Anyone have privacy curtains? Also VPN & games.

[ChipmunkChill]

The install guy that came a few days ago suggested them.  I'm looking at Amazon and trying to figure out what is a good one there or what I should be looking for.  I was a little surprised when he suggested it as I'm in a quiet neighbourhood at least during the day.  Though I also happen to be on a main floor with a large window that people can see into.  The window does have a coating on it and screen on one side.  My kitchen window is over from it and much smaller.  They are the only windows I have. 

Looking at online reviews people seem to think being a dark color helps on the curtain.  I think their material isn't very good or it might have no liner.  I haven't had privacy windows for over 40 years.  Since then I've had another brain injury.  So can't remember a lot about it.  I do know that sometimes I was getting knocked off wifi on the old router.  At least twice someone ghosted on my cell.  But that is already controversial as it's brand is in the news.  That ghost type problem was supposed to be fixed years ago based on old news.

My computer recently reminded me it comes with VPN.  I'm not sure what shaw's feelings are on such things.  I am only getting firetv basic thought am considering one network but only because I want to see Picard.  Everything else is in the firestick includeds, legal free, or I can buy on google movies.  

VPN concerns me because of the methods by which I know it can work.  Either way if someone is behaving bad you can still get a court order and the VPN still has to give them information.  VPN can happen as customers of the vpn may swap IP locations. 

I know that happened once and one person bought tickets, then died in a crash, the result was a misunderstanding that saw police show up at the very much alive man's house to inform that he'd died then they found the dead man was living elsewhere.  Neither one knew each other.  Another case involved one person doing something wrong.  Their IP being sought out and when they got to the residence the person saying the activity wasn't theirs and could prove it.  That one was fine they were ok but a second one about the same time they went to that ones house and he wasn't caught for what he'd been doing.  He said the activity wasn't his but was caught because he was doing something wrong but they didn't know until they looked at his computer.  The IP swap outed him. 

Another was a type of virus that turned people into a VPN and from that criminals piggybacked and did their thing with the others like a proxy for them.  Piggybacking sometimes accounts for the speed loss people say they have on a VPN but with high enough speeds people don't realize or pay attention.  Putting them at risk if it's a shady VPN trying to look clean.

I see online from a general search that some places block VPN.  Also someone rightly stated that a VPN is no replacement for anti-virus and you should still use it.(someone once said to me they figured they didn't need it)

So with relative basic usage is VPN useful and does Shaw have a problem with it?  I'm not gaming at the moment and I have to do some system upgrades before that since the games don't like the UHD630 but should be fine with my GTX1650.  I'm waiting on some rubber screws as I need to flip my fan.  I did get some ram coolers. 

Now I just have to find a decent game that isn't play to win.  If I pay for a game it's either access or it has some addon I like not because it is dysfunctional otherwise.  Looking at the Sims4 I feel conflicted that way.  Looking at Asphalt 8 and the spam, etc and Destiny(AI youtube spam clearly normal people don't put 3-5 hr videos up due to cost, etc).  I'm disappointed in games.  I have thought for cooling to get a graphics card dock for laptops and connect it via USB-C.(It's a 4G card so with loss it would still be probably over 3G which is good for many things)  I've got an Aspire with only the one case fan and a 300w default psu(so I got a 500w to put in).

[mdk]

> I want to see Picard.  

I just watched the latest episode, with Seven-of-Nine, on the CTV SciFi Channel (recently rebranded from being The Space Channel). Does your Shaw TV subscription include that channel?

[ChipmunkChill]

No.  I switched to internet 300 and quit cable.  When I had cable I did get CTV but not that channel.  I'd consider a single subscription but it doesn't seem to have it for that channel.  CBS does but looking at their shows I've seen most of them and don't have interest in their others.  So I may wait for it to come out on DVD at the library or digital from Google.  I was hoping I could just get it from Apple Store as in past occasionally I got something from iTunes.  But I'd not looked at it in years and didn't see Picard there.

[mdk]

> VPN concerns me ...

As it should!

ZDNET reports that Iran's government-backed hacking units have made a top priority last year to exploit VPN bugs as soon as they became public, in order to infiltrate, and to plant backdoors in companies all over the world.

[mdk]

> I switched to internet 300 and quit cable.  In the past, occasionally I got something from iTunes.  But I'd not looked at it in years, and didn't see Picard there.

Star Trek: Picard is available via "Shaw on Demand" TV, and on the Internet

So, no need to use VPN to view that series.

[ChipmunkChill]

Wasn't going to VPN for it.  Just frustrated you can't go to CBS, etc and just get a single show from them like on iTunes.

As for VPN was just wondering if it was useful at all and if there is really any well known ones that behave well.  Because I have seen them misused. 

I have a confusing thing with my phone at the moment.  I've never altered it's MACID and when it boots and is unconnected from WiFi it states one ID and when it connects it changes.  I do not have VPN on it.  A app for firetv wifi shows my phone in 3 countries.  At first I did a double take and thought maybe it's an example on the screen as a screenshot of someone else's phone.  Then noticed one has the MACID of my WiFi when shut off and from the original Android version before I updated it at the public library on it's WiFi.  That macid seems to be on a Motorolla in India.  Another one I don't recognize(perhaps its bluetooth's as it doesn't show now and once did before Android update and it now only shows when turned on) it shows as a phone in Russia.  I think that one is a SamSung.  My phone is also on there using the ID I registered at Shaw and also showing the right brand.  My phone I did install McAfee because Shaw gives it to you for our desktops so I downloaded their app but I didn't buy VPN.  So it shouldn't be doing anything VPN.  I have no mobile internet so only use shaw go.  I also have no other apps that should be causing that weird issue.  My phone is 3 years or so old.  So I am thinking of getting a new on but not sure what to get.  A generic unlocked for cheap or just get a Mate, P30, or older Apple.  Since they all have NFC now which I do kind of want but only if I've turned it on.  I hate I can't turn off the Bluetooth on my generic fitness tracker.

