best vpn ? any recommendations?

Yes, I was suggesting running a VPN out of the house. I understand that that wouldn't provide the kind of anonymity that some people are looking for, but it would eliminate the other problems I mentioned. Depending on what you need a VPN for it could be simplest, most secure and most cost effective solution. It seems to me when you subscribe to a VPN service you can never be completely certain about logging, etc, regardless of the stated policies. There's an inherent contradiction in relying on people you don't know (and who only know you as $$) to provide you with security.

 

That was mostly a serious answer. Certainly, you can rent a VPS somewhere cool, and set up a private VPN. But, if you're the only user, you don't get much anonymity, just some obscurity. Even if you pay anonymously, you're the only user that's connecting to it. So you really do need other users. And users are a pain to support. They ask lots of questions, don't follow instructions, forget passwords, and so on.

 

Yeah I ask lots of questions LOL...

And the one I'm going to ask now is, why aren't we keeping this post over here, since it relates to this;

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=285780

I'm not trying to be the Police here, but I did make that post to have it relate to any and all things VPN, Tor, anonymous, etc...


Cheers

 

A basic one hop setup is not very complicated. You rent a VPS in some privacy friendly place. You run OpenVPN server on trusted hardware (such as one of your machines, in a VM). You ssh remote forward the OpenVPN connection ports to your VPS. The VPS operators can log your IP, and the IPs of your users, but they will only see encrypted OpenVPN traffic on the ssh connection. They won't see any of the actual users' traffic. Also, there's nothing useful on the VPS, because it's just a reverse proxy.

 

well anyone out there that has actually used btguard?

 

Air VPN "claims" not to log data, and they have servers in Europe (Germany and the Netherlands). They run about $7-10 a month.

 

keep that feedback comin yall

 

I've been doing research on this too. VPN providers can say whatever they want to say but i wouldn't trust it. For example if you look for VPN providers one of the higher rated ones is HideMyAss. Yet this is exactly how one of the anonymous members got caught:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/09/26/hidemyass_lulzsec_controversy/

It depends on what you want to use your VPN for.

If you want to use it to just protect your privacy or stop your ISP or work from blocking certain sites like youtube then it will probably work wonderfully.

If you want protection from the DMCA it probably depends on what country the server (your ip) will be in. If they see you're in china they will most likely leave you alone but if your ip says your in the US or UK then good luck. They aren't going to go through too much effort (probably).

If your doing illegal hacking activities then nothing will stop the feds (unless your VPN provider is doing everything right and don't have any type of logs).

You just can't 100% trust any VPN service. It they keep a log with your IP and can map back to what ip they mapped you then its just one more step anyone has to take to find out who you are.

 

Some people need to go this route to do things which I would consider ethical but governments find too embarrassing to tolerate. Either way I think you have to get past looking for a VPN service and become knowledgeable enough to protect yourself without relying on others. I doubt there's ever any certainty in it.

 

I'd go with Mullvad.

 

@The Seeker

Yes, I totally agree. Mullvad does seem decent.

They take Bitcoin, Cash, Do not log, plus, they have a good attitude.

I would like to suggest AirVPn which has already been mentioned by brettST.

This article written by Rick Falkvinge {founder of the first Pirate Party} mentions AirVPN.

They also take Bitcoin and Do not log.

But when I read an article by AirVPN's admin, which is here, I came to the conclusion that this would be the kind of VPN, if any, you could trust.

Lastly I would suggest VPN4All.

If you read this review from user box750's blog, also from this forum, you may agree that this also is a very good contender for "Best VPN".

 

thanks yall for all the useful feedback if you got any more id appreciate it , i already added ivpn to my list of vpns to be checked out , im aiming for the nr.1 vpn so i dont have to check for a new vpn every year, will be adding those to my list asap

current list:


ivpn, mullvad,airvpn,vpn4all


what about vpntunnel.se and perfect privacy? anybody got experience with those?

im doing this not just for me but for members that want peace of mind and security without having to research for years in order to be safe NOW , im suprised nobody has been interested in making such a list , and sticky it , since theres people out there with the years of experience in security and that thoroughly tested select vpns,so why not share it with the community

 

Hi Das Fox...

