VPN Help
- Thread starter JohnnyGaloshes
- Start date
Primarily because a lot of private VPN services have "free" option (e.g. Spotflux).
Figured I'd share...
So I decided to purchase a VPN service as well. The main purpose of use of VPN service for me is torrenting (I download Russian TV shows and music for my wife who is being nostalgic from time to time). Upon multiple reviews I excluded HMI right off the bat since they openly stated that they do not provide any privacy protection for P2P traffic.
I tried excluding all companies headquarted in the US so DMCA notices and bullshit like that would be ignored by VPN service provider.
Finally I've come up with two options, really:
1. Astrill VPN.
Pros:
I haven't tested it yet. I plan on buying one month subscription to test it out.
Pros:
So I decided to purchase a VPN service as well. The main purpose of use of VPN service for me is torrenting (I download Russian TV shows and music for my wife who is being nostalgic from time to time). Upon multiple reviews I excluded HMI right off the bat since they openly stated that they do not provide any privacy protection for P2P traffic.
I tried excluding all companies headquarted in the US so DMCA notices and bullshit like that would be ignored by VPN service provider.
Finally I've come up with two options, really:
1. Astrill VPN.
Pros:
- Registered in Seychelles;
- They give you free 7-days trial (no credit card or other payment method is required);
- Outstanding fucking speed when connected to Chicago server (14MBps without VPN, 14MBps with VPN);
- Dedicated servers for P2P (marked with a star);
- Like 15 different encryption algorithms;
- VPN kill switch
- Disable IPv6 option;
- Dedicated DNS server hosted by Astrill
- Three VPN modes: WebVPN (for surfing the web); OpenVPN (application tunneling including torrent clients; StealthVPN (wrapping up the traffic and turning it into SSL stream);
- No logs on Astrill server (at least that's what they claim);
- When I checked the IP provided by my torrent client to the torrent tracker it was indeed an IP from Chicago.
- They require your cellphone number during the registration. What about privacy? Not a good sign;
- When you try to check your external IP with www.whatismyip.com you're being automatically redirected to their IP locator which makes me think that since the're redirecting your traffic - they're also monitoring it. Not a good sign;
- Not the cheapest service. $70/year
- Not all features are included (StealthVPN, some encryption algorithms, NAT Firewall come as add-ons for extra bucks);
- Some reviews mentioned that after 7 days trial, once you purchased a subscription, the speeds drop significantly;
- No refund policy if you used 7 days trial, conditional refund if you haven't used it;
- Generally negative feedbacks about customer service.
I haven't tested it yet. I plan on buying one month subscription to test it out.
Pros:
- Wildly positive feedbacks;
- No logs on their servers;
- VPN kill switch;
- Disable IPv6 option;
- Dedicated DNS server;
- Huge network;
- Variety of encryption algorithms;
- Darn cheap. $40/year.
- A lot of complaints about significant speed drops when torrenting (they're inconsistent though);
- Headquartered in the US. However, they claim that their clients can't be pressed with any DMCA claims.
1. Do you keep ANY logs which would allow you to match an IP-address and a time stamp to a user of your service? If so, exactly what information do you hold and for how long?
Our mission is to protect users privacy online, therefore we don’t keep logs.
2. Under what jurisdiction(s) does your company operate?
Our company is registered in Seychelles so it’s virtually impossible or very complicated to get any data about our customers through legal system.
3. What tools are used to monitor and mitigate abuse of your service?
…
4. Do you use any external email providers (e.g. Google Apps) or support tools ( e.g Live support, Zendesk) that hold information provided by users?
All the tools we use are proprietary. We use our own email servers and helpdesk software for communication with customers.
5. In the event you receive a DMCA takedown notice or European equivalent, how are these handled?
P2P applications are allowed on our network, on designated servers, where DMCA complaints from copyright trolls are trashed.
6. What steps are taken when a valid court order requires your company to identify an active user of your service? Has this ever happened?
We have not received any properly filed legal request to date about disclosing information about our customers. The exact procedure is determined by our attorneys.
7. Does your company have a warrant canary or a similar solution to alert customers to gag orders?
…
8. Is BitTorrent and other file-sharing traffic allowed on all servers? If not, why?
We provide servers with P2P applications support and on these servers P2P complaints are, as legally invalid, trashed.
9. Which payment systems do you use and how are these linked to individual user accounts?
We accept many payment methods, all credit cards, paypal, alipay, perfect money and bitcoin are just some of popular methods we support.
10. What is the most secure VPN connection and encryption algorithm you would recommend to your users? Do you provide tools such as “kill switches” if a connection drops and DNS leak protection?
For best security we recommend OpenVPN protocol with AES-256 bit, Camellia 256-bit, Cast 512-bit and BlowFish 512-bit. We also offer StealthVPN as additional layer of security on top of Open VPN which makes it virtually impossible for ISPs to recognize OpenVPN protocol, throttle it or block. StealthVPN allows connections to any port of user choice (1-65535), both UDP and TCP. We support DNS leak protection and kill switches.
