If you live in a part of the world where you never have to bother with VPNs, this post if not for you. Yet, if even your grandma already heard that she needs to access Youtube or any other web resource - welcome aboard!
Sadly, internet became fragmented over the last few years. You move from one country to another and to your surprise find that REPLACE_WITH_YOUR_FAVORITE_RESOURCE is all of a sudden is not available anymore. WTF?
It is a minor inconvenience when it is a feed with cat memes, but a major problem when it is, say, Youtube.
About a year ago I left London to go back to school. As you can guess, the school network (network provider actually, but who cares?) had an extensive blacklist. It hurt my studies and studies of other students. I decided to setup a VPN for me and other students. Well, I am a damn computer science student, aren't I?
Below if the blueprint on how to setup an VPN for your entire org (my uni in this case) in broad strokes.
- A Telegram bot where people can create VPN accounts on their own as long as they have access to their org emails. For instance, you can provide VPN access to all email holder at `@wtf.com`.
- Sane defaults with a 3 month expiration date and 50 GB traffic limit for new accounts (can be changed).
The blueprint:
- Find a decent VPS. Do not trust speed filters on aggregators. They lie. I had to manually search Reddit for a shortlist of suitable providers and then test them one by one. Do not go with the largest ones if you want your VPN to last. The largest providers are the first targets for censors.
- Setup marzban-verify (https://github.com/aigoncharov/marzban-verify?tab=readme-ov-...). Currently, it can send confirmation emails by setting up a standalone SMTP server (prone to being identified as spam, also some VPS hosters block port 25) or by using your own Exchange email (popular in enterprise envs).
- Profit!
No wise closing words. Just send your PRs if you need more email providers.
I probably phrased it wrong. I need enough money to support myself throughout the grad school: decent room, decent gym and other basics. Yet I am not in it for money. If I prioritized a fat check I would have stayed in the industry as an SWE.
I would rather take the "bullet" but it wasn't my day xD
Tbh, I don't think there was anything substantially wrong with the process. They have a ton of CVs from thousands of the smartest people out there. They have to filter somehow.
I'm certainly sad I did not make the cut, but it's not like the guy next in line is any worse then me.
Thank you or your support! I am disappointed with the result, but, to be honest, no hard feelings. Wish they let me do the take-home assignment, but it is what it is. Rolled the dice. It was not my day. Will roll it again with as many companies as it takes to get a good gig.
> Meanwhile deepseek is hiring college grads and the like, for way better tech.
If only I knew Chinese...
> I highly doubt that they've got a better ai but are too scared to show it off. Is there any independent verification of that?
Well, I definitely failed the brainstorming stage. Disappointed with the result, but have no hard feelings. Wish they let me do the take-home assignment, but it is what it is.
Rolled the dice. It was not my day. Will roll it again with as many companies as it takes to get a good gig.
Sadly, internet became fragmented over the last few years. You move from one country to another and to your surprise find that REPLACE_WITH_YOUR_FAVORITE_RESOURCE is all of a sudden is not available anymore. WTF?
It is a minor inconvenience when it is a feed with cat memes, but a major problem when it is, say, Youtube.
About a year ago I left London to go back to school. As you can guess, the school network (network provider actually, but who cares?) had an extensive blacklist. It hurt my studies and studies of other students. I decided to setup a VPN for me and other students. Well, I am a damn computer science student, aren't I?
Below if the blueprint on how to setup an VPN for your entire org (my uni in this case) in broad strokes.
You will need:
- Any VPS with a good network connection;
- marzban (https://github.com/Gozargah/Marzban) - SOTA proxy management tool powered by [Xray-core](https://github.com/XTLS/Xray-core);
- marzban-verify (https://github.com/aigoncharov/marzban-verify) - sidecar for mazrban to create new accounts with email verification;
- Telegram account.
What you will get:
- A Telegram bot where people can create VPN accounts on their own as long as they have access to their org emails. For instance, you can provide VPN access to all email holder at `@wtf.com`.
- Sane defaults with a 3 month expiration date and 50 GB traffic limit for new accounts (can be changed).
The blueprint:
- Find a decent VPS. Do not trust speed filters on aggregators. They lie. I had to manually search Reddit for a shortlist of suitable providers and then test them one by one. Do not go with the largest ones if you want your VPN to last. The largest providers are the first targets for censors.
- Install marzban (https://github.com/Gozargah/Marzban?tab=readme-ov-file#insta...). Set `DOCS` to `True`.
- Get SSL (https://gozargah.github.io/marzban/en/examples/marzban-ssl) and optionally set it up to work on one port (https://gozargah.github.io/marzban/en/examples/all-on-one-po...). I have a simpler Haproxy config that still works well:
- Use BotFather (https://core.telegram.org/bots/tutorial#obtain-your-bot-toke...) in Telegram to create a new bot that your colleagues are going to use to setup their accounts.
- Setup marzban-verify (https://github.com/aigoncharov/marzban-verify?tab=readme-ov-...). Currently, it can send confirmation emails by setting up a standalone SMTP server (prone to being identified as spam, also some VPS hosters block port 25) or by using your own Exchange email (popular in enterprise envs).
- Profit!
No wise closing words. Just send your PRs if you need more email providers.