VPN Services

so I posted last month about how split tunneling was messing up my connection. got a bunch of replies saying just use wireguard its faster. but im traveling in southeast asia right now and wireguard just straight up fails on some networks here like ports blocked or something. had to switch to openvpn tcp which is slower but at least it connects. did some quick tests on hotel wifi and a cafe with kinda dodgy signals. wireguard udp gave me like 90mbps when it was working but kept dropping. openvpn udp was worse than tcp here kinda weird. iikev2 actually held up ok latency wise but the conv rate dropped a bit compared to wireguard when it was stable. so basically my take now is you gotta have configs for at least 2 protocols ready before you travel especially if you change countries. everyone says wireguard is the go-to for everything but real world travel networks are messy. what protocol combos you guys using in your travel toolkit? still chasing that perfect balance. keep your logs clean peeps.

so i posted about VPN speed tests before but i wanna focus on protocols now. tested OpenVPN, WireGuard, IKEv2 on same server, same time, same ISP. wireguard won most of the time in speed, lower latency too. openvpn was slower, more stable sometimes but laggy. IKEv2 kinda middle ground but not as fast as wireguard. the real question is do you pick protocol based on speed or security? tbh speed matters more for streaming or gaming but security for privacy. anyone tested newer protocols? worth switching?

sooo ive been using mullvad for a while and tbh its kinda slept on. setup is stupid easy just generate an account no email needed and u can pay with crypto if you want. they keep no logs no leaks, it runs on wireguard which is fast and secure. speeds are good for streaming or torrenting never had throttling issues. best part they have a self-hosted thing if u want full control over everything. perfect if youre paranoid about data but still need a vpn that works. like a quiet hero for privacy geeks trying to dodge the big corp trackers

okay so my self-hosted wireguard setup on a vps has been running smooth for like 6 months. Cheap digital ocean droplet, my own keys, all good. But I just realized something dumb. I was checking the system logs on the server for an unrelated issue and saw a ton of connection entries with timestamps and IPs. Not from wireguard itself but from the OS like auth logs and stuff. This is supposed to be my privacy setup right? But if the vps provider gets a subpoena or something, they can just hand over those system logs even though I'm not logging in wireguard config. Am I being paranoid or did I mess up by not considering this? Should I be wiping logs daily with a cron job? Seen some scripts but not sure if that's enough or if it looks sus. Also fwiw my speeds are killer, pulling down 850 mbps consistently which is why I don't wanna ditch this setup for a commercial vpn with worse performance. But at what cost lol. Stay frosty.

So I've seen way too many folks just throwing out generic advice about VPNs like they're all the same and it's all about speed or some fancy protocol. Yeah, sure, speed matters but when it comes to corporate VPNs vs consumer VPNs, it's a whole different beast. I got a client who was using a free consumer VPN for their work stuff and it turned into a nightmare. They got hacked, data leak, all because they didn't realize the VPN they used for work wasn't built for that level of security. Corporate VPNs are supposed to have tighter controls, encryption, audits, but most of the consumer ones just kinda slap a label on and call it a day. And the worst part? People just assume their cheap VPN is enough for sensitive stuff. It's not. I've seen it firsthand how a simple breach can lead to data exposure and serious damage. Just wanna say, don't be lazy with security. Know what's behind that VPN, test it, make sure it's legit. Otherwise, you're leaving your network wide open for some idiot with a scanner. How many of you have actually checked the privacy policies or did some leak tests on your VPNs? Lmao.

tbh im so done with this. Just burned a whole campaign pushing 'perfect streaming vpn'. Clients wanted netflix ads, thought i had the solution (spoiler: i didnt). Used one of the big names (not gonna say which (but you can guess)). Their site says 'works with netflix' and it did. for like a week? Then conv just died. Netflix caught on. Spent weeks trying different servers, protocols (openvpn, wireguard), all garbage. Got 100s of clicks, zero actual unlocks after that. The real warning? Most vpn reviews are paid placements afaik. They talk about speeds and privacy but never mention the cat-and-mouse game with streaming sites. If you're running paid traffic for this niche, either test EVERY day or find another offer ngl

honestly using mullvad for a bit now and honestly it's kinda underrated. they're all about privacy and keeping it simple - no logs, solid encryption, taking crypto is a plus too. setup is stupid easy just get a number and you're good no email or anything. but i think ppl sleep on it cause it doesn't have all the extra features like the big guys do

