VPN - which one to use?

[films&games]

Hi,

I am just wondering what VPN to use on my PC and other connected devices, e.g. ExpressVPN or Nord VPN?

Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated, please.

Thank you.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Hi,

I am just wondering what VPN to use on my PC and other connected devices, e.g. ExpressVPN or Nord VPN.

Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated, please.

Thank you.

Nord VPN is generally considered the ultimate for security, but not necessarily speeds.

 

[Grumpywurzel]

Currently using Express VPN, download cap is about 80mbps. Have been recommended Surfshark VPN as good and cheap. Believe Nord VPN comes out as top of the class but it's pricey

 

[SpyderTracks]

Currently using Express VPN, download cap is about 80mbps. Have been recommended Surfshark VPN as good and cheap. Believe Nord VPN comes out as top of the class but it's pricey

It’s not actually very pricey at all cos they’re almost always doing rediculous deals. I’ve been using it for about 5 years and never paid over £3 a month.

At the moment it’s 70% off

NordVPN’s Black Friday deal

The biggest VPN sale of the year is here. This Black Friday, save big and get 3 extra months when you buy the world's leading VPN.

nordvpn.com

 

[Grumpywurzel]

It’s not actually very pricey at all cos they’re almost always doing rediculous deals. I’ve been using it for about 5 years and never paid over £3 a month.

At the moment it’s 70% off

NordVPN’s Black Friday deal

The biggest VPN sale of the year is here. This Black Friday, save big and get 3 extra months when you buy the world's leading VPN.

nordvpn.com

You can get the costs down mate, think to under three quid of three years. Unfortunately you've got to pay up front fully, which is fine if you are 100% certain that it's the vpn for you

 

[SpyderTracks]

You can get the costs down mate, think to under three quid of three years. Unfortunately you've got to pay up front fully, which is fine if you are 100% certain that it's the vpn for you

Then just pay for a month to evaluate. Simples.

 

[SpyderTracks]

The thing to take into account with a VPN is what you’re using it for:

1. if you’re just using it to mask your IP and for speed, then just try them all out and see which one is best.

2. if you’re looking for security and true anonymity, there are only a handful that aren’t relegated by local laws to provide your full web history and download logs to local governments.

Nord are based in Panama who are not bound by the 5 Eyes law to hand over historical data to governments and ISP’s. This has been attempted by various governments and Nord have always held their ground successfully.

NordVPN - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

ExpressVPN are in the British Virgin Islands and also not held liable by the 5 Eyes.

I’d say try them each for a month and see how you get on.

 

[moosEh]

I picked up Nord on one of the crazy deals, shame the price they quote doesn't include VAT so the 3 years ends up costing about £115 inc VAT. Also managed to use one of my youtuber's promo codes so got an extra month added on.

The user interface on the desktop app, firefox app and iPhone app all seem very intuitive. I have had some random issues when using it, sometimes my bank apps don't want to open (probably for security) and Just eat does not like the Servers I was connecting to.

 

[Tony1044]

I use both nord and Express vpn

They are very similar. Both have apps, both can use open ooenvpn if you wanted to use, say, openwrt.

Both are similar in terms of performance.

Nord, however, are in the process of rolling out wireguard which is a very light (4,000 lines or code) adaptive UDP based protocol which promises to be very fast.

In a nutshell you won't really go wrong with either.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Nord, however, are in the process of rolling out wireguard which is a very light (4,000 lines or code) adaptive UDP based protocol which promises to be very fast.

I was reading about this yesterday as I saw the new network adapter which I hadn’t seen before. Looks very interesting, pretty groundbreaking actually.

 

[Tony1044]

I was reading about this yesterday as I saw the new network adapter which I hadn’t seen before. Looks very interesting, pretty groundbreaking actually.

The irony for me is that Nord support it (kind of) and OpenWRT supports it with a couple of package installs. The downside is that support from Nord is currently limited to their own application, so no configuration/configuration files available yet. I'd love to test it.

 

[SpyderTracks]

The irony for me is that Nord support it (kind of) and OpenWRT supports it with a couple of package installs. The downside is that support from Nord is currently limited to their own application, so no configuration/configuration files available yet. I'd love to test it.

