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VPN Report – Reviews of the top VPNs

vpnreport.org

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Re: VPN Report – Reviews of the top VPNs

#71

Post by gruez »

kevinr wrote: post #63

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://…

>lololol. Half of these VPN vendors show up on Kenn White's VPN Hall of Shame for offering unsafe configurations:

having a per-user PSK isn't going to protect you if the protocol is fundamentally broken, which is the case for PPTP/l2tp

Re: VPN Report – Reviews of the top VPNs

#72

Post by rand98765 »

davepeck wrote: post #30
LeoPanthera wrote: post #13

This guy has been reviewing VPN services for a while and has put together an incredibly comprehensive table as well as a selection of more detailed reviews, selected from the list at random so as to remain impartial. Recommended. https://thatoneprivacysite.net/vpn-section/ For example, TunnelBear scores highly on security, but poorly on ethics.

I suspect that, for less savvy potential customers (read: the vast majority of them), "That One Privacy Site" can do more harm than good. I wrote a bit about choosing VPNs, and about my concerns with TOPS, here: https://davepeck.org/2017/04/16/why-its-hard-to-choose-a-vpn... PS: Since this is HN, I just want to say that if you can, you should run your own VPN. Use Algo, full stop -- it's put together by some of the b…

The problem I've found with running my own vpn is that I could not find affordable vps with anywhere near as affordable bandwidth and speed. The main vps providers all cap your download/upload. ovpn is what I settled on and am quite happy.

Re: VPN Report – Reviews of the top VPNs

#73

Post by newbear »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #36

Obviously not ideal for non-technical users, but I found it really easy to spin up a VPN on Digital Ocean. I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to make it almost a turnkey operation, just run the script and you're good to go, and then it would be a viable option for non-technical people. Of course, not ideal for anonymity, but a perfectly fine solution for if you want the security benefits of a VPN, or to get around geoblock…

Where do I learn about how to do this?

Re: VPN Report – Reviews of the top VPNs

#74

Post by rasengan »

rasengan wrote: post #69
mobitar wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PIA actually scores as one of the highest on the objective measures. The star count is just a subjective impression and experience with getting it set up. They connect over HTTP on startup instead of HTTPS (which is unacceptable for a privacy company). They then ping almost a hundred servers on startup (no other app does this, at least not to this extent).

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

Re: VPN Report – Reviews of the top VPNs

#76

Post by buildbot »

tyingq wrote: post #26
throwaway91111 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sort of; they are good at flagging VPN ips but you can always spin up your own to get around this.

I assume they are pretty good about blocking popular VPS host ip addresses too, though. So not just spinning up your own, but finding a VPS host they don't yet know about.

Something that can work well on a limited scale is if you have access to ssh into company/edu servers around the world - then you can use sshuttle and your traffic looks like it coming from a company/university campus.

Re: VPN Report – Reviews of the top VPNs

#77

Post by shmerl »

mobitar wrote: post #22
abstractbeliefs wrote: post #12

Regardless of how you feel about _why_ PIA sponsor the organisations they do, it is surprising to see someone claiming they "perhaps put [their money] to better use" given their record of supporting foss and digital/online rights [1]. Additionally, the characterization as being extremely focused on the tech illiterate I feel isn't really the case either, they have lots of docs about how to use OpenVPN [2]. Thirdly, w…

PIA actually scores as one of the highest on the objective measures. The star count is just a subjective impression and experience with getting it set up. They connect over HTTP on startup instead of HTTPS (which is unacceptable for a privacy company). They then ping almost a hundred servers on startup (no other app does this, at least not to this extent).

They support OpenVPN.

Re: VPN Report – Reviews of the top VPNs

#79

Post by jwfxpr »

averagewall wrote: post #60
gtf21 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that he rates Vyrpr above PIA, when Vypr have had clear incidents of doing enough logging to identify which user has done something [1][2], and PIA do no logging [3], I'm not particularly inclined to trust this analysis on the basis of which app is more "fun" to use. Disclaimer: I used to use Vyrpr, when I found out about the logging, I switched to PIA, which I use with Tunnelblick anyway instead of their app.…

He doesn't rate Vyper above PIA: Vyper: 8,2,0 PIA: 9,4,0 The stars are identified as being from his personal experience and he discusses the rationale behind them.

Since the entries on the site are ordered top-to-bottom based entirely on his subjective rating, ignoring the objective criteria, the list absolutely rates Vype higher, in both a figurative and literal sense, and in a way that implies that his 5-star ratings are far more important than the objective criteria.

Re: VPN Report – Reviews of the top VPNs

#80

Post by jwfxpr »

mobitar wrote: post #10
joshstrange wrote: post #5

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…

They connect on port 80 (HTTP instead of HTTPS) on startup. That's unacceptable for a privacy company.

> That's unacceptable for a privacy company.

Why?

The fact of a connection being established in port 80 is to do with how TCP/IP works. You aren't even claiming to understand what protocol is in use on port 80, not to mention whether the data is in the clear, what it is for, etc. This isn't analysis, it's... something far short of analysis that I can't think of a kind name for.

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