ok so i was messing around with some VPNs to try and watch Netflix w/o lag and all those annoying blocks. did a few tests, here's the deal. ExpressVPN was solid for me like 50-60 mbps on US UK Canada servers, 4K worked fine no stuttering. NordVPN was pretty close, 45-55 usually but some servers kinda sucked for HD. Surfshark? total hit or miss - sometimes got 20-30 mbps so buffering happened a lot lol. tried a couple free ones too and man they were so bad i just quit. honestly it feels like the server location and how busy it is matters more than just the brand. also protocols make a difference, I used OpenVPN and WireGuard and wireguard was way faster most of the time. what about you guys? which vpn actually works for netflix without being a huge pain

So I've been messing around with a VPN lately for when I travel and wanna watch stuff back home or access regional sites. Tried a couple but man it's a mess sometimes. Speed drops hard, servers get crowded, or the connection just cuts out mid-show. Protocol-wise I stick to WireGuard mostly, but even that can be weird on mobile. Privacy's a concern too, I wanna avoid any laggy streams or weird data leaks. Anyone got a fave for reliable streaming and decent speed? Or maybe a trick to get around geo-blocks without sacrificing too much speed? Ymmv but I swear some services just work better abroad, while others are kinda useless outside the US or Europe.

finally got a multi-hop setup working with Netflix US from Europe lol. but man the speed drop is insane. just wanna share some real data and see if anyone else has played around with this. been testing for like two weeks, using NordVPN's double VPN thing and also a self-hosted chain with WireGuard on two VPS's. Nord double (OpenVPN to OpenVPN) gave me about 45% of my normal speed. self-hosted WireGuard to WireGuard was better, maybe 65%. but here's the weird part - Netflix still worked totally fine on both, no buffering on 1080p. for privacy freaks maybe it's worth it? for just unblocking stuff tho it feels way over the top smh. anyone else got real numbers on streaming with multi-hop? does the extra hop even matter if the exit node is in some "clean" place?

Okay so you want to torrent and you're looking at all those shiny "no logs" claims. Here's the brutal truth. An audit report is just a snapshot, some consultant saying 'yup their code looks good'. Means nothing if the provider hasn't been tested in court. Like actual law enforcement shows up with a warrant and the VPN says 'sorry we have nothing to give you'. That's the real test. I've had clients get nasty letters when using big name vpns that promised no logs but operated out of five eyes countries. The ones that hold up are usually based in jurisdictions with zero data retention laws, think Panama or British Virgin Islands. And even then you gotta check their TOS for sneaky clauses about throttling p2p traffic or limiting ports. My current setup for heavy stuff? Mullvad on a port forwarded server, paid with cash lol. Their whole anonymous signup thing is solid and they've proven they have nothing to hand over. Speeds are consistent too, no weird drops during peak hours which is critical for large files smh.

so i posted about fingerprinting before. sites still catch me, even with random browsers and diff VPNs (like rotating between mullvad/proton/surfshark). tried the raspi openVPN setup too but they still flag me as 'anonymous VPN' on some banking/login pages. anyone got a workaround thats actually working now? need something that doesnt look like a commercial VPN IP pool. not gonna run my own VPS forever just for this.

yo yo so i fell into this whole vpn rabbit hole trying to decide if router vpn beats just using the app on my phone or laptop. tbh its kinda driving me nuts rn. like i pay for a decent vpn but swapping devices and unblocking streaming sites is a total pain. read up on it tried both setups and here's the thing. router vpn seems neat cause it covers all your stuff at once no installing everywhere. but the speed tanks sometimes and i get random lag spikes. also switching regions means messing with router settings again which sucks. the vpn app? faster speeds, way easier to switch servers, but you have to install and log in on every single device. so idk is it even worth the hassle? i just wanna watch netflix from other countries without buffering but also not go crazy setting this stuff up all day. anyone figure this out yet? which one actually gives smoother streaming and better geo-unblocking? im all ears rn close to yeeting my router out the window

been trying to set up openvpn on my pi. followed a bunch of tutorials but speeds are complete trash like 10mbps max even wired. what am i missing here? messed with configs tried different protocols still slow af. idk why its so damn slow. anyone have a solid setup that actually works fast? tbh i want decent speeds for streaming torrenting not this sluggish crap. every guide i find feels outdated or just garbage.

