Express VPN

[muffy]

Just joined and I see no difference, should I cancel ?

[Mama Noodle]

No difference in......what? 

[muffy]

Netflix or anything else

[glegolo]

Just now, Mama Noodle said:

No difference in......what? 

Yes, what are you talking about...

Strange posting...

 

glegolo

[AlexRich]

I thought the idea was better privacy and security as well as access to web content that is not available from Thailand? 

[muffy]

I don't see any change , why pay for nothing .When 30days up , bye .

[phetphet]

What was your reason for getting a VPN? I mean what were you expecting from it?

 

I have ExpressVPN and am very happy with it. If you look at the reviews on the net it is consistently one of the better ones. I have it on all my devices; laptop, phone, iPad.

 

It won't hide adverts. It is not meant for that. If that is what you are looking for, you need an adblocker.

 

What it can do is make your internet surfing and online banking more secure.

It can also enable you to watch media, such as BBC iPlayer, ITVPlayer, US Netflix here in Thailand. Also watch external news and read newspapers that might otherwise be banned in Thailand by letting you choose which country's servers you want to go through.

 

I always turn on my VPN before I do any internet banking. Even at home on my own network.

 

Others may add other uses.

 

Pretty sure ExpressVPN post lots of videos on youtube that can help you.

 

HTH

[Matzzon]

26 minutes ago, muffy said:

Just joined and I see no difference, should I cancel ?

Yes, you should cancel and read more about what a VPN really is. Then you can join again.

[Matzzon]

5 minutes ago, muffy said:

I don't see any change , why pay for nothing .When 30days up , bye .

What did you expect to see?

 

[HashBrownHarry]

this thread is brilliant!

[jadee]

39 minutes ago, muffy said:

Netflix or anything else

If you want better Netflix on your laptop or PC, install a free browser called 'Opera'. It's very fast, no-ads and has free built-in VPN. However, VPN tends to slow things down, so turn it off for better Netflix. 

[Sambora]

don’t go for free VPNs.... if it’s free, you’re the product. Just sayin...

[Moonlover]

Just about everybody uses a VPN for a specific purpose. If they don't have a purpose, why bother? In my case I like to download and watch BBC programmes from the UK.

 

What was your purpose @muffy?

[Peterw42]

Unless you want to access some geo-locked content from home etc, most people dont need a VPN. 

Many seem to think they need a VPN, then realise they dont.

[Swiss1960]

54 minutes ago, muffy said:

Netflix or anything else

OP installed the VPN in order to switch location in order to get Netflix programs for ie. USA or any other country. 

 

Many series or movies available in USA are not available in Thailand due to licensing restrictions.  

 

@OP: depending on where you want to switch your location (phone, laptop, android smart TV), the procedure is different and requires fiddling with the setup of DNS in order to convince Netflix that you changed the country.  Lot of videos in YouTube about that, Google is your friend...

 

But as others said.. a VPN "only" to circumvent licensing issues with Netflix is kind of stupid, a VPN is about privacy and security. 

[Curt1591]

34 minutes ago, Moonlover said:

What was your purpose @muffy?

Seems muffy may want access to content that in a region specific. Muffy will have to configure to land an IP in that region. 

[soi3eddie]

35 minutes ago, Swiss1960 said:

@OP: depending on where you want to switch your location (phone, laptop, android smart TV), the procedure is different and requires fiddling with the setup of DNS in order to convince Netflix that you changed the country.  Lot of videos in YouTube about that, Google is your friend...

Many good routers now offer the option of permanently connecting to a VPN (you need to have the VPN IP, User name and password). Then all traffic through the router goes through the VPN. This is especially useful if you have a smart TV as normally there is no way of setting up the TV to use a VPN. I have a VPN in the UK so direct my Thai router (Asus) to it so that I can get all the benefits of Amazon Prime on the TV here.

 

[Bruce Aussie Chiang Mai]

I had it for Netflix mainly. Now hardly ever use. Livenettv on android TV plays all world news and TV stations without it.

Maybe use with livelounge if accessing 18+. Of course I would never even think of clicking on that.

[KhunBENQ]

6 hours ago, HashBrownHarry said:

this thread is brilliant!

Clear as mud.

No details please (connecting to which country, using which service...).

[What a carry on]

I had this on monthly direct debit for about 6 months. Mostly for the full cricket matches on 'Hotstar' catch up. You used an Indian vpn via this service and it always worked. 

 

However, it started to get worse and worse to the point that it didn't work at all on this website. I asked them why and they said that Hotstar are aggressively blocking their service now, but that their engineers are 'working on a fix'. This 'fix' would work for an hour or so if you were lucky and then get shut down again. In the end, you couldn't really get a video to stream at all. 

 

They didn't fix the issue so I got rid. The stream also stuck now and again on BBCi player I noticed. This issue became more and more regular too. My internet speeds were high, it was as issue with the Vpn (they acknowledged that the BBC were also finding their services and blocking them).

 

I only used the service for these two websites so it wasn't worth the money anymore. 

 

I don't know if they just thought people would still subscribe when their service stopped working on popular streaming sites or if they just genuinely can't get around the issues they're having. To me, their emails and replies made it seem that they weren't taking the problems seriously enough. If I pay for the service ( they market it as working on hotstar), I expect it to work at least most of the time on the websites I visit. Not 1% of the time.

 

Sure, you might get hotstar working for ten minutes today, but good luck trying to watch a complete game. You've got no chance.

