Good/Excellent VPN

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

32 minutes ago, wpcoe said:

 

There is currently  a PureVPN lifetime package available for US$69.  Just now the page says "Ending In: 7 days,"  but I think it said that last week when I bookmarked it?

 

 

I'm not generally a fan of either:

a - buying lifetime VPN subscriptions period, since I tend to doubt either 1) they'll be in business for a lifetime, and/or I'll be satisfied with their service enough to want to continue using them that long.

 

b - buying VPN subscriptions thru 3rd party websites where the same refund provisions offered by the VPN provider itself with direct subscriptions generally don't apply.

 

PS -  as I noted in my post above on Pure, I was unable to connect to their Singapore server at all last night. And when they only have 1 server available for that city/country, having the 1 server down is kind of problematic and troubling.

 

That said, using their Singapore server doesn't give you a U.S. IP address anyway which might be desired for various reason. But it would, at least, give you a speedier internet connection in general vs a straight Thai ISP connection -- if Singapore was actually was working.

 

Edited November 20, 2016 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Since I am VPN shopping at present prior to Black Friday/Cyber Monday, I figured I'd try another VPN provider that I'd seen get some good user reviews, and that is AirVPN dot org.

 

Signed up for a $1+ 3-day trial this morning, and installed and began using their Windows client software. Overall, on initial use, I wasn't impressed, didn't get particularly good speeds with U.S. connections, and can't really recommend them for any particular reason.

 

AFAICT, at least on the surface, their client only seems to support OpenVPN connections as opposed to the normally faster PPTP or L2TP connections. There may be way to achieve the latter, but it's not shown in their online support materials, and they have no live chat support offered, so I had to write an email ticket asking them that and some other questions.

 

With their OpenVPN UDP protocol this Sunday morning around noon time, I was typically getting only 5 - 8 Mbps connection speeds from their Los Angeles and Fremont servers, as measured by TestMy.net's speed test servers in those corresponding cities. With their Singapore server, I was getting 12-15 Mbps, which isn't particularly good either for a Thai-Singapore connection.

 

Overall, I found their Windows client difficult/awkward to use, and not especially convenient to select and change servers. Also, for unknown reasons, AirVPN has the odd habit of giving their various servers odd foreign language/word names that mean nothing to me, such as Heze for Fremont and Sabik for Los Angeles, just as examples. Not exactly terms I'm likely to remember.

 

There's also absolutely zero info on their website's support pages about their ability to connect to particular services like Netflix. So, all in all, while their speeds were faster than Ivacy and not as fast as Pure, the overall feeling for using the service was really poor. I'll take a pass on Air.

 

[lopburi3]

At USD 39.95 per year and 3262+ Servers in 24 Countries believe PIA is very good value.  I have used for almost 2 years and reliability/speed is excellent.  

Edited November 20, 2016 by lopburi3

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

1 hour ago, lopburi3 said:

At USD 39.95 per year and 3262+ Servers in 24 Countries believe PIA is very good value.  I have used for almost 2 years and reliability/speed is excellent.  

 

I tried PIA about a year ago (last time my current provider's annual service was up for renewal), and got TERRIBLE connection speeds to the U.S., just a couple Mbps. The user comments I've read online re their service have been decidedly mixed, some like yours, others like mine. Not sure what to conclude.

 

Edited November 20, 2016 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[lopburi3]

I do not use direct US connection myself - just Singapore on True and connection is full true speed and connections to anywhere from Singapore are good so perhaps that is the reason for my liking it.  Torrents seem to always run well.  This is my current test to San Fran via Singapore VPN on my 30 service.

 

Edited November 20, 2016 by lopburi3

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

6 minutes ago, lopburi3 said:

I do not use direct US connection myself - just Singapore on True and connection is full true speed and connections to anywhere from Singapore are good so perhaps that is the reason for my liking it.  Torrents seem to always run well.  This is my current test to San Fran via Singapore VPN on my 30 service.

 

 

See, and therein lies the rub...

 

If all you want is a general internet connection, that (a Singapore connection) i's going to work fine.

