What's the best VPN in Thailand?

[GuiseppeD]

ExpressVPN.  Reassuringly expensive and never been caught at my stalking exploits.  

 

Fifteen month subscriptions for price of twelve if you search a little harder.  On my second subscription now and happy to pay the premium.  Yes, expensive premium.

[Pib]

14 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Pib, don't wanna rain on your Pure parade, but I was just looking at IP Vanish's website where they had an interesting chart on different VPN providers, including an interesting reference and link regarding Pure's service.

 

Obviously, you just use your VPN to search out available Chang retailers and nothing else. But reading the linked article (footnote No. 2) re Pure makes for an interesting read.

 

https://www.ipvanish.com/

 

 

 

The footnote #2 re Pure leads to the following article:

 

https://torrentfreak.com/purevpn-logs-helped-fbi-net-alleged-cyberstalker-171009/

 

 

 

Guess I better get another VPN service for my stacking and other illegal activities.  Oh, did I mention PureVPN costs me $1.15/month plus works fine for me....oh yea, I already did.

[GuiseppeD]

13 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Pib, don't wanna rain on your Pure parade, but I was just looking at IP Vanish's website where they had an interesting chart on different VPN providers, including an interesting reference and link regarding Pure's service.

I was all over that in last month's news.  Talk about the kiss of death to a VPN provider.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

7 minutes ago, Pib said:

 

Guess I better get another VPN service for my stacking and other illegal activities.  Oh, did I mention PureVPN costs me $1.15/month plus works fine for me....oh yea, I already did.

 

You'll need that extra/saved cash when the FBI comes knocking!!!

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

9 minutes ago, GuiseppeD said:

I was all over that in last month's news.  Talk about the kiss of death to a VPN provider.

 

Don't feel left out... The same IP Vanish chart had another link (footnote #3) with a site that goes after both Pure and Express VPN in particular for allegedly using fake/virtual server locations...

 

https://restoreprivacy.com/vpn-server-locations/

[GuiseppeD]

Just now, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Don't feel left out... The same IP Vanish chart had another link (footnote #3) with a site that goes after both Pure and Express VPN in particular for allegedly using fake/virtual server locations...

 

https://restoreprivacy.com/vpn-server-locations/

Not too worried about that, John.  Just as long as the FBI don't come knocking about my stalking activities.

 

Anyway I was watching you from a distance last night ...

[maxpower]

If this VPN thread gets much bigger I'm connecting it to my gas cooker.

[GuiseppeD]

2 hours ago, Pib said:

I just bought the PureVPN 5 year plan for $69, which works out to $1.15/month.   

Could of got it down to 15 cents a month had you mentioned the negative press.  

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

13 minutes ago, maxpower said:

If this VPN thread gets much bigger I'm connecting it to my gas cooker.

11 pages and running isn't diddly for Thai Visa....

 

After all, it's an ongoing, active subject of interest for a lot of folks -- even if not for you.

 

[GuiseppeD]

3 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

11 pages and running isn't diddly for Thai Visa....

 

After all, it's an ongoing, active subject of interest for a lot of folks -- even if not for you.

I totally agree.  As someone who likes to switch VPN location multiple times a day for various reasons I like to keep up on the latest providers, news and costs.  Still sticking with ExpressVPN but that can change, no doubt.  

 

I made an online purchase from a UK website the other day while based in LOS [VPN was set to LOS at the time] and liked what I purchased so decided to make a second.  In the meantime I changed VPN to UK for one reason or another and the retailer emailed me giving me the full interrogation that his FraudLabs software had picked multiple locations and wanted to know my story.  I told him to stick it where the sun don't shine.  Either accept the purchase or decline it and don't act like the gestapo.  Prick.

[Stocky]

19 minutes ago, GuiseppeD said:

Could of got it down to 15 cents a month had you mentioned the negative press.  

Indeed. I'm about 3/4 the way through a 2 year subscription to PureVPN, up until a few months back I was pretty happy with them, but the wheels have come off recently. Doubt I'll be renewing with PureVPN. Five year subscription! Wow, that certainly is being a hostage to fortune.

[maxpower]

16 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

11 pages and running isn't diddly for Thai Visa....

 

After all, it's an ongoing, active subject of interest for a lot of folks -- even if not for you.

 

And its a subject of interest that really does deliver..

 

The Best Price For The World’s Most Powerful Privacy Plan
Why is IPVanish “the world’s best VPN?”

 

And the piece de resistance ...

Still not convinced? We’ll let the stats speak for themselves.