11. Do you use your own DNS servers? (if not, which servers do you use?)
…
12. Do you have physical control over your VPN servers and network or are they outsourced and hosted by a third party (if so, which ones)? Where are your servers located?
We run our own network of VPN servers in 54 countries which we have full control over.
Our mission is to protect users privacy online, therefore we don’t keep logs.
2. Under what jurisdiction(s) does your company operate?
Our company is registered in Seychelles so it’s virtually impossible or very complicated to get any data about our customers through legal system.
3. What tools are used to monitor and mitigate abuse of your service?
…
4. Do you use any external email providers (e.g. Google Apps) or support tools ( e.g Live support, Zendesk) that hold information provided by users?
All the tools we use are proprietary. We use our own email servers and helpdesk software for communication with customers.
5. In the event you receive a DMCA takedown notice or European equivalent, how are these handled?
P2P applications are allowed on our network, on designated servers, where DMCA complaints from copyright trolls are trashed.
6. What steps are taken when a valid court order requires your company to identify an active user of your service? Has this ever happened?
We have not received any properly filed legal request to date about disclosing information about our customers. The exact procedure is determined by our attorneys.
7. Does your company have a warrant canary or a similar solution to alert customers to gag orders?
…
8. Is BitTorrent and other file-sharing traffic allowed on all servers? If not, why?
We provide servers with P2P applications support and on these servers P2P complaints are, as legally invalid, trashed.
9. Which payment systems do you use and how are these linked to individual user accounts?
We accept many payment methods, all credit cards, paypal, alipay, perfect money and bitcoin are just some of popular methods we support.
10. What is the most secure VPN connection and encryption algorithm you would recommend to your users? Do you provide tools such as “kill switches” if a connection drops and DNS leak protection?
For best security we recommend OpenVPN protocol with AES-256 bit, Camellia 256-bit, Cast 512-bit and BlowFish 512-bit. We also offer StealthVPN as additional layer of security on top of Open VPN which makes it virtually impossible for ISPs to recognize OpenVPN protocol, throttle it or block. StealthVPN allows connections to any port of user choice (1-65535), both UDP and TCP. We support DNS leak protection and kill switches.
11. Do you use your own DNS servers? (if not, which servers do you use?)
…
12. Do you have physical control over your VPN servers and network or are they outsourced and hosted by a third party (if so, which ones)? Where are your servers located?
We run our own network of VPN servers in 54 countries which we have full control over.
1. Do you keep ANY logs which would allow you to match an IP-address and a time stamp to a user of your service? If so, exactly what information do you hold and for how long?
We do not log, period. This includes, but is not limited to, any traffic data, DNS data or meta (session) data. Privacy IS our policy.
2. Under what jurisdiction(s) does your company operate?
We choose to operate in the US in order to provide no logging service, as there is no mandatory data retention law in the US. Additionally, our beloved clients are given access to some of the strongest consumer protection laws, and thus, are able to purchase with confidence.
3. What tools are used to monitor and mitigate abuse of your service?
We do not monitor our users, period. That said, we have a proprietary system in place to help mitigate abuse.
4. Do you use any external email providers (e.g. Google Apps) or support tools ( e.g Live support, Zendesk) that hold information provided by users?
We utilize SendGrid as an external mailing system and encourage users to create an anonymous e-mail when signing up depending on their adversarial risk level. Our support system is in-house as we utilize Kayako.
5. In the event you receive a DMCA takedown notice or European equivalent, how are these handled?
We have a proprietary system in place that allows us to comply in full with DMCA takedown notices without disrupting our users’ privacy. Because we do not log our users’ activities in order to protect and respect their privacy, we are unable to identify particular users that may be infringing the lawful copyrights of others.
6. What steps are taken when a valid court order requires your company to identify an active user of your service? Has this ever happened?
We do not log and therefore are unable to provide information about any users of our service. We have not, to date, been served with a valid court order that has required us to provide something we do not have.
7. Does your company have a warrant canary or a similar solution to alert customers to gag orders?
We do not have a warrant canary in place at this time as the concept of a warrant canary is, in fact, flawed at this time, or in other words, is “security theater.”
8. Is BitTorrent and other file-sharing traffic allowed on all servers? If not, why?
We do not attempt to filter, monitor, censor or interfere in our users’ activity in any way, shape or form. BitTorrent is, by definition, allowed.
9. Which payment systems do you use and how are these linked to individual user accounts?
We utilize a variety of payment systems including, but not limited to, PayPal, Stripe, Amazon, Google, Bitcoin, Stellar, CashU, Ripple, Most Major Store Bought Gift card, PIA Gift cards (available in retail stores for “cash”), and more. We utilize a hashing system to keep track of payments and credit them properly while ensuring the strongest levels of privacy for our users.
10. What is the most secure VPN connection and encryption algorithm you would recommend to your users? Do you provide tools such as “kill switches” if a connection drops and DNS leak protection?
