Problems with internet tech fads and tech youtubers.

[JovanD]

In this thread im gonna try to list some things that tech youtubers popularized and presented as good/must have that are unessesary and bad in certain situations (compared to previous status quo).

 

"Cable Management"

Not to be confused with actual cable management like if you're making an arduino project and you're making sure all the ground cables are black and different color for signal, power cables, cutting them to length exactly as they are needed, etc.

What im talking about is practice stuffing everything behind the motherboard tray and mangling the living hell out of cables for "aestetics". Now sure maybe 10% of people will get special case and modular power cables that work properly, but the other 90% are not doing them selves any favors with their oem cases and chinesium power supplies. I have a friend who damaged his motherboard knocked off 2 northbridge signal coupling capacitors, it was a bitch to find matching ones and solder back. Before that i begged him not to do "cable management", but he was too brainwashed by tech youtubers and wouldn't listen, even said how he "wanted to do it right" and he force closed the bulging side panel. Also i wanna add that sata data cables are quite fragile in general and will break after being bent too many times or too much. My point is that only specific minority may benefit from "Cable Management" while most people are at best making replacing parts harder and at worst damaging their cables and components. There are a lot of impressionable people watching.

"PCIe Extenders"

PCI interface is vary complex and operates in high frequencies, it's designed for specific trace length. Going out of spec for "aestetics" is just bad.

 

"Liquid Metal Thermal Compound"

Brand may say "Polar bear Fr000z0r 3000" but its just Gallium, while not toxic to us it is reactive when in contact with other metals, some reactions are slower than others, just google gallium vs aluminum. While applied properly it can yield good results, but one accidental spill and IT WILL ruin your graphics card or motherboard if it touches any of the solder joints even for a split second. 

 

"Gamer Chairs"

People are waking up around this lately so i don't have to explain it in deep, they are expensive, ugly and just bad as chairs.

 

"Using VPN"

Seriously what the hell, im loosing faith in humanity. Unless content you want to acess is geoblocked or you wan to dodge a ban, there is absolutley no reason to use a vpn PERIOD. Any other point youtubers are payed to read is nonsense, you're just paying to add latency to you connection for no good reason what is wrong with people for christ's sake. Also SoftEther VPN Gate is free and open source, no need to pay any subscriptions. Only reason there are so many VPN companies is because gcloud (and i assume most other cloud services) don't charge for bandwidth usage.

Can you guys think of any other stuff to add to the list?

[Helpful Tech Witch]

2 minutes ago, JovanD said:

"Cable Management"

makes something looks good. also, it will improve temps over just a jumble all over.

 

5 minutes ago, JovanD said:

"PCIe Extenders"

There are reasons to use them? I believe they are prevalent in the server space, and are the thing to have in the mining space.

 

6 minutes ago, JovanD said:

"Liquid Metal Thermal Compound"

also rarley needed. and also everyone ever has said to only use it with a copper heatsync,

8 minutes ago, JovanD said:

"Gamer Chairs"

Never been caused by tech yt, caused by videogame yt.

9 minutes ago, JovanD said:

"Using VPN"

Ohno! people cant want to have their data private!!!! 

[FRD]

I think there are many pc subjects we can all agree or disagree on, but here's what comes to mind when I think of mainstream:

- RGB

- GPU risers and their worse cooling controversy

- AIO position, good or bad over long periods of time

- PCIe Gen 3 vs Gen 4

- Mechanical keyboards worth it or not

- Overhyped games like Cyberpunk 2077

- Ridgewallet, personal thing, I hate wallets that can just hold cards and are sharp

[Helpful Tech Witch]

13 minutes ago, FRD said:

- Mechanical keyboards worth it or not

 

as someone who switched from a membrane to a mechanical recentaly, they are SOOOOO worth it

 

[Radium_Angel]

29 minutes ago, JovanD said:

absolutley no reason to use a vpn PERIOD

Bullshit

[Jurrunio]

"Gaming PCs should have fancy aesthetics" mindset. Instead of decorating the system, they make it seem more important than performance.

 

35 minutes ago, JovanD said:

"Cable Management"

...

Then that's his problem. He's responsible for his actions.

 

35 minutes ago, JovanD said:

"PCIe Extenders"

...

Proper ones keep things in spec. "Wasn't designed to" does not imply "shouldn't be done", this is something you can work around.

 

35 minutes ago, JovanD said:

"Liquid Metal Thermal Compound"

...

It's obviously not for the faint of heart. Pretty sure the term "electrically conductive" is repeated over and over in all liquid metal products.

 

35 minutes ago, JovanD said:

"Using VPN"

Seriously what the hell, im loosing faith in humanity.

Exactly, people are loosing faith in their internet providers, hackers, anyone interested in information who morally should not access them.