 

Go on lets have another Reddit post.

 

[Pib]

9 hours ago, Pib said:

PureVPN has a Cyber Week deal going on which runs through Cyber Monday on 27 Nov....5 years for $79....and a few days ago it was 5 years for $69.   I've been with PureVPN for around 18 months now on a $2.08/month for 2 years I got before and it has worked fine for me/for my needs which is occasional VPN use.....your results may differ....everyone seems to have different results/level of satisfaction with VPN providers.   

 

 

 

Earlier today I included above snapshot from PureVPN about their 5 years for $79 offer that had been $5 years for $69 just a few days ago.     I just checked the PureVPN site a little before 8pm Thailand time and the 5 years for $69 offer is back...for how long, who knows...see snapshot below.    Even the cost of their 2 year plan changed once or twice today.  

 

With it getting closer and closer to Black Friday and Cyber Monday the deals offered by some VPN providers may change from day to day, hour to hour, etc.

 

 

Edited November 23, 2017 by Pib

[dr_lucas]

3 hours ago, GuiseppeD said:

I made an online purchase from a UK website the other day while based in LOS [VPN was set to LOS at the time] and liked what I purchased so decided to make a second.  In the meantime I changed VPN to UK for one reason or another and the retailer emailed me giving me the full interrogation that his FraudLabs software had picked multiple locations and wanted to know my story. 

 

And rightfully so. They are not pricks, they must protect the integrity of their payment processing system.

As an online business they are exposed to all sorts of credit/debit card fraud risks and credit companies require them to screen all suspicious payments, as any chargeback will be their sole responsibility, for which normally only they will pay the full costs and penalties.

Multiple IPs and locations used is a common thing among fraudsters, and online fraud is a major plague.

Edited November 23, 2017 by dr_lucas

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Meanwhile, over in the world of IP Vanish, I've been giving them a try today under a 1 month, 7 days money back guarantee plan, and I'm not impressed or pleased, thus far.

 

For starters, using their Windows OpenVPN app, I tried a whole series of different server selections from two of their major West Coast city locations, and not a single one of them would work with U.S. Amazon Prime. Every one gave a geo error when trying to play.

 

Second, I checked their geolocation data on most of their many different server addresses for supposedly Los Angeles and San Jose, CA server locations. And, not a single one of their supposed L.A. server locations actually resolved to Los Angeles but instead to Costa Mesa, a city in Orange County to the south of L.A.  And of their supposed San Jose servers, about half resolved to Costa Mesa hundreds of miles away and the other half to Phoenix Ariz., even farther away.

 

I also tried another streaming service I use with various IPVanish connections and got spotty, inconsistent results. And to top it all off, when I went to try to address some of those issues with IPVanish's customer support, it seems that their only method of communicating for their customers is via a website based email portal -- no live chat, no phone support.

 

I'll probably fiddle around some more tomorrow, including trying some direct server connections instead of going thru their Windows app, and see if that makes any difference. But at this point, I'm not hopeful and suspect this is going to be a very brief encounter.

 

And to top it off, I had sent them an email this afternoon asking a simple question -- did their 7 day money back guarantee have any limit on data use associated with it? ( I asked, because some other VPN services offer money back guarantees, but only if you don't exceed a certain data use level during the trial). So tonight, I got an email back from IP Vanish -- 4 paragraphs on their refund policy and canceling subscriptions, etc... And not a single word about whether their money back policy had any data limit, which was the only question I had asked....

 

 

 

 

[dr_lucas]

Talking about black Friday deals, here's an unbeatable one:

https://deals.androidauthority.com/sales/vpn-unlimited-lifetime-subscription?scsonar=1&utm_content=a0x1a000003aWCz

 

VPN Unlimited lifetime subscription @$49 USD (down from $500)

 

Personally, I like to use a VPN through VPN for best performance in Thailand, so I use 2 different VPN providers, connect one through my AC86U router unencrypted OpenVPN (using he awesome Merlin enhanced firmware) to a nearby country with good connection (Singapore/HK) and then turn on another VPN instance on my LAN devices. That's especially good on True high speed packages.

Edited November 23, 2017 by dr_lucas

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

2 minutes ago, dr_lucas said:

Talking about black Friday deals, here's an unbeatable one:

https://deals.androidauthority.com/sales/vpn-unlimited-lifetime-subscription?scsonar=1&utm_content=a0x1a000003aWCz

 

VPN Unlimited lifetime subscription @$49 USD (down from $500)

 

Personally, I like to use a VPN through VPN for best performance in Thailand, so I use 2 different VPN providers, connect one through my AC86U router unencrypted OpenVPN (tusing he awesome Merlin firmware) to a nearby country with good connection (Singapore/HK) and then turn on another VPN instance on my LAN devices. That's especially good on True high speed packages.

