Ask HN: What VPN Service do you recommend? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What VPN Service do you recommend?

1 pointrburhum5 comments

I have been traveling a lot and honestly I don't feel comfortable with Internet connections at various airports and access points. Researching a bit, there are many VPN services to choose from... and it feels a bit overwhelming!

I could setup my own using OpenVPN or use a SaaS service, however, not all VPNs respect privacy (e.g. there were some controversies with HideMyAss).

Supporting video streaming services like Netflix/Hulu/Amazon Video would be a nice plus.

What VPN do you use when you are away from home?

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I had been using PIA [1] for several years and had been quite satisfied.

I have never liked Pure VPN - weird ports, and it seemed to disconnect when downloading larger files. But I had their account for almost free for two years. Not extended.

TunelBear is cute and easy to use but not configurable on client side.

I always appreciated the dedication and innovative approach of CryptoStorm [4].

[1] https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/ [2] https://www.purevpn.com/ [3] https://www.tunnelbear.com/ [4] https://cryptostorm.is/

Windscribe: https://windscribe.com/signup I got a vastly discounted "lifetime" signup for them (seems to be good until 2028 on the expiry page but whatever).

If you are concerned with security over defeating regions for viewing video I would recommend that you roll your own. The reason is trust. You trust your home lan I presume. How can you be sure there aren’t the same kind of bad actors in the exit point of a third party vpn that could also be at a coffee shop or airport? There really is no way to be sure.

If your not too technically savvy some premium home routers have a vpn in them. Just be sure it’s up to date with the latest firmwares. There are some older vpns that are really very vulnerable. It’s a sensitive issue. You want to guard the vpn because it’s a door to your entire lan.

If you are looking for a free VPN service, then there is no one better than Windscribe. But, freemium packages come with intrusive advertisements here and there which interrupts your online experience, plus you are never truly sure if you are 100% secure and anonymous (they can't advertise you if they are not tracking you, so...). So, when it comes to premium VPN services, and more specifically for fast streaming purpose, I would suggest you use either https://www.expressvpn.com/ or https://www.ivacy.com/ (Ivacy has recently also won an Award for being the Fastest VPN Service of the industry in the VPN Awards 2019 held at Las Vegas).

As well as security and privacy go, their log policies are quite Black & White, so, never really had an issue with that too.

I would strictly advise not to set up your personal VPN as it would never be as safe as the companies who are spending millions in an year trying to make their VPN infrastructure hack-proof, so, that'll be my two cents on the subject. Cheers!

Proton, which comes cheap with their encrypted email, also recommend. The setup couldn't be easier and it's very flexible.

You can choose what country you want to come through each time you connect and change it with a click. They also offer to route all connections through Switzerland with its strict privacy laws before connecting through your country of choice.

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