 

It's over for Expressvpn. It was fun while it lasted.

 

 

[samsensam]

46 minutes ago, What a carry on said:

I had this on monthly direct debit for about 6 months. Mostly for the full cricket matches on 'Hotstar' catch up. You used an Indian vpn via this service and it always worked. 

 

However, it started to get worse and worse to the point that it didn't work at all on this website. I asked them why and they said that Hotstar are aggressively blocking their service now, but that their engineers are 'working on a fix'. This 'fix' would work for an hour or so if you were lucky and then get shut down again. In the end, you couldn't really get a video to stream at all. 

 

They didn't fix the issue so I got rid. The stream also stuck now and again on BBCi player I noticed. This issue became more and more regular too. My internet speeds were high, it was as issue with the Vpn (they acknowledged that the BBC were also finding their services and blocking them).

 

I only used the service for these two websites so it wasn't worth the money anymore. 

 

I don't know if they just thought people would still subscribe when their service stopped working on popular streaming sites or if they just genuinely can't get around the issues they're having. To me, their emails and replies made it seem that they weren't taking the problems seriously enough. If I pay for the service ( they market it as working on hotstar), I expect it to work at least most of the time on the websites I visit. Not 1% of the time.

 

Sure, you might get hotstar working for ten minutes today, but good luck trying to watch a complete game. You've got no chance.

 

It's over for Expressvpn. It was fun while it lasted.

 

 

 

getting started with express was a bit of a faff but they have good support people who quickly sorted it for me and i've been watching iplayer, ch4 and itv from the uk ever since, no problems.

[DogNo1]

I understand.  Use USA Wash DC. server for access.  Some servers don't provide it.  Be prepared for some quirks and slowdowns.  If still problems getting your favorite channels use ExpressVPN quick chat or a skype call.  Tech support is very helpful.  Good luck. 

[What a carry on]

7 hours ago, samsensam said:

 

getting started with express was a bit of a faff but they have good support people who quickly sorted it for me and i've been watching iplayer, ch4 and itv from the uk ever since, no problems

I had no issues too with C4 and ITV (although I only used them once or twice). It can also be useful with the free android box app, 'Livenet TV'. iPlayer was fine if I chose the correct UK VPN, but usually, only one or two worked. I got fed up because the ones that did work started freezing now and again. I'm not overly technically minded, but I did clear the cache and use different browsers. I also contacted their tech. Sometimes the issue was fixed, only for the same issue to return. In short, I didn't feel like having to contact their tech dept every other time I used it as being a good service. 

 

Also, I used it mostly for hotstar, and it's pretty much useless for that purpose now. You might get it working for a short while, but they shut you down while watching. Usually though, you get the message that 'You appear to be using a VPN.' and can't even start a video.

 

Like I said, it's useless for me and not the service it used to be. I'm busy and don't want to be contacting their tech every five minutes just for it to not connect again shortly after.

 

If it works for you, then that's great. It doesn't work well for me which is why I got rid of it. As are many others for the same reasons.

[i84teen]

On 4/10/2020 at 1:04 AM, Swiss1960 said:

OP installed the VPN in order to switch location in order to get Netflix programs for ie. USA or any other country. 

 

Many series or movies available in USA are not available in Thailand due to licensing restrictions.  

 

@OP: depending on where you want to switch your location (phone, laptop, android smart TV), the procedure is different and requires fiddling with the setup of DNS in order to convince Netflix that you changed the country.  Lot of videos in YouTube about that, Google is your friend...

 

But as others said.. a VPN "only" to circumvent licensing issues with Netflix is kind of stupid, a VPN is about privacy and security. 

"stupid", maybe for you it is stupid. Circumventing geo-blocked streaming content is a huge issue for foreigners in Thailand and other locations.

[ParkerN]

A VPN is not needed most of the time. I use Browsec and swear by it - its rather like implementing a VPN for specific sites so it might need a little pereverence but I'm in my comfort zone. Speak as you find...

 

 

[OneMoreFarang]

On 4/10/2020 at 7:24 AM, phetphet said:

I always turn on my VPN before I do any internet banking. Even at home on my own network.

Good that is works for you. But it could be a problem for others.

Some banks (and also other companies) look where the connection comes from. And if you use a VPN the connection might come from different counties within a short period of time.

And then it might happen that your bank (or whatever other company) blocks you because they suspect a hacker from a different country is trying to use your account. It does not have to happen. But I saw "security questions" like that before and you don't want to block your own access to your own bank.

[Led Lolly Yellow Lolly]

I played around with ExpressVPN and Netflix for a while. I actually built my own small network of VPN servers in the UK and Singapore (for work purposes other than unlocking geolocked content) but the reason to use Express VPN is they have the data centre and IP space capacity to dodge detection that they are a VPN service, so they are one of the only providers that really can reliably unlock Netflix content et al. Personally I didn't find the additional content it unlocked to be of much interest, so I cancelled.

 

My own VPN network UK side works well for the BBC, and that is more than enough to satisfy my needs. Pro-Tip: I route my UK connection through my rack in Singapore. This actually improves latency to the UK significantly, around 190 ms round trip via Singapore (if I connect directly from Thailand to UK, round trip time never gets better than ~230 ms). Also, make sure you're routing your DNS queries through the tunnel, this tricks BBC servers into giving you full HD 5 Mbps data rate, constantly (verify by right clicking on the iPlayer stream to see the data rate)