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What VPN do you use?

Linty

Linty

Stick 'em up
Joined
Mar 28, 2003
Location
415
Moto(s)
A Ti-lite now :'(
Name
Aaron
I'm a little obsessed with privacy, and with things getting more and more exposed and our personal data being a commodity now, I'm lamost always behind a VPN and using no log dns stuff.

There's so many VPN out now, the 3 I've used extensively are IPVanish, Nord, and Psyphon. Psyphon is free, but caps speeds at 2mbps I believe. I don't know if there's a max bandwidth.

I started using IPVanish first, because it had the best GUI for finding servers, there's tons of them, and the speeds were usually the fastest out of any vpn I'd trialed. I was getting almost all of my 150mbps speeds, with a ping under 20. Good stuff. Then I started coming across websites that try to block VPN, and ip vanish kept coming back ad a detected proxy server, essentially nerfing its use in a few areas.

I tried Nord because it was so highly rated, but I hate the GUI and it's really hard to find a server that has decent speed. Also, a lot of the US servers are blocked by Amazon & the app, & if linty don't have his Amazon he be Madd lol. It did however seem to be better at passing vpn check on websites for proxies though.

IPVanish had a recent update that improved detection quite a bit, but I'm now using both, ping ponging back and forth between them both and playing "find the fast server." I don't mind, a little tedious though. Now playing stuff unlocked from geo content disabled is an easy work around, and IPVanish seemed to get a bit better, but nord almost always isn't detected as a proxy.

Curious what you use (if any), and what you think of it!
 
Private Internet Access

It's pretty fast and works well. They used to have an issue with Netflix but that seems to be resolved. A very small number of sites have a capcha now which is annoying, but I haven't found any that are inaccessible.
 
I use VPN Unlimited.
Pros: Cheap! (use coupon)
Cons: Craigslist often blocks it, seems to work with everything else, though occasionally I have to disable it to send an email.
 
For my Android phone...

Opera VPN (free). Limited bandwidth but it works.
 
PureVPN. it's okay, was not expensive, all those speeds are pretty slow and access blocked from Netflix, barf, Etc
 
It's a cat and mouse game. I set up my own VPN server on Digital Ocean, but many services are blocking that too now.
 
rodr said:
It's a cat and mouse game. I set up my own VPN server on Digital Ocean, but many services are blocking that too now.
Click to expand...

Did the same on Amazon AWS but Netflix started blocking it. I used to have a tiny Raspberry Pi setup with VPN and I ran it at home. Might put that thing back up sometime. Netflix and other streaming services won’t block it, and it has the added bonus of letting me access my home network too. :)
 
I use the built-in OpenVPN on my Asus router. I'm able to utilize it on my phone (OpenVPN app) and my Windows laptops.
 
secn8ure said:
I use the built-in OpenVPN on my Asus router. I'm able to utilize it on my phone (OpenVPN app) and my Windows laptops.
Click to expand...
Your service provider can still read what sites you're going to and what urls, correct?
 
Climber said:
Your service provider can still read what sites you're going to and what urls, correct?
Click to expand...

Sharxfan said:
It should not as the VPN connection should be encrypted. They see traffic but not details.
Click to expand...

:laughing
Yes and no, actually.

in secn8ure's situation the traffic will be hidden only from his laptop--to-home. And more importantly the remote site will think he's at his home (VPN.)
But--yes, the ISP will still see *absoltely* all sites, but *NOT* all URLs. IF using HTTPS, The URLs are hidden. But once again, the connection to the site is always shown to the ISP in this situation.

I think this situation is mostly useful to protect yourself from "insecure" open Wifis. (in addition to, as said below, for home remote access)
 
Last edited:
Climber said:
Your service provider can still read what sites you're going to and what urls, correct?
Click to expand...

Depends if he's using OpenVPN server, allowing himself access on his phone back to his home network. In that case, the traffic is only hidden from his phone's provider.

But, certain routers allow you to set up a VPN for all outbound traffic. At that point, it would be hidden from his ISP.

Perhaps he has a combo of both and is hidden top-to-bottom.


Really, the only reason to run a VPN at your home is for remote access.
 
If he is doing what I think the Asus forces all traffic from the LAN to go through the OpenVPN connection. At least that is how my Asus would seem to work, I really have to get on configuring that and figuring out if I can let certain devices bypass that feature like my Xboxs for gaming.
 
Honest questions:

why should I want a VPN?

What does it protect me from?

What are the benefits?

Should I use one at all times online, or only when accessing certain sites?
 
deav said:
Honest questions:

why should I want a VPN?

What does it protect me from?

What are the benefits?

Should I use one at all times online, or only when accessing certain sites?
Click to expand...

Privacy.

Data snooping.

Privacy.

At all times if you're concerned about your data being captured and sold.
 
AbsolutEnduser said:
...

I think this situation is mostly useful to protect yourself from "insecure" open Wifis. (in addition to, as said below, for home remote access)
Click to expand...

Exactly this. I use it when I'm connected to my work's unsecure wifi and places like Starbucks.
 
deav said:
Honest questions:

why should I want a VPN?

What does it protect me from?

What are the benefits?

Should I use one at all times online, or only when accessing certain sites?
Click to expand...
Your service providers (i.e. Comcast, AT&T, etc.) can now sell your browsing habits, they know every site you go to, every url you hit, if it's not https then they also know your submitted variables. All of that data can be mined and your favorite subjects can put you into targeted lists.

If you surf porn, that can also be sold to prospective employers or anybody else.

Lots of privacy issues, now that ISP's can sell your data. They claimed that they wouldn't, but I don't trust those assholes to not sell it sometime in the future.
 
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