101–110 of 235 posts
Edit: As others note, he doesn't include AirVPN, which is one of the best activist-focused services around. And his comments about IVPN are bizarre. It is expensive. But it has no affiliate program, and its apps are among the best. In particular, for being leak free.
lololol. Half of these VPN vendors show up on Kenn White's VPN Hall of Shame for offering unsafe configurations: https://gist.github.com/kennwhite/1f3bc4d889b02b35d8aa For anything actually sensitive, you're better off not using a VPN than using a VPN which provides an unsafe configuration. If you'd rather not do your own pager duty for something like Algo, here's a recommendation I put together a while ago: https://…
Sad to see AirVPN excluded. While their website isn't the most elegant I've seen, it's not user hostile enough to abandon altogether, IMO. It also seems a bit odd to rate VPNs on their specific technical merits and features, and then disqualify for their homepage UI or sign up flow. I'd venture most VPN customers would tolerate a lot of ugliness for a truly private, secure, and reliable service. I would.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's worse than that. Back when I used PIA a few years ago, they would pass your username and password around in the query string, completely plain-text. That was their session mechanism. I sent them an email explaining the problem and got a refund. Their security mistakes, and the fact that they are based in the US, disqualify them for me. I really wish people would recommend someone else.
I would be interested to know more about this; why they were doing it at the time and if it's still being done. The use of port 80 is not really important; I'm not sure if the article's author is using "port 80" as shorthand for "unencrypted" but that's sloppy writing if so; you can certainly establish encrypted connections over port 80, of course. I used to do SSH on port 80 all the time to get around stupid firewal…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hi mobitar. Thanks for the highest score in regard to the objective measures. Regarding the subjective impression and experience, I'd like to let you know what's going on. If you feel that this changes your impression, it would be great to update accordingly! The HTTP connection upon startup is for the region data request which is signed and verified upon receipt. It's tamper proof, but you can read it. It's somethin…
Sorry mobitar, I forgot to address the pings. This is to find the best (closest by network latency) path to you. We're really focused on providing the best possible experience, and that experience is simply providing what we do best, in the most unobtrusive way possible. And to that extent, when it comes to your privacy and fighting for your internet civil liberties, we'll be second to none. Cheers, Andrew
That said, a question: is there a way for a power user to control this startup ping mechanism in favor of using a single server they have selected as the best? The only reason I see to not do this would be if your IP ranges are volatile time-wise for some reason. Or perhaps I'm missing another factor?
Given that one of the criteria the VPNs were measured on was 'fun' makes me inclined to dismiss the whole thing.
VPNs are to stop the secret police from coming and killing your family and taking you away, 'fun' is coding, not playing with your life.
I'm about to move to China. What vpn set up is best?
I use and android phone and Mac laptop.
Thanks..
This seems like a good thread to ask this. I'm about to move to China. What vpn set up is best? I use and android phone and Mac laptop. Thanks..
Hope that helps!
Private Internet Access > A pretty boring company. Extremely transactional. You get in and get out. It delivers its experience the way a utility company would. Sometimes, that may be a good thing. But in this case, since I have choice, I'd rather give my money to a company who would appreciate it a little more — perhaps put it to better use. PIA might be very "transactional" but I like them and I've never had any iss…
PIA used to be fast, a year ago. Somehow at times they were faster than my underlying connection! Now, they're _much_ slower. Surely it's not just me.