Re: KISS principal: Virtual Canadian via Remote Desktop?
 

Oh, and hey here's another snag. I was looking at Verizon, ATT, etc. and they all state explicitly that the free calls to canada cannot be used to connect to canadian isp (and if you do connect, they will bill you something silly like $.10/minute). I called ATT and felt the rep out and got a clear impression that such an account trying to make long-distance data connections would be immediately 'audited' and converted.

So now I'm thinking that a calling card (at about $.01/minute) is the way to go. 40 hours/week works out to about 100 bucks per month. Yes, a bit expensive but i'd be willing to pay it if this solution was foolproof. Again, I'd love to hear comments about why THIS plan won't work before I actually try to implement it and get my money locked in limbo.

(PS Not sure why I mention this but I am a semi-regular poster/contributor to 2+2 mag and just registered a new nick because my 2+2 name was the same as username for a few poker sites i don't want to be banned from...please don't hate me because i'm a stranger!)

Re: KISS principal: Virtual Canadian via Remote Desktop?
 

bah...no hate...non-copyrighted info is intended to be free [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img].

I see no reason for a calling card plan to "fail"....but it's paying more for less. A properly configured VPN solution won't put you in danger as best anyone knows (and there are people playing on VPN's as we speak). Even at a $500 setup.$60/mo, in 5 months that's $800. 5 months under your $0.02/min calling card plan at $200/mo is $1k.

I'm still a VPN fan. That's my $0.02. Everything changes, and I'm all for hearing better solutions...currently, I don't consider foreign dialup as a cost effective solution (unless you're lucky enough to have a vonage setup that works for alanog dialup reliably).

Re: KISS principal: Virtual Canadian via Remote Desktop?
 

BPN,

In the main proxy thread Freakin was asked the name of the easiest piece of software for VPNs that could be set up in 5-10 minutes that he had alluded to, and said "no comment". Would you care to comment? OpenVPN?

Re: KISS principal: Virtual Canadian via Remote Desktop?
 

BPN,

Also for jackflash and others, am I right in saying to them that with either the solution he is proposing or a VPN one, you are basically putting in an extra hop in the internet routing between your PC and the poker site server. The difference though with either jackflash's solution and RDP of any kind, is that you are putting in a laggier and less stable hop, whereas with VPN you are putting in what should be a fast and totally stable (as well as secure) hop?

Re: KISS principal: Virtual Canadian via Remote Desktop?
 

If you've done a bunch of VPN installs then yeah, OpenVPN/OpenSwan/FreeSwan, etc would be old hack and simple to set up. 1st time tho? It could take weeks, months, or never depending on your VPN knowledge.

I think Net-to-Net IPCop box VPN's using a PSK (Pre-Shared Key) are super-easy to set up. Others prefer poptop on a Linux or Net/Free/OpenBSD system. Windows server 2k3 is fairly striaght forward for PPTP or even L2TP if you set up a certificate server. Running a hardware concatinator like a 1U cisco rack unit in a colo facility could easily handle numerous VPN clients of varying client software. Anyone proficient in any VPN methods could prolly set one up in minutes for the server-end if the hardware or server already is basically ready for VPN connections and merely new accounts need to be added.

"Easy" is a relative term. Sorry....this prolly wasn't the response you were looking for [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Re: KISS principal: Virtual Canadian via Remote Desktop?
 

BPN,

I wasn't looking for a certain response, but just an answer to a question Freakin wouldn't answer. Your answer makes sense and it should be obvious that what is fast for someone with experience won't be fast for someone without it.

On another point that I don't think got covered in other threads, some people gave links for a couple canadian VPN providers where you can contract for your own dedicated server as well as a shared hosting solution. With those kind of VPN providers, is it correct to assume they are providing their customers with the client software as well as the server VPN software? I would think it is implied, as otherwise they wouldn't be a VPN service per se, but rather just another, albeit canadian, web host service.


jackflash,

I just thought of something else regarding your "simple" solutions, and that is that you will also obviously need a canadian email account that gets read as such. Possibly you could do this through google or yahoo canada, but it is worth noting that with either a packaged canadian VPN solution as I reference above in my question to BPN, or with your own where you set up same on a canadian web host, you will get several email accounts with same and they will obviously be recognized as canadian.