The most secure VPN connection and encryption algorithm that we would recommend to our users would be our suite of AES-256, RSA 4096 and SHA1 or 256. However, AES-128 should still be considered quite safe. For users of Private Internet Access specifically, we offer addon tools to help ensure our beloved clients’ privacies including:
– Kill Switch : Ensures that traffic is only routed through the VPN such that if the VPN connection is unexpectedly terminated, the traffic would simply not be routed.
– IPv6 Leak Protection : Protects clients from websites which may include IPv6 embeds which could leak IPv6 IP information.
– DNS Leak Protection : This is built in and ensures that DNS requests are made through the VPN on a safe, private no-log DNS daemon.
– Shared IP System : We mix clients’ traffic with many clients’ traffic through the use of an anonymous shared-IP system ensuring that our users blend in with the crowd.
11. Do you use your own DNS servers? (if not, which servers do you use?)
We are currently using our own DNS caching.
12. Do you have physical control over your VPN servers and network or are they outsourced and hosted by a third party (if so, which ones)? Where are your servers located?
We utilize third party datacenters that are operated by trusted friends and, now, business partners who we have met and completed our due diligence on. Our servers are located in: USA, Canada, UK, Switzerland, Amsterdam, Sweden, Paris, Germany, Romania, Hong Kong, Israel, Australia and Japan. We have over 2,000 servers deployed at the time of writing with over 1,000 in manufacture/shipment at this time.
We do not log, period. This includes, but is not limited to, any traffic data, DNS data or meta (session) data. Privacy IS our policy.
2. Under what jurisdiction(s) does your company operate?
We choose to operate in the US in order to provide no logging service, as there is no mandatory data retention law in the US. Additionally, our beloved clients are given access to some of the strongest consumer protection laws, and thus, are able to purchase with confidence.
3. What tools are used to monitor and mitigate abuse of your service?
We do not monitor our users, period. That said, we have a proprietary system in place to help mitigate abuse.
4. Do you use any external email providers (e.g. Google Apps) or support tools ( e.g Live support, Zendesk) that hold information provided by users?
We utilize SendGrid as an external mailing system and encourage users to create an anonymous e-mail when signing up depending on their adversarial risk level. Our support system is in-house as we utilize Kayako.
5. In the event you receive a DMCA takedown notice or European equivalent, how are these handled?
We have a proprietary system in place that allows us to comply in full with DMCA takedown notices without disrupting our users’ privacy. Because we do not log our users’ activities in order to protect and respect their privacy, we are unable to identify particular users that may be infringing the lawful copyrights of others.
6. What steps are taken when a valid court order requires your company to identify an active user of your service? Has this ever happened?
We do not log and therefore are unable to provide information about any users of our service. We have not, to date, been served with a valid court order that has required us to provide something we do not have.
7. Does your company have a warrant canary or a similar solution to alert customers to gag orders?
We do not have a warrant canary in place at this time as the concept of a warrant canary is, in fact, flawed at this time, or in other words, is “security theater.”
8. Is BitTorrent and other file-sharing traffic allowed on all servers? If not, why?
We do not attempt to filter, monitor, censor or interfere in our users’ activity in any way, shape or form. BitTorrent is, by definition, allowed.
9. Which payment systems do you use and how are these linked to individual user accounts?
We utilize a variety of payment systems including, but not limited to, PayPal, Stripe, Amazon, Google, Bitcoin, Stellar, CashU, Ripple, Most Major Store Bought Gift card, PIA Gift cards (available in retail stores for “cash”), and more. We utilize a hashing system to keep track of payments and credit them properly while ensuring the strongest levels of privacy for our users.
10. What is the most secure VPN connection and encryption algorithm you would recommend to your users? Do you provide tools such as “kill switches” if a connection drops and DNS leak protection?
The most secure VPN connection and encryption algorithm that we would recommend to our users would be our suite of AES-256, RSA 4096 and SHA1 or 256. However, AES-128 should still be considered quite safe. For users of Private Internet Access specifically, we offer addon tools to help ensure our beloved clients’ privacies including:
– Kill Switch : Ensures that traffic is only routed through the VPN such that if the VPN connection is unexpectedly terminated, the traffic would simply not be routed.
– IPv6 Leak Protection : Protects clients from websites which may include IPv6 embeds which could leak IPv6 IP information.
– DNS Leak Protection : This is built in and ensures that DNS requests are made through the VPN on a safe, private no-log DNS daemon.
– Shared IP System : We mix clients’ traffic with many clients’ traffic through the use of an anonymous shared-IP system ensuring that our users blend in with the crowd.
11. Do you use your own DNS servers? (if not, which servers do you use?)
We are currently using our own DNS caching.
12. Do you have physical control over your VPN servers and network or are they outsourced and hosted by a third party (if so, which ones)? Where are your servers located?
We utilize third party datacenters that are operated by trusted friends and, now, business partners who we have met and completed our due diligence on. Our servers are located in: USA, Canada, UK, Switzerland, Amsterdam, Sweden, Paris, Germany, Romania, Hong Kong, Israel, Australia and Japan. We have over 2,000 servers deployed at the time of writing with over 1,000 in manufacture/shipment at this time.
