Kol

Kol