I'll be honest with you...I absolutely hate megathreads like the one going that you pointed us too. I quit reading it. It's going backwards in information presentation and consumption. Why? Read on...

That thread was begun in November of 2010. It's at almost 600 posts now. In a year and a half since the thread's beginnings, there have been changes in VPN services (many have come and gone), the pricing that is mentioned is irrelevant as the pricing is always changing. You say if someone is interested they should be willing to read through 600 posts. Seriously? When half of them are discussing services no longer offered? Pricing that's wrong? Technology that's changed?

Question: If you went to Wikipedia and wanted to research a topic; let's say a country, Russia for our example. What if you went and it was all just dumped into one big unorganized article, information outdated scattered here and there - no organization, no nothing. Would you sit and read through all that not knowing what's relevant, what's changed, etc? Of course not. But, that's what these megathreads are - information dumps with no rhyme or reason.

I would much rather see a line-of-thought discussion run its course and die and a new thread begin with new and updated information. A year and a half in "technology years" is forever. In a dynamic (always changing) forum, such as Wilders, there's no reason to insist people just "dump" their information on VPN's into one megathread.

I know megathreads on forums are controversial. Some like and allow them and others hate them and threads are locked automatically after ____. But in a security forum, where the latest information is crucial, megathreads can actually be a security risk.

Just food for thought.

Have a good weekend,
GM ... 'LockBox'

 

DasFox's megathread has reduced the number of overlapping threads, each focusing on one or a few VPNs. But I agree that it's become very tedious to read, and perhaps that the older stuff has become misleading. Although white and black lists are useful, they don't capture the discussion well, especially when there's serious disagreement. A table format wiki (like -en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_BitTorrent_clients) might be useful.

 

What about hideipvpn, they say: We do not store any information except connection logs for troubleshooting.
Would like to hear some opinions about them.

 

same for me as well.

he has been harping forumers to post there.

 

why do u need to keep asking us to post in that thread?

u have been doing it for so many times

what is/are your intention?

 

VPN4All is quesionable, IMO. They don't show it on their site anymore, but they used to have a comparison table of various VPN providers (here's an archived version from 24 April 2011). Interestingly, they categorized themselves--along with XeroBank, Perfect Privacy, MyVPN.pro, HideIPVPN, and ItsHidden--as non-logging. However, as I recall they were pretty open about their use of traffic shaping to detect "undesirable" traffic... which would then be used to implement "investigational logging". Looking at their current TOS, I highly suspect that they are still doing this.... which would explain their heavy-handed approach to terminating users of P2P on unauthorized servers and imposing fines on spammers.

XeroBank and VPN4All are the only two providers (that I'm aware of) that perform this type of traffic shapping analysis. Personally, I'd be afraid to accidentally trigger it and end up having a nosy admin snooping on my activity... which is why, given the choice, I'd prefer to look elsewhere.

My opinion of the others you mentioned:

iVPN - Okay; claims connection logs are erased every 5 minutes.
Mullvad - Good; no logs.
AirVPN - Good; no logs.
VPNtunnel.se - Okay; no logs on Swedish servers... but their other countries' servers DO keep logs.
Perfect Privacy - Good; no logs. See PP admin's detailed explanation here: How perfect is perfect privacy in terms of anonymity?

There are several other good VPN providers besides those, IMO. I'm in the process of working on a "whitelist" as well...

 

Can I ask where did you get that information from? iVPN privacy policy page does not specify how long for they keep logs. They only say that logs can not be linked to an individual, but no mention about erasing them every 5 minutes. And, adding to the list, if people don't mind a US based provider, Cotse.net and VPNReactor both claim to erase logs in 5 days.

 

See #7 on iVPN's Why choose us? page:

I have no problem with that type of logging - as long as it's only internally-assigned IPs and/or user IDs that are being temporarily logged. Conversely, logging a client's real external IP for any reason other than for billing purposes is a definite deal-breaker for me. Based on the wording of iVPN's Privacy Policy, I think they're probably okay in this regard... but I 'd probably be inclined to ask for further clarification prior to sign-up anyway, just to be sure.

