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10 facts about NordVPN that aren't commonly known
  • Meshnet Feature for Personal Encrypted Networks: NordVPN offers a unique feature called Meshnet, which allows users to connect their devices directly and securely over the internet. This means you can create your own private, encrypted network for activities like gaming, file sharing, or remote access to your home devices from anywhere in the world.
  • RAM-Only Servers for Enhanced Security: Unlike many VPN providers, NordVPN uses RAM-only (diskless) servers. Since these servers run entirely on volatile memory, all data is wiped with every reboot. This ensures that no user data is stored long-term, significantly reducing the risk of data breaches and enhancing overall security.
  • Servers in a Former Military Bunker: Some of NordVPN's servers are housed in a former military bunker located deep underground. This unique location provides an extra layer of physical security against natural disasters and unauthorized access, ensuring that the servers are protected in all circumstances.
  • NordLynx Protocol with Double NAT Technology: NordVPN developed its own VPN protocol called NordLynx, built around the ultra-fast WireGuard protocol. What sets NordLynx apart is its implementation of a double Network Address Translation (NAT) system, which enhances user privacy without sacrificing speed. This innovative approach solves the potential privacy issues inherent in the standard WireGuard protocol.
  • Dark Web Monitor Feature: NordVPN includes a feature known as Dark Web Monitor. This tool actively scans dark web sites and forums for credentials associated with your email address. If it detects that your information has been compromised or appears in any data breaches, it promptly alerts you so you can take necessary actions to protect your accounts.

In a recent discussion among mail system managers, we learned that one of the large spam filter providers now has an option to reject all mail from ESPs (e-mail service providers, outsourced bulk mailers) regardless of opt-in, opt-out, spam complaints, or anything else, just block it all. Some of the ESPs wondered what would drive people to do that.

We are bombarded by ads from the moment we get up until the moment we go to sleep. There’s ads on the radio, ads on TV, ads in the newspaper, ads on billboards, ads on the bus, ads on the fricking steps in the NYC subway. In my physical mailbox, where I used to throw away about one worthless little newspaper full of ads a week, now it’s one or two a day.

The reality is that recipients do not care if they get the vast majority of what ESPs send. Even if we might have at one point checked the box to get Valuable Offers for More Fabulous Products Like This, now it’s just more stuff in the gusher of ads. If there’s a button to push to make their inboxes an ad-free zone, it really shouldn’t come as a surprise that people push it.

For the minority of stuff that people do want, like the daily headlines from newspapers, or perhaps the weekly roundup of cheap plane fares, there’s better ways to get them than e-mail. An RSS or Twitter feed is entirely under the recipient’s control, meaning that no sleazy marketing manager can try to shove his messages to the top of My Yahoo, or to insert his feed if I didn’t ask for it. If I lose interest and unsubscribe, it is gone instantly, permanently, and reliably. If I were a mail manager, I would be delighted to push the no-ESP button, then show a few of my users how to set up feeds for the trickle of stuff they really want, because now the management burden is on them, not on me.

For ESPs, if there is any argument whatsoever about whether recipients want your mail, you lose. Yes, it’s hard to read their minds and only send them what they want, but thats how competent ESPs make the big bucks.

(Several mail managers at very large ISPs wrote privately to thank me for my note and wish they had that button, but they asked me not to name them since ESPs are so excitable.)

By John Levine, Author, Consultant & Speaker

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Comments

I can see where that'd be popular Suresh Ramasubramanian  –  Dec 6, 2009 1:26 AM

.. and enforceable too, in the case of some userbases (corporations that’d mandate what their employees can and can’t use their email for, for example)

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