 

But if the customer wants  a U.S. IP connection/address for lots of purposes, and has to connect to their U.S. servers instead of Singapore, at least for me a year ago, it was a totally different (and worse) experience.

 

Different uses, different purposes, different strokes.

 

 

Edited November 20, 2016 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[lopburi3]

Current direct connection the same.  But admit at times much lower at night as believe True (and number of users) limit it.

[MoonUnit]

On ‎11‎/‎9‎/‎2016 at 2:37 AM, bendejo said:

Be careful of VPN's out of countries with a penchant for restriction and censorship.  It seems there is yet another VPN provider out of Hong Kong every week, with ridiculously cheap rates, like US$50 for a lifetime subscription.

 

That's a very good point.  I really don't trust the Chinese so settled on a subscription with ExpressVPN based in the British Virgin Islands.  BVI have no mandatory data retention laws and ExpressVPN does not keep traffic logs.  ExpressVPN also runs its own onion site.  Their mobile app is also free to subscribers.

 

I've been using ExpressVPN for months now and can confirm that it is a top quality VPN provider featuring one of the strongest encryptions out there, though by far from the cheapest.  Still, you get what you pay for.

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Lopburi, the Ookla speedtest site is not a very good indicator of single-stream performance because it tends to use multiple concurrent connections...

 

Try TestMy.net instead, and see what kind of single stream results you get for the same connections.

 

Edited November 20, 2016 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

3 minutes ago, MoonUnit said:

 

That's a very good point.  I really don't trust the Chinese so settled on a subscription with ExpressVPN based in the British Virgin Islands.  BVI have no mandatory data retention laws and ExpressVPN does not keep traffic logs.  ExpressVPN also runs its own onion site.  Their mobile app is also free to subscribers.

 

I've been using ExpressVPN for months now and can confirm that it is a top quality VPN provider featuring one of the strongest encryptions out there, though by far from the cheapest.  Still, you get what you pay for.

 

 

Yes, I was talking to Express this morning, as they were another of a handful of VPN providers I wanted to try for my purposes.

 

Unfortunately, unlike some of the others, they don't offer any short-term trial, paid or free, for desktop PC use. The best you can do is take out a month subscription (or longer), and try to use their promised 30 day money back guarantee if not satisfied.

 

Personally, I'd prefer an approach like Pure where I can pay $2 or $3 for a three-day trial membership -- plenty of time enough to test the service and see how well it works for one's intended purposes. But, as noted above, Pure is one of the Hong Kong-based VPN providers...for whatever significance that has.

 

[MoonUnit]

5 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

The best you can do is take out a month subscription (or longer), and try to use their promised 30 day money back guarantee if not satisfied.

 

You could take them up on their 30 day money back guarantee, if required.  Didn't need to myself, fortunately.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

31 minutes ago, MoonUnit said:

 

You could take them up on their 30 day money back guarantee, if required.  Didn't need to myself, fortunately.

 

I could do that, and I may still give them a try during my week of VPN exploring, since they seem to have a good reputation and reviews, etc.

 

But as I told them on live chat, I haven't done so yet, and instead tried others first, because Express does NOT offer a short term paid trial that makes it easy to give them a shot without dealing with credit card refunds.

 

And, as I also told them, I really don't like dealing with credit card refunds, especially from little known vendors, if I can possibly avoid them.

[wpcoe]

2 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

I'm not generally a fan of either:

a - buying lifetime VPN subscriptions period, since I tend to doubt either 1) they'll be in business for a lifetime, and/or I'll be satisfied with their service enough to want to continue using them that long.

 

b - buying VPN subscriptions thru 3rd party websites where the same refund provisions offered by the VPN provider itself with direct subscriptions generally don't apply.

 

PS -  as I noted in my post above on Pure, I was unable to connect to their Singapore server at all last night. And when they only have 1 server available for that city/country, having the 1 server down is kind of problematic and troubling.

 

That said, using their Singapore server doesn't give you a U.S. IP address anyway which might be desired for various reason. But it would, at least, give you a speedier internet connection in general vs a straight Thai ISP connection -- if Singapore was actually was working.

