Hello,
I am new to the LevelOne Forums. I did a quick search for VPN recommendations and I only found a thread from 2015. I was using express VPN. It worked pretty well, and let me use my peer to peer program without issue. The software itself was a bit flaky, and I suspect it was doing more in the background besides just being my vpn. The software was just that janky, even if it had a fancy coat of paint.
My subscription finally expired and I am looking for a new possibly better one. I was hoping the wise people of this forum could help me out. Anyone have any suggestions? I’d prefer one were I can connect outside the US to a country such as Switzerland so I can run my peer to peer program. A bonus would be to let me use another countries Netflix.
…Or would be my best bet would simply make a free AWS box (or the equivalent) and stick a VPN on it and use that instead? I know people recommend that for a general vpn, but I don’t know how it would cover me from my peer to peer use.
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TL;DR: I use NordVPN.
It depends on your objectives for using a VPN. I’m not going to call anything out directly, but if you were going to be doing anything where anonymity is a positive then using an account tied to your credit / debit card without a “no logging policy” is possibly not a good idea.
You have to maintain, manage, patch, and secure the VPN host if you run it yourself. Use tripwire if you’re going to do this IMO.
Do we trust VPN provider X’s no logging policy? Who knows.
Personally, I have limited time and I pay someone else to do it. I value the anonymity, and I value the ability to connect from different locations at a click without administering the server on the other end.
I don’t 100% trust any of the providers on the other end, but I don’t 100% trust many organizations and few people.
I tried TunnelBear, it was nice but I had trust issues.
I’m using NordVPN at the moment, it is also nice and has features like socks5 which can come in handy.
I use ExpressVPN, It is expensive compared to others but I like its region bypassing and that it has been tested in court for their no logging.
I use it as a client on my PFSense box, and previously used their custom firmware on my Asus router. I did find their client software to be a bit flaky, but I generally prefer to setup a VPN at the router level … your experience may be different.
For other suggestions, I have read/heard good things about Mullvad.
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https://thatoneprivacysite.net is pretty comprehensive in it’s comparisons of most popular VPN services.
If you know what criteria are important to you (privacy, security, price, etc.), It’s a handy tool 
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Agree. It depends on your demand, privacy, security, price, speed, etc… NordVPN, ExpressVPN, Surfshark and PureVPN are among the top VPN service providers. They are safe choices. NordVPN and ExpressVPN have large networks among the VPN services. ExpressVPN is a little expensive. If you are concerned about privacy, you may choose NordVPN and ExpressVPN . They promises no logging.
Using ExpressVPN right now, and definitely use a router level VPN client with QoS for better fluidity. On Linux, you don’t even need their client software as GNOME and KDE both can connect to a OpenVPN instance without installing the client software if the right network-manager-* package is installed.
Their Vancouver server has slow upload though, and their US VPN endpoints censor torrent sites like BTDIG and the YIFY sites. Toronto 2 is a suprisingly good server. I can max out my 100/50 VDSL FTTB connection.
Yeah, ExpressVPN does the job for me as well. I just use it for streaming services like Netflix, Disney+ and so on. Because after decades of importing/exporting CDs/VHSs/DVDs/BDs, digital purchasing, streaming, and pirating, content companies are still not thinking globally. So fuck’em.
Yeah I’ve heard them as well.
I personally like that you can pay via sending them cash in an envelope.
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I use https://protonvpn.com/
Excellent service esp. in conjunction with protonmail.
It is based in Switzerland.
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I pay for mullvad using a PayPal account that doesn’t have any traceable info to me, and I load up the account via a prepaid debit card I buy with cash. And now with corona virus world I can buy the prepaid visa with cash while wearing a mask. Even better, I usually try to buy some prepaid cards while traveling, so the cards come from all over. And my GF travels a lot more, so If I ask nicely she will buy one for me. The email address in the PayPal account is one I created by using a free proton mail account to get a free tutanota account to get a free ctemplar account. I do pay for a proton mail account, but not for the one I use for signing up for things anonymously. I also use the PayPal account to buy a seedbox in the Netherlands to set up my own openvpn service that I can hop to and from the mulvad if I want.