Mullvad Browser

[The-10-Pen]

Anyone else here given Mullvad Browser a try?

I'm liking it so far as a replacement for IceCat (they are both the only two I've yet to see that eliminates *all* telemetry connections).
r3dfox and LibreWolf both still have "connections".
I am not claiming that they are "bad", just claiming that they "exist" - both are GIGANTIC improvements over Official Firefox.

FIRST RUN has WAY more than the Google IP Address shown below.
But you have to RUN IT in order to make changes to PREVENT them in FUTURE launches.

The screen cap is Mullvad's FIRST RUN! (but with the included extensions removed before running [same as I do with r3dfox, et alia])

2026-01-28_17-14-56.png (434.61 KiB) Viewed 759 times

[Duke]

Anyone else here given Mullvad Browser a try?

Since it's based on Firefox 140 ESR that means it requires Windows 10 or 11. Some people here won't be able to use it.

I'm liking it so far as a replacement for IceCat (they are both the only two I've yet to see that eliminates *all* telemetry connections).
r3dfox and LibreWolf both still have "connections".

I don't have connections with R3dfox and LibreWolf apart from Privacy Badger extension which is updating its databse on launch.

included extensions removed before running [same as I do with r3dfox, et alia]

There is really no good reason to remove uBlock Origin which comes with R3dfox. It's not only an adblocker but a wonderful and powerful tool.

[The-10-Pen]

I modify and maintain my own private-use uBlock Origin. "Never leave home without it."
All of my extensions are modified and maintained TO MY LIKING.
I do not want any "bundled" extensions.

True on Win 10/11.
My 10's are "old" versions of 10 and Mullvad would not install.
My 10's are also tweaked (similar to the Micro X-Lite that we have been informed that r3dfox is compiled within a VM of said Micro).
I did not look into whether Mullvad did not install due to old-10 or due to tweaked-10.
I need (forced to!) use an unactivated Win11 VM each and every tax season for a few years now).
TurboTax only runs on Win11 - but it doesn't have to be an activated Win11, don't tell Intuit.
So I "installed" Mullvad in Win11 VM then copied the folder over to Win10, worked for me on my 10's.
But yeah, agreed, many on this forum aren't on 10 or 11.

[xperceniol_sal]

From what I read, Its basically TOR without TOR if that makes sense. From their web page "That's why we partnered with the Tor Project to develop Mullvad Browser – a browser designed to minimize tracking and fingerprints."

[The-10-Pen]

uBlock Origin tracks and logs your activity and stores that "data".
While I did not look to see if that "data" was ever TRANSMITTED to the "home office", I do not like that sort of tracking and logging!
Sure, it's a clever disguise to show the logged data as a "meter" within the GUI, the whole "blocked since install" 'widget'.
I'm just NOT a fan of those types of data logs.
If it were just YouTube and Eclipse, that would be one thing, but the creator of uBlock Origin does NOT need to know what bank or credit card web sites I log into.
Again, I do not know if the logs are TRANSMITTED, I only know they EXIST and so I remove them from my personal-use version.
Same goes for ALL of my extensions.

[The-10-Pen]

Correct... Tor-inspired... But not Tor...

[teknixstuff]

uBlock Origin tracks and logs your activity and stores that "data".
While I did not look to see if that "data" was ever TRANSMITTED to the "home office", I do not like that sort of tracking and logging!
Sure, it's a clever disguise to show the logged data as a "meter" within the GUI, the whole "blocked since install" 'widget'.
I'm just NOT a fan of those types of data logs.
If it were just YouTube and Eclipse, that would be one thing, but the creator of uBlock Origin does NOT need to know what bank or credit card web sites I log into.
Again, I do not know if the logs are TRANSMITTED, I only know they EXIST and so I remove them from my personal-use version.
Same goes for ALL of my extensions.

I can confirm it's purely for your viewing, and is not transmitted anywhere. uBlock Origin doesn't even have such a "home server" to transmit them to. The only official platform uBO has is their GitHub, but you can't write telemetry data there. Even stuff like ublockorigin.com is an unofficial site, run by a person completely unrelated from the uBO project itself.

[The-10-Pen]

Cool. Thanks for that info.
I personally still do not want the "logs" to even EXIST.
To each their own, of course. I have no use for my profile "size" to balloon to very large sizes just for the sake of LOGGING my activity.

[The-10-Pen]

I'm also of the generation where if Microsoft were to have ever released Internet Explorer with these types of *bundles*, we-the-people would have taken Micosoft to court. Why would I take that view for IE but a different view for any of the other HUNDREDS of browsers out there?

Maybe that's not the best "view of the world", I can accept that. But I also accept that this view "works for me".
I've just seen/witnessed too many "bundles" over several DECADES that I have been "conditioned" into a *TRUST NO ONE* philosophy.

Not sure how old you are and what "history" you have lived through, but think of the era of "search toolbars".
Yahoo, Microsoft Live Search, Ask.com, AOL, Ask Jeeves, Alexa, the list is endless...
An era where "identities" were technically never "stolen". Rather, they were GIVEN AWAY for FREE.
I view *any* BUNDLE in that historical context. But again, "to each their own".

[The-10-Pen]

Kind of became a moot point.

The issue which prompted me to give Mullvad a trial-run did not result in a fix to my issue.

I stream *everything*. My cable provider for "tv" is DirecTV. "Something" happened within the last couple of weeks where I can no longer stream DirecTV programming on my laptop with an Intel HD Graphics 520 display adaptor. Okay, technically I 'can', but the CPU pegs 100% *forever* and so I cannot bring myself to streaming "hours on end" with the CPU running at 100%.