 

 

I'm still having intermittent success with PureVPN's server, but it's horribly frustrating.  However, even using PureVPN's USA servers, which provide a USA IP address if chosen manually (not auto-start up via app), it's still a considerable boost in speed over no VPN:

 

I am using TrueOnline 30/3Mbps DOCSIS.  Here's two successive testmy.net tests to Los Angeles using no VPN:

 

 

Here's two successive testmy.net tests to Los Angeles using PureVPN's USA server:

 

 

Even 11.48Mbps download is better than the usual 2-10Mbps downloads I usually get without VPN.

 

Just to try again, here's two more successive testmy.net tests to Los Angeles using no VPN:

 

 

Back to ~2.5Mbps downloads with no VPN.

 

I suggested the $69 lifetime PureVPN because it seems you were possibly interested in $60 for two years, and $9 seemed a fair gamble.  Also, when the Singapore server works, my downloads are 20+Mbps.  I finally sent them a support message.  When I had account problems, they were pretty responsive.  I'll let you know how they do with this Singapore server issue.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

BTW, I should have mentioned for general purposes:

 

One of the reasons I'm doing some serious  VPN shopping this week is that I found last year, during the Black Friday/Cyber Monday period, that many of the prominent VPN vendors were offering very substantially discounted plans during that brief period -- making it a good time to renew or start a new account.

 

So, by the time this Black Friday/Cyber Monday comes around in about a week from now, I want to have a pretty good idea of what VPN vendors I'd be willing to sign up with for paid accounts, and which ones I'll decide to take a pass on.

[MoonUnit]

5 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

And, as I also told them, I really don't like dealing with credit card refunds, especially from little known vendors, if I can possibly avoid them.

 

I respect the fact that it's your money.  Though, in my opinion, they are the Stella Artois of VPNs, reassuringly expensive.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

4 minutes ago, wpcoe said:

I am using TrueOnline 30/3Mbps DOCSIS.  Here's two successive testmy.net tests to Los Angeles using no VPN:

 

Here's two successive testmy.net tests to Los Angeles using PureVPN's USA server:

 

Even 11.48Mbps download is better than the usual 2-10Mbps downloads I usually get without VPN.

 

 

Yes, I have 3BB now. But when I had True 30/3 cable this time a year ago, their direct international connections to the U.S. were terrible, especially in the prime time local evening hours. But they did and could improve markedly with the right kind of VPN provider, as your experience also shows.

 

That was the problem/issue I had with my trial of PIA a year ago. When using PIA and connecting to their U.S.servers, my DL speeds were either about the same or somewhat less than what I was getting with True direct.

 

Whereas, when I was using other VPNs, the VPN connection speeds I could get to the U.S. would be double or triple what True's direct connection would be.

 

[wpcoe]

Hmmm.  On a hunch, I decided to test a few other PureVPN server locations who I thought might have large-ish data pipelines out of Thailand and to the USA.

 

Here's two successive testmy.net tests to Los Angeles using PureVPN's Japan server:

 

 

Here's two successive testmy.net tests to Los Angeles using PureVPN's S.Korea server:

 

 

Those speeds mirror what I usually get via PureVPN's Singapore server.  Granted, between Pib's and my own testing there is an established history of Singapore's throughput, and this is just a single anecdotal test via Japan/S.Korea, but <fingers crossed> it might be a viable alternate to Singapore for speedy USA downloads?

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

16 minutes ago, wpcoe said:

I suggested the $69 lifetime PureVPN because it seems you were possibly interested in $60 for two years, and $9 seemed a fair gamble.  Also, when the Singapore server works, my downloads are 20+Mbps.  I finally sent them a support message.  When I had account problems, they were pretty responsive.  I'll let you know how they do with this Singapore server issue.

 

I would seriously consider a Pure subscription at the $60 for two years price, if that is offered again as it was last night, but not today for some reason.  But that in part will depend on whether my current VPN provider does or doesn't pop up with good discounts next week, as they did when I renewed with them last year.

 

PS -- The issue with using Pure's Singapore, or Tokyo or Korea servers is they don't give you a U.S. IP address... And for  my uses -- streaming and banking -- a U.S. IP address is essential.

