giganews blog

We are excited to announce the addition of the newer, more secure, Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP/IPsec) protocol to VyprVPN for Giganews Diamond members. VyprVPN using L2TP/IPsec, is exclusive to the Diamond account and is available today - at no additional cost.

In March 2010, we introduced all Diamond members to VyprVPN using PPTP - an older, basic VPN protocol. Over the past months, we have been pleased to see a large percentage of our Diamond members around the world using VyprVPN to secure not just their NNTP traffic, but their entire Internet connection, including HTTP, email, and mobile traffic. The additional security and privacy for all of your Internet use comes without sacrificing speed.

Clearly, Diamond members choosing VyprVPN recognize that online privacy is under attack. The ongoing Balkanization of the Internet is accelerating as governments and ISPs around the world try to control and limit what their residents and customers can access. Connection speeds are throttled, e-mails are scanned, social networks are blocked or monitored and citizens are prevented from looking at messages and content from other countries. Giganews' partnership with Golden Frog to deliver VyprVPN is our answer to this ongoing invasion of our members’ privacy throughout the interactive world.

VyprVPN tackles these problems in three ways:

1. Privacy
   Privacy is often confused with anonymity. VyprVPN cannot ensure that you are anonymous. Instead, VyprVPN allows you to “close the shades” over the windows at your house and prevent strangers from looking into your house and invading your privacy. You now control “the shades” to your online home with VyprVPN.
   
   
2. Security
   Whether connected on a public Wi-Fi at an airport, coffee shop or hotel, or sending emails on your mobile device, you are unknowingly sacrificing security for convenience by not encrypting via VyprVPN. Use VyprVPN to encrypt your entire Internet connection, not just Usenet, wherever you travel in the world - without sacrificing speed.
   
   
3. Freedom
   The recent events for Facebook users in Tunisia and Internet users in Egypt highlight the censoring of the open, end-to-end Internet by governments. Tighter content restrictions demonstrate the ongoing Balkanization of the open Internet into broadband, walled gardens. ISP deep packet inspection (DPI) threatens to erase any expectation of privacy and freedom for Internet participants. VyprVPN shields a Giganews member from DPI and ensures the right to privacy is firmly in the hands of our Giganews members.

After we provided VyprVPN using PPTP, some customers asked for even greater security. We listened. This member concern was relayed to Golden Frog and we partnered with them to provide the L2TP/IPsec protocol to provide a stronger level of encryption.

We realize that the different VPN protocols can seem like an alphabet soup of acronyms, so we would like to give a basic overview of how L2TP/IPsec functions. At its core, L2TP/IPsec is a "package within a package." Similar to PPTP, L2TP sets up a private Internet connection (a “tunnel”). Unlike PPTP, L2TP/IPsec encrypts the tunnel with the standard IPsec protocol. IPsec provides the secure encryption, and L2TP provides the tunnel.

After the secure connection has been created with IPsec, L2TP packets between your device and VyprVPN are encapsulated by IPsec. The L2TP packet is hidden within the IPsec packet and information about the internal private network cannot be read. Only you or VyprVPN can encrypt and decrypt the traffic, and no one in between can read the data.

Why Should You Use L2TP/IPsec?

• 256-bit encryption – same strength used by financial institutions
• Simple Setup – no third party software required; supported by most operating systems, including mobile devices
• Greater compatibility with wireless routers and corporate firewalls
• Protects against modification of data from the sender to the recipient, ensuring data integrity (not just data confidentiality)
• Prevents “man-in-the middle” attacks by hackers that attempt to capture data by posing as the VPN server
• Authenticates that the sender of the data actually sent the data

Giganews members’ access to a variety of VPN protocols simply means that you can connect to VyprVPN when, where, and how, you want with even greater protection than ever before. This is part of our continued commitment to providing the absolute best Usenet service for our members, along with the Giganews commitment to continue development of more useful Internet tools.

Setup VyprVPN using L2TP/IPsec now.