What VPN do you Recommend?

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I have been thinking about getting a VPN. Seems like a lot of differing information. Some are more private. Some are faster. Who can advise?
 
Gebo,

I have used ExpressVPN for four years now.

Zero issues, great interface with phone, iPad, and laptop. Solid customer service and support.

I believe it's $99 per year for up to five devices connected simultaneously.

Are they perfect? Nope, but I'm a picky SOB and I'm not switching VPN providers.

Regardless of which VPN you choose, "free VPN" should never be an option.

Cheers!
 
Originally Posted by simple_gifts
Are you talking about a VPN to do general web surfing or a VPN to connect back to your home network?



General web surfing
 
Originally Posted by dkryan
Gebo,

I have used ExpressVPN for four years now.

Zero issues, great interface with phone, iPad, and laptop. Solid customer service and support.

I believe it's $99 per year for up to five devices connected simultaneously.

Are they perfect? Nope, but I'm a picky SOB and I'm not switching VPN providers.

Regardless of which VPN you choose, "free VPN" should never be an option.

Cheers!


Do they offer something others don't? Wait, what I'm asking is why did you choose them over another service?
 
Gebo,

Please check out Jackson_Slugger's link. Self explanatory upon review.

Their current rating is solid and well-deserved, but please note that in 2016, they were good, but they earned their current rating because, like Startmail, they welcome constructive feedback and they're always trying to improve their product and service.
 
I use IPVanish. They offer special deals for new customers so look for the specials. So far so good almost a year. It does slow download speeds some probably 30% for me. I have 400 mbps. Can still stream movies normally. Sometimes during peak usage cable gets slower and with 3 kids and wife all downloading and watching youtube, etc. I will likely keep it and believe they all slow you down to some extent. What i really like about IPVanish is they do not keep and history so if someone forces them to provide history data they do not keep it so cannot. Not like I am doing anything I care about but just don't like all the tracking that's done.
 
Okay,

I get the idea of a VPN to corporate network so I can get to the back office stuff.

Other than spoofing the BBC regarding my location, making them think I'm in the UK so I can get programming as if I was in the UK, I'm really not seeing the point of a VPN. Certainly not from a security standpoint.

We see these commercials about "Don't let the bad guys get your banking info..."

Well, it's not like my VPN provider has a connection into my bank's network. The VPN just changes the where my traffic enters the general public internet and goes to the bank and has all the same vulnerabilities as if the traffic came from my home, or mobile phone, or frankly, even that coffee shop connection. Unless I'm an idiot and not using an HTTPS connection to my bank, even the coffee shop free WiFi isn't really a problem.

If you want to spoof where you are, or you are connecting to your corporate network so you can get to back office servers, I'm not seeing the value proposition for a VPN when it comes to security.

Am I missing something here?
 
Originally Posted by javacontour
Okay,

I get the idea of a VPN to corporate network so I can get to the back office stuff.

Other than spoofing the BBC regarding my location, making them think I'm in the UK so I can get programming as if I was in the UK, I'm really not seeing the point of a VPN. Certainly not from a security standpoint.

We see these commercials about "Don't let the bad guys get your banking info..."

Well, it's not like my VPN provider has a connection into my bank's network. The VPN just changes the where my traffic enters the general public internet and goes to the bank and has all the same vulnerabilities as if the traffic came from my home, or mobile phone, or frankly, even that coffee shop connection. Unless I'm an idiot and not using an HTTPS connection to my bank, even the coffee shop free WiFi isn't really a problem.

If you want to spoof where you are, or you are connecting to your corporate network so you can get to back office servers, I'm not seeing the value proposition for a VPN when it comes to security.

Am I missing something here?


This is exactly right. A VPN for a home user is simply obscuring non-encrypted traffic and DNS queries from their ISP, that's it. You are just moving the egress point of that traffic from the WAN interface on your router to some virtual switch port on somebody else's hardware and assuming nobody is sniffing that traffic, versus the hops it traverses from your ISP-provided equipment to its destination. It does nothing to further improve traffic that is already end-to-end encrypted.
 
My use for VPN's is limited, my work blocks a lot of stuff on their wifi, so I can't view a lot of websites on my phone (like most online forums, including BITOG).
Using a VPN allows me to bypass that restriction since the work filters does not see the traffic as being from a blacklisted site.
Popular VPN's are blocked by many companies for this very reason though.
I had tried NordVPN but traffic through some of there servers were blocked. This is why it is important to use a VPN with a lot of servers in case one gets blacklisted.
A VPN will also "hide" from your ISP what sites you visit, and they sell that info to advertisers.

The problem with VPN's is your speed is reduced, sometimes by as much as 90%.

I use a company called "FastestVPN".
It is not the fastest, but does what I need it to do and was cheap (I got a "lifetime" subscription for like $20 2 years ago).
I rarely use it at home, my kids use it at school, and I use it at work.
 
Originally Posted by NYSteve
Cloudflare just launched their own VPN
They announced it. They haven't actually launched anything yet.
 
It seems crazy to me to ask about this topic in an oil oriented forum. Do you ask your proctologist for landscaping advice?

The answer is that it depends on your priority, whether it be low cost, or job security related, doing very controversial/illegal things, or paranoia, or P2P filesharing,

SO, you must confess to us your sins and then we absolve you.
wink.gif
 
Originally Posted by Dave9
It seems crazy to me to ask about this topic in an oil oriented forum. Do you ask your proctologist for landscaping advice?

The answer is that it depends on your priority, whether it be low cost, or job security related, doing very controversial/illegal things, or paranoia, or P2P filesharing,

SO, you must confess to us your sins and then we absolve you.
wink.gif




Ok, Lord please forgive me for what I am thinking about Dave9's response to my question. Please forgive me for what I want to type in my post to him.

How's that?
banana2.gif


I just don't want people tracking me and I still wanna watch Netflix and Amazon and YouTube.
 
Originally Posted by Quattro Pete
Originally Posted by NYSteve
Cloudflare just launched their own VPN
They announced it. They haven't actually launched anything yet.



It's actually live in their app. Just downloaded the app on my iPhone and it installed their VPN cert.
 
Originally Posted by NYSteve
Originally Posted by Quattro Pete
Originally Posted by NYSteve
Cloudflare just launched their own VPN
They announced it. They haven't actually launched anything yet.



It's actually live in their app. Just downloaded the app on my iPhone and it installed their VPN cert.

Me thinks the OP needs the PC version.
 
I've got two accounts; one with ExpressVPN for home use and another with StrongVPN for teleworking purposes.

Never had any issues with either one of them, although I found ExpressVPN was easier to setup with my router for home use.
 
Will they all work with Neflix and Amazon Prime and YouTube and not have any effect on streaming?
 
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