 

Having a fast internet connection with a Singapore or Japan IP: is useless for my purposes.

 

 

Edited November 20, 2016 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[wpcoe]

11 minutes ago, wpcoe said:

 

However, even using PureVPN's USA servers, which provide a USA IP address if chosen manually (not auto-start up via app), it's still a considerable boost in speed over no VPN

 

I wanted to elaborate on that comment.  When I have the PureVPN app auto-start with Windows it auto-connects with the Singapore server but shows location as Thailand.  However, if I disconnect (or don't auto-start the app) when I select Singapore from the Locations menu and connect manually it shows location as Singapore.

 

There may be a tweak to set the app to not choose the geo-location of my computer as the displayed location, but if so, I haven't found it.

[wpcoe]

7 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

I would seriously consider a Pure subscription at the $60 for two years price, if that is offered again as it was last night, but not today for some reason.  But that in part will depend on whether my current VPN provider does or doesn't pop up with good discounts next week, as they did when I renewed with them last year.

 

PS -- The issue with using their Singapore, or Tokyo or Korea servers is they don't give you a U.S. IP address... And my my uses, a U.S. IP address is essential.

 

Having a fast internet connection with a Singapore or Japan IP: is useless for my purposes.

 

 

When using a PureVPN USA server do you see an increase over your non-VPN 3BB speed?

 

For me, it'd still be worth getting 11.5Mbps rather than even 2-10Mbps (which is what I usually get with True).  And, per my post above, you can get USA location by not auto-starting the app.

 

[edited to add:]

(The $69 lifetime PureVPN page still comes up for me just now.)

Edited November 20, 2016 by wpcoe

[lopburi3]

57 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Lopburi, the Ookla speedtest site is not a very good indicator of single-stream performance because it tends to use multiple concurrent connections...

 

Try TestMy.net instead, and see what kind of single stream results you get for the same connections.

 

Via Singapore 

Direct

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

9 minutes ago, wpcoe said:

 

When using a PureVPN USA server do you see an increase over your non-VPN 3BB speed?

 

 

When I did my trial last night, I got quite decent speeds with Pure VPN when connecting to West Coast U.S. servers, as I mentioned in my review post above.

 

I rarely test 3BB direct to the U.S., since I never really use their direct service for that purpose. However, based on past experience, I'd say Pure's U.S. connections were faster than 3BB direct, maybe twice as fast or more.

 

That's a good result. The only issue for me is, my current VPN provider gives me a considerably faster/greater improvement over 3BB direct than that.

 

As I posted in my Pure review above:

 

Quote

By comparison, however, right after I tested Pure's L.A. server again about 1:30 am and got speeds repeatedly right around 10 Mbps, I immediately thereafter tested my current VPN provider's L.A. server and got speeds of 26 to 34 Mbps --  with everything else remaining the same.  And all of above measured by TestMy.Net's speedtest site and their corresponding server city.

 

I'm just guesstimating, but I'd say 3BB direct to the U.S. might typically be giving me 4-5 Mbps for a comparable testing.

 

[wpcoe]

13 minutes ago, lopburi3 said:

Via Singapore 

Direct

 

Do you have the option of Japan and S.Korea VPN servers?

 

I just got lucky and connected to the PureVPN SIngapore server and two runs of testmy.net gave me download results of 21Mbps and 27Mbps to Los Angeles.   My tests via PureVPN Japan and S.Korea gave me download results of 24-32Mbps.

 

This is on True DOCSIS, which I think you are using?

 

 

[wpcoe]

5 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

When I did my trial last night, I got quite decent speeds with Pure VPN when connecting to West Coast U.S. servers, as I mentioned in my review post above.

 

I rarely test 3BB direct to the U.S., since I never really use their direct service for that purpose. However, based on past experience, I'd say Pure's U.S. connections were faster than 3BB direct, maybe twice as fast or more.

 

That's a good result. The only issue for me is, my current VPN provider gives me a considerably faster/greater improvement over 3BB direct than that.

