Discussion
I've been considering a VPN for a while for a layer of added security/privacy more than anything else. But even when reading reviews on the top providers, many seem to complain about inconsistent/poor speeds, clunky apps, constant disconnections and other issues.
So - is it even worth it? Those of you that have a VPN, why do you use one?
The three I originally narrowed my search down to were Nord, Express and Surfshark. They all seem to be consistently in the top 5 on review websites, but not without negative experiences too as I alluded to above.
Anyone with any first had experience of these providers?
Cheers
So - is it even worth it? Those of you that have a VPN, why do you use one?
The three I originally narrowed my search down to were Nord, Express and Surfshark. They all seem to be consistently in the top 5 on review websites, but not without negative experiences too as I alluded to above.
Anyone with any first had experience of these providers?
Cheers
I've been using IP Vanish on my PC, phone and tablets for a few years, with no problems.
As Stewie says though, it's only really worth having if you have a need to appear in the UK when you're abroad, or in another country when at home. I occasionally use it if I know there's something I want to watch on US Netflix, for example.
So, useful for travelling, but not something I use very often.
As Stewie says though, it's only really worth having if you have a need to appear in the UK when you're abroad, or in another country when at home. I occasionally use it if I know there's something I want to watch on US Netflix, for example.
So, useful for travelling, but not something I use very often.
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hstewie said:
hstewie said: Unless you have a specific reason for it i.e. needing to look like you're in the UK so you can watch UK TV whilst you're on holiday I wouldn't bother.
Definitely don't need it for that reason. Was more general curiosity of hiding my IP so 'big brother' isn't following your every move on the Internet. I heard it comes with security benefits too. Maybe that doesn't justify the £60-120 a year cost or whatever they come out as... but VPN seems to be a bit of a buzzword, no? Every man and their dog seems to use a VPN so I was curious about all the hype until I started reading some of the negative reviews. Surely all of these people aren't signing up to a VPN service just so they can watch UK Netflix when they're in Spain?Why do you want to use a VPN?
A VPN is generally used because -
- You want to pretend to be somewhere you are not, for example so you can stream TV from somewhere else
- You don't trust the WiFi / Mobile network you are connected to
- You don't want your IP address associated with whatever you are doing
- You want to do something clever with a home network
Most of the commercial networks like Nord sell themselves on the first two points and on the first point are pretty good about it (although some occasional trial and error is needed) and on the second point - well you will likely never know if they are any good or not.
Pricing on commercial VPNs is just full of deals with the headline prices being spurious - the last Nord deal I got was two years for around 80 euros and 100% cash back less the German VAT so around 10 euros a year - ironically I used another company's VPN to sign up to Nord via a German cash back site...
These days I tend to use a Raspberry Pi at home to provide a VPN when travelling to give me UK TV - £20 and an hour's time and it works forever - however I also have a a cheap paid subscription to Windscribe as a fall back as a long time user - if you want to dip your toe in the VPN world they offer free accounts that come with 10GB of data per month and a limited range of countries that you can appear to be in.
A VPN is generally used because -
- You want to pretend to be somewhere you are not, for example so you can stream TV from somewhere else
- You don't trust the WiFi / Mobile network you are connected to
- You don't want your IP address associated with whatever you are doing
- You want to do something clever with a home network
Most of the commercial networks like Nord sell themselves on the first two points and on the first point are pretty good about it (although some occasional trial and error is needed) and on the second point - well you will likely never know if they are any good or not.
Pricing on commercial VPNs is just full of deals with the headline prices being spurious - the last Nord deal I got was two years for around 80 euros and 100% cash back less the German VAT so around 10 euros a year - ironically I used another company's VPN to sign up to Nord via a German cash back site...
These days I tend to use a Raspberry Pi at home to provide a VPN when travelling to give me UK TV - £20 and an hour's time and it works forever - however I also have a a cheap paid subscription to Windscribe as a fall back as a long time user - if you want to dip your toe in the VPN world they offer free accounts that come with 10GB of data per month and a limited range of countries that you can appear to be in.
