Given the latest hype around torrent users and downloading the Dallas Buyers Club, wondering whether I should invest in a VPN.
Been reading this article from lifehacker:
http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2014/03/five-best-vpn-service-p…
Is it worth the money? what are the pro's and cons with having a VPN? Does it affect speed/performance?
Similar topic discussed here
VPN will affect speed/performance. How much the speed is affected depends on the location of the VPN servers as well as other factors like the congestion/quality of service of the provider. I recently signed up with TorGuard on a 50% discount (https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/189120) making its rates really attractive (AUD40 for a year). I am on NBN where my download speed could reach 4MB/s (yes Byte not Bit) where using the VPN gives me 1MB/s or so.
I was quite disappointed after signing up to find out that the servers in Australia can't be used for torrenting. The closest servers for torrenting are offshore like Vietnam, HK, South Korea etc. Connection to the server do get disconnected a few times in a day but it reconnects back after a few seconds. Considering the price I paid, I can't complain too much.
So it seems anonymity is a slow road..
It is a slower road but not necessarily slow slow. Using VPN may take a few more minutes to download a TV series than without. If the VPN service provides a Torrent Proxy, all you need to do is to configure your Torrent client with the Proxy settings. This means that normal internet stuff on the Desktop (FB, YouTube etc) would be unaffected and is connected to the internet directly while the Torrent client stuff is routed through VPN.
I use cryptostorm.is
(Yes I am affiliated with them, I volunteer with them).
Lol I know I posted it :P
I got PIA and not a huge fan of their VPN client software.
You can set it up to not allow any traffic on your PC over the internet if the VPN connection fails. Problem is it just disables all network traffic on the machine, problematic if the PC doesnt have a keyboard/mouse or monitor and you use RDP to control it.
It is living up to its name of being a Pain In the Ass. Other than that, the actual VPN service is reasonable.