 

As I posted in my Pure review above:

 

 

I'm just guesstimating, but I'd say 3BB direct to the U.S. might typically be giving me 4-5 Mbps for a comparable testing.

 

 

Aha.  Somehow I missed that you already had a speedy VPN connection to the USA.  In that case, I don't see any benefit to PureVPN unless it's substantially cheaper.

[lopburi3]

23 minutes ago, wpcoe said:

 

Do you have the option of Japan and S.Korea VPN servers?

 

I just got lucky and connected to the PureVPN SIngapore server and two runs of testmy.net gave me download results of 21Mbps and 27Mbps to Los Angeles.   My tests via PureVPN Japan and S.Korea gave me download results of 24-32Mbps.

 

This is on True DOCSIS, which I think you are using?

 

 

Japan

And to San Fran (lost default setting on above)

And Hong Kong VPN to SF (don't have Korea option)

Edited November 20, 2016 by lopburi3

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

13 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Since I am VPN shopping at present prior to Black Friday/Cyber Monday, I figured I'd try another VPN provider that I'd seen get some good user reviews, and that is AirVPN dot org.

 

Signed up for a $1+ 3-day trial this morning, and installed and began using their Windows client software. Overall, on initial use, I wasn't impressed, didn't get particularly good speeds with U.S. connections, and can't really recommend them for any particular reason.

 

Confirmation from AirVPN of what I had suspected based on my original trial:
 

Quote

 

1. We do not support PPTP or IPsec. Our service is based on OpenVPN.

2. We're sorry, Hulu and Netflix are not accessible from our infrastructure.

 

 

[bendejo]

Personally, I would be weary of these offers of trial periods.  It would be possible to give you some sort of priority connectivity while you check it out, and if you decide to buy in with a real subscription you may find the performance to be much different.

 

One of the things about PIA is that you can pay for the subscription via gift cards sold by stores like Target, Best Buy, etc (I don't know if these are available in LOS, maybe Ikea?).  The advantage of this is anonymity, provided you paid cash for the gift card.  A yearly PIA subscription is US$40, but if you go the gift card route it will cost $10 more.  On their website PIA emphasizes privacy, claims they don't keep logs.  Do not assume all VPN services put effort into ensuring your privacy.

 

 

[wpcoe]

17 hours ago, lopburi3 said:

Japan

And to San Fran (lost default setting on above)

And Hong Kong VPN to SF (don't have Korea option)

 

Thanks.  I was curious if the Japan/S.Korea were as good as Singapore for all the VPNs.  Guess not.

[wpcoe]

20 hours ago, wpcoe said:

 

I wanted to elaborate on that comment.  When I have the PureVPN app auto-start with Windows it auto-connects with the Singapore server but shows location as Thailand.  However, if I disconnect (or don't auto-start the app) when I select Singapore from the Locations menu and connect manually it shows location as Singapore.

 

There may be a tweak to set the app to not choose the geo-location of my computer as the displayed location, but if so, I haven't found it.

 

PureVPN released a new version to their app (at least for Windows) which now seems to correct the problem with connecting with the Singapore server.

 

AND, it seems to have changed the behavior in the quote above:

 

Before, when I let the app auto-start and connect to Singapore, after connecting it would show Location:  Pattaya (or other Thailand location, but usually Pattaya) with a Thai IP address, even though the app clearly showed it was connecting with the Singapore server. Only when I would disconnect from that connection and manually choose Singapore and connect would it actually show Location: Singapore with a Singapore IP address.

 

Now, at least the several times I've restarted the app today since upgrading, when the app auto-starts it shows both Location: Singapore and a Singapore IP address.

 

ALSO, it seems my 30/3 Mbps True DOCSIS connection has been upgraded to 50/3 Mbps.  When I do a speedtest.net to Bangkok (or Singapore with the VPN) now I get a download speed of almost 50 Mbps.  Connected to PureVPN's Singapore server I now get downloads close to 35 Mbps from Los Angeles, which is 5-10Mbps faster than before.

 

[bendejo]

By coincidence, I got this in a pop-up window this morning. And no, it was not from a p___ site.