I'm in an odd situation and it seems a VPN isn't enough.

Secret Lord

Greetings everyone!

Hopefully someone here will be able to help Me.

Long story short: I am now accessing internet through my landlord's router !
Basically He installed WiFi in the whole building and it's quite cheaper to use that than pay for another internet provider.

But I figure that it might be a bit too much power for a landlord to have over a tenant (aka Me).

Anyway, I'm trying to figure out how to; 1- Make sure there cannot be logs taken from the router about my internet activities (that could include political affiliations or really anything the landlord is interested in, based on metadata and the IPs of the website I visit). and 2- I need to have something like a bridge to make my Ethernet-only computers connect to the WiFi.

Can any privacy experts help Me out?

Thanks alot.

TinCanTech

Buy a VPN service .. Openvpn.inc offer this:
https://www.privatetunnel.com/

Or you can do it yourself.

Secret Lord

True, paying for a VPN service could help, but ideally I would do it Myself.

But if it's my own VPN, it doesn't solve the issue at all.
The landlord's router is still able to log all the IPs from website requests.

A VPN would allow Me to access my computers from the outside in privacy, but it does nothing for the website I access.

TinCanTech

You absolutely require that your exit node of the VPN be beyond the scope of your Landlord's network.

When I say "do it yourself", I mean you can find some other provider ..
be that your own ISP link to the internet or an online VPN service.

Either way, you require all data transmitted over your Landlord's network to be encrypted.

Your case is slightly unusual in that, an online VPN service actually is useful to you.
(There is a lot of FUD spread about how VPNs can give you privacy which many people pay for
without understanding what they are actually getting .. but yours is a valid use case)

freddieodom

Nice and informative discussion. But you can use PureVPN as well. I read in a blog that The OpenVPN protocol allows you to protect your whole internet traffic from ISPs and online hackers."

https://www.vpnranks.com/purevpn-review/

TinCanTech

TinCanTech wrote There is a lot of FUD spread about how VPNs can give you privacy which many people pay for
without understanding what they are actually getting

See above for an example of that FUD.

Secret Lord

I won't change my ISP since the landlord's deal really is too good to pass, making it all that more suspicious!
@freddueodom How exactly is a VPN protecting the traffic from ISPs ?

So, in conclusion:
I should buy a router with VPN capabilities and make my own local network go through that (including a second router-bridge for my ethernet connections) and also buy a VPN service so I can to the internet from there, right?

That would mean all my network's information that goes trough the landlord's WiFi would be private and the only connection His router would log would be the IPs of the VPN service.
But really at this point, why a VPN service? If I connect to a distant computer and have that computer surf the net, then the only log the landlord would see would be the connection to the distant computer.

After all, there is just no way to connect to a website without the ISP to know about it.

TinCanTech

TinCanTech wrote See above for an example of that FUD.

Technically, that link is SPAM and not even a VPN service.

Secret Lord wrote I should buy a router with VPN capabilities and make my own local network go through that (including a second router-bridge for my ethernet connections) and also buy a VPN service so I can to the internet from there, right?

You don't need any bridges. You can buy yourself a router and connect to a VPN service with that (going out over your LL WiFi). All your local PC's can use ethernet to connect to that router and then all your LL will see is encrypted data.

Secret Lord wrote there is just no way to connect to a website without the ISP to know about it.

If the only connection you make is to a VPN service then that is all they will see. Then browse the internet from the VPN. But of course the VPN service will be able to see all your data. This is the FUD I mentioned, eventually your data has to hit the internet in the normal way.

How about TOR ..

Secret Lord

TOR have it's own problems....
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jul/29/us-government-funding-tor-18m-onion-router

The bridge was just to properly receive the WiFi. A router is built to emit WiFi, not to receive it at high speed.
So basically, it's to avoid a speed drop.

But yeah, I guess I could start with a OpenVPN capable router for my local network and visit the internet from an VPN service.

DonaldS

Secret Lord wrote I won't change my ISP since the landlord's deal really is too good to pass, making it all that more suspicious!
@freddueodom How exactly is a VPN protecting the traffic from ISPs ?

So, in conclusion:
I should buy a router with VPN capabilities and make my own local network go through that (including a second router-bridge for my ethernet connections) and also buy a VPN service so I can to the internet from there, right?

That would mean all my network's information that goes trough the landlord's WiFi would be private and the only connection His router would log would be the IPs of the VPN service.
But really at this point, why a VPN service? If I connect to a distant computer and have that computer surf the net, then the only log the landlord would see would be the connection to the distant computer.

After all, there is just no way to connect to a website without the ISP to know about it.

I guess some time ago, I was also having the same issue. I also had kinda same issue. I first had the basic TP-Link Router. But now I'm using Asus RT-AC66U router and using a PureVPN on it, which also supports OpenVPN. It was very easy to configure. And Yes, Once you connect VPN, your information will be private and will not pass on to others. You can further read this https://www.bestvpn.co/reviews/purevpn-review/ if you need to know how the steps would go for configuring OpenVPN connection.
And as per your question on How exactly is a VPN protecting the traffic from ISPs? Well if I'm not wrong, then according to my knowledge, traffic means your activity and VPN hides your activity from ISPs. VPN encrypts your internet traffic, bypass throttling, masks your IP and your ISP cannot see whatever you do on the internet. But bear in mind that VPN doesn't allow you every time to do activities like torrenting or etc. VPN tunnels your connection encrypts the packets and lets you browse safely. Do read this thread on Quora about Does VPN protects you from ISPs. I hope that this would help you out:
https://www.quora.com/Does-vpn-protect-you-from-your-internet-provider