[Moonzy]

33 minutes ago, JovanD said:

"Cable Management"

"PCIe Extenders"

[Jurrunio]

1 minute ago, Moonzy said:

 

the fear of playing jenga intensifies

[Oshino Shinobu]

32 minutes ago, JovanD said:

"Using VPN"

VPNs are part of critical business and network infrastructure. Sure, Youtubers generally are promoting client VPNs for personal use, but you're generalising far too much by passing off VPNs as having no purpose outside of region locks. Even ignoring that, there's still plenty of reasons to use a VPN for personal use, given the widespread government surveillance, ISP tracking and likewise. I use a VPN for secure remote connections to my own network, very much a valid use for one.

[Levent]

38 minutes ago, JovanD said:

 

"Using VPN"

1. Seriously what the hell, im loosing faith in humanity. Unless content you want to access is geoblocked or you wan to dodge a ban, there is absolutely no reason to use a vpn PERIOD.
2. SoftEther VPN Gate is free and open source, no need to pay any subscriptions.

1-) Sure, let me risk getting jailed for posting tweets about an elected official in my country. Social media sites like twitter also share data with government when my located is detected to be from the country where I am located at. That line is absolutely bullshit. Having a VPS for a annual fee of $12 is MUCH cheaper than paying for static IP for my ISP, also I rather not due to the reason I mentioned previously.

2-) So is OpenVPN and its integrated much better in non windows OS' compared to whatever that is.

[JovanD]

Just now, Oshino Shinobu said:

VPNs are part of critical business and network infrastructure. Sure, Youtubers generally are promoting client VPNs for personal use, but you're generalising far too much by passing off VPNs as having no purpose outside of region locks. Even ignoring that, there's still plenty of reasons to use a VPN for personal use, given the widespread government surveillance, ISP tracking and likewise. I use a VPN for secure remote connections to my own network, very much a valid use for one.

I was specifically referring to youtubers promoting *insert popular vpn company" as essential for personal use, they are just routing their traffic trough Google's/Amazon's/Microsoft's servers that are part of PRISM program anyway.

[Tamesh16]

48 minutes ago, JovanD said:

there is absolutley no reason to use a vpn PERIOD

My University would spy on all the packets that went through their internet and I lived on campus, so this is one of many reasons to get one, and If it was just normal googling I might be fine with it (even though it still makes me uneasy) I did do banking and legal stuff through the internet so I would definitely need that to be private, I mean some might get a vpn for just the assurance of being safe, but I dont think much of anyone gets it for no reason at all

[Oshino Shinobu]

16 minutes ago, comander said:

This is mostly true for companies that are behind the curve. ZTN has all but replaced VPNs at a number of leading companies. 

https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/security/glossary/what-is-zero-trust/

 

To be fair when I worked at HugeTelco a few years back I was still using a VPN to get into various corp networks. This is BAD though. Having a network architecture that assumes "everything on the network should be trusted" is bad design. It's much better to have a set up where "only users with X conditions are trusted"

ZTN's a model and best practice, it's not really a replacement for any technology in particular. 

 

The article you linked to makes zero mention of VPNs but talks about the principles behind ZTN, which can very well include VPNs with the application of MFA and least privilege. Leading MSPs are still very much using VPNs for connections for site to site customer networks and MFA and least privilege for user access. 

 

At least for the company I work for, the default for the majority of network traffic and connections is block/don't trust. Takes a fair bit of configuration to get systems working by allowing stuff through network and application firewalls on both ends, even with a VPN connection. 

 

EDIT: ZTNs and VPNs can be combined for better security practises. Even with a VPN connecting two networks together, you'll still need authentication and permissions to access resources on the destination networks. The company I work for has secure customers who require security clearance to even see any details of them, for example and many customers require MFA to gain access to any of their systems. 

[JovanD]

2 minutes ago, Tamesh16 said:

My University would spy on all the packets that went through their internet and I lived on campus, so this is one of many reasons to get one, and If it was just normal googling I might be fine with it (even though it still makes me uneasy) I did do banking and legal stuff through the internet so I would definitely need that to be private, I mean some might get a vpn for just the assurance of being safe, but I dont think much of anyone gets it for no reason at all

If you connect via HTTPS your packets are secure, or you don't wan them to see what websites you visited?

[Oshino Shinobu]

5 minutes ago, JovanD said:

If you connect via HTTPS your packets are secure, or you don't wan them to see what websites you visited?

Not wanting people/companies/organisations to see what websites you're visiting is a genuine use of a VPN. 

 

Somewhere like the UK, which passed a law requiring ISPs to keep records of your internet activity for 12 months (I believe 12) makes general use of a VPN a good idea, especially considering GCHQ's rampant abuse of their data hoarding powers.

