I work in a school. I have a personal tablet that we use in our classroom for school stuff. They watch our WiFi like a hawk but I want to stream Youtube TV or whatever while I work when no kids are around. If I install my Norton 360 personal VPN on this tablet what will IT see when we use this tablet? Will they just see “activity” or will they still be able to see what this tablet sends and receives?
They’ll see that there is activity from your PC to an IP and port that could be quickly associated to Norton. If the encryption is not from 10 years ago they won’t be able to see what’s encapsulated in the VPN. But they could just block the VPN trafic altogether.
Assuming the VPN is real and is actually encrypting traffic (some VPNs have been found to not actually be doing the job), depending on how the connection to the VPN service is initiated, they may see your connection to the VPN itself. They won’t see what you do, once you are on it. But, they could see your use of a VPN on their network itself as a violation. If that is the case, it is probably spelled out in a policy somewhere and your use of it could be grounds for termination.
why not just use your phone as a WiFi hot spot or just download stuff at home and not risk them finding out your watching horse porn on school premises
Please keep in mind, they may be watching the WiFi like a hawk because of bandwidth issues. Especially since video calls take so much bandwidth. While you may not be currently in a session with a student, your fellow teachers will be. And you watching Netflix could be detrimental to the session they have open with a student.
The VPN connection would be private (assuming you’re using a reputable VPN). However, they would see how much bandwidth you’re using. They may have questions based on the amount of internet traffic you have.
Good VPNs will encrypt your traffic and once you are properly connected the only thing anyone monitoring you will be able to detect is the destination of the traffic (the VPN server) and the amount.
Most places block VPN traffic by blocking ports such as 1194/UDP which is associated with VPNs, however port 443/TCP (which must remain open or else you would be unable to browse the web via HTTPS) can be used just as well. Read more here: https://protonvpn.com/support/udp-tcp/ on larger networks this may also have the beneficial effect of ensuring that your VPN traffic drowns in the HTTPS traffic which is also encrypted, but it is not hidden and it will be possible to determine t hat you are indeed using a VPN for your connection.
If using VPN is a policy violation at the school, you may want to consider not doing it, or use Tor to further obfuscate the destination of the traffic. Some VPN services include Tor in their services.
It depends a lot on what they are using. On my network what you would see is that VPN services like that are blocked. If it does work they won’t see your traffic, but they can still see how much bandwidth your device is using, and that it is connected vpn traffic.
If they are that protective of their network, you need to get a hotspot. My guess is a VPN will get you fired no matter what you are doing on it.
Man don’t do it. If it’s something like a Meraki network that they manage, they’ll be able to see what AP is getting hit so hard, they’ll deduce it to be VPN traffic, then you’ll get called in the principal’s office to verify your MAC address. Fun fact, it’s a simple Google search to correlate your MAC address to type of device.
Don’t do it.
You’ve gotten good information about VPNs, and some great suggestions to use Hotspots.
What no one has mentioned yet is the fact you probably agreed to a “Network Use Policy” when you signed on, and breaking it could open yourself to being fired.
VPN or not.
Hell, using a VPN might be against the policy as well…
Why not just get an unlimited internet plan, and use your phone as a hotspot? And, if you don’t have an unlimited plan, why not get one? Paying $100/month to watch YouTube at work is probably a lot smarter than gambling on whether or not you might lose your primary source of income.
Your use might still be against accept able use policy.
Stop looking at porn at work.
As many have said above, they’ll likely see lots of traffic but not what. If I were in your situation (for the sake of keeping it Kosher with your IT staff) use a hotspot if your mobile plan has a decent amount of data.
Pretty sure your tablet will still be pushed through their content filter… if they have it set up correctly… if someone uses a VPN here at my school we still have the same outbound restrictions and blocks.
They will see the VPN, the bandwidth being used, and since they probably aren’t stupid and you’ve confirmed they are paying close attention, they will likely get you reprimanded in some way because you’re trying to circumvent their (necessary) policies.
Can you hotspot from your phone for a non-work network option?
Most schools block vpns on their content filters so it’s likely that you won’t be able to connect or browse
They will know you’re using a VPN but not what traffic is going through it
Unless they have a very specific reason to monitor you, the IT team isn’t watching dick all.
I managed several schools for a few years. We would look out for obvious stuff, like kids trying to watch porn, but that’s all.
If the IT team is worth anything they’ll be blocking all of those streaming services out the gate. They’ll also have a firewall of some sort behind the modem, so your VPN shouldn’t even work.
If you can access Netflix without a VPN then the IT team isn’t doing anything. If you can get that VPN up and installed on tour device then you’re home free, because they’re obviously not worried about it.
People here are going into the theory. I’m talking practical application. Schools aren’t fortune 500 companies, they usually have pretty lax security. The IT team doesn’t care about you.
Source: am IT guy