 

In my experience, in an industry where even the "best" services are sometimes marginal, the "lifetime VPN" service deals offered on websites like Stack Social and similar seem to often offer up some of the worst, most marginal VPN service players, usually ones to be avoided by a mile.

 

After all, if they were a legitimate, successful VPN provider with a good-sized paying customer base, I'd say it's pretty doubtful they'd ever be offering lifetime service for $49.

 

[GuiseppeD]

 
And rightfully so. They are not pricks, they must protect the integrity of their payment processing system.
As an online business they are exposed to all sorts of credit/debit card fraud risks and credit companies require them to screen all suspicious payments, as any chargeback will be their sole responsibility, for which normally only they will pay the full costs and penalties.
Multiple IPs and locations used is a common thing among fraudsters, and online fraud is a major plague.

Read my post again and read it carefully.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[dr_lucas]

24 minutes ago, GuiseppeD said:

Read my post again and read it carefully.

 

I think I did. Have I misread or misunderstood anything?

[GuiseppeD]

I think I did. Have I misread or misunderstood anything?

I really haven’t got the time.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[dr_lucas]

No worries. Then I'll just assume I didn't misunderstand and my post was spot on.

[GuiseppeD]

No worries. Then I'll just assume I didn't misunderstand and my post was spot on.

No, your comprehension and reading skills are substandard.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[dr_lucas]

Yeah, I know. My walking skills aren't that great either.

[Pib]

 

Quote

And of their supposed San Jose servers, about half resolved to Costa Mesa hundreds of miles away and the other half to Phoenix Ariz., even farther away.

TG,

   If you haven't tried already with the Costa Mesa server with your "manual connections (i.e, not using their app)" maybe try replacing the server's host name with its IP address number.  Then see if the connection then always connects to Costa Mesa versus some other location.   This is called the Dedicated IP method. 

 

    Use one of numerous websites that will convert a host name to an IP address like this website that PureVPN recommended to me in a chat session. https://aruljohn.com/hostname2ip.html

 

   Like if I was going to setup a manual Windows PureVPN connection using Dedicated IP I would take the LA PureVPN host name of   "usla1.pointtoserver.com", look up that hostname in above host to IP address website (or whichever one you want to use), and then use that "IP address number" vs the hostname when entering the server name in the manual setup.    See images below.

 

   Now as mentioned in an earlier post every few months the IP address assigned to the host name will change although the host name remained the same (or at least it does with PureVPN), and I then look up the new IP address number, and update my manual connection to the new IP address number. 

 

    I think PureVPN may change the IP address number periodically depending on the IT company they have contracted VPN servers from at a certain location or they just wanted to change/reassign the IP address number for some other reason.   

 

     And sometimes when making that VPN connection using the Dedicated IP method (or regular way using the VPN providers app or a manul logon using the server host name) you will see the company name associated with the server (i.e., who really owns/operates the server) and it's not PureVPN but some name like Softlayer, NewMedia Express, etc as most VPN service providers (even the ones that provide pricey monthly service) really don't have their "server hardware and employees" at "all" the locations around the world they offer VPN connections to; instead, it is contracted/rented VPN server service.

 

   I just know the issue you are describing where the VPN provider is using may say a connection is being made to city so-in-so like LA but all too often if the server is overloaded with too many users the VPN provider will just make the connection to another city hopefully kinda nearby.    Like I mentioned in an earlier thread I expect most people don't even notice this and it may not have caused them any problems with logon challenges from some sites like gmail.com or streaming services....they got lucky....all is fine.   The people got an IP address in their country and the specific city didn't end up affecting them.   But like you, I pay particular attention in my VPN connections to ensure I connect to the city I wanted.  And the LA Metro area is pretty big....I expect any small city in/around the LA Metro area just gets called LA by the VPN service provider. 

 

 From PureVPN Website

 

A Host Name to IP Address Converter Website

 

Edited November 24, 2017 by Pib

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Pib...see my post comment from yesterday....

 

13 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

I'll probably fiddle around some more tomorrow, including trying some direct server connections instead of going thru their Windows app, and see if that makes any difference. But at this point, I'm not hopeful and suspect this is going to be a very brief encounter.

