The thing is, though, I don’t have any VPN access to anything. This type of access is usually granted for some specific purpose, like being able to log into your employer’s network remotely. What I need is access to a VPN network just to be able to circumvent the restrictions at UCLA. (I’m sure there’s no legal issue here, since it was their helpdesk that suggested I try this.)
Is there any organization or entity that maintains a VPN and allows people to log in, perhaps for the payment of a few dollars a month, and have general Internet access?
I’m also considering running my own VPN network at home as an alternative, but I think a professionally maintained network would be more reliable.
Use your favorite search engine to search for “Public VPN” and you will find a variety of services, both free and paid. I can’t personally vouch for any of them.
I can’t recommend a specific one either, but I do know that many places will intentionally block traffic from such VPN providers. People can use a VPN to hide where they are actually accessing the internet from, which can be a way to avoid IP based bans on particular servers and such. Since they are so often used by internet tolls, ban evaders, and the like, some folks just block all traffic from those types of sites so they don’t have to deal with troublemakers. This can make things a bit difficult at times for those who have a legitimate reason for using a VPN.
Are you 100% certain the helpdesk person didn’t mean to use the school’s VPN service to connect to the school’s network? Every university I’ve ever been to (that would be 2, plus my husband’s) had a VPN network that you could use with your school username/password to log on.
Googling UCLA VPN gives me this page here- it sounds like this is what you need to use, not some third-party one.
If I’m understanding the OP right, s/he wants to get OUT of the UCLA network, around network restrictions, and not into it from the outside.
If so, any standard VPN should do… that’s what they’re for. There are a lot of them, but the ones I tried (StrongVPN and ExpressVPN) were slow and prone to constant disconnects, probably because their users all share limited bandwidth.
On the other hand, setting up your own via Amazon EC2 was much faster and much more reliable, but also can get expensive if you use a lot of bandwidth.