When I ping my location or use a speedtest it does show the right location on my desktop.  

I have a privacy concern because of something someone did to me at my prior address which wasn't quite legal but when you feel threatened and have nobody to help people try to get away with things.  I have a history of high security work years ago and people started approaching me around 1980 about things.  Things I couldn't remember due to traumatic amnesia and a stroke.  I left my work at the time because of injuries that took extensive treatments to heal and scar removals.  One involved a building technical maintenance issue and the other was an emergency call when a plant needed to vent.  Before that someone messed with some equipment causing a high altitude fall.  Some work before that was more protective of my identity so I had less problems then but still had risks from the type of work in sciences and security.  I moved, etc and having little around me I was a easy target especially with my injuries.

My housing has installed exterior and interior cameras.  At least 2 buildings here have it not sure about the other 2.  Some claim they don't.  Others here were complaining on security not me, and I did speak up and point that out.  Later they put the other stuff in.  Before that others here made constant calls on fires, fire alarms, people claiming people died(not sure if it's all true), etc.  I had to wonder were some of the cops and fire department props in some weird movie. 

There are some real rumor mill people where I live.  I recognize one from an incident with a gun from the 80s but in another building here.  I can't really afford to move and nothing says it wouldn't happen again since It's happened more than once now.  My prior housing my fence was broken by people illegally entering the back yard and under house crawlspace.  They had a fire there too in the building beside it.  One day I looked out my window and from a building across the road someone was filming our duplexes with a tv camera.  No idea why and I shut my blinds.  The place before that the roommate was helping me with my child dying of cancer.  But they were a radio nut, with computers, electronics hobby, survivalist interest, and guns.  I didn't find out part of that until they had talked me into being their roommate.  That man's relative just happens to live in my current building and that person is a mean gossip according to another.  Too much of a coincidence that one of the people threatening me with a gun in 1980s is also in this grouping of buildings.  That one didn't hold the gun another woman did, and later that woman's boyfriend took the fall for the gun.

So if a VPN helped keep the wackos away from me that would be great.  Not sure it would and a bit mad at the military and police at the moment.  Years ago I was very private partly for my safety, then I didn't talk of certain things much after.  Now I do but I don't think it has anything to do with the crazy things.

[ChipmunkChill]

If anyone is noticing a 5-10M slow down or more on a VPN it's usually a piggyback that someone is using.  If providers get speed complaints and check equipment sometimes they catch an external or a main building junction leech box doing it through WiFi or linked to a landline.  Some are run off of armature radio lines and using a relay to a dish system for a pico-sat. 

We caught them doing this in the 1970s.  It's a myth when the public internet started just not all places knew or had the companies to do it.  It became known when people started having companies that did advertising.  Hydro for example was on the internet before any local ISP's were public in BC.  They used it quietly because they have a link to a ITER that originally wasn't public(and the location they still might not ever mention) and is a major backup for power in Western Canada and also Western USA if there is a emergency there.(they have one that covers us too if necessary)  Hydro maintains the main power grid and it also links through standard systems.  Sometimes they have an outage but certain critical systems stay up because of the ITER or the overlap that backs it up.  At least that's what I remember of the system years ago.

Military or Police found a VPN criminal network and that they had indeed from Iran or something similar shot up a rocket with a satellite for communications.  Occasionally the governments knock them out or send up a trash bot to grab them and bring them down as evidence, etc.  They even had them detonate because once they found out they might be used as evidence they didn't want that.  Some of those run a secondary cellular or sat-phone network not just VPN.  They were caught using mini-dishes and regular dishes inappropriately causing a fire near a nuclear facility in one country.  Which everyone was going to blame the facility for and the fire wasn't deliberate but it outed the system that was setup.

Pico sats our next nightmare after VPN criminal hassles that some are doing.  You've mentioned company backdoors but I think part of it was some people didn't understand and thought VPN like virus protection.  They figure they are safe to log in and then with the VPN collecting or acting as a middle man they get into somewhere. 

I've found some tech's were being taught the wrong things.  Some colleges or Institutes allow teachers to rent space and offer their own programs.  They don't test for accuracy of those programs or their books.  As a result people don't learn electronics safety right nor do they learn security protocols right.  BCIT had wrong information in books, teachers only taught about rubber shoes and anti static straps, their software didn't match in class teaching or books in some cases, some students came in drunk or stonned, others knew too much and got things right every time despite book errors, etc.  That is very odd.  Some careers you pretty much should do your final exams in a faraday cage to make sure you don't electronic cheat and I think some teachers should write a test to prove they can teach.  They admitted their books weren't right but only once and never about the software.  One did put his fist through a wall and another swore in the class.  I didn't stay for the rest of that mess.  I would of failed them probably had they been my students.  There is a trick to IP addresses which wasn't published and also you should wear EMF protection with servers, etc and full radiation protection if going near some antennas or some types of electronics rooms.  BCIT wasn't going to offer certifications for field and those had to be written separate at the cost of they claimed over $1000 each.  This wasn't said before the program began.  I hope their CST or IST program has changed.  Otherwise I suggest anyone looking for training go elsewhere and check carefully.  When you have been gone a long time it's good to retake or do a course.  Military service can increase grants or scholarships for free study up to $130,000 for 3 years.  Provincial can do the same for up to $80,000.  Schools have people fill out forms to check to see amount they can fund.  They do cover disabled equipment, supplies, etc.  However if you quit they only pay to term you took of course and some courses aren't a good fit, especially if there is a health reason or if the course is just crap.