 

Also, in the case of IPVanish, it wasn't that any of their servers were overloaded and thus resulted in different server location assignments.

 

Once you're a subscriber, their info shows you the load use of their various servers supposedly in real time. From the list I was looking at when I was doing my testing, almost all of them were running at 20% load or less.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 24, 2017 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Astrill has finally posted their Black Friday special for this year, and it's pretty underwhelming, if this is all they have to offer for the Black Friday/Cyber Monday period.

 

Basically, they only appear to be offering an extra 3 months of service when you subscribe to their one-year plan at their regular $99.90 price. It's the same whether you're a new subscriber or want to extend an existing subscription.

 

The current special is very weak compared to the other specials they've offered in recent years during the Black Friday period...

 

 

[dr_lucas]

On windows, you can also easily use PING to get the IP, without any need to look up on the web, like so:

 

 

 

It's normally good to run this command first, just to make sure you get fresh DNS response in case IP has changed:

ipconfig /flushdns

 

VPN providers showing other names like Softlayer intsead of their company VPN is a good thing IMHO. Makes it a bit harder for third parties to detect them.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

A bit more on IPVanish and their Amazon Fire TV app that uses the OpenVPN protocol with choice of UDP or TCP...

 

Installed the Fire TV app this morning. Everything went fine, easy to install and set up, right up to the point I tried to stream any Amazon Prime Video content with it using my Fire TV box.

 

Los Angeles server connection -- geo error.  San Jose server connection -- geo error.  Seattle server connection -- geo error. Also tried restarting the Fire TV box while connected to IPVanish, just to see if the restart would clear out any problematic settings from the prior connection. Made no difference. Still geo error after the device restart.

 

After that, I gave up trying any of their other U.S. server locations and wrote an email to IPVanish asking, what's the point of having a Fire TV app for your service if your servers totally fail to work with Amazon Prime Video (U.S.) -- both via IPV's Windows app and their Fire TV app?

 

And, just to address anyone who might suggest there was some other problem going on, after all that with IPVanish and their Fire TV app, I disconnected from that and then re-connected to my own current VPN provider with everything else remaining the same, and Amazon Prime Video played fine on first try.

 

If IPVanish responds to my email with anything useful/meaningful in terms of using their service with Amazon Prime Video (U.S.), I'll post a further update here.

 

PS -- Well, I got a surprisingly fast email response from IPVanish just now. Basically, they said they're aware of the problem with accessing Amazon via their servers and said they don't have a ready solution.

 

Oddly, though, the rep writing to me went on to add that some of their customers reported that Netflix (no mention of Amazon) was STILL working with ONE of their other city server locations (other than the L.A., S.J., and Seattle servers I had tried myself with Amazon).

 

I say odd, because the response from the IPV rep kind of suggests that they're also having problems with their customers accessing Netflix U.S.  Since, why would the rep mention that some of their customers said they were still able to access Netflix via ONE city server location if all or most of the others were actually working. (I'm not using Netflix right now, so I'm not inclined to test them on that point. A non-functional Amazon trial is enough of an answer for my purposes).

 

 

Edited November 24, 2017 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[Pib]

23 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Pib...see my post comment from yesterday....

 

Also, in the case of IPVanish, it wasn't that any of their servers were overloaded and thus resulted in different server location assignments.

 

Once you're a subscriber, their info shows you the load use of their various servers supposedly in real time. From the list I was looking at when I was doing my testing, almost all of them were running at 20% load or less.

I would still give the Dedicated IP method a try in case some other reason is the cause of being connected to a different location....like a DNS routing related issue.   All I can say is using the Dedicated IP method prevents the same problem with PureVPN.  And I expect this problem occurs with a lot more VPN providers than PureVPN, IPVanish, etc....etc...etc...it's just most people don't even notice it/does not cause them an issue for what they are using the VPN connection for.

[Pib]

30 minutes ago, dr_lucas said:

On windows, you can also easily use PING to get the IP, without any need to look up on the web, like so:

 

 

 

It's normally good to run this command first, just to make sure you get fresh DNS response in case IP has changed:

ipconfig /flushdns

 

VPN providers showing other names like Softlayer intsead of their company VPN is a good thing IMHO. Makes it a bit harder for third parties to detect them.

Thanks dr lucas...another interesting way to find the IP Address for a domain name.    Now just to give more to others listing in and possibly confuse them, below is some more stuff on VPN server IP addresses.   I now for you below is just preaching to the choir stuff.  Here goes for the others.

