I am finally ready to buy a VPN service. I am using a Dell Optiplex 755 (with XP Pro), and a Mikrotik RB750gr3 router. This router has crappy support for OpenVPN, so IPSec protocol is likely required. I would want to tie the VPN into the router. Hopefully one with a GUI client, and firewall/killswitch. As for cost, I definitely do not want to exceed $100 a year, and would rather it be much less. So any recommendations for VPNs that work with XP Pro, use IPSec, has a GUI, firewall to prevent leaks, and not too expensive? I realize that is a tall order.
Give windscribe a try before purchasing https://windscribe.com/download It gives a free 11GB on account creation, it has all the features you stated. The Pro version currently is on 55%OFF sale so it is 49$ yearly, which is pretty good deal imho.
Thanks for the advice, but Windscribe does not appear to support IPSec, as far as I can tell from their site. I am looking at Megaproxy, FreeVPN.me, and SecurityKISS as freebies, but I do want one paid VPN anyway.
SecurityKISS is a great free VPN. My short list for paid VPNs remains AirVPN, Insorg, IVPN, Mullvad and PIA. I'm not sure what's up with BolehVPN. Maybe they're just having website problems. Plus being late updating the canary.
FWIW I use PIA, but on laptops, not router. I'm happy with it. Caveats: I'm not trying to be anonymous, just secure on public WiFi in airports, hotels, etc.
Unfortunately, it appears AirVPN does not support IPSec, & Mullvad flips off XP Pro users (as does FrootVPN and PerfectPrivacy). Yes, I have been looking at your site, and your work is so much appreciated! Of the remaining you had listed, only IVPN and SlickVPN look to support both XP Pro and IPSec...although I did not see Insorg or PIA mentioned, so I have not researched them, but will do that now. Have you seen the restoreprivacy site? If so, what do you think of the recommended VPNs listed?
Are you going to use VPN for router AND desktop (Optiplex 755 is not notebook)? if you use VPN on router, no need for desktop unless you want double tunneling, right? I'd also like to hear from knowledgeable guy here about Restoreprivacy. Overall I like his review, but it's almost obvious that the site includes some affiliates. There're not many truly new info, but his effort is worth reading, I think. However, I got some concern when I asked him bit mean questions. First, it seems he don't understand why publicly known PSK for IPSec is dangerous. He somehow confused it with login credential share/theft which is not much privacy risk (as long as you don't leave private info on the account), i.e. confused server authentication by client with client auth by server. The former can cause complete compromise in certain situation e.g. malicious AP. Second, when I posted evidence link that clearly shows PerfectPrivacy was operated by Neo-Nazi guys and collected money from such sites, then the link was removed and my words were substituted by milder words of "alledgedly right-wing individuals". I emphasized ideological things should be separated form technical review, but questioned just because some people would care it, but removed. IDK why was it.
If you are using Windows, then go for Nord VPN. Otherwise, if you are on Linux, try Express VPN or Air VPN. I found that the best VPN for Windows is not necessarily the best for Linux. Test the service with dnsleaktest once you've registered.
I would like to have the VPN tied to the router, but there is a question whether my Mikrotik can handle it. Some forums say it cannot handle OpenVPN, some say it cannot handle L2TP/IPSec, and so on. I've researched the hell out of it but not making any headway, so will let my tech guy sort it out. Guess I could upgrade to a better router. As last resort I'll tie the VPN to the OS, assuming that does not negate the SSL mitm proxy I plan to use.
@Uitlander - Which Mikrotik? Re running the VPN client in the OS, any process that hits the Internet should also work through the VPN tunnel.
Question please for mirimir regarding PIA - I am ready to purchase the product BUT no where on their website do I see how many concurrent VPN sessions I am allowed to use. Do you know what how many sessions are allowed?
Maybe. But PIA did tell a US court that it doesn't retain logs, and didn't get pressed on it. It's true that its servers are sometimes overloaded. But on the other hand, it's among the least expensive. And notwithstanding US jurisdiction, and its heavy spamming of "review" sites, it does seem to stand for privacy.
True enough. . . . . . new guy here. I'm in the same dilemma myself In the case Mirmir cited, it sounds like they had enough evidence without the VPN logs. 1. I wonder how they'd have reacted if they didn't? 2. Just because they don't have any logs now, doesn"t mean they can't get in and start gathering. I've been thinking about a VPN registered outside the fourteen eyes jurisdiction. The problem is some of those are in British territories, etc. That's where the waters get muddy. Gibralter, British Virgins, etc. It kind of leaves you wondering. For me it comes down to: who do you want to keep out of your business? Hackers or hackers AND Government?
I've said many time, through years of using/testing VPNs there are two that I like; Mullvad and AirVPN. AirVPN is based in Italy, which is part of the 14 eyes agreements. Mullvad is based in Sweden, and is not. There are no collective data sharing and/or retention laws there.
My hardware is detailed on my original post (#1), but its Mikrotik RB750gr3 router. I had to have a tech guy come in to set it up, so that should give you an idea of my skill level, and since its passed all tests at grc.com, I guess that shows I have a good tech guy. Anyway, been all over the Mikrotik site, forum, etc., and its mostly all greek to me. I sorta understand that its OS might work better with IPsec than OpenVPN, but some on other forums say it does not work at all with the latter. If you think its necessary I have no problem getting a better router. I only got this one because it was cheap, had no wi-fi crap, and got good reviews....the fact it was lacking in VPN capabilities eluded me. So if I have to run the VPN client in the OS there will be no conflict with an SSL mitm proxy like BurpSuite? My only use for it would be to install a bogus uber-certificate to overrule the CA certificate store embedded in XP Pro, but from what little I understand, this would be a proxy going through a VPN, and some say this causes problems.
OK, so RouterOS uses OpenVPN from the Debian repository.[0] But it only supports TCP mode. Also, it doesn't support LZO compression, which may be problematic for some VPN services. Your router has a dual-core 880 MHz MIPS CPU, with 16 MB flash storage and 256 MB RAM. The MIPS OpenVPN binary is only ~1 MB, so there should be enough space for it. I'm guessing that there should also be enough RAM. It claims to run IPsec at ~470Mbps,[0] but I'm not sure what that means for OpenVPN. Many VPN services do support IPsec. However, they often use common preshared keys aka PSK, and that's not very secure. What you'd want is IPsec with IKEv2 and Diffie–Hellman key exchange, and not PSK. If you want to go with IPsec, you'd need to check with Mikrotik about what's supported, and then pick a VPN service that uses IPsec with IKEv2 and Diffie–Hellman key exchange. 0) https://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/OpenVPN#Why_to_use_OpenVPN_.3F
I've heard good things about both of those. The things that bother me about any VPN are : 1: Who ACTUALLY owns these? Are they owned by gov't agencies in some cases? 2. Where they are registered and where are their servers/offices. Do they own all their servers or do they rent space and if so,what info/access do the people they lease from require or already have? 3. What programs do they require to run alongside their VPN client programs? Nord sure surprised me on that one. They wanted things running on my PC and my Android phone that I didn't agree with. Why?
I just started using Romanian based ibVPN. So far, it has been very fast and they claim not to keep logs. I've had speed issues with ExpressVPN and PIA. Although, PIA was really fast for me until a few months ago. I paid $58 for two years, due to a discount, which just ended.
How about SlickVPN as I have been using them for the past year? The client works very well on on the latest Win 10 x64 Pro and the price is right!
