I get spammed by them all the time but have so far resisted and stayed with my crappy, slow, and expensive ADSL provider out of principle. But the ADSL provider just raised prices on me AGAIN and it’s ridiculous.
What do I do? Is Google Fiber as invasive as other Google stuff? What if I just use it to tunnel a VPN to a non-Google endpoint?
This is sure annoying. It occurs to me that Comcrap might be available here as an alternative, but that must be as evil as Google. At least the ADSL company is reasonable about privacy, as such companies go.
Thanks for any thoughts.
I have it, and I’m otherwise de-googled.
- Use your own router, not theirs
- Set your router’s DNS to something other than google’s, and use DOH whenever possible.
- Force all web sites to use HTTPS whenever possible.
- If you’re extra concerned, use a nailed up VPN, preferably via your router.
New here, I’ve always used Google’s DNS to get away from my ISP’s. Is there a free alternative that I can switch to?
Mullvad has a dns
Here are some others: https://www.privacyguides.org/en/dns/?h=dns
AdGuard has a list of trusted DNS providers, which seems like a good source. Many of the ones in that list are free as well.
1.1.1.1 is cloudflare, whose evilness score is up to you. Better than google afaict but who knows.
Honestly Google is probably the least bad option, they’re all gonna do what Google does with your data, and they’re a better cost per speed ratio. And frankly there are few companies worse than Comcast, I hate them so much.
I would get the Google Fiber and use a VPN for nearly everything.
It’s what I do with Comcast.I’ve been paying $70/mo for gigabit fiber for like 6 years now. It’s been the exact same price every month that entire time. I had to reach out to the Google Fiber people maybe once for a technical issue, and it was resolved quickly with a prorated discount for my downtime.
I just can’t stress enough what a breath of fresh air this has been vs Time Warner/Spectrum and then later AT&T I’ve had at this same address. How many times did I have to call to wait on hold to tell them my service was broken, or threaten to cancel my service so they would lower my rate back down to what it was before they tried to jack it up again? How many technicians did I have to have come to my house for stupid bullshit? Also, the other two ran bare cable barely buried from the junction box to my house, where Google installed a fucking conduit in the ground that can easily be reused.
Google is the best ISP by a hundred miles, imo. Just use a VPN.
They’re all sucking up whatever data they can. Stick to Https, don’t use their DNS and use a VPN and you should be fine.
pfsense+vpn all traffic at the router and VPN dns
OPNSense > pfSense
Use Pi-hole (pointing to non google dns or unbound) and a vpn
Adguard home is better than pi-hole. Both use the same lists, but adguard has built in support for DNS over HTTPS and TLS, and IMO a better UI.
They’re all evil man, just use a VPN in Russia all the time to really fuck them
Living in Russia, a lot of sites do not allow Russian traffic as it is considered to be high-risk.
Good idea to have a backup solution.
Yeah this is very true but I am trying to realign my more personal non business stuff away from all services like that
Ultimately they will require digital ID. No can do
Sure! I just mean if you must have a Russian VPN server, you better have it somewhere else as well. Also, practice shows that Sweden or the Netherlands are good destinations for a server. Both are not heavily restricted by sites and don’t care about what you do.
Very true about Sweden and Netherlands for these purposes
“they”
Yes, they. The three ISPs he has to choose from. Context. He’s not going to meaningfully opt out from dealing with the scale of the services Google provides online by choosing slower internet. We have to encrypt our traffic, secure our browsers and devices. And even then they will passively circumvent many of our efforts not to scrutinized.
In the end privacy is for me a way of judging the quality of my connection. But I do need a quantity of that connection, and if I’m going to shield my traffic obsessively anyways I’d pick Google Fiber.
We’re picking between three companies that all collaborate with whatever law enforcement or spy agency comes knocking or visiting.
My recommendation:
- Write to your politicians and tell them that cables should become provider neutral to increase competition.
- Find a cheaper wireless provider and move what can be moved to offline first.
- Write your current provider and tell them why you cancel.
Why not try one of the fixed wireless providers? For the vast majority of people, they work well enough and are generally available in most locations. I’m talking about the T-Mobile Home Internet or the Verizon Home Internet or maybe AT&T Internet Air, even though that one is quite limited in scope.
Thanks. I have t-mobile as my phone carrier (through an MVNO) and the signal is pretty weak in here, so I think their fixedTha wireless might not work all that well unless I can arrange an outdoor antenna somehow. Also there is a 50gb limit, right? What’s the point of super fast internet if you can use it up in no time? In practice I probably use way less than 50gb with my current DSL, but I’d like to be able to back up my home computers to a remote server, so that’s a few TB of upload right there. It’s something to consider though. I had been thinking of simply upgrading my phone plan to “unlimited” (35gb) and ditching my DSL and just tethering my phone. Maybe their fixed wireless amounts to that.
They have two plans. One is a internet light and it’s for really rural areas that otherwise wouldn’t qualify and it gives you 150 gigs and the other is unlimited.
