Even then, don'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're doing is moving the goalpost from one end of the playing field to another. They're useful for getting into internal networks, and they're useful for bypassing outbound firewalls in restrictive networks, like public schools and libraries, or churches, but that's about it. See https://gist.github.com/joepie91/5a9909939e6ce7d09e29
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't going to go to jail for you.
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.
If there are other commercial VPN services that don't necessarily require you to give them any personal information (for account purposes), I'd be curious to know. Would be nice to have more alternatives.
I'm still essentially trusting everything they say about no logging (and trusting that it's not a honeypot) and the like but they seem to be the best I've found so far.
Like you said you can trust what we say regarding logging, but you are unable to verify it. Since that's true for all VPN services, may I suggest relying on track record and other signals instead?
Like rhblake said we don't ask for personal information. In fact, we were the first VPN service with that setup, and we were first with bitcoin and cash payments as well.
I'm tempted to provide a list of our security track record, but I have somewhere else to be, so my submission history will have to do :)
Your track record. user reviews and endorsements are what made me choose and stick with Mullvad in the first place.
I definitely haven't been disappointed in any way.
I then send all of the logs to Loggly and get notified anytime someone connects to my OpenVPN server.
I use it more for connecting to resources behind NAT then as an anonymizing proxy.
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.
Nowadays I just use one of the vpn scripts on GitHub and a small vps somewhere.
It's plain and simple OpenVPN made by nice people, and it's only 3€/month.
Any cons to using it?
1) There was no real interest in expanding the list of exit points.
2) It seemed to protect only http/https traffic.
3) The whole operation felt like someone's "passive income" business (although, to be fair, the owner responded fairly quickly and honestly when I queried him about other stuff).
To be fair, their OSX client tries hard to be transparent. This approach falls apart in some cases (i.e. some captive portals), but feels very smooth when it all goes right.
I don't know if it was a "passive income" business for them, but if it were, why would that be a reason to not use it?
It has a fantastic UX on both Mac OS X and iOS devices.
Mostly because you can't expect many new features or the product evolving particularly fast. Which is exactly the case for Cloak -- the feature-set was basically frozen for years. It's not a crime: if a product works fine, why mess with it? But I wanted new stuff and it didn't feel like I'd ever get it.
Okay, that's not entirely true; I do access a company VPN, but not for privacy purposes which is probably what's implied. I use Tor for that.
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're probably an NSA front but I have nothing to hide ;) and at least you know it will work...
The service used to be really spotty, but they really stepped it up lately.
In the beginning, servers would go down often and you'd need to try a couple of server until you found one that actually worked. But that's changed now. They conveniently provide a list of OpenVPN config files to download, and using the service from a Linux router works really well.
Also works well on mobile.
For connecting my servers between them (and my laptop) as some sort of secure virtual network I use my own product https://wormhole.network - 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).
- claims to be "operated by activists and hacktivists"
- uses OpenVPN
- GPLv3 client for many platforms
- accepts Bitcoin (or PayPal, Credit Cards, ...)
- has an APIFor my own network, OpenVPN because it's open source.
I'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.
Not necessarily condoning illegal activity, just stating things plainly.
I'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/exit node taps...
You must always know your enemy.
When I signed up they had a 99 cent a month deal going on. I'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.
Comcast here has poor peering to Hetzner and using a VPN solved the problem.
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.
I also have a Droplet on D.O. that can act as a VPN. I switch to that if I am doing anything sensitive.
Reason? My ISP modem basically dies when there's too many connections opened at once. So sometimes an innocent `npm install` would kill my internet for a minute...
Straight from wikipedia:
"Individual Internet users can use some VPNs to secure their wireless transactions, to circumvent geo-restrictions and censorship, and/or to connect to proxy servers for the purpose of protecting personal identity and location. But some Internet sites block access via known VPNs to prevent the circumvention of their geo-restrictions."
What makes a VPN has nothing to do with "shortlived logs", subpoenas, thwarting geolocation, or security researchers.
A VPN is simply a private network stretched over the internet. In fact that private network might not even be routable back out to the internet, the network could be purely an internal network.
A VPN connection to your home network is most certainly a VPN, and your assertion to the person that you were responding to telling him that what he is doing is not a VPN is incorrect.
Also, if you prefer intelligent discourse, you might want to refrain from such judgmental language.
Ask HN: Which VPN do you use and why?
First, all VPNs are remote. It doesn't matter if you are connecting to something you set up yourself or something hosted in a 3rd party facility.
You're seemingly implying some differentiation to the original question that exists only in your mind.
The parent responded to the asked question with what he uses.
You told him this was "not a VPN", which is just simply not true, and I was trying to be helpful by pointing out that you might need to get a better idea of what a VPN is before you go around telling people what is and what is not a VPN.
SSHing to a DO box, really has none of the attributes you would purchase a remote VPN subscription for. That's what I meant.
Anyhow, we're on the same page. OP never replied so there's not going to be an answer for what he actually meant. Again, I strongly think he would have included the word software if he wasn't looking for a remote VPN service for proxy-like purposes.
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).