Which VPN should i use?

[Moem]

Got a better idea?

Get a different ISP.
I guess I am fortunate my ISP is a cooperative company, the profits get divided up and payed back to the costumers.
I am dismayed to see everyone respond to this by immediately distrusting their ISP and no one recommends dropping service from companies willing to sell your information.

Yes, that does make you pretty fortunate in this regard. As far as I know, many people in the US can basically choose from one ISP that offers broadband in their area. That's... not a lot of options.

[stormryder]

As far as I know, many people in the US can basically choose from one ISP that offers broadband in their area

I live in a fairly remote area and I've got at least 2 options, a duckduckgo search for broadband ISPs in Seattle throws sites listing 10 to 40 companies although when searching a specific neighborhood I only got 10. Now its probable that most of those ISPs are not trustworthy anyway, but people do have options. Like go without internet, yes I know it sounds oppressive, but the only reason ISPs can get away with this behavior is because they know people would rather give up their freedom than facebook.

[majpooper]

re : VPN and banking

I did this little test recently and the results surprised me.
I logged into 3 different bank accounts from my regular laptop ( without VPN ) , then 2 hours later I used a different laptop
and a VPN which made me appear to be in another country ( one that I could not possibly have reached in 2 hours )

One account let me log in without any problem , one sent me a One Time Passcode via mobile , then let me in ,
and the third denied the login ( I'm not going to name the banks ).

That suggests to me that banks are completely inconsistent in their security protocols .

Incidentally , none of them contacted me in any way to let me know of irregular login attempts !

I have now had a similar experience - my bank won't let me log in from a different country but will let me log in from anywhere in the USA. I can't fool MLB.tv either - blackout rules for my area stay in place no matter where I log in from. Also Thunderbird does not let me log into my email accounts from the VPN.

And back to speed - it varies even on the same servers so that it is hit or miss.

[kevinrichards]

I have ExpressVPN subscription and following this guide on Best VPN For Linux: How To Install OpenVPN on Linux. Although, I have successfully installed it using the step by step guide but I was thinking is it necessary to install certificates and all separately?

[OscarPlumb]

I've been using Mullvad for over 6 months with no issues. Reasonably priced and they have a great client add on for Linux.

[sammiev]

If it don't pass this test, I wouldn't use it.

https://ipleak.net/

[mariad_10]

I would suggest NordVPN and Express VPN give a try because of their excellent features, highly secure & compatible with many devices. Moreover, it has more than 500+ servers of different countries and automatic kill switch, Read NordVPN review for more details.

[majpooper]

Seems everyone has their favorite VPN. There are many good ones and some not so good. There are many VPN reviews - same, some are good and some are just a sham pushing a certain VPN. It really depends I suppose on your objective. Some people seem overly paranoid about "Big Brother" others make me wonder what nefarious activity they are engaged in.

My objective is security for banking and on-line shopping - I did try to live stream some baseball games out of market but somehow MLB.tv was wise to me and the VPN didn't work.

I have tried several free VPNs and in a word, they suck, at least the ones I tried. They are free so try them out, who knows maybe there is a good one out there. Unfortunately It has been over two years since I tried any and I no longer remember which ones. I have also tried three that I paid for with mixed results.

HMA had some servers that were fast enough but it was a bother searching for them and some of their servers were painfully slow. Again, I have not used HMA in well over a year or so - so they may have improved.

I now use Private Tunnel in conjunction with OpenVPN which I really like - you can find servers outside the USA if that concerns you - it doesn't me. What I really like is the speed - no degradation in speed on the server I found that I use 100% of the time - no searching - just bring it up and go.

I also have DNScrypt that encrypts my DNS queries and to prevent DNS leak as well as to bypass my ISP DNS server.

[jimallyn]

Some people seem overly paranoid about "Big Brother" others make me wonder what nefarious activity they are engaged in.

One doesn't have to be engaged in nefarious activity to want privacy. I don't have anything to hide, I just feel that my business is nobody else's business.

“Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say. It’s a deeply anti social principle because rights are not just individual, they’re collective, and what may not have value to you today may have value to an entire population, an entire people, an entire way of life tomorrow. And if you don’t stand up for it, then who will?” - Edward Snowden

[majpooper]

Some people seem overly paranoid about "Big Brother" others make me wonder what nefarious activity they are engaged in.

One doesn't have to be engaged in nefarious activity to want privacy. I don't have anything to hide, I just feel that my business is nobody else's business.

“Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say. It’s a deeply anti social principle because rights are not just individual, they’re collective, and what may not have value to you today may have value to an entire population, an entire people, an entire way of life tomorrow. And if you don’t stand up for it, then who will?” - Edward Snowden

Jimallyn,
I was really just giving my impressions not making a statement about anyone's right to privacy let alone free speech.

However since you brought it up I will say it is a difficult conundrum for sure - balancing privacy and security and where to draw the line and what role government should play. Generally the idea that " my business is nobody else's business" gets no argument from me, except when one's business is terror or child <violates forum rules> or hacking my bank account or whatever criminal activity you can think of.

I also appreciate that in some quarters there is mistrust for big government and that is a big part of the problem. I get it - the "nothing to hide" response is not an answer to protecting privacy and I never have advanced that concept.

Checks and balances with a strong system of over site is the best I can come up with as a way to address privacy/security dilemma. But it is not so easy - just look at the unmasking business that has recently come to light - where were the checks/balances and proper over site there? We need reasoned debate and creative ideas because technology is only going to exacerbate the dilemma.