QJumper said:
I've been using IP Vanish on my PC, phone and tablets for a few years, with no problems.
As Stewie says though, it's only really worth having if you have a need to appear in the UK when you're abroad, or in another country when at home. I occasionally use it if I know there's something I want to watch on US Netflix, for example.
So, useful for travelling, but not something I use very often.
Ah ok interesting. So you don't use it for added security or anything like that?As Stewie says though, it's only really worth having if you have a need to appear in the UK when you're abroad, or in another country when at home. I occasionally use it if I know there's something I want to watch on US Netflix, for example.
So, useful for travelling, but not something I use very often.
I'm surprised as I said in my reply above because there seem to be millions of people that use them I can't believe the main use case is to watch Netflix when abroad. But if it is, then looks like I'd be wasting my money.
mischmaster said:
Ah ok interesting. So you don't use it for added security or anything like that?
I'm surprised as I said in my reply above because there seem to be millions of people that use them I can't believe the main use case is to watch Netflix when abroad. But if it is, then looks like I'd be wasting my money.
Depends on what you mean by security.I'm surprised as I said in my reply above because there seem to be millions of people that use them I can't believe the main use case is to watch Netflix when abroad. But if it is, then looks like I'd be wasting my money.
I know a lot of people use VPN's for things like running Kodi boxes with links to illegal torrent sites. Having said, I'm not sure how much of that is scaremongering to get people to pay for VPNs.
If it's just secure/anonymous browsing that you're interested in then the Opera browser has a built in VPN, and it's free.
bhstewie said:
hstewie said: You don't get "added security" and the marketing for most VPN services is little short of fraudulent IMO.
Is it not added security if you're on a random coffee shop or other public Wifi though and you go through your VPN instead?e.g. I need to work remotely and find myself connected to a cafe's wifi whilst working through company data or something, is this not protected more with a VPN?
I could be wrong, genuine questions.
PF62 said:
Why do you want to use a VPN?
A VPN is generally used because -
- You want to pretend to be somewhere you are not, for example so you can stream TV from somewhere else
- You don't trust the WiFi / Mobile network you are connected to
- You don't want your IP address associated with whatever you are doing
- You want to do something clever with a home network
Most of the commercial networks like Nord sell themselves on the first two points and on the first point are pretty good about it (although some occasional trial and error is needed) and on the second point - well you will likely never know if they are any good or not.
Pricing on commercial VPNs is just full of deals with the headline prices being spurious - the last Nord deal I got was two years for around 80 euros and 100% cash back less the German VAT so around 10 euros a year - ironically I used another company's VPN to sign up to Nord via a German cash back site...
These days I tend to use a Raspberry Pi at home to provide a VPN when travelling to give me UK TV - £20 and an hour's time and it works forever - however I also have a a cheap paid subscription to Windscribe as a fall back as a long time user - if you want to dip your toe in the VPN world they offer free accounts that come with 10GB of data per month and a limited range of countries that you can appear to be in.
I'd say 2 and 3, but very minimal use cases of each - so may not justify using a VPN.A VPN is generally used because -
- You want to pretend to be somewhere you are not, for example so you can stream TV from somewhere else
- You don't trust the WiFi / Mobile network you are connected to
- You don't want your IP address associated with whatever you are doing
- You want to do something clever with a home network
Most of the commercial networks like Nord sell themselves on the first two points and on the first point are pretty good about it (although some occasional trial and error is needed) and on the second point - well you will likely never know if they are any good or not.
Pricing on commercial VPNs is just full of deals with the headline prices being spurious - the last Nord deal I got was two years for around 80 euros and 100% cash back less the German VAT so around 10 euros a year - ironically I used another company's VPN to sign up to Nord via a German cash back site...
