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Ask HN: Which VPN do you use and why?

46 pointsby nomanisanislandalmost 9 years ago

31 comments

atoponcealmost 9 years ago
You should check out the VPN comparison chart by &quot;That One Privacy Guy&quot; here: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;thatoneprivacysite.net&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;thatoneprivacysite.net&#x2F;</a>. There are many factors to consider, such as cipher suite, jurisdiction, and logging.<p>Even then, don&#x27;t get your hopes up. It should be worth noting that VPNs can give a false sense of security (such as not logging). All they&#x27;re doing is moving the goalpost from one end of the playing field to another. They&#x27;re useful for getting into internal networks, and they&#x27;re useful for bypassing outbound firewalls in restrictive networks, like public schools and libraries, or churches, but that&#x27;s about it. See <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;gist.github.com&#x2F;joepie91&#x2F;5a9909939e6ce7d09e29" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;gist.github.com&#x2F;joepie91&#x2F;5a9909939e6ce7d09e29</a><p>If you want online privacy, you really should be using Tor. if you want anonymity, you should stay offline. Regardless, realize your VPN provider isn&#x27;t going to go to jail for you.
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koevetalmost 9 years ago
Streisand (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;jlund&#x2F;streisand" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;jlund&#x2F;streisand</a>) and a cheap Europe-based Digital Ocean box.
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rhblakealmost 9 years ago
I&#x27;ve always liked <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mullvad.net&#x2F;en&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mullvad.net&#x2F;en&#x2F;</a> (Swedish company, around since a number of years), especially from a privacy point of view. You never actually enter any personal information when creating an account - no name, no email, no password, no nothing; all you get is a random unique ID. They also claim to keep no logs, point being, &quot;When Swedish law requires us to divulge information about our customers we make sure not to have that information stored, so that we have nothing to give out.&quot;<p>Various means of payment are accepted, including btc, and cash (of any(!) currency) sent by mail. OpenVPN, possible to choose from a number of countries, no limits on speed or data.<p>If there are other commercial VPN services that don&#x27;t necessarily require you to give them any personal information (for account purposes), I&#x27;d be curious to know. Would be nice to have more alternatives.
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rocketcityalmost 9 years ago
I use the following OpenVPN docker container on my homeserver: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;kylemanna&#x2F;docker-openvpn" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;kylemanna&#x2F;docker-openvpn</a><p>I then send all of the logs to Loggly and get notified anytime someone connects to my OpenVPN server.
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deanclatworthyalmost 9 years ago
The old recommendation here used to be privateinternetaccess.com<p>I cancelled my subscription months ago. They stopped circumventing georestrictions a while ago even though it used to be marketed as having that feature. Support even fixed it a few times for me.<p>Nowadays I just use one of the vpn scripts on GitHub and a small vps somewhere.
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quinndupontalmost 9 years ago
I use BlackVPN[1], but mostly because they used to have a referral program and I ended up with several years of free service. They tend to be quite quick, have OK (but not exemplary security measures), and offer a nice range of servers for whatever your needs (geofencing, piracy, etc.).<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.blackvpn.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.blackvpn.com&#x2F;</a>
mehxaalmost 9 years ago
<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;vpn.ccrypto.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;vpn.ccrypto.org&#x2F;</a><p>It&#x27;s plain and simple OpenVPN made by nice people, and it&#x27;s only 3€&#x2F;month.
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akerroalmost 9 years ago
TorGuard because they provide nodes in countries where I want to have my endpoint and they allow torrenting. Their technical support actually knows what OpenVPN and Linux&#x2F;BSD is and they were able to help me with issues I had (unlike other VPN providers).
MattRogishalmost 9 years ago
<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.getcloak.com" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.getcloak.com</a> - works on my Mac and various iOS devices. Well designed, have been with them since the beginning with no issues.
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subliminalpandaalmost 9 years ago
I rolled my own OpenVPN server on digital ocean. I find that having 2 instances running, one over TCP port 443 and one on UDP over an arbitrary port works great in most scenarios.
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CiPHPerCoderalmost 9 years ago
None. VPNs can&#x27;t provide any meaningful privacy: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;gist.github.com&#x2F;joepie91&#x2F;5a9909939e6ce7d09e29" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;gist.github.com&#x2F;joepie91&#x2F;5a9909939e6ce7d09e29</a><p>Okay, that&#x27;s not entirely true; I do access a company VPN, but not for privacy purposes which is probably what&#x27;s implied. I use Tor for that.
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toygalmost 9 years ago
Witopia - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.witopia.net" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.witopia.net</a><p>It has a large set of exit points, which is what I use it for (at least until geoblocks die, which it will happen at some point). Being based in Virginia, they&#x27;re probably an NSA front but I have nothing to hide ;) and at least you know it will work...
gorbachevalmost 9 years ago
NordVPN, outside of US jurisdiction and (claims to) does no logging.<p>The service used to be really spotty, but they really stepped it up lately.
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NetStrikeForcealmost 9 years ago
