You've pretty much hit the high points Chuck.  From my own experience when going overseas if I'm able to VPN to the country I'm going to, the rental car reservation is considerably less in cost to reserve that car than if I reserved it from state side.  I'm assuming  there is a difference between a poor native and a rich American.

Bob

On 12/8/2023 12:56 AM, Chuck Anderson via WLUG wrote:
On Thu, Dec 07, 2023 at 09:08:00PM -0500, Doug Mildram via WLUG wrote:

So, maybe or maybe not, that's the kind of VPN I suspect they're selling,
but I don't see the value for normal folks....or maybe anyone. (educate
me!)
Unless their hosted-server-world-route network security is a win.
Thanks for listening, and my thursday's look better than usual this month,
so hoping for WLUG virtually dec 14.  -doug

Yes.  Those "modern" VPNs are used for many reasons.  Here are a couple:

- To appear to servers/services that you are physically located in a
  different geographical area.  This can help you bypass
  geographically restricted content, such as watching sports programs
  that content owners don't want you to see based on where you live
  (local sports broadcast blackouts).  Or trick hotels into giving you
  a better price--yes, hotels can hike the rates they present to you
  if they think you are nearby--assuming you need last-minute
  accomodations while you are away on vacation.

- To hide your real IP address from servers and/or hide your browsing
  from intermediaries (your ISP for example) for privacy.  This could
  be so you can avoid being tracked and having your browsing habits
  sold to advertisers (something your ISP can easily do--SSL does not
  hide DNS queries although that is changing with the availability of
  DNS-over-HTTPS and similar), to hide from authorities/copyright
  enforcers, or for life-and-death reasons (hide from unfriendly
  governments.)
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