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Mullvad Review of 2024

mullvad.net

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Re: Mullvad Review of 2024

#31

Post by OldGuyInTheClub »

davkan wrote: post #30
mmooss wrote: post #26

Where does Mullvad get all this engineering expertise? Most VPN hosts don't have the expertise of security researchers and protocol developers. It's great that they work on these issues, but the organization is a mystery to me.

Mullvad has been around for a long time and was on the cutting edge of technology when public VPN’s were becoming relevant a decade or so ago. Since then they’ve managed to stay relevant despite not advertising or being affiliated with a larger platform. In my estimation their success is largely due to word of mouth and a perception of being a legitimate company with a serious interest in security and privacy in a ma…

> In my estimation their success is largely due to word of mouth and a perception of being legitimate company with a serious interest in security in privacy in a market rife with scams and lies.

Anecdatum: I picked Mullvad because of strong recommendations from HN commenters on multiple threads.

Re: Mullvad Review of 2024

#33

Post by JTyQZSnP3cQGa8B »

nabla9 wrote: post #2

Q for Mullvad users: How often is access trough Mullvad VPN blocked by sites?

I use the default endpoint in Sweden, and I can’t access Reddit and YouTube without being logged in (which I refuse to do). Not an issue in the end because it’s mostly a waste of time.

Re: Mullvad Review of 2024

#34

Post by poisonborz »

yapyap wrote: post #21

i like mullvad, especially that they just do 5 € a month, no “buy 3 years worth of VPN for a bit cheaper” nonsense

Why is that nonsense? It totally makes sense to lower the price on bulk purchase. You can upload whatever amount of credit to Mullvad as well and I doubt most users purchase month to month. It's just a more elegant way to stay pricey. There are similar small independent competitors that are half their price for a year and I doubt they are half as private or less performant.

Re: Mullvad Review of 2024

#35

Post by bartread »

pards wrote: post #22

Secure Connection Failed An error occurred during a connection to mullvad.net. SSL received a record that exceeded the maximum permissible length. Error code: SSL_ERROR_RX_RECORD_TOO_LONG The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because the authenticity of the received data could not be verified. Please contact the website owners to inform them of this problem.

That might be your network provider’s proxy blocking access.

We’re currently on pub WiFi and it blocks all access to Mullvad, which is frustrating, because it means our web traffic - or at least the sites we’re visiting - are not private and can be viewed by the provider. Potentially they could also MITM TLS traffic, rendering that also insecure. I’m scowling at you Marston’s Inns.

Possibly they also block other well know VPNs.

I’d not be using it at all but for the fact 4G/5G signal around here is so poor.

EDIT: I got the bit between my teeth on this one. So Marston's appear to use a captive portal for WiFi and, it turns out, the issue is typically the MTU (maximum transmission unit). On macOS I can get Mullvad to connect using an MTU of 1280, and can then access the article. However, the MTU setting isn't available on Mullvad's iOS app. Some additional reading suggests that I could use the Wireguard iOS app instead, which would allow me to tweak MTU, but I'm not yet sure how I could set this up to work with my Mullvad subscription. I get the impression it may be possible although I have no idea how many of the additional protections (multi-hop, DAITA, etc.) would be usable going this route.

Re: Mullvad Review of 2024

#37

Post by daft_pink »

poisonborz wrote: post #34
yapyap wrote: post #21

i like mullvad, especially that they just do 5 € a month, no “buy 3 years worth of VPN for a bit cheaper” nonsense

Why is that nonsense? It totally makes sense to lower the price on bulk purchase. You can upload whatever amount of credit to Mullvad as well and I doubt most users purchase month to month. It's just a more elegant way to stay pricey. There are similar small independent competitors that are half their price for a year and I doubt they are half as private or less performant.

I think it’s because of the way annual plans are marketed in relation to VPNs. For example, NordVPN’s homepage currently is offering 74% off, but when you click through, you have to buy 2 years of service to get 74% off and no mention of the 2 year plan is made on the ad and there is no discount at all on the monthly rate, which is 3 times the cost. So you have the choice of roughly $4 per month if you lock-in 2 years or $13.99 per month vs Mullvad’s $5.20 flat rate per month without agreeing to 2 years.

It’s just been my experience that when you have to prepay 2 years up front you are giving up any recourse if the service starts to suck, the company goes bankrupt, etc. It makes sense to be a bit skeptical when the discount for 2 years is 74% vs a normal company that gives you a 10-20% discount on a bulk purchase.

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