Hey everyone, so I've been messing around with OpenVPN on my Raspberry Pi, trying to get a kinda DIY VPN going. Thought it would be a cheap way to boost privacy and do some torrenting without risking my main setup. I tried a few providers that say they support OpenVPN and are good for self-hosted stuff but man, I hit a wall real quick. Some of them are actually kinda shady about speeds and privacy. Like I tested a couple, and one kept dropping connections every hour or so, which is NOT cool when you're trying to stream or torrent. Another thing is, some say they support 'full logs' and then pretend they don't, which feels lowkey suspicious. The worst part is, a lot of these providers don't give clear info on protocols or how they handle logs, so I ended up wasting time and money. If you're thinking of setting this up, BE WARNED not all VPNs are reliable for this kinda DIY setup, and some might even mess with your privacy more than help. Anyone else run into weird issues or good solid options I might've missed? Wonder if I should just go with a known provider but pay extra for that peace of mind.

Been messing with setting up an OpenVPN server on my Pi for a while now and gotta say, the protocol choice really affects performance. I ran some tests last week. Using UDP with OpenVPN gave me around 70 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload on my 100 Mbps line. Switched to TCP and it dropped to 55 Mbps down, 18 up. Not a huge difference for streaming but noticeable. I also played with different cipher settings, default AES-256 still held up well, no noticeable lag, but I did bump it to AES-128 for slightly faster connections and honestly couldn't tell. Privacy-wise, I like OpenVPN's open-source nature and how flexible it is with configs. Plus, I set up custom firewalls on the Pi so I only open the ports I want, keeps it tighter. Streaming and torrenting are pretty smooth on UDP, no issues with Netflix or heavy torrent use, as long as I tweak the MTU a bit. Curious anyone else running OpenVPN on Pi and what protocols or settings you're using? ymmv but I wanna know what's working best for speed and privacy combo

just got back from a 3 month gig outta Shenzhen did a bunch of speed and connection tests on different services cause the marketing claims are just nuts. here's what i actually saw tested 4 big providers over a month. success rate for the first connection was all over the place. provider a had like 92% success using their obfuscated servers but speeds dropped to like 30% of my normal on a good day. provider b was more like 70% success but faster when it did connect, maybe 50% of normal. you gotta have multiple configs ready - i had wireguard, openvpn tcp on 443, and their stealth protocol all set up. if you go, don't just rely on one app. grab the config files, set up manual connections. the app might not even download once you get there. also, residential ip proxies are worth checking out for some cases but they cost more. for just access, my setup was a travel router with 3 different vpn profiles loaded. swapped them every day. annoying but it worked. total monthly cost for two solid services was like 25 bucks.

ugh gotta vent real quick. tried all these protocols for streaming and omg what a mess. figured wireguard would be fast and secure right? nope totally depends on the server, sometimes it's fine other times buffering like crazy or just blocked. openvpn? stable yeah but so slow rn like painfully slow. ikev2? speed is okay but the geo-unblocking sucks. i'm constantly swapping servers and protocols and nothing ever works consistently. every vpn seems to have its own trick for streaming stuff and it never lasts. you finally get a good server then boom connection dies or you get that "not available" error. anyone else over this? feels like i need a whole IT degree just to watch netflix without stress. tbh don't just go by the protocol name, gotta test your vpn first. this is such a nightmare.

ugh i am so over spending cash on vpns that act amazing but give you garbage speeds or lowkey keep logs anyway. just heard black friday sales are coming and i'm like okay but is this legit or just more hype. everyone's talking it up but are they actually cheaper AND good? i see sites claiming like half off but then what if the speed is trash or they're still logging stuff lol. i want to grab one but also dont want to get ripped off again. did anyone try these deals last year? were they actually cheaper or just some trick. i really just need a vpn that's fast, private, works for streaming and torrenting without costing a ton. this year i wanna snag smth solid but i'm so done with empty promises. someone tell me if i should wait or buy now haha

Alright I'm about to bounce for a month in SEA and EU, need solid geo-unblocking for work and shows. My go-to Express worked fine at home but died last trip in Japan - Netflix US just wouldn't load after day 3. So looking at maybe Surfshark or Proton for this run. What I really need are real conv rates with foreign servers - not just connection speed but actual successful stream starts. I'll be testing WireGuard on mobile mostly. If you've got recent data on which providers actually maintain consistent access to like HBO Max, Prime Video, Disney+ from abroad drop the numbers. Bonus points if you know battery drain stats for long sessions. Catch ya.