 

I did some tests for PureVPN's San Francisco server of  "ussf.pointtoserver.com" which I currently have a manual Windows connection setup using Dedicated IP of 199.38.232.3.  That IP address works fine...makes a SF VPN connection.

 

OK, I do the "ping ussf.pointtoserver.com" using Dr Lucas' described method and the IP address does not come back as 199.38.232.3 but as 141.101.166.4.   I try this xxx.166.4 IP Address in my SF VPN connection setup...works fine...connects to SF.

 

I now do an ipconfig /flushdns command and rerun above ping test to ussf.pointtosever.com and get 162.211.177.3.  I try this xxx.177.3 in my SF VPN connection setup...works fine...connects to SF. 

 

I now use the Arul Hostname to IP address website for ussf.pointtoserver.com and it gives me a 162.211.176.130.  I try this xxx.130 in my SF VPN connection setup...works fine...connects to SF.   I remember this xxx.130 address as I use to use it before...but one day it stopped working....maybe the company that owns that IP address went offline for maintenance....I checked for a new IP address using Arul...got the xxx.232.3 first address I mention at the beginning of this post and I been using it for the last few months.

 

Wow, I'm now up to 4 possible IP addresses for ussf.pointtoserver.com....something must be fishy here---WRONG...no, nothing is fishy...they all connected to the PureVPN SF VPN server just fine....nothing is fishy.

 

That's because as I mentioned earlier VPN providers don't have their own servers at all their listed locations; instead, they contract/rent VPN services from other companies that provide all kinds of IT services like VPN, VOIP, lease lines, just all kinds of internet related services.  And PureVPN contracts/rents not just from one company at each location like at San Francisco but several companies so they have backup VPN server/fallback for additional capacity...in case one company's servers goes down for any reason such as routine maintenance....and maybe just to have enough VPN capacity at high use locations.  Plus, even when a company does have their own servers at a location each server may have a different IP address although using the same domain name.

 

Basically the PureVPN ussf.pointtoserver.com could end up connecting to one of PureVPN's several different contracted services/companies (or maybe their own servers) each time you make a VPN connection if using the ussf.pointtoserver.com VPN server name in your VPN connection setup.  Ditto for other VPN companies like IPVanish or whoever with their VPN server names.

 

But using the Dedicated IP approach it will only connect to whatever IT company "that owns the particular IP address.'  If the server with that IP address is maxed out you will "not" be automatically redirected to one of the other servers with a different IP address owned by a different company at that location or any other location...or at least I have not been.  That can be a drawback to using the Dedicated IP approach...get unlucky and be using a server IP address that is at 100% capacity when you try to make a connection and you can't make a connection...you then get pissed and call Donald Trump a name he well deserves like Idiot.

 

Now when using the Arul Host Name to IP Address website it will always just return "one" IP address....don't know why they only return one.  I use them because PureVPN recommended them once in a Chat session.   But if you use another Host Name to IP Address website like WhatIsMyIPAddress Host Name to IP Address website it may give you "multiple" IP address....all of which may work or some may not.   PureVPN also recommend them once in another Chat session.  

 

Like WhatIsMyIpAddress returns below answer for the IP Address for ussf.pointtoserver.com....a total of six  possible IP addresses....the four I already mentioned above plus two more.  I didn't check to confirm these additional two work also.  Some may not work "not" because they are bogus/invalid; it's just because that server may be offline for a couple hours of maintenance or something when you attempt a connection.

 

I clicked on each of below six IP addresses to see what IT company actually owns them.   Secure Internet LLC owned the first one,  WAN Security the next four, and PureVPN the last one.  So, PureVPN only owned one of the six VPN servers it uses at its SF location....the other five are contracted/rented which is all transparent to the PureVPN customer.  Once again, this is common practice with VPN providers....they do not use only their own employees and hardware at the many, many locations/countries around the world they will offer a VPN connection to--that would be way too expensive for them.

 

 

And what I have done in the past is actually Speedtest the different IP Addresses offered for a VPN server location because some of the servers can be significantly faster than the others.. Like maybe one company's server(s) are faster than the other company's servers...maybe WANSecurity servers are faster than Secure Internet LLC servers...or maybe the server PureVPN actually owns is the fastest.  Only speed testing will tell...and with speed testing you know a server's speed can change through the day/week due to different factors. 

 

I know all of this Dedicated IP stuff sounds complicated (it did initially to me....but really it's not).  Kinda like learning to ride a bicycle...really hard at first but once you learn you wonder why you had such a hard time learning as it's easy.  

 

Wow....my fingers are now tired.  Bye.