VPNs

RVThereYet · Post by **RVThereYet** » Jun 11th, 2019, 6:53 pm

Does anyone here use a paid VPN service such as NORD, Express VPN, Surf Shark, Cyber Ghost, Tunnel Bear etc.?

Any pros/cons from one over the others?

How much do you pay?

Any issues with speed or features like Netflix geo-spoofing etc.

I'm considering it, mostly for privacy reasons, but also to watch the odd US or UK Netflix show.

I used the Express VPN free trial version for a week and it did what I wanted it to do, but there are other services available (but no free trials on most), just wondering if anyone here uses any of them and what your experience has been?

Any input and insights are appreciated, thanks!

Country plough boy · Post by **Country plough boy** » Jun 11th, 2019, 6:56 pm

Following. I use a free VPN on occasion. I find it useless as it wont get me around news sites pay walls. So i rarely bother

RVThereYet · Post by **RVThereYet** » Jun 11th, 2019, 7:01 pm

Country plough boy wrote:Following. I use a free VPN on occasion. I find it useless as it wont get me around news sites pay walls. So i rarely bother

Yes, from my research so far, free = "you get what you pay for", which in the case of VPNs is not much. Plus the free ones tend to log your activity and sell it (that's how they can afford to provide a "free" service). Not bad if you only need it once in a while, but if you want speed, features and to get around paywalls etc. a paid service is almost a must.

36Drew · Post by **36Drew** » Jun 11th, 2019, 11:52 pm

What are you hoping to achieve with a VPN, and which technologies are you considering to be a VPN?

If you're trying to mask your IP to consume region-specific services (ie., US Netflix) - then yes, the plethora of so-called VPN or proxy services will work for you to one degree or another.

If you're after privacy - how, pray-tell, do you think that using a third-party VPN is going to increase your privacy?

RVThereYet · Post by **RVThereYet** » Jun 12th, 2019, 11:02 am

36Drew wrote:What are you hoping to achieve with a VPN, and which technologies are you considering to be a VPN?

If you're trying to mask your IP to consume region-specific services (ie., US Netflix) - then yes, the plethora of so-called VPN or proxy services will work for you to one degree or another.

If you're after privacy - how, pray-tell, do you think that using a third-party VPN is going to increase your privacy?

Like I said in my OP, I'm mostly interested in geo-spoofing and privacy when it's called for.

The privacy aspect with "so-called" (3rd party) VPNs has a lot to do with their physical company locations and the laws in those countries with respect to data retention etc. I found that their Privacy Policies usually spell that out pretty clearly for most of them - but I do understand that there is always a risk when involving a third party. As long as they're located somewhere without data retention laws (and outside of "5/9/14 Eyes" jurisdictions), one should expect to have reasonable privacy protections from the provider under most circumstances, unless maybe if I was breaking some very serious laws far beyond illegal streaming, pay-wall circumvention or Netflix location restrictions.

I know that I can set up my own VPN pretty cheap/easy with a Raspberry-Pi for example (at least to achieve the privacy I'm looking for), but that still won't allow me to location-spoof without the 3rd party software (as far as I know anyways). Which is why I was asking here if anyone has any experience with using any of the 3rd party services ... pros/cons, costs, speed, features etc.

kelownman · Post by **kelownman** » Jun 12th, 2019, 11:38 am

I have used PrivateInternetAccess, https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/pages/buy-vpn/ They offer monthly $9.95 US, 2 year $3.49/month or 1 year $5.99/month. Speeds are excellent.

I am now using PureVPN, https://www.purevpn.com/order?utm_source=CTA_home_1 They offer monthly $10.95 US, 1 year $3.33/month and 2 year $2.88/month. Speeds are excellent. The only reason I dropped PIA was for the price.

RVThereYet · Post by **RVThereYet** » Jun 12th, 2019, 12:00 pm

kelownman wrote:I have used PrivateInternetAccess, https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/pages/buy-vpn/ They offer monthly $9.95 US, 2 year $3.49/month or 1 year $5.99/month. Speeds are excellent.

I am now using PureVPN, https://www.purevpn.com/order?utm_source=CTA_home_1 They offer monthly $10.95 US, 1 year $3.33/month and 2 year $2.88/month. Speeds are excellent. The only reason I dropped PIA was for the price.

Wow, that's a good price compared to some others I looked at and almost par with NORD (although NORD wants a 3 year commitment), which at the moment seems about the best price, so long as you don't mind committing to a 3 year deal. Even the post one year rate of $70/year is pretty good.

Can you get the US & UK Netflix with it?

kelownman · Post by **kelownman** » Jun 12th, 2019, 12:07 pm

RVThereYet wrote:
Can you get the US & UK Netflix with it?

yes or at least I used to, I cancelled netflix a couple years ago.

RVThereYet · Post by **RVThereYet** » Jun 12th, 2019, 12:22 pm

kelownman wrote:
RVThereYet wrote:
Can you get the US & UK Netflix with it?

yes or at least I used to, I cancelled netflix a couple years ago.

Thanks for letting me know ...

spooker · Post by **spooker** » Jun 12th, 2019, 1:38 pm

kelownman wrote:I have used PrivateInternetAccess, https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/pages/buy-vpn/ They offer monthly $9.95 US, 2 year $3.49/month or 1 year $5.99/month. Speeds are excellent.

I am now using PureVPN, https://www.purevpn.com/order?utm_source=CTA_home_1 They offer monthly $10.95 US, 1 year $3.33/month and 2 year $2.88/month. Speeds are excellent. The only reason I dropped PIA was for the price.

I've been using PIA for the last 5 years and it suits me well ...

crookedmember · Post by **crookedmember** » Jun 13th, 2019, 1:10 pm

I've been using Private Internet Access for the last 7 or 8 years. I pay $39.95 US per year.

It's fast and you can connect to dozens of servers around the world. It also comes with a free socks proxy to use on bit torrent apps or phones/tablets.

Probably best to buy the 1 month trial for a few bucks to see if it works for your needs. Or contact their customer service chat on their website.

RVThereYet · Post by **RVThereYet** » Jun 13th, 2019, 1:56 pm

crookedmember wrote:I've been using Private Internet Access for the last 7 or 8 years. I pay $39.95 US per year.

It's fast and you can connect to dozens of servers around the world. It also comes with a free socks proxy to use on bit torrent apps or phones/tablets.

Probably best to buy the 1 month trial for a few bucks to see if it works for your needs. Or contact their customer service chat on their website.

Have you used it to access Netflix, US and UK? How has that held up over the years?

crookedmember · Post by **crookedmember** » Jun 13th, 2019, 4:34 pm

RVThereYet wrote:
Have you used it to access Netflix, US and UK? How has that held up over the years?

Not in 3 or 4 years, but I wouldn't be too confident. I think Netflix has gotten a lot more serious about blocking whole ranges of IPs to protect their content deals.

RVThereYet · Post by **RVThereYet** » Jun 13th, 2019, 5:43 pm

crookedmember wrote:
RVThereYet wrote:
Have you used it to access Netflix, US and UK? How has that held up over the years?

Not in 3 or 4 years, but I wouldn't be too confident. I think Netflix has gotten a lot more serious about blocking whole ranges of IPs to protect their content deals.

I've been testing it with the trial version of Express VPN and have had good luck, both UK & US (and other EU) NF no problems, not every server, but certain servers in each country. I think they keep switching servers to stay ahead of NF, constant "cat & mouse" game for sure... what works one day might not work the next day when NF figures it out until they reassign another server.

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