What's a good VPN to use?
Mullvad
Why? Police tried to raid their offices and seize user data, but they were unable to do so. Why? Mullvad does not keep any user data.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/21/23692580/mullvad-vpn-raid-sweden-police
Discussion
I tried to use mulvad, specifically as a blanket VPN on a router. Here is what I found:
1. Not great for streaming services. They just know you're on VPN and block you. You must whitelist a bunch of URLs, some which seem unrelated which tends to defeat the purpose.
2. Not sure why, but my internet was SLOOW. I was configured to connect to a local server but the speed was less than a 10th of the original speed.
It would be good to understand how people use their VPNs, if not blanket, then how and if blanket, then what services do you give up?
You're right. For someone that's looking to use a blanket VPN for all of their services at the router level, maybe their best bet would be to buy a VPS with bitcoin and then setup Wireguard.
What is Wireguard? Mullvad's setup guides keep mentioning it, but I don't know what it does on top of Mullvad.
Wireguard is a VPN protocol that's supported by Mullvad if you wish to use it.
Excuse my ignorance, but isn't Mullvad a VPN already? What does using Wireguard with it accomplish?
Just like TCP and UDP are protocols used for the internet, OpenVPN and Wireguard are protocols used for VPN.
TCP is used mostly for serving websites, UDP is used more for gaming online.
OpenVPN and Wireguard are competing technologies, but Wireguard is objectively better except in terms of compatibility, OpenVPN is older and much more supported across the internet.
Do you have a recommendation for a privacy focused VPS? I hear aws based ones are problematic due to the virtual nature of them and how aws can inject spyware into the layers below.
I’ve been happy with Proton so far. I know there’s all this stuff in the news about them giving info when subpoenaed but I have a different use case for it. Just don’t want servers and relays to see my ip and don’t want google reading my emails
I have a great experience with Mullvad. When I'm downloading Linux distro images over torrents I'm at 60MB/s speeds...
ExpressVPN is good too. They don’t keep any user data too. Has a lot more features, supports more devices and wider coverage in terms of protocol, encryption, etc. Haven’t had any issues with it so far.
I’ve been (ab)using PIA for like decade and I’ve never had any unwanted attention.
I use it at the router for my entire lan. I send browsing traffic through one of three tunnels, iot traffic through another and finally video streaming through one of their dedicated streaming servers.
Haven’t been blocked yet.
And you can pay with Monero or Bitcoin.
Don't fall for the scam YouTube VPN ads they are all terrible. Majority of them keep logs. Mullvad doesn't get it at Mullvad.net nostr:npub168euw93e4cam59llcmydav0akwjk2p4nfy3p85pn22xv9y2jxuzq4s9uaw
I use Mullvad, but do find it can be glitchy with certain web pages. ( corrects when I switch it off, but that defeats the purpose of VPN if I have to deactivate it. )
Usually when an image is attached, it can often need a page refresh to get the graphics.
Also Youtube will ask me to reconnect to the internet after a period - an irritant, yes, but an irritant nonetheless when running a playlist and it just pauses.
Very happy with IVPN too, no user data at all and crypto friendly! 😎
I used mullvad when Brazilian government banned telegram. Just paid with crypto, no need for registration or anything. Worked like a charm
What scenario are you needing to use a VPN anyway? HTTPS encrypts internet traffic.
+1
Mullvad orIVPN
If you cant use Mullvad what would be your alternative?