Re: KISS principal: Virtual Canadian via Remote Desktop?
 

basically, hosting companies give you a server. Period. Be it a linux, NetBSD, or Windows 2K3 server doesn't matter...they provide you the server of your choice. You then go in and configure it as needed....be it as a web server, mail server, DNS, VPN, Terminal Server, etc....bottom line is you (or your IT guy) takes the core OS and tweaks it to preform what you need.

In general hosting companies don't care what you use the servers for, although most of their customers are setting up websites. They usually frown on spam. I told a couple hosting companies *exactly* what I was planning on using their connection for....VPN access from the US to get a foreign IP to play poker to circumvent sites that banned US players. They didn't have a problem with it (although I had to paste some links to the law to reassure one of them).

I told them exactly what I was planning on doing, why, and for who (well...general description of player types, not like name/social/dob info lol), and haven't met any resistance. It's not like there's anything illegal being tried by the players, hosting companies, or setup guys.

Re: KISS principal: Virtual Canadian via Remote Desktop?
 

[ QUOTE ]
"Easy" is a relative term.

[/ QUOTE ]

qft. it seems to me that the calling card method is only paying more for less relative to the (1) risk i or someone i would hire would screw up VPN and get money locked, or (2) risk unexpected costs come up with VPN (e.g., i have to fly back to canada and tweak server settings or pay someone in canada to tweak these settings when something unexpected occurs).

since reading BPN and percula's comments in other threads, i've been convinced that vpn is the best solution in an ideal world (which will be the real world of some people). i'm not sure vpn is the best solution in my world and the world of many other technologically competent non-experts.

It seems to me that if the calling card method works, there are a few advantages, among them:

(1) anybody with even the slightest technological competence could use it immediately (takes about 5 minutes to purchase dial-up ISP access from anywhere in the world and an international calling card)
(2) gets around obstructions for any particular country (if a site blocked access from canadians tomorrow you just switch to mexico or wherever).

maybe the bottleneck is showing residency in the country from which one desires the IP address in order to cash out to a bank account in that country. some have stated that THIS is the biggest problem, but I'll qft one more time:

[ QUOTE ]
"Easy" is a relative term.

[/ QUOTE ]

Re: KISS principal: Virtual Canadian via Remote Desktop?
 

BPN,

You seem to be saying that a hosting company that advertises itself as a VPN solution, usually for enterprise purposes and not the ones we are talking about here, is not also providing the VPN software. That doesn't seem to make sense, as othewise they are just a web hosting outfit and wouldnt' need to advertise themselves as a VPN provider, except to list that as one possible use for their services.

Re: KISS principal: Virtual Canadian via Remote Desktop?
 

[ QUOTE ]
BPN,

You seem to be saying that a hosting company that advertises itself as a VPN solution, usually for enterprise purposes and not the ones we are talking about here, is not also providing the VPN software. That doesn't seem to make sense, as otherwise they are just a web hosting outfit and wouldn't need to advertise themselves as a VPN provider, except to list that as one possible use for their services.

[/ QUOTE ]

If you've found bona-fide VPN providers targeting the corp world, then go for them. I highly doubt that's the case, tho, as corp VPN's are typically used to gain access to their corp local network (file shares, network apps, etc). If you found a public service offering VPN's specifically, I'd guess it's findnot.com. They're bad news for a number of reasons I can go in to detail about if necessary.

I'm speaking from the perspective of VPN's I've set up. They've been from hosting companies offering virtual or dedicated servers, and primarily concentrated on web hosting solutions. If you have found other service providers then great....they may be viable options and may not even require much in the way of any special setups....like if someone offered VPN service through their network and you only had to download a certain VPN client to connect. Provided it's not a trojan'd download and is from a reputable company then cool....go for it [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]. I'll gladly review any specific site/company you have in mind and give you my $0.02....which you can read as law, toss in the garbage, or hold as one opinion from the jury you build [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]. All I know is back in late September when I first started suggesting a VPN solution and before I did any setups for any players, I was just spitting out info. Once peeps started requesting specifics, I did some searches to find a VPN service company that sounded good....what I found was near nothing except places like findnot.com, which have several major red flags as reasons not to use them. I have not done a search in the past few months and there may be new services that have cropped up that I'm not aware of. I'm willing to get feedback and check out options and offer my thoughts free of charge. I think I'm going horizontal for the night right now tho....so PM or post here and I'll check it out tomorrow if you have something specific you're thinking of.

I'm still operating from the perspective of my rather disappointing search for VPN services last Sept/Oct.