These days I tend to use a Raspberry Pi at home to provide a VPN when travelling to give me UK TV - £20 and an hour's time and it works forever - however I also have a a cheap paid subscription to Windscribe as a fall back as a long time user - if you want to dip your toe in the VPN world they offer free accounts that come with 10GB of data per month and a limited range of countries that you can appear to be in.
2 for the reason I outlined above, not that this would happen very often (and I could even be wrong about my public wifi assumption).
and 3 - for the very occasional motorsport race I'll download. But that's about it.
mischmaster said:
PF62 said:
Why do you want to use a VPN?
A VPN is generally used because -
- You want to pretend to be somewhere you are not, for example so you can stream TV from somewhere else
- You don't trust the WiFi / Mobile network you are connected to
- You don't want your IP address associated with whatever you are doing
- You want to do something clever with a home network
Most of the commercial networks like Nord sell themselves on the first two points and on the first point are pretty good about it (although some occasional trial and error is needed) and on the second point - well you will likely never know if they are any good or not.
Pricing on commercial VPNs is just full of deals with the headline prices being spurious - the last Nord deal I got was two years for around 80 euros and 100% cash back less the German VAT so around 10 euros a year - ironically I used another company's VPN to sign up to Nord via a German cash back site...
These days I tend to use a Raspberry Pi at home to provide a VPN when travelling to give me UK TV - £20 and an hour's time and it works forever - however I also have a a cheap paid subscription to Windscribe as a fall back as a long time user - if you want to dip your toe in the VPN world they offer free accounts that come with 10GB of data per month and a limited range of countries that you can appear to be in.
I'd say 2 and 3, but very minimal use cases of each - so may not justify using a VPN.A VPN is generally used because -
- You want to pretend to be somewhere you are not, for example so you can stream TV from somewhere else
- You don't trust the WiFi / Mobile network you are connected to
- You don't want your IP address associated with whatever you are doing
- You want to do something clever with a home network
Most of the commercial networks like Nord sell themselves on the first two points and on the first point are pretty good about it (although some occasional trial and error is needed) and on the second point - well you will likely never know if they are any good or not.
Pricing on commercial VPNs is just full of deals with the headline prices being spurious - the last Nord deal I got was two years for around 80 euros and 100% cash back less the German VAT so around 10 euros a year - ironically I used another company's VPN to sign up to Nord via a German cash back site...
These days I tend to use a Raspberry Pi at home to provide a VPN when travelling to give me UK TV - £20 and an hour's time and it works forever - however I also have a a cheap paid subscription to Windscribe as a fall back as a long time user - if you want to dip your toe in the VPN world they offer free accounts that come with 10GB of data per month and a limited range of countries that you can appear to be in.
2 for the reason I outlined above, not that this would happen very often (and I could even be wrong about my public wifi assumption).
and 3 - for the very occasional motorsport race I'll download. But that's about it.
mischmaster said:
Definitely don't need it for that reason. Was more general curiosity of hiding my IP so 'big brother' isn't following your every move on the Internet. I heard it comes with security benefits too. Maybe that doesn't justify the £60-120 a year cost or whatever they come out as... but VPN seems to be a bit of a buzzword, no? Every man and their dog seems to use a VPN so I was curious about all the hype until I started reading some of the negative reviews. Surely all of these people aren't signing up to a VPN service just so they can watch UK Netflix when they're in Spain?
When you hide some things from "Big Brother", you have to trust "Big Brother's Brother".Maybe better you spread yourself a little in a more sensible way. Choose a DNS over HTTPS provider and implement that as your DNS. Since you then do DNS where your ISP cannot see you and connect via HTTPS so nobody can really see you, you have privacy. Except the DNS provider and the websites you visit know (plus maybe their 3rd parties).
Even better, you leverage PiHole with Cloudflared or AdGuard Home and spread your DNS queries across several DoH providers, block lots of crap traffic and improve things more. And you can add a PiVPN to those solutions too, if you so wish, so that you connect away from home to your trusted environment.