[JovanD]

3 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

Not wanting people/companies/organisations to see what websites you're visiting is a genuine use of a VPN. 

 

Somewhere like the UK, which passed a law requiring ISPs to keep records of your internet activity for 12 months (I believe 12) makes general use of a VPN a good idea, especially considering GCHQ's rampant abuse of their data hoarding powers.

What guarantees that VPN company is not collecting logs or won't hand them to goverment if asked? Just so you know VPN is a company/organisation run by people just like your ISP, it's basically a 2nd ISP

[The_russian]

6 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

Not wanting people/companies/organisations to see what websites you're visiting is a genuine use of a VPN. 

Why not enable DNS over HTTPS (DoH) if that is your goal? It is free (as apposed to most VPNs being advertised on YouTube), and most web browsers including Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Brave allow you to enable DoH, which as far as I can tell would achieve the same thing for your use case. If I misunderstand how DoH works, feel free to correct me. 

[Oshino Shinobu]

1 minute ago, JovanD said:

What guarantees that VPN company is not collecting logs or won't hand them to goverment if asked? Just so you know VPN is a company/organisation run by people just like your ISP, it's basically a 2nd ISP

Well, by their policy mostly. Choose one that's not part of the 5, 9 or 14 eyes and one that doesn't log your activity.

 

Sure, you can't be 100% sure even then, but if you want to go down that route, how do you know no one is filming you right now, or following where you go? Might as well live underground and never go outside. 

 

And yes, while they can be like a 2nd ISP in the sense that all your data goes through them, it is encrypted by nature and unlike ISPs, which are required by law to keep records on you, private companies are not and some pride and market themselves on not logging anything. Also, government's have been known to abuse their powers as they have very little oversight into what information is being looked at as they hoover up everything. If they need to request it from a private organisation, they at least have to have a target they're looking at, rather than just having the information to hand. There's been numerous reports of law enforcement using data gathered from mass surveillance for personal use/gain because they had easy access to it. The NSA got caught abusing it and GCHQ was found to be even worse. 

[JovanD]

4 minutes ago, The_russian said:

Why not enable DNS over HTTPS (DoH) if that is your goal? It is free (as apposed to most VPNs being advertised on YouTube), and most web browsers including Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Brave allow you to enable DoH, which as far as I can tell would achieve the same thing for your use case. If I misunderstand how DoH works, feel free to correct me. 

Because people are misinformed and VPN companies are preying on that and youtubers are happy to regurgitate misleading information for money.

[Oshino Shinobu]

5 minutes ago, comander said:

I'm able to access the code stack, documents, etc. without a VPN from my work laptop without a VPN. It's actually a pain in the rear to get VPN access. Tens of thousands of people have been WFH at my company without ever touching a VPN. 

I can get to the same without VPN access, but for work that requires resources that are not accessible from outside the network, or for resources in a separate network that only has a specific site-to-site VPN connection, you still need a secure tunnel.

 

I have VPN access for my company's networks as I then need to go through another VPN to another environment that can only be accessed from within the company's private network, to then go via a site-to-site VPN to gain access to a customer's site, with the use of MFA to work on their systems. 

 

For a single company, sure, you can get around without VPNs and have it be as, if not more secure. However, for complex, inter-network systems, VPNs are still a critical and industry standard technology. Combined with ZTNs principles, they're secure. 

[Oshino Shinobu]

12 minutes ago, The_russian said:

Why not enable DNS over HTTPS (DoH) if that is your goal? It is free (as apposed to most VPNs being advertised on YouTube), and most web browsers including Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Brave allow you to enable DoH, which as far as I can tell would achieve the same thing for your use case. If I misunderstand how DoH works, feel free to correct me. 

DoH isn't globally supported. There's plenty of old DNS infrastructure that simply doesn't support it. 

 

In principle, yes, it hides the query as it's encrypted. However, if we're talking about your everyday user, changing and configuring DoH is a much bigger ask than just downloading a program and clicking connect. If you don't change to supported, private company DNS servers, then your requests are still going to go to your ISP's DNS servers, which then defeats the purpose.

 

6 minutes ago, JovanD said:

Because people are misinformed and VPN companies are preying on that and youtubers are happy to regurgitate misleading information for money.

I agree with you here. There's a lot of misinformation in regards to how VPNs can protect you. I've seen multiple say that people can steal your credentials over a public WiFi channel, which isn't true, assuming you're only entering your credentials on a site running HTTPs. 

 

There's a Youtuber who did a sponsor for a VPN that actually called out others for this and explained it in a better fashion, but I can't remember their name off the top of my head.

