Apparently NordVPN is the best - according the websites that might be paid advertisements, at least.
Which one are you all on?
What VPN Is Everybody on?
BargainHunterJohnnyB on 29/01/2023 - 09:19
Last edited 29/01/2023 - 10:54 by 1 other user
Last edited 29/01/2023 - 10:54 by 1 other user
Poll Options
- 114PIA
- 168NordVPN
- 22ExpressVPN
- 79Surfshark
- 60Windscribe
- 46Mullvad
- 25Proton VPN
- 15CyberGhost VPN
- 65Other (post a comment)
Comments
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I've noticed for the past couple weeks now when I try to use Google I get a Captcha if I'm connected via PIA. I'm looking switch to Nord and other services.
Apple private relay give me same issue but not a dealbreaker either way imo
Nord will occasionally mean captchas, and sometimes even flat out "you can't use this website" messages. I think this might be an issue with all vpn providers.
Agreed, can't beat PIA when it's $4 for a 2.5 year subscription.
$4 per month?
Nord. Not sure if it’s the best but it’s cheap (on cashback deals) and cheerful. Hasn’t given me issues yet.
Nord but tried streaming tenplay overseas doesn’t work seem like it been blocked by Ten
If you have a computer that you can leave running at home all the time, check out Wireguard. Set the server component on your home PC and connect to it from where ever you are. You then should be able to stream 10play.
Given no one watches Ten even when they're in Australia not sure this is a huge issue.
Does Amazon sell Nord?
Tor
They changed VPS providers so many times, I can’t tell if it’s good or bad nowadays.
you can still get that for 49 usd, what kind of speeds are you getting with a speed test, could you please tell us as its hard to find info on this from an AUS user, if you could run a speed test without the VPN on and than with the VPN on to a USA server, that would be so helpful.
I’m on Nord , have had no worries at all. Plenty of Servers!
Windscribe
poll
And add a “can’t be bothered” option.
Make your own private one if you care about privacy.
https://www.kimsufi.com/en/vps-ssd.xml
https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-inst…
Could you elaborate a bit on your experience with these? I've been intrigued by the idea of setting up a DIY VPN server, but I'm struggling to see a use-case that would have me better off (in terms of privacy and/or cost) using that DIY server hosted on some cloud provider rather than sticking with a known-brand NordVPN or PIA, etc. But I suspect I'm overlooking something.
Well PIA is owned by Kape Technologies which is a rebrand of a malware company called Crossrider. They also own ExpressVPN, CyberGhost, & Zenmate. So not sure how they can be trusted no matter what anyone says.
https://restoreprivacy.com/kape-technologies-owns-expressvpn…
The truth behind these commercial VPNs is always hazy and unclear and intentionally hidden. The "98%" cashback offers are very dodgy and clearly isn't their main revenue stream. That's just not tenable.
In fact most of the "VPN review" websites are owned by the VPN companies themselves with tons of affiliate links within. Above is probably one of the competitors too. So who knows.
OVH is known to be "torrent-friendly" and has been a choice provider of seedboxes for past couple decades. Having your own server with them and setting up OpenVPN seems a more reasonable approach.
However, if all you ever use a VPN for is to unlock streaming sites in other countries and never send sensitive information over it, then doesn't make a difference to you.
Interesting stuff, cheers. That's interesting about PIA, and yeah I definitely wouldn't be passing any sensitive stuff over them (or any such VPN, for that matter).
However, if all you ever use a VPN for is to unlock streaming sites in other countries and never send sensitive information over it, then doesn't make a difference to you.
Yes that is my use-case. All the sensitive stuff (banking, etc) I always do 'raw', which serves the dual purpose of keeping Google/Facebook/the other Big Tech trackers thinking that I'm a boring-but-real person using the Internet for exclusively respectable things. Internet fun-time/fedposting is almost exclusively done through a VPN on a separate computer with faked identities. From that perspective, all of the popular VPN offerings seem on-par (or rather: if I ever had too much fun and the glowies wanted to find me, I imagine PIA/Nord/etc would give me up just as quickly as a general cloud provider hosting a DIY VPN solution would).