But rest assured I would not blink when it comes to protecting the rights spelled out in the Constitutional. I was asked a few days ago by a doctor (we were talking NFL football) what I thought about Colin Kaepernick and I told him that I certainly do not agree with him and think what he does is disrespectful and insulting to veterans but will defend to the death his right to do it.

[kevinrichards]

It depends on various factors such as exclusive features, protection, and protocols. I opted for PureVPN and pretty much satisfied with the service mainly because of the features that they have introduced. I am using their Antimalware/Antivirus, App Blocker, Ad Blocker, Split Tunneling, Web filter, and there are more available in single subscription. IMO, currently there is no alternative that provides such features in one price. You can check their service and features here. https://www.purevpn.com/advanced-vpn

[Ryan_Stevens]

Considering your current stance, I would recommend you go with ExpressVPN. It's because it's the most perfect and speedy VPN service out there. If you want a detailed analysis of it, then you can go through these thorough testing procedures and reviews about ExpressVPN. Moreover, I would explain why I went on from IPVanish to ExpressVPN. So, someone suggested me to go with IPVanish, but because I didn't have a single clue about VPNs at that time, I went with the flow and bought it. It's only after a week I realized that it wasn't cutting for me as the speeds were way too slow. So, after detailed research and reviews, I concluded that Express is the one to go with when you are not that tech-savvy and doesn't have relevant information about VPN protocols etc.

[Pastcal]

This article, and others like it, suggest that setting up your own VPN using the free-for-a-year AWS micro instance isn't too hard. I haven't tried it myself, but it seems simple enough: https://www.webdigi.co.uk/blog/2015/how ... 0-minutes/

[Laugh2]

A while back I looked at a range of VPN providers including:

• Cactus VPN
  Cyber Ghost
  Express VPN
  Hide IP VPN
  Hide My Ass
  IP Vanish
  Kepard
  Overplay
  PIA (Private Internet Access)
  Pro XPN
  Pure VPN
  Safer VPN
  Smart VPN
  Strong VPN
  Tor Guard
  VPNBook
  Vypr VPN

and settled on PIA. (Only later did I discover that PIA sponsors Mint, which was then pleasing of course. ) The reason was a mixture of:

• - Many of the others do not protect from DNS leaks
  - I wanted to use OpenVPN because it is open source and reputed to be amongst the best
  - They have quite a lot of servers and you can easily select one to suit your needs
  - Reviews were positive
  - Speed/bandwidth, stability, and availability were all satisfactory
  - Good features at reasonable price

I used it for about a year and was satisfied. After changing jobs and some other factors I stopped needing a private VPN (also work provides one now). I found PIA good and would use them again.

Some minor niggles depending on your circumstances:

• - Installation on Linux Mint took a little trouble-shooting (LM 17.1 and LM18.1) but not too bad
  - Their support was OK but not fast, depending especially on timezone and day of the week
  - For unknown reasons some countries' servers are unexpectedly slow e.g. if accessing New Zealand sites the NZ server delivered only copper/ADSL speeds (use the Australian servers instead). This may have changed since then
  - If you're looking for a geo-unblocker to watch Netflix, BBC, etc then you might need to look elsewhere - I read somewhere that PIA doesn't get to these reliably

[erikaray]

Hello, I also asked query viewtopic.php?f=18&t=257853 in the thread I was found many peoples recommend to use VPN but there a list of VPN available totally confuse to use which one is best and provide fast service. then I read reviews about the VPNs HMA, Nord, Express I found ExpressVPN is fastest VPN service a little bit expensive but for streaming torrenting and gaming is best. PPTP, L2TP, SSTP and Open VPN protocols, unlimited bandwidth with server switches with three multi logins. I am very satisfied with the service.

[AllanPen]

I used PIA a couple of years ago and they were quite acceptable. They had chat for immediate response. Move ahead to present. I just tried them again. They no longer have chat and take two days to respond. Not only that; my speed on Mint Mate went from 147 bps to 27 bps. I am now waiting for my refund. I also tried Express VPN. I think they were pretty good, but my being Canadian and taking exchange into account made the cost prohibitive. I'm considering Nord right now.

[AZgl1800]

I have been using PureVPN for several years, at the time I subscribed to it, they had more servers than any other service in the world, and better country coverage than any other service.

Have not compared that in a long time though.
They provide it to run on anything, I have it Win7, Linux, and my Android cellphone

The service has always worked, it has never failed me.

[GS3]

The first question I would ask is *why* do I need a VPN? Do I *really* need a VPN? Am I well aware of the cost, not only monetary but in performance?

I have a friend who believes he needs a VPN because he travels abroad and you can't just trust those furriners, so he uses a VPN all the time. When he is home in Florida it works fine but, according to him, he doesn't really need it there. And when he travels abroad half the time he can't even get a connection and he blames it on "bad WIFI connections". Even when he does get a connection it is slow and prone to error.

I tried to explain to him that more than bandwidth he needs low latency times because setting up encrypted channels takes some overhead. Securing an encrypted connection to your bank over an encrypted VPN is slow and it might work in Florida and it might not work in Paris just because, even if you have all the bandwidth of the world, latency times may be just too slow.

All this was over his head and he pretty much told me all this "bandwidth" and "latency" stuff did not matter even if it was real, which he doubted, and there are only "good connections" and "bad connections". It seems America mostly has "good connections" and the rest of the world mostly has "bad connections". In China they have "terrible connections" which are even worse.

The sad part is that, before he retired, he worked in sales for a large telecomm.

I tried to explain to him that his HTTPS connection to his bank is encrypted anyway and he can bypass the VPN without risk but he doesn't trust what I say and just keeps trying WIFI connections until he gets "a good one".

E.T.A.: I just realized I am replying to an old thread which has been resurrected from the dead.