[kelvinhall05]

1 hour ago, JovanD said:

"Cable Management"

Properly managed cables can increase airflow which can decrease temps which can increase performance. It's also easier to troubleshoot a properly cable managed PC.

1 hour ago, JovanD said:

PCI interface is vary complex and operates in high frequencies, it's designed for specific trace length. Going out of spec for "aestetics" is just bad.

The traces are designed to be the same length relative to each other. Adding the same amount to each one is fine, especially with how short most PCIe extenders are.

1 hour ago, JovanD said:

"Liquid Metal Thermal Compound"

Brand may say "Polar bear Fr000z0r 3000" but its just Gallium, while not toxic to us it is reactive when in contact with other metals, some reactions are slower than others, just google gallium vs aluminum. While applied properly it can yield good results, but one accidental spill and IT WILL ruin your graphics card or motherboard if it touches any of the solder joints even for a split second. 

 

"Gamer Chairs"

People are waking up around this lately so i don't have to explain it in deep, they are expensive, ugly and just bad as chairs.

Agreed

1 hour ago, JovanD said:

"Using VPN"

lol i don't think i even need to explain how ridiculous you sound 

[Oshino Shinobu]

3 minutes ago, comander said:

VPN = relatively wide open. And if you're jumping between multiple networks it becomes a hassle... and if ONE firewall rule is misconfigured... 

It's absolutely a hassle. It's why our company has an entire department dedicated to managing the VPN and firewall infrastructure. Firewalls are constantly causing issues for us as we take a practice of basically everything is blocked with explicit allow rules. 

 

I'm not 100% clear on how ZTN could replace VPNs, at least in the context where they're used for inter-site and inter-network connectivity, not remote user to application access. For example, where a group of customer servers need to have access to an external server over a specific port. We've moved a fair bit of our stuff out of our own network into a separate DMZ which then has no access other than explicitly allowed connections. Then again, I'm not in the department that manages our VPNs or firewalls, or the other department that manages our own Cloud hosted platform or access to Azure/AWS, so I'm not privy to how everything is setup. 

 

I am interested in ZTNA though, so if you know of any guides for setting it up, I'd be interested to try it out in my own infrastructure.

[Letgomyleghoe]

1 hour ago, JovanD said:

Now sure maybe 10% of people will get special case and modular power cables that work properly

most people use modular PSU's now. 

 

1 hour ago, JovanD said:

I have a friend who damaged his motherboard knocked off 2 northbridge signal coupling capacitors, it was a bitch to find matching ones and solder back. Before that i begged him not to do "cable management", but he was too brainwashed by tech youtubers and wouldn't listen, even said how he "wanted to do it right" and he force closed the bulging side panel

you should cable manage, not only does it make it easier to do repairs, messy cable in the main body of a case stifle airflow. 

 

1 hour ago, JovanD said:

PCI interface is vary complex and operates in high frequencies, it's designed for specific trace length. Going out of spec for "aestetics" is just bad.

there's a less than 1% difference in performance when using an extender, however, mounting a GPU pressed against the side glass will kill its airflow.

 

1 hour ago, JovanD said:

Brand may say "Polar bear Fr000z0r 3000" but its just Gallium, while not toxic to us it is reactive when in contact with other metals, some reactions are slower than others, just google gallium vs aluminum. While applied properly it can yield good results, but one accidental spill and IT WILL ruin your graphics card or motherboard if it touches any of the solder joints even for a split second. 

that's why most tech youtubers don't recommend it for the average user, unless it's a sponsored vid.
 

 

1 hour ago, JovanD said:

People are waking up around this lately so i don't have to explain it in deep, they are expensive, ugly and just bad as chairs

again most tech youtubers don't recommend gaming chairs unless the video is sponsored. 

 

1 hour ago, JovanD said:

Seriously what the hell, im loosing faith in humanity. Unless content you want to acess is geoblocked or you wan to dodge a ban, there is absolutley no reason to use a vpn PERIOD. Any other point youtubers are payed to read is nonsense, you're just paying to add latency to you connection for no good reason what is wrong with people for christ's sake. Also SoftEther VPN Gate is free and open source, no need to pay any subscriptions. Only reason there are so many VPN companies is because gcloud (and i assume most other cloud services) don't charge for bandwidth usage.

most people aren't competent enough to setup softether, also, servers cost money to, a VPN subscription makes sense for most people. And it never hurts to cover up your IP, sure it's not bulletproof, but it's more than nothing.

 

[The_russian]

4 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

Properly managed cables can increase airflow which can increase temps which can increase performance.

Increase in temps increases performance? Man I've been going about this all wrong! 

 

7 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

It's also easier to troubleshoot a properly cable managed PC.

Definitely agree with this, that's basically the only reason the cables are somewhat managed in my system