 

I'm sorry what you're saying is incorrect OpenVPN was the same when the post was made and it's the same now. There have been improvements in technology but OpenVPN for the discussion of that post is being used exactly the same...

Certainly there is a lot of information and if it's just babble then avoid it otherwise you should read it to learn if you value your safety.

To be honest you sound like you're just looking for a quick fix and someone to spoon feed you when you talk like this, I'm sorry I'm not trying to be rude but you're being foolish in your attitude towards something as serious as this and even if you read it you'll learn and you won't be wasting your time.

I give real facts to how to look for a VPN, not just some customer feedback, like they offer good payments, nice service, friendly quick support, blah blah, that's all BS and I'm sorry, look at also everyone's replies on this post, who is even talking about the technology and making sure you do exactly as I've stated on my last reply on the post about what you REALLY need to look at?

We're certainly not talking about what's better to buy around here an iPod or Rio player and I like sticking to facts and the tech side of this and that's where I'm at, so if you had taken the time to of read a little of what I've been saying, you would not making the remarks you are, this shows you're not paying attention...

Most people on this forum just talk in general terms and basic feedback, hardly any of them are even talking about the real aspects as you've stated and want, the TECHNOLOGY and how to properly go about it, I am!

Sorry there is actually nothing old or outdated in that post and I challenge you to show me anything you consider out dated...

Mega threads are only a risk for whoever is running them, I keep things updated, I'm not a Windows noob that just hopped onboard yesterday, I'm a Unix, geek and you're just making idle chatter that doesn't amount to fud, so you want to talk facts and tech, that's what I'm doing and that's what I'm showing people in that post, the PROPER way to do this, not just some idle comments on how nice the vpn seems with no logging, etc...

I'm not some fool I make sure things are updated, I've been in this business over 20 years...

If you really care to learn and you want to really know how to do this right then go back and look at my last few comments on that post, on how to really do this!


CHEERS

 

dasfox has good intentions we all know , like the 4 files one should request from an vpn , only thing he doesnt realize is that we NEED a whitelist or table format layout of excellent vpns first,like mirimir mentioned , then we can request those 4 files he mentioned

p.s: casperface i see you gave perfect privacy 2 thumbs up , well tbh i havent mentioned it for nothing since i know alot of people ,no not some kiddies ,that use it so i thought it had to be worth something , guess its a excellent contender for nr.1 provider on my whitelist then


updated whitelist of worthy vpns to check out and request those 4 files from , sorted from best to not so best, where talking unlimited bandwith , no logging , full encryption , and no download limits, most important anonymous payment methods such as ucash etc :

perfect privacy,ovpn, airvpn, mullvad,prq,

update: sent those pms to mentioned vpns , lets see what they have to say

update2: removed airvpn, prq from my list , airvpn wont allow more than one pc connected to the same account and the speed is limited to 50mbits if at all -.-',

prq seems to only offer dedicated ips aka bad idea , shared is what your lookin for, and those prices are freakin insane btw , and just tested out mullvad its slow as f! only get 10mbits tops on my 35mbit connection -.-'

so updated list 3 :

perfect privacy , and maybe ovpn not sure bout that one thou the TOS seem bad?

 

By design, any provider that uses a central authentication server is probably only going to allow only 1 OpenVPN connection per client. Otherwise, they run the risk of some idiot sharing his login details with 100 people and ruining the server for everybody else. How many PCs do you need to have concurrently connected anyway? More than 2

Also, you say AirVPN limits speed to 50Mbit/s... but that's still VERY FAST! If you have DSL for example, that's probably going to be about 10x faster than the capacity of your regular connection.

 

this just in from airvpn :


Hello!

Thank you for your inquiry.

As you surely understand, we can't provide any user.key. These are unique keys that every customer must keep secret.

Anyway, please test our system, use the configuration generator to generate certificates, key and configuration. The system will prepare an archive with all the files and will let you download it. Always download the air.zip archive through https. http access to the web server is kept active to allow people from Iran and other countries to read the forum when their governments disrupts SSL connections, this is a behaviour which leads to a dilemma that we are still discussing internally.

We provide a 4 days no-limits trial.

