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2023 Paid VPN Relationship and Corporate VPN Ownership Map

windscribe.com

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Re: 2023 Paid VPN Relationship and Corporate VPN Ownership Map

#11

Post by minimalist »

This is good! I will use this as a reference to share with friends and colleagues who ask me about XYZ VPN.

I think something that is missing in the network of connections is Mozilla VPN. From what I understand, they are just a re-brand of Mullvad.

There are other providers not listed, but finding a good VPN provider is kind of like finding a good watering hole--you don't want to spread the word too widely, else bad-actors come and pollute it.

I didn't realize how many media companies own VPN companies.

Re: 2023 Paid VPN Relationship and Corporate VPN Ownership Map

#12

Post by askura »

contact9879 wrote: post #6
_lvbh wrote: post #4

Used to be a customer of ExpressVPN but after the acquisition, it no longer worked properly in China. Mullvad somehow survives despite their server IP ranges being public

I'm surprised Mullvad works in China. Do you have to use obfuscation software (shadowsocks, etc)? The GFW blocks WireGuard, right?

I used to find it worked here and there for me (Shanghai Telecom, 4/5G was OK. Home didn't work). Shadowsocks worked well for me but then got janky - ended up using a local VPN for gaming and Windscribe for general browsing. For 3 sweet months I could run a AWS node and relay through that with awesome speeds but then that broke too. Ended up just with a residential IP and that solved everything til I left.

There is of course times like when the Two Sessions are in order and nothing worked.

Re: 2023 Paid VPN Relationship and Corporate VPN Ownership Map

#13

Post by UI_at_80x24 »

contact9879 wrote: post #6
_lvbh wrote: post #4

Used to be a customer of ExpressVPN but after the acquisition, it no longer worked properly in China. Mullvad somehow survives despite their server IP ranges being public

I'm surprised Mullvad works in China. Do you have to use obfuscation software (shadowsocks, etc)? The GFW blocks WireGuard, right?

>The GFW blocks WireGuard, right?

~1-2 years ago: yes Currently: I don't know.

I worked for a web company and we were getting reports that our websites looked wrong/bad/messed up from within China.

So we needed an IP within China to confirm.

1st attempt: SOCKS proxy = worked, and confirmed that GFW or something was screwing up our content. (simple SSH tunnel)

2nd attempt: Wireguard = could not establish a connection to wireguard server hosted on same ISP/co-lo in China as the socks proxy.

3rd attempt: Windows RDS = worked

We ended up using RDS as that was easier for our testers to use. (despite the training I offered)

Re: 2023 Paid VPN Relationship and Corporate VPN Ownership Map

#14

Post by infogulch »

Very interesting! I'm curious why there is there is a typical relationship between vpn companies and media companies, by common subsidiary ownership or otherwise. I don't really follow the logic here, is it just because the media company can promote their partnered vpn? Or is there some other reason?

Re: 2023 Paid VPN Relationship and Corporate VPN Ownership Map

#18

Post by askura »

candiddevmike wrote: post #10

Anyone want to tl;dr what the best one is? The map doesn't load for me and the full map isn't the greatest thing to navigate... Would much prefer just text.

It depends on what you're doing but the ones in green to the top right are independents but IVACY recently have suffered an issue. If you have issues with the corporate owners you can avoid them by seeing who the parent is and who they own.

"SentinelLabs researchers have discovered that a Chinese APT group known as Bronze Starlight has been signing off malware with a valid certificate. This certificate is used by Ivacy VPN, and the hackers' target is the gambling industry in Southeast Asia."

Honestly, what's your use case?

Re: 2023 Paid VPN Relationship and Corporate VPN Ownership Map

#20

Post by xnx »

candiddevmike wrote: post #10

Anyone want to tl;dr what the best one is? The map doesn't load for me and the full map isn't the greatest thing to navigate... Would much prefer just text.

If I wasn't using https://one.google.com/about/vpn I'd probably set up my own VPN box on AWS.
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