Ask HN: What's the Best VPN Service These Days?

[rdegges]

So, I've been putting off moving all my network traffic for a VPN for way too long.

I was doing some googling, and it seems like there are essentially a ton of options in the space. Do any of you have a recommendation? I'd ideally like a provider that:

- Is fast (obviously). - Offers US support. - Doesn't log customer records. - Bit torrent friendly.

Any suggestions?

[sheraz]

I took the time to setup a small VPS from the lowendtalk[1] forums and then installed

  * openvpn [2] (In ubuntu just apt-get install openvpn)
  * webmin [3]  
  * webmin openvpn module [4]

Next, In installed tunnelbrick[5] on my mac.

The above looks like a lot of work, but it only took about 30 minutes. I've been using it for over a year now and it works well.

-------

[1] - http://lowendtalk.com

[2] - http://openvpn.net/index.php/open-source/documentation/howto...

[3] - http://webmin.com

[4] - http://www.openit.it/index.php?option=com_content&view=s...

[5] - http://code.google.com/p/tunnelblick/

[mschuster91]

The most disturbing point on VPN services is that they all claim "we don't hold data on users and will not log/provide logs to law enforcement", but when they are confronted with the question "what do you do when law enforcement knocks with child pornography or lolicon accusations?" (lolicon is comic depiction of child porn. some places forbid it, like Germany, others allow it).

I haven't found a service yet that said "Nothing". The point is not that I want child porn, but rather: It's child porn today, and tomorrow it's "Criticizing the bankster regime" or anything other political.

[briHass]

It's an older article, but TorrentFreak did a review here: http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-providers-really-take-anon...

I like Torguard.net. Do you need a full VPN or just a BT proxy? The proxies are cheaper and may be more secure due to how many connections are sharing an IP. At that point, even if logs were collected, the volume of traffic would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

[rdegges → briHass]

I need a full VPN service. I travel a lot, and it would be nice to have fully encrypted point-to-point connections for working, etc.

Something that will work with videos, bittorrent, and for general web browsing, I suppose.

Thank you for this link. This helps a lot.

[Pyrodogg]

How about setting up your own? I run openvpn on my dd-wrt router from home. I can securely connect to it from pretty much anywhere. It gets you all of the availability without any of the logging.

The only thing it doesn't provide is an anonymous proxy endpoint, which I'd consider different than a request for a good VPN solution.

[_mocc]

I've been happily using boxvpn.com's (who don't collect logs, or so they say) SSTP service (China has blocked most/all PPTP and L2TP connections and peoples have to shift to SSTP), before that I was with strongvpn.com (who do collect logs).

[hnwebservices]

I've been using Private Tunnel which offers 50gb for $12. No monthly usage limits or anything.

I think they have a free tier which limits to 100mb.