OVH is known to be "torrent-friendly" and has been a choice provider of seedboxes for past couple decades. Having your own server with them and setting up OpenVPN seems a more reasonable approach.
OVH is also widely blocked by many services for these reasons because they are so frequently used for malicious purposes. Some providers will just straight up block the entire OVH address spaces.
That said, they are cheap and generally privacy friendly, just be mindful that depending on the use case it might not be perfect.
I highly recommend Tailscale over OpenVPN! It is also significantly easier to configure.
So general consensus is to not use any vpn when passing sensitive info like banking credentials etc? I use nord and it's always enabled 24/7. Should i not do that?
You most definitely should not be doing that.
I'm trying to understand this comment.
So… end-to-end https (along with 2FA) between me and my bank, running over a VPN is less secure than not running over a VPN???
Surely it's still just as secure? It's not like PIA or Nord or whatever can 'decrypt' my connection.
@Roman Sandstorm: here's a scenario:
are you running software provided by the VPN service?
What if a new CA is added to Trusted CAs by the software, then the VPN service terminates that https connection from the bank and re-creates it back to you with a bogus cert (that you now trust). You don't notice because the browser says the connection is secure.@Radar: Aha…. so, only the the >>specific circumstance<< of a user using a dodgy VPN company, which just happens to plant malware/nasty things in its client software? Despite all the VPN companies here being very well known, and having thousands to millions of users, and no notice or iinformation about such malfeasance has been reported?
Or has it? Do you (and the other extremely paranoid posters here) have any actual evidence of that? And I'm not talking about such companies perhaps being 'forced' by law in their jurisdiction to hand over specific data and info to legitimate authorities in their country.
Look, of course we should be careful, but there's a reasonable limit to how far ordinary Joe's, like most of use, really should go. We have to have some trust and faith at some point. Because yes, OF COURSE it is possible for bad actors to insert malicious intent in just about anything! But if we are all going to be Unabomber-level of conspiracy and paranois, then we'd never do anything.
The VPN companies listed here mostly have reasonable reputations. There haven't been any Royal Commissions or Congressional hearings into them. And seriously, if you are THAT concerned about perfect security and privacy, then don't use the freakin' internet! Use a code book, and invisible ink, and clandestine dropboxes (oh and wear a trench coat), so Big Sibling isn't looking in on your cat videos, and seeing that you purchase OMO and not Surf.
Probably 98% of people use a VPN for torrents and for avoiding geoblocking. It's not nuclear peace talks. The other few percent live in countries with crappy oppressive governments.
@Roman Sandstorm: The specific problem is that when you use a VPN company including their client software, you are mitm-ing your connection and giving them code execution on your device at the same time. Dream scenario for someone trying to intercept your comms. At that point your comms might as well be unencrypted. You are putting a lot more faith in your VPN provider than in your ISP (where the comms are actually encrypted, and they can definitely not read your data).
@Roman Sandstorm: You had asked why these services could be less secure for banking and if they could decrypt your data, they are less secure and feasibly can decrypt your data.
They don't have to even be the bad actor, how much do you trust their own internal security/processes. The way many of these services are priced it's apparent that the "customer" is also the product.You like everyone can do your own risk assessments.
My view is why add that extra risk when doing banking(or anything you want secure) - there is no value add with the service.
What happens if you use a normal VPS like Linode, DigitalOcean or Lightsail and it gets served with a DMCA? Do they shut it down, pass on your details to the claimant?
(asking for a friend, I only use my VPN to download Linux ISOs)
Did some googling, seems like Linode and DigitalOcean give you some time to remove offending content after receiving a notice (96 hours in case of Linode), and shut it down after that if you don't comply. They will also give your details to the claimant if they chose to pursue the matter further.
OVH have a DMCA policy, but I am finding reports that they tend to ignore notices.
none
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Hotspot shield
Me too - Premium came free with Dashlane subscription
none
Thanks. Just voted in the old one but not here.
I run my own OpenVPN appliance as my main VPN - has the bonus of being able to get to stuff on my LAN when needed.
I use the regular NordVPN deals to keep a subscription active as a backup.
