I would like some advice on a VPN

[TsjuunTze82]

Hello to all

I have a short question:
If i give you 2 VPN companies to pick from. Which one do you advice me based on the overall experience on Linux (setup and use with terminal and networkmanager)

Surfshark or NordVPN

Thanks!

TT

[rpmckinley]

I would also like an answer to these questions.
Does anyone have any information of which is a good VPN?
I have looked at several and so far I have more questions than answers.
I am on LM 19.3 with Firefox browser.
I know that those "Free" VPN services are zero as far as being really secure, and in some cases they may actually be worse than nothing at all.

[AZgl1800]

look to make triple darn sure they are not owned by a Chinese company

[phd21]

Hi TsjuunTze82,

Welcome to the wonderful world of Linux Mint and its excellent forum!

I just read your post and the good replies to it. Here are my thoughts on this as well.

It would help to know more about your system setup and a general idea of where you are located. If you run "inxi -Fxzd" and "lsusb" from the console terminal prompt, highlight the results, copy and paste them back here, that should provide enough information.

Both Surfshark or NordVPN are popular VPN providers but only have Linux console terminal software clients that are not hard to use, but not as easy as a desktop application. Anyone can use the Network Manager in their system tray to import individual VPN servers from most VPN providers. There are other VPN providers with easier to use Linux Desktop applications available. I have never used Surfshark, but I have helped others install and use the NordVPN Linux client and they upgraded their servers recently.

It is recommended by most VPN security articles to choose a VPN provider that is not headquartered in the country you are in or in one of the "eyes" countries that would allow or try to access your VPN activity if they chose to.

5-Eyes, 9-Eyes, And 14-Eyes Agreement Explained | CyberNews
https://cybernews.com/resources/5-eyes- ... countries/

Surfshark is owned by a company in the British Virgin Islands,

NordVPN is based in Panama, as the country has no mandatory data retention laws and does not participate in the Five Eyes or Fourteen Eyes alliances.

Of the two VPN providers you mentioned, I would go with NordVPN. I am currently using "VPN.ac" which has an excellent Linux desktop software client and for other operating systems and smartphones, tablets, etc...

NordVPN vs Surfshark: Which provider is best? | Tom's Guide
https://www.tomsguide.com/features/nordvpn-vs-surfshark

NordVPN vs. Surfshark: VPN speed, security and price compared - CNET
https://www.cnet.com/news/nordvpn-vs-su ... -compared/

Surfshark VPN Review: Don't Buy Before You Read This!
https://woofresh.com/surfshark-vpn-review/

Surfshark VPN Review 2021 | Our Complete Surfshark Review
https://www.security.org/vpn/surfshark/review/

* I would also highly recommend changing your ISP's default DNS servers to those from a secure and anonymous DNS provider like Cloudflare or setting up DNS over TLS or DNS over HTTPS. I use DNS over TLS.

Protect Your DNS Privacy on Ubuntu 18.04 with DNS over TLS
https://www.linuxbabe.com/ubuntu/ubuntu ... %20spying.

Hope this helps ...

[rpmckinley]

phd21, thanks, good info.
I should add that I am primarily interested in a Linux Desktop browser application and not so much in a server system.
I can NOT answer for TzjunnTze82 above.