For general browsing from different devices I use Freedome by F-Secure. Just because it was convenient to get, works on different platforms (Windows, iOS, Android) and it&#x27;s cheap. Also their bandwidth has proven enough for my needs on different exit points. The only downside is that now Netflix identifies it as a VPN, so I can&#x27;t keep watching my series while I&#x27;m abroad.<p>For connecting my servers between them (and my laptop) as some sort of secure virtual network I use my own product <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;wormhole.network" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;wormhole.network</a> - The servers are all in an overlay private network completely transparent to any application, so I can move servers to different providers, locations, etc and not have to change a single configuration line (nor configure any firewalls).
hendi_almost 9 years ago
AirVPN - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;airvpn.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;airvpn.org&#x2F;</a><p><pre><code> - claims to be &quot;operated by activists and hacktivists&quot; - uses OpenVPN - GPLv3 client for many platforms - accepts Bitcoin (or PayPal, Credit Cards, ...) - has an API</code></pre>
rinchik1almost 9 years ago
<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ipredator.se&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ipredator.se&#x2F;</a> name is weird by was rolled out by pirate bay and quite secure, inactive accounts get deleted with all data and potential history after about a month.
davejamesmilleralmost 9 years ago
For internet browsing, TunnelBear (via the Chrome plugin - technically a proxy rather than VPN), because it&#x27;s free and I don&#x27;t use it often (usually just for testing sites from a different IP address).<p>For my own network, OpenVPN because it&#x27;s open source.
lewisl9029almost 9 years ago
VPNGate [1] is what I usually use for bypassing georestrictions, and it works quite well for that purpose. The client and server software is based on the open-source SoftEther VPN project [2], and the actual VPN servers are operated by volunteers around the world.<p>I&#x27;d hesitate to recommend VPNGate itself for anything that requires real privacy though. However, SoftEther VPN is an excellent choice if you want to set up your own VPN on a box somewhere.<p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.vpngate.net&#x2F;en&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.vpngate.net&#x2F;en&#x2F;</a><p>[2] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.softether.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.softether.org&#x2F;</a>
arca_voragoalmost 9 years ago
To be perfectly honest, if someone needs to vpn for reasons that could cause real backlash, aka political dissent, the best thing to have is a owned box somewhere and tunnel through it. Add one or more layers, and or a use once discard policy... But the sad fact is thats just about the only way to raise the barrier of entry for a state level (notice I didnt say nation state) actor.<p>Not necessarily condoning illegal activity, just stating things plainly.<p>I&#x27;m pretty sure tor is under attack heavily right now, (see ioerror accusations), and I have used it very sparingly. Of course only NSA level actors can comprimise it with enough upstream fiber&#x2F;exit node taps...<p>You must always know your enemy.
johnpowellalmost 9 years ago
<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.frostvpn.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.frostvpn.com&#x2F;</a><p>When I signed up they had a 99 cent a month deal going on. I&#x27;m not really concerned about privacy. I just needed something to help with the connection to my dedicated server that runs Plex that is hosted with Hetzner.<p>Comcast here has poor peering to Hetzner and using a VPN solved the problem.<p>They have a lot of servers all over the world and they few times I have needed to open a ticket I got a reply in less than a hour.<p>I also have a Droplet on D.O. that can act as a VPN. I switch to that if I am doing anything sensitive.
neiledalmost 9 years ago
VyperVPN has always been good to me and I&#x27;ve never read anything bad against it, anyone had bad experiences I should know about?
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JamyDevalmost 9 years ago
PureVPN because they have lots of countries to connect to. Albeit some sites using a different geolookup library don&#x27;t actually recognise them accurately.<p>Reason? My ISP modem basically dies when there&#x27;s too many connections opened at once. So sometimes an innocent `npm install` would kill my internet for a minute...
ancymonalmost 9 years ago
As I understand VPN providers make users share single IP. Doesn&#x27;t it give some extra anonymity? For example if you create your own Droplet someone still can listen for your traffic (but not coming from your PC but from the Droplet) and you are quite easily identifiable (because you are only user).
gkweldingalmost 9 years ago
I used to use privateinternetaccess.com, but various issues with them led me to look for a new VPN provider. I eventually settled on ivpn.net as they have a good selection of exit points, their software is easy to use and I can use it across devices too. Their network speeds have been really good too.
teekertalmost 9 years ago
I usually SSH tunnel to my server at home or to my 5$&#x2F;month Digital Ocean droplet.
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vowellessalmost 9 years ago
HideIPVPN and Avast SecureLine.<p>I use HideIPVPN for their European servers. And I use Avast on my phone to automatically get on VPN when I am on certain Wifi networks (it does SSID based connections).
kawsperalmost 9 years ago
I run my own setup with OpenVPN. I have looked at Pritunl[0] for easier management of OpenVPN.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pritunl.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pritunl.com&#x2F;</a>
evookalmost 9 years ago
Juniper SRX1500 within my private collocation in a friends data centre. Just worth it, although it could use some redundancy.
juicedalmost 9 years ago
WifiMask - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.wifimask.com" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.wifimask.com</a>
lukeholderalmost 9 years ago
IVPN - got a heap of recommendations on the last HN VPN discussion.
xytopalmost 9 years ago
<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;hola.org" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;hola.org</a>
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