OpenVPN, on a host you do control. Everything else is not trustworthy.
Also, there are lots of third party plugins that work nicely with OpenVPN. I use OneLogin with OpenVPN via RADIUS for example.
Ask HN: Which VPN would you recommend?
21–30 of 69 posts
Re: Ask HN: Which VPN would you recommend?
#22Roll your own! Setting up your own, private VPN can be done quite easily with https://github.com/jlund/streisand and a DigitalOcean account. Costs $5 per month. It doesn't require a whole lot of technical competence either, as the Streisand project configures just about everything for you.
But then you are responsible for the security of the server which you probably don't have a lot of time for.
A firewall is configured as part of this setup. unnattended-upgrades is also enabled, so security updates are automatically installed (which of course might be a security problem itself). If you are really paranoid, you can destroy and recreate the box every so often, as the whole process takes about 10 minutes.
Re: Ask HN: Which VPN would you recommend?
#23Roll your own! Setting up your own, private VPN can be done quite easily with https://github.com/jlund/streisand and a DigitalOcean account. Costs $5 per month. It doesn't require a whole lot of technical competence either, as the Streisand project configures just about everything for you.
What about when you need to update the box? How does it handle protecting and maintaining the vm? What if there is a critical vulnerability in either the client or the server, how will you find out? I know i'm capable of running my own VPN, but I'd rather pay someone else to manage the details and I just get an endpoint I can connect to that will always work (and will be shut off if there is a major security problem)…
unattended-upgrades is enabled by default, so security updates are handled automatically. You can also just destroy and recreate the box once in a while, without any extra cost.
But it is of course completely up to you. If you trust your VPN provider when they say they don't log anything, I guess you are fine.
Re: Ask HN: Which VPN would you recommend?
#24Roll your own! Setting up your own, private VPN can be done quite easily with https://github.com/jlund/streisand and a DigitalOcean account. Costs $5 per month. It doesn't require a whole lot of technical competence either, as the Streisand project configures just about everything for you.
If you do roll your own, consider trying out WireGuard, the VPN protocol I've been working on. It's a lot faster and simpler than anything else. I'd appreciate all the feedback I can get. https://www.wireguard.io
Re: Ask HN: Which VPN would you recommend?
#25I always liked mullvad, but they don't offer multiple countries and stuff. It really comes down for what you need it actually.
But they do nowadays. I used to be a customer and used to connected to american servers for example.
Re: Ask HN: Which VPN would you recommend?
#26Torrentfreak has a quite excessive comparison list of different providers:
https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-anonymous-review-160220/
I'm also not a big fan of rolling my own VPN, don't have the time to keep it updated.
Re: Ask HN: Which VPN would you recommend?
#27I use NordVPN. Pay annually and it can be as low as $40. Allows up to 5 devices and they have servers all over the planet. I primarily use it for streaming; Netflix US/UK/CA/FR, i-player, and checking how advertising looks in different countries.
And popcorntime, occassionally.
Re: Ask HN: Which VPN would you recommend?
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
What about when you need to update the box? How does it handle protecting and maintaining the vm? What if there is a critical vulnerability in either the client or the server, how will you find out? I know i'm capable of running my own VPN, but I'd rather pay someone else to manage the details and I just get an endpoint I can connect to that will always work (and will be shut off if there is a major security problem)…
unattended-upgrades is enabled by default, so security updates are handled automatically. You can also just destroy and recreate the box once in a while, without any extra cost. But it is of course completely up to you. If you trust your VPN provider when they say they don't log anything, I guess you are fine.
If you want a VPN so that your activity is not logged, how will hosting your own under your own digital ocean account help you?
Sure, your activities may no longer be logged, but does that matter when 100% if the traffic coming from your droplet IP must be yours?
Re: Ask HN: Which VPN would you recommend?
#29I've been using Tunnelbear(https://www.tunnelbear.com/) for a couple of years now and my experience has been fantastic:
• It doesn't keep activity logs.
• Their tunnel network has been recently improved and it counts something like 20 countries at the moment.
• It's really fast and it keeps your device safe even in the possibility of a connection issue, it will block all unsecured traffic until it's possible to properly gain access again.
• Something not directly related as a VPN feature but since I have to pay for it I'm more than happily going to underline this, the UI is really really nice, the design is clean, smooth and is one great experience on every device I've been using it on(Android, iOS and Windows).Re: Ask HN: Which VPN would you recommend?
#30I've found F-secure Freedome quite suitable for me. Works on phone also (sometimes there's some issues though) and blocks tracking attemps.