So far, I haven't been able to figure out "why".
Nothing on the setup has changed.
And none of my other computers have changed in regards to CPU usage while streaming from DirecTV.

I went to see if IceCat would resolve the issue, but since it hasn't been updated for so long (unless on Linux), that's when I found Mullvad.
I'm impressed overall. But it didn't solve the reason I found it in the first place.

On YouTube, there's a "stats for nerds" route of discovering what codec is being used.
If there was something like this for DirecTV, maybe I could have witnessed whatever changed and that the HD Graphics 520 is no longer performing hardware acceleration and everything is unefficiently being handled by the CPU (an Intel i5-6300U in this case).

[Duke]

my laptop with an Intel HD Graphics 520 display adaptor.
the CPU pegs 100% *forever* and so I cannot bring myself to streaming "hours on end" with the CPU running at 100%.

So far, I haven't been able to figure out "why".

My guess is that they have changed the video codec. Before they were using H.264/AVC and now H.265/HEVC or AV1. And your old Intel 520 has no hardware acceleration for these new codecs.
Check which video codec is used with a media player like VLC or MPV.

[The-10-Pen]

Check which video codec is used with a media player like VLC or MPV.

Um... HOW ???

I know there are ways to "download" from YouTube and play "later" and do that playback in any media player you so choose.
Once the media FILE is on your computer, your options are endless.
But these have *never* interested me. If I'm going to DOWNLOAD then play later, that's what TORRENTS are for.

The whole HEADACHE of things like https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl or the like really are USELESS to me.
Again, that's what TORRENTS are for, in my humble opinion.

But that "view" aside. And in as few words as I can think in order to enquire -- *HOW ???*
I cannot download from Netflix or Hulu and choose any ol' media player for playback.
Likewise, I cannot download from DirecTV and just choose any ol' media player for playback.

DirecTV ≠ YouTube... DirecTV <> YouTube... DirecTV != YouTube...
So what am I missing?

[The-10-Pen]

It indeed must be a "new and improved" video codec.
Sports and news channels with text all over the place are way WAY crisper and cleaner than they were a week or two ago.

I'd actually *PREFER* the old codec! At least on this one laptop.
I can do that in YouTube (ie, there are userscripts galore to force h264).
I don't think things like that exist to force *ALL* videos to *ALWAYS* be h264, regardless of website.

[The-10-Pen]

I'll tinker some more tomorrow.

I temporarily installed Win10 LTSC 21H2 because that enabled newer graphics drivers that are unavailable for the laptop's original Win10 LTSB 2016. Same issue though - 100% CPU when streaming live video from DirecTV. I really don't know "how" to determine what video codec is being used.

While the updated driver didn't fix the 100% CPU, I may have to investigate modifying the drivers so that I can get them to install on LTSB 2016. Though probably not important. They're only a year newer than what I was using and even the "new" is almost a decade old.

What I did accidentally stumble upon is that if I set the two monitors to the SAME resolution (ie, set the added secondary monitor to match the laptop's built-in display), then the CPU drops to a fluctuating range of 45% to 70% with the GPU around 35% to 40%. A *vast* improvement over the CPU being pegged at 100%. Not sure if that is "normal" or not.

I'm going to return it to LTSB 2016 tomorrow. Hoping the resolution-matching will work there also. This laptop has always ran hotter than my other computers used for streaming (they all can stream 1080p with the CPU running LESS than 7% and the GPU running between 10% to 25%).

[Duke]

Um... HOW ???
what am I missing?

Well, you said:

I stream *everything*.

So I thought you were talking about live streams, usually fed by .M3U8 playlist files. In this case VLC and MPV can open and play such live streams and show you the codec being used.

I'd actually *PREFER* the old codec! At least on this one laptop.
I can do that in YouTube (ie, there are userscripts galore to force h264).
I don't think things like that exist to force *ALL* videos to *ALWAYS* be h264, regardless of website.

For Youtube there is this extension:
https://board.eclipse.cx/viewtopic.php?t=805

But Youtube is using several different codecs (H.264, VP9 and AV1) for the same video so you can force one, but I believe some other sites are using only one video codec.

[The-10-Pen]

Best I can seem to get (while streaming live from DirecTV) is CPU bouncing around between 65% and 80% and GPU hovering between 25% and 30%. It's probably going to end up killing this o' laptop because live news via DirecTV streams as "background noise" for anywhere from 6 to 12 hours pretty much daily.

Different drivers = no effect
Smaller resolutions for secondary monitor (where live stream is viewed) = minor effect

The solution with the biggest effect was to set both the internal display adaptor and the secondary monitor to the LOWEST POSSIBLE "refresh rate".
ZERO negative effects toward video quality (it's for news streams and sitcoms, not for 4k action flicks).

[The-10-Pen]

For Youtube there is this extension:
https://board.eclipse.cx/viewtopic.php?t=805

Yep. I use a modified version of that as a userscript.
I prefer userscript method over adding extensions to my profile.

[The-10-Pen]

So I thought you were talking about live streams

Semantics?

I guess I've always called online videos that can not be "downloaded" but simply watched in "real time" as 'live streams'.
I cannot download them, I have to log in at the time of day that they play them.

[Duke]

Different drivers = no effect

It's not the drivers, it's the card.
Food for thought:
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000035848/graphics.html
http://wp.xin.at/archives/3561