solution

aBundleOfFerrets,

Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1 is free and can be as trusted as any of their other services.

folkrav,

That’s DNS

aBundleOfFerrets,

No, their warp protocol is a fully fledged VPN. They use the same branding for it

folkrav,

Hmm, Cloudflare themselves seem to say it’s not.

What WARP Is Not

From a technical perspective, WARP is a VPN. But it is designed for a very different audience than a traditional VPN. WARP is not designed to allow you to access geo-restricted content when you’re traveling. It will not hide your IP address from the websites you visit. If you’re looking for that kind of high-security protection then a traditional VPN or a service like Tor are likely better choices for you.

blog.cloudflare.com/announcing-warp-plus/

aBundleOfFerrets,

It will get you around ISP and network level blocking, with high bandwidth and considerable less privacy concerns than any other free vpn. It is not surprising that you will need to pay money for geo-spoofing, and due to the nature of it’s design it can only expose your client IP to cloudflare customers. As far as VPNs go, those are very minor restrictions.

Saying it isn’t a VPN is pedantry and also wrong no matter what they say.

neutron,

There are many ways to solve this problem, with different degrees of acceptance: legally (arguing for personal freedom granted by basic laws, depends on jurisdiction), or technologically (tools to evade or deceive censorship techniques, could require technical knowledge for proper use).

We have the tools, but legal grounds can also play a greater role (e.g. declaring vpn/tor illegal causes a chilling effect for potential beneficiaries).

mlfh,

It’s still right to complain and protest about something that is unjust, even when ways to circumvent it exist. Because the next logical policy step is to ban VPNs, as many countries already have, and the solved problem becomes unsolved again.

pipe01,

github.com/xvzc/SpoofDPI

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