I want to set up a VPN that uses the client’s IP when sending data out of the VPN server. I am able to use either OpenVPN (open-source edition), or Wireguard.

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2 points

Not at all. A VPN can be used as a proxy but that’s not what they were intended for.

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3 points
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I do wonder about when VPNs started being used as proxies… Back when I was in school, we’d use HTTP proxies for HTTP, and SOCKS5 proxies for everything else. I remember I’d try searching for free web-based proxies too.

I guess VPNs being easier to configure and automatically applying to all apps (since they’re just networks that can have routing rules) helped.

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3 points

I do wonder about when VPNs started being used as proxies…

About at the same time operators at the US noticed that they could profit from profiling users behaviour. In here that’s very much illegal thing to do and most use cases for VPN is to connect yourself into corporate network. VPNs are of course useful to protect you from MITM attacks at open wifi networks and things like that, but hiding your behavior from your ISP is very much an US thing.

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2 points

The hiding of internet traffic is also a proxy thing, not necessarily a VPN thing.

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1 point

hiding your behavior from your ISP is very much an US thing.

This is doable with a SOCKS5 or HTTP proxy though. I’m wondering about VPNs specifically.

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