But if you cannot thing of these reasons specifically, why bother? Just blend into the Matrix and remember they are looking for Neo, not you
I use Express VPN.
It's easy to use for a non-It person, easy to set up & works.
I use it to stream British TV & Sky wherever I am, predominantly 'stan & Spain, but also found it's work fine in other european locations & the Caribbean.
Have the odd issue with it being recognised as a VPN & then getting blocked, but a quick change to another UK location normally fixes it.
It's easy to use for a non-It person, easy to set up & works.
I use it to stream British TV & Sky wherever I am, predominantly 'stan & Spain, but also found it's work fine in other european locations & the Caribbean.
Have the odd issue with it being recognised as a VPN & then getting blocked, but a quick change to another UK location normally fixes it.
mischmaster said:
bhstewie said:
hstewie said: You don't get "added security" and the marketing for most VPN services is little short of fraudulent IMO.
Is it not added security if you're on a random coffee shop or other public Wifi though and you go through your VPN instead?e.g. I need to work remotely and find myself connected to a cafe's wifi whilst working through company data or something, is this not protected more with a VPN?
I could be wrong, genuine questions.
So if you're a sensible person with a sensibly configured laptop there's little benefit IMHO.
If you do do it I'd look at one of the "big names" like Cloudflare Warp and that's largely because Cloudflare deal with a lot of large enterprises so I have more of a warm feeling about them than I do some random VPN provider offering discounts on YouTube or whatever it is
I use PureVPN and have dabbled with Nord, when I was having issues with Pure on a Firestick.
You will get slower speeds using a VPN obviously as it's routed elsewhere, but I get plenty fast enough service to stream HD video, and its useful to access content not usually available in your current location.
As above though I don't get the security argument, that's saying you trust the VPN provider (in my case companies I know little about based in the British Virgin Islands and Panama), over a domestic ISP who have to conform to local data privacy laws.
You will get slower speeds using a VPN obviously as it's routed elsewhere, but I get plenty fast enough service to stream HD video, and its useful to access content not usually available in your current location.
As above though I don't get the security argument, that's saying you trust the VPN provider (in my case companies I know little about based in the British Virgin Islands and Panama), over a domestic ISP who have to conform to local data privacy laws.
Agree that unless you have a need, there's no point.
If you just want to access foreign Netflix etc. then any of the main ones will work fine...mostly.
Have used ExpressVPN for years and it's rarely let me down. It's a cat and mouse game with the BBC though who are very aggressive at shutting down IPs associated with VPNs, but you try another location and you're generally away again.
I'm switching to Nord now only because it comes free with another service, but it seems very similar.
If you just want to access foreign Netflix etc. then any of the main ones will work fine...mostly.
Have used ExpressVPN for years and it's rarely let me down. It's a cat and mouse game with the BBC though who are very aggressive at shutting down IPs associated with VPNs, but you try another location and you're generally away again.
I'm switching to Nord now only because it comes free with another service, but it seems very similar.
I use Nord on my firestick to access UK TV when travelling. As long as you have access to wifi It works. USA, South Africa, europe all no problem. I also have it on my phone so I can use it as a wifi hotspot linked to UK, for the firestick if no decent hotel wifi.
Also use it to spoof Belgium for watching F1 on a free Belgian stream.
Also use it to spoof Belgium for watching F1 on a free Belgian stream.
mischmaster said:
Ah ok interesting. So you don't use it for added security or anything like that?
I'm surprised as I said in my reply above because there seem to be millions of people that use them I can't believe the main use case is to watch Netflix when abroad. But if it is, then looks like I'd be wasting my money.
That and being “missold” under the premise of increasing your security. Peddled by everyone on YouTube because of the bounce back they get via affiliate links.I'm surprised as I said in my reply above because there seem to be millions of people that use them I can't believe the main use case is to watch Netflix when abroad. But if it is, then looks like I'd be wasting my money.
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