On mine there’s a setting in the Nord app to enable it and it’s preinstalled by default with the latest install:

Using NordLynx in the NordVPN app - Windows

NordLynx is the technology we built around the WireGuard® protocol. It lets you experience WireGuard’s speed benefits without compromising your privacy. On Windows 7 and 8.1: Install the NordVPN ...

support.nordvpn.com

They do stress it’s still in beta though.

 

[Tony1044]

OpenWRT is router software. It's based on a very cut down Linux.

 

[SpyderTracks]

OpenWRT is router software. It's based on a very cut down Linux.

Oh sorry, yeah to apply it to the router rather than just the PC. Yes that would be very helpful. It sounds like there’s a lot of backing behind development for this as sounds a very promising technology. I’m sure it won’t be long before they have router support.

 

[Tony1044]

Yeah I have a pair of (virtualised) routers based on OpenWRT that allow me to do a lot of things like being able to connect to internally hosted servers as though I were off the network.

It also means I can test things like geoblocking etc are working, by connecting to another country.

And means if I want to add an extra layer of privacy, I can, just by using a different gateway.

It also nicely sidesteps the 6 device limit and Nord and Express are both fine with it.

I think the future is definitely wireguard over openvpn.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Yeah I have a pair of (virtualised) routers based on OpenWRT that allow me to do a lot of things like being able to connect to internally hosted servers as though I were off the network.

It also means I can test things like geoblocking etc are working, by connecting to another country.

And means if I want to add an extra layer of privacy, I can, just by using a different gateway.

It also nicely sidesteps the 6 device limit and Nord and Express are both fine with it.

I think the future is definitely wireguard over openvpn.

Oooo, I might have to PM you on that, that sounds extremely handy to have, I could do with setting something like that up even if just to learn the technologies!

 

[Tony1044]

Oooo, I might have to PM you on that, that sounds extremely handy to have, I could do with setting something like that up even if just to learn the technologies!

By all means. I can probably upload a sanitised VM for you to download if it helps.

Basically though, I built a generation-1 VM with 512MB RAM and 4 vCPUs and used the files for the x86 build on OpenWRT and used the Nord instructions here: https://nordvpn.com/tutorials/openwrt/openvpn/

 

[SpyderTracks]

By all means. I can probably upload a sanitised VM for you to download if it helps.

Basically though, I built a generation-1 VM with 512MB RAM and 4 vCPUs and used the files for the x86 build on OpenWRT and used the Nord instructions here: https://nordvpn.com/tutorials/openwrt/openvpn/

You legend, thank you. If you do have any method of sharing the VM that would be great for initial viewing, I should really look into setting one up from scratch so I understand the workings behind it.

 

[iTuMoRz]

On mine there’s a setting in the Nord app to enable it and it’s preinstalled by default with the latest install:

Using NordLynx in the NordVPN app - Windows

NordLynx is the technology we built around the WireGuard® protocol. It lets you experience WireGuard’s speed benefits without compromising your privacy. On Windows 7 and 8.1: Install the NordVPN ...

support.nordvpn.com

They do stress it’s still in beta though.

Are you sure we can still call this a beta when everyone is mentionning that's not ? (Multiple sources are stating the opposite - https://www.techradar.com/news/nordvpn-rolls-out-wireguard-across-all-its-platforms - https://the-bestvpn.com/nordlynx-protocol-nordvpn/)

Their beta was apparently made available in July of last year: https://nordvpn.com/fr/blog/nordlynx-protocol-wireguard/

Someone has been able to test it already ? Because it seems that there are many biased reviews on the web about it.... But not real facts.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Are you sure we can still call this a beta when everyone is mentionning that's not ? (Multiple sources are stating the opposite - https://www.techradar.com/news/nordvpn-rolls-out-wireguard-across-all-its-platforms - https://the-bestvpn.com/nordlynx-protocol-nordvpn/)

Their beta was apparently made available in July of last year: https://nordvpn.com/fr/blog/nordlynx-protocol-wireguard/

Someone has been able to test it already ? Because it seems that there are many biased reviews on the web about it.... But not real facts.

Nord themselves state it’s still under heavy development and therefor will be buggy - that to me means beta:

Using NordLynx in the NordVPN app - Windows

NordLynx is the technology we built around the WireGuard® protocol. It lets you experience WireGuard’s speed benefits without compromising your privacy. On Windows 7 and 8.1: Install the NordVPN ...

support.nordvpn.com

I mean wireguard itself is still in beta not Nord Lynx which is how they’ve incorporated the standard into their platform.