Spec me a lifetime subscription VPN please

avi8 · 23 Feb 2017 at 20:34

Scope said:
No I havent had the time yet.. However I just tried PIA again (they have kindly given me a 1 weeks grace period) and unfortunately they speeds are still equally rubbish.. 2Mbps when connecting to FL/USA, 5Mbps to Norway.. Not fast enough to do anything really.

Wow 2Mbps, I will have to try one and report back. I would like at least 80Mbps or am I dreaming ?

Sparx · 23 Feb 2017 at 23:50

Surprised no one has mentioned AirVPN yet. Fantastic service, reasonably priced, server capacity is brilliant from experience.

No logging etc. Used a 70Mb connection and experienced no slowdowns ever, maybe 1-2Mb loss at best...

RoyMi6 · 24 Feb 2017 at 08:12

My friend was trying PIA the other day - I was asking about his speeds and he's getting 70Mbps on usual 73Mbps connection...

maj · 24 Feb 2017 at 09:29

Not that these VPN providers will be untrustworthy, but how do those using one pay for their subscription? Direct debit or paypal? Tempted to give PIA a go after the good things I've heard.

RoyMi6 · 24 Feb 2017 at 14:01

Personally I'd look for one that accepts bitcoin.

Regardless of your use of a VPN the entire premise is security of your personal data.

Scope · 24 Feb 2017 at 21:23

avi8 said:
Hi,
Have you found a VPN that gives you a decent speed I'm also on virgin.

I did some testing this afternoon with a free trial account I've set up with NordVPN, these are my findings compared to PIA
(Ran at the same time, both connecting to the particular country and using speedtest.net for speed testing):

NordVPN:
UK: 51/12
france: 50/11
sweden: 43/11
germany: 50/11
US East Coast: 31/11

PIA:
uk: 22/11
france: 10/10
Sweden: 11/10
germany: 4/3
US East: 7/8

This is on a 200Mbps Virgin line which normally gets me 220/12Mbps on speedtest.net..

Im not saying NordVPN is the better VPN provider, but in my tests so far they have come out far better than PIA.

MarkLP · 24 Feb 2017 at 21:47

+1 AirVPN sits around 72mb on a 76mb connection. No logging, options on choosing best server etc.

kingy666 · 24 Feb 2017 at 22:05

I have just paid £33 for a years PIA and ran a speedtest connected to Southampton server with my 150Mbps virgin connection.

I got 153Mbps down and 9.8 up when using PIA VPN

Scope · 25 Feb 2017 at 16:26

kingy666 said:
I have just paid £33 for a years PIA and ran a speedtest connected to Southampton server with my 150Mbps virgin connection.

I got 153Mbps down and 9.8 up when using PIA VPN

Out of interest, which Virgin hub are you using? Im getting nowhere near those speeds when I try, and I am on 200mb Virgin as well..

kingy666 · 26 Feb 2017 at 22:17

Scope said:
Out of interest, which Virgin hub are you using? Im getting nowhere near those speeds when I try, and I am on 200mb Virgin as well..

I have the superhub 2ac. I have always had a good connection with virgin (and telewest before virgin took over). Not sure if it is to do with the virgin cabinet is only 50ft up the street and my street does not have many people on virgin as most are on sky.

Scope · 27 Feb 2017 at 11:16

kingy666 said:
I have the superhub 2ac. I have always had a good connection with virgin (and telewest before virgin took over). Not sure if it is to do with the virgin cabinet is only 50ft up the street and my street does not have many people on virgin as most are on sky.

My connection is usually very good.. but when I get 200+ on speedtest using direct connection, and 10 using VPN (when others tell me they are getting close to max) I have to start to wonder what is causing it.

I have tested both PIA and NordVPN over the weekend, and neither are impressing me..

Im using Super Hub3 - I wonder if thats got anything to do with it? Although I suspect not, as it is delivery top speeds on other things.

ChrisD. · 27 Feb 2017 at 13:45

@Scope what hardware are you testing on?

Scope · 27 Feb 2017 at 13:52

ChrisD. said:
@Scope what hardware are you testing on?

Funny you should ask.

I've just started going down that route as well..

Desktop:
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 965 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.40GHz

Media Center:
Raspberry Pi 2, Model B.

On the desktop I have not seen above 50Mbos.. On the RPi2 not above 20Mbps..

Having done some research into the RPi2 that seems to be the max I am going to see from it using OpenVPN.. I started overclocking it yesterday and will run some more tests to see if it has improved things..

Surely the desktop should see faster speeds - even though it is fairly old hardware..?

ChrisD. · 27 Feb 2017 at 13:57

I don't know, but running VPN is CPU intensive, maybe try on some newer hardware?

meandu229 · 27 Feb 2017 at 14:01

Its also worth checking what type of VPN are you running. I know you can use various ones with PIA e.g openvpn, ipsec and such so maybe swith it up between them and test each?

Armadillo · 27 Feb 2017 at 15:04

Scope said:
Surely the desktop should see faster speeds - even though it is fairly old hardware..?

Desktop should be fine.

I have nordvpn and have it running on a x4 955 machine and it gets 68Mb. Not on Virgin though (bt infinity), 68Mb is about 2Mb off my max. So might hit a resource issue at higher speeds (I doubt it though, cpu usage is no where near max), but 68Mb is still 18Mb more than you have seen.

Nexy · 27 Feb 2017 at 15:52

I love PIA. Have you guys tried switching your settings in the PIA app? In theory, "Use small packets" and/or switching from UDP to TCP should be slower due to the increased overhead. But depending on your kit and more importantly your ISP, it can make a significant improvement to your speed. Test to see what works best for your setup. I especially find switching to TCP can sometimes avoid ISPs throttling you like a action-movie supervillain.

The1nonly1 · 4 Mar 2017 at 22:55

I've been looking for a VPN for a while now and after reading this thread, I have come across 4 that people have recommended. These are PureVPN, PIA, NordVPN and AirVPN. Out of these which would be the best to use on BT Infinity 1? I get roughly 26mb download on speedtest and 7mb upload.

siliconjim · 4 Mar 2017 at 23:07

The1nonly1 said:
I've been looking for a VPN for a while now and after reading this thread, I have come across 4 that people have recommended. These are PureVPN, PIA, NordVPN and AirVPN. Out of these which would be the best to use on BT Infinity 1? I get roughly 26mb download on speedtest and 7mb upload.

I've been using Nord VPN for about 8 months on BT infinity and I'm not entirely happy with it and I'm looking to change when my annual contracts up. When watching live streams, no matter which server, I get constant drop-outs. Shame really as they have good iOS, android and windows apps, which are really user friendly.

The1nonly1 · 5 Mar 2017 at 00:42

siliconjim said:
I've been using Nord VPN for about 8 months on BT infinity and I'm not entirely happy with it and I'm looking to change when my annual contracts up. When watching live streams, no matter which server, I get constant drop-outs. Shame really as they have good iOS, android and windows apps, which are really user friendly.

Pure VPN is looking the best from what I have read. They have a 3 day trial for $2.50. I may try it. Also, should I be paying in bitcoin or gift cards or is that a bit extreme?