Here are the Results of terminal command tests:
rpm@rpm-System-Product-Name:~$ inxi -fxzd
CPU:
Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Celeron G1620 bits: 64 type: MCP
arch: Ivy Bridge rev: 9 L2 cache: 2048 KiB bogomips: 10793
Speed: 1599 MHz min/max: 1600/2700 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1599 2: 1599
Flags: acpi aperfmperf apic arat arch_perfmon bts clflush cmov
constant_tsc cpuid cpuid_fault cx16 cx8 de ds_cpl dtes64 dtherm dts epb
ept erms est flexpriority flush_l1d fpu fsgsbase fxsr ht ibpb ibrs lahf_lm
lm mca mce md_clear mmx monitor msr mtrr nonstop_tsc nopl nx pae pat pbe
pcid pclmulqdq pdcm pebs pge pln pni popcnt pse pse36 pti pts rdtscp
rep_good sep smep ss ssbd sse sse2 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 stibp syscall tm
tm2 tpr_shadow tsc tsc_deadline_timer vme vmx vnmi vpid xsave xsaveopt
xtopology xtpr
rpm@rpm-System-Product-Name:~$ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 006: ID 046d:c52f Logitech, Inc. Unifying Receiver
Bus 002 Device 005: ID 08bb:29c6 Texas Instruments PCM2906C Audio CODEC
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 04ca:0022 Lite-On Technology Corp.
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 03f0:8811 Hewlett-Packard
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 0951:1603 Kingston Technology DataTraveler 1GB/2GB Pen Drive
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

[phd21]

Hi rpmckinley,

You are welcome...

Would like to see the results from "inxi -Fxzd" with an uppercase F

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxzd

I should add that I am primarily interested in a Linux Desktop browser application and not so much in a server system.

I am not sure what you mean by "Linux Desktop browser application"? You can use any browser or multiple browsers.

There are browser VPN add-ons and extensions, but they do not protect your whole system only the browser and what you do in that browser. These browser-based VPN add-ons can be handy for people who need a temporary VPN to access geo-restricted content, but most free ones do not have many server options and frankly do not work as well as a system-wide VPN. If you are going to pay for a VPN provider then go with a system-wide VPN provider, not a browser based one.

Some people will use a browser VPN add-on in addition to a system-wide VPN to "double-up" on the VPN (double hop). This can also be useful if for some reason you connected to a system-wide VPN server in one country but want your browser to connect in a different country so that the search results, etc... will reflect the browser VPN server country. As an example, I am currently in the USA, if I connect to a system-wide VPN server in Canada, then my search results and everything else (all websites and apps) will reflect that and think I am in Canada like Amazon.com will show a Canadian Amazon.com not my usual USA Amazon.com. I could use a browser VPN add-on to connect to a VPN server in the USA to overcome those issues. This also works with various countries and their languages, if I connect to a system-wide VPN server in a country where I do not read or write their languages, all my search results and websites will think I am in that country and display everything in their language, and anyone can overcome that by using a browser VPN add-on to connect to a country where you can understand the language.

I am recommending that people and businesses use a system-wide VPN from a VPN provider that does protect your entire system and everything that is accessing the Internet including browsers. A lot of VPN providers also have browser extensions and add-ons.

Hope this helps ...

[Menard]

Hi TsjuunTze82,

I don't understand because about VPN chapter I read that a VPN uses allways the DNS of the VPN Provider" Is that wrong ?

[JezekiljMonk]

Hello,

As a Surfshark-VPN user I can tell you that this is a good option as well.

There is support by email, when you start first time you can use live chat from an available Web Browser (which helped me to get the things going initially), and you can connect to 50+ countries all over the world. In some countries you can choose between multiple locations as well.

I stay sometimes connected for weeks without any interruption.

Initially you start the service from the terminal which is all explained on their site and it is rather easy to learn.

More recently they developed also a way that you can create a desktop shortcut that in one click connects you to one particular server of your choice. For more locations, normally, you can put more than one shortcut on your desktop.

Important thing is that once you connect to Surfshark-VPN all the outside internet traffic is re-routed automatically, and you don't need to run a two-line script to manually re-route, like when you are connected elsewhere (for example I need OpenVPN to connect to my home server when away, and connection doesn't mean that all the traffic is re-routed automatically). When you disconnect you again are automatically back to your previous connection.

On one occasion I even experimented to first connect to OpenVPN and then to use Surfshark-VPN through that connection and it worked flawlessly.

I also believe that NordVPN is great as well, maybe only a little bit more expensive.

[Menard]

Yess, i am happy because some months ago I tried to find some VPN and it was my choice !!! I ll see what, Twitter, i am back again

so, no illusion, with Linux Twitter will immidiately recognize me !!