To activate your account to premium status in order to make any test you wish:
- register and log in our website <https://airvpn.org>
- select "Payment Plans" and pick "4 days membership"
- before the checkout, insert the code DC52A5E4 (uppercase) and click "APPLY"
- your account will be activated to premium status (no traffic limit, no bandwidth limit)

After that, just select your favourite server and port with our configuration generator (for Linux, Windows, MacOSX, Android), or connect through the AirVPN client (for Windows).

You can generate as many configs as you wish in order to switch easily from one server/port to another with the OpenVPN client.

FAQs are available here, we recommend to read them:
<https://airvpn.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=71&Itemid=137> (from here to the end)

Another useful tool is the real-time servers monitor:
<https://airvpn.org/index.php?option=com_air&view=servers&Itemid=107>

A couple of related topics which might be highly interesting for members of wildersecurityforum:
<https://airvpn.org/index.php?option=com_kunena&func=view&catid=3&id=1276&limit=6&limitstart=12&Itemid=142#1299>

and
<https://airvpn.org/index.php?option=com_kunena&func=view&catid=3&id=892&Itemid=142#892>

Further useful information for a security forum:
- the service was at the beginning designed to provide a strong anonymity layer to activists working in freedom of expression hostile countries

- the database account is NOT kepy on any VPN server

- we accept (and recommend) not to insert any identity information in the account (including an e-mail address which could be exploited to disclose your real identity)

- we use separate entry and exit-IP addresses to prevent correlation attacks for which most VPN services are vulnerable (see first thread above)

- the database server will be moved (tonight or tomorrow) on another backend which is not accessed directly by any client (Air or OpenVPN), this will have the important side effect that the service will remain available to customers or activists even if the website server is under DDoS (being a service used by activists from various repressive countries, we suffer now and then DDoS attacks from those countries against the website server). Therefore future DDoS will have the consequence only to prevent payments to us

- we accept Bitcoin through a completely separate reseller which gives coupon codes that can be used on our website on ANY account, so that any payment trail is cleaned up and no correlation can be made between a Bitcoin purchase and an account activation (especially if the Bitcoin client is tunneled through TOR)

- we provide direct configuration (through our configuration generator) to use AirVPN over SOCKS or http-proxy, this makes usage of AirVPN over TOR very easy and under the circumstance (not uncommon) that TOR nodes are compromised by some hostile/malicious entity solves the issue, allowing at the same time that even our own servers don't see the real IP address of the client:
<https://airvpn.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=64&Itemid=122>
(please note this is Air over TOR, not TOR over Air)

During the night (CET) we should be moving to a completely new website in order to enhance the infrastructure, improve the web layout and grapchis, and add some security features, so the website might remain unavailable for 30-90 minutes.

Please do not hesitate to contact us for any further information. The feedback from the forum will be much appreciated and used as a source of information to improve the security in our infrastructure.

Kind regards
Paolo
AirVPN

p.s: update on ovpn , it sucks for anything faster than dsl , the download speeds atleast, upload speed was perfect , but airvpn seems to be pretty ok to try out , ill give that a go and see how em speeds are

no only 2 casper, and 50 seems ok but thats theyre limit not the minimum speed thou , but ill give em a swirl nonetheless , still awaiting the others replies tho

 

So, the only way to learn about OpenVPN and VPN's, in general, is to read your megathread. Please.

I'm 52 years old, have plenty of experience with these things, and don't need to use your thread as some kind of "introductory handbook." Your wanting all VPN discussion to be in your thread is just silly. That's why there is a forum for this technology - not just one thread. Your attitude seems to be, "Read my thread or you'll be uninformed." I just disagree, DasFox.

You're not the moderator of this forum and your trying to push all discussion of VPN's into your one thread is not right. You jump into other threads and are almost accusatory about anybody daring to post in a thread other than the one you started almost a year and a half ago as if they are doing something wrong. That's just not right. Watch over your thread, but please, quit hijacking other threads with "I don't mean to come across as the thread police," as you proceed to try to police the forum and direct all posting regarding VPN's into one, 600 post thread.

Just a thought....why not start a blog or website, complete with comments, if you think only your collected information, in one place, is valuable?