What do you actually need it for? What benefit do you think it has. Most of the “privacy”, “hide your ip” arguments generally spruiked by advertisers are bunk. Almost all websites use TLS to encrypt your traffic, no one can tell anything from that.
The two most common reasons for having a VPN are to hide your IP while you are torrenting, or to bypass geoblocks. If you don’t need to do either, you probably don’t need a vpn
Bypassing geoblocks is the most common use for me, but occasionally either ISP or website slow traffic, and VPN is faster. Sometimes you want that one series of files that's only available in one place, but they make you wait, so changing IP removes the wait or download limit.
How would a website become faster by using a VPN? You are essentially adding extra steps to get to the website, unless a region was being throttled (seems unlikely tbh), I would have thought that speeds would be marginally worse if anything.
Some websites let you download things fast initially, and then throttle it. By changing IP, you get a new fast trial. Others only let you download a certain number of files at a time, but if you run the VPN, you can double the number downloading at once.
Well, yeah - bypassing geoblocks and exploring other countries internets..
I wouldn't be logging into my e-banking with aa VPN… I probably wouldn't run a vpn without a virtual machine anyway, 'joost in kass'.
If you are trying to skirt geoblocking you need a vpn which has residential IP addresses, otherwise Netflix and the like will block you. I think Nord do. But I know not all are particularly vigilant at staying ahead of Netflix.
I just use a dns proxy for geoblocked content. Works easily without having to tunnel your tv through a vpn.
I use it precisely to send a big FU to the state and their idea that it's okay to know what I do all the time. They might not care about me or notice my FU but I'll keep going; would be nice to have more company here.
It’s not like “the state” could read your data anyway. With a warrant they could probably find out what IP addresses your computer had connected to, but that’s about it. Not like they would be able to see your Google search history or anything.
If that were true I'd still be wary, but nothing you said above is true at all. Your metadata is enough for them to construct everything they need to know.
Also not sure why the quotes around the state.
They also apply pressure to telcos to block you from accessing websites that they don't like (Exhibit A, Exhibit B). Telstra in particular is infamous for using its DNS to soft-block access to websites that happen to be controversial on a given day.
Sure, most of these you bypass with a DNS proxy, but the point remains that the capital-S State does not operate in one's best interests.
So… to date blocking has only been for websites offering illegal content, and haven’t been IP blocks, just DNS. Just use Google DNS or Cloudflare or whatever if you want to bypass that. If and when IP blocks are in place (like the Great Firewall of China), then yeah you might need a VPN.
@djsweet: Which VPN offers a China IP?
I am currently with Nord and trying to access one of China's streaming websites. Technically not allowed due to the detected IP location. Nord said they don't offer a China IP yet. and simply a change in DNS proxy doesn't work either
@djsweet: Good idea to change to Cloudflare DNS anyway, just so your ISP can't so easily track what you're up to.
Almost all websites use TLS to encrypt your traffic, no one can tell anything from that.
They can at the very least tell what websites your accessing. They can also see how much data is being transferred between you and the site, and when. They may also be able to tell what port/s your accessing on that site (not sure if port information is secured in the TLS packets).
If someone really wanted to track you, they could. Just follow the packets. Picture a VPN as a black box. Sure, there's nothing explicitly labelling traffic, but we saw you sent a packet in at X time, and X time later a packet of the same size left to go to X site. X site then sent a X size packet back to the VPN, and the VPN sent a X size packet to you shortly afterwards. Probably not quite enough there to be beyond reasonable doubt, but certainly could be enough to justify further investigation, warrants, etc. Disclaimer: IANAL, and my VPN usage is likewise limited to torrents & geoblocks.
They can at the very least tell what websites your accessing.
They can only tell the IP addresses, not the actual hostnames or url's.
The hostnames can still leak in other ways though, such as your DNS requests.
They can tell the hostname if the site is configured with SNI, and that's used quite a bit as it allow multiple domains to be run on the same public IP.
The SNI payload isn't encrypted, the hostname of the server the client tries to connect to is visible. URL's would not be.
The only workable solution is TLS 1.3 which encypts at Client Hello (aka ECH).
I am surprised how many people here are paying for a VPN. Never needed one.
PIA. Never really used another VPN. I should probably actively use it more than I have been.
I dunno the name. But I got a free lifetime use of one years ago.
They have released a "new" VPN App but the old one still installs and works fine, still gets updates too.
Just every time you do install it, it tries to trick you with a pop up to subscribe and upgrade without any clear X to close. But I figured a way around it.Pure VPN but given that I've not seen anyone else mention it, it makes me wonder if I should look for an alternative. To be fair though, it was super cheap and seems to do the trick. //shrug
I use Pure as well. Haven't had any issues with it either
I'm also on PureVPN. Performance is slow during peak periods in late afternoon/early evening but speeds up later in the evening. I paid a pittance so got what I paid for I guess.
I use PureVPN and it sucks movies down as fast as i need it to. No issues. Cheap as bro
CloudFlare Warp ZTNA for work. TunnelBear (because of the animations :) at home.
Does anyone have an experience with VPN that allows to access streaming services in China?
LOL… that's quite ironic!
You want to use a VPN to access things in China, whereas 20% of the world is trying to do the exact opposite.
Yeah, I'm using Transocks.
It's expensive and … it "works".
Be warned though, due to how far we are from China and the Internet filtering inbound and outbound by the Great Firewall, the pings are incredibly high (350+ms) so you might struggle with even 720p. Given the cost of Transocks + cost of a service like Tencent/WeTV, it may be pointless.
I've kind of given up (and I'm on a 250 mbps/50 mbps!) and just resort to pre-downloading and watching locally.
Ivacy. Works fine for sailing the high seas.
FastestVPN
Cash rewards seems to have offers all the time for new Nord users offering usually around 90 percent Cashback , you do have to wait a few months to get the Cashback but effectively it’s a great deal and I see it offered probably around once a month or thereabouts.
I'm currently on Windscribe but changing back to Nord when the plan ends.
Windscribe only allows roughly 300-400Mbps throughput whereas my experience with Nord allowed much closer to full gigabit speeds.If anyone can recommend a VPN with close to gigabit speeds AND port forwarding, please recommend in a reply
What's port forwarding used for?
vpn.ac
Me too.
Another for vpn.ac. They seem to love to play whack a mole with the BBC.
NordVPN. They are located in Panama, which has the benefit of minimising governmental influence that you get with 5/9/14 eyes intelegence sharing countries. Also have no logs policies to further protect data and activity, and aparently advanced encryption.
Currently NordVPN, mostly to overcome geo fencing, so not enabled all the time. Also use it when connected to unknown Wi-Fi.
Have used ExpressVPN in the past, they are very good but expensive.
Nord has been giving me issues lately in which is I connect to Argentina then Google and other pages detect me as if I'm in Brazil
torguard
Joined nordvpn with one of those 90% cashback deals. Works great, can't complain heaps of servers available.
Mullvad. Cheap and simple.
Torguard
openvpn
Pi
Have had PIA for near on 15 years now.Haven’t encountered any issues.
Pure VPN. Got a life time membership and I’ve used it for years in phones and pc.
Torguard
keep in mind not to choose any in the 14 eyes nations
Mullvad. It's incredibly simple to use and sensibly priced with no BS. Their software contains no bloat and there's plenty of options to connect or proxy. It's also highly privacy respecting (see their logging policy) using only an anonymous account number as a login and they allow the option for cash/crypto payments. There's also a good selection of servers to choose from and I've never had an issue with speeds on international and aus servers. They also provide tools through their website for checking if your VPN service is actually working as intended.
Built my own from Linode or Azure VM, then Tailscale on top.
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Windscribe free 50gb legacy
Surfshark seems to be the only VPN that works within government schools.
I had Nord, just because I wanted my dad to be able to see something from another country. That did not work as their servers were on the incorrect network so I canceled it.
Just for privacy, I would rather run my own VPN on my home server, it is not that hard to set up. To protect myself on the road I would just buy a GL.inet and again connect it to my home VPN.
Today's video sponsor is…
Vpn unlimited and getflix (both lifetime).
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I’m personally still using PIA. My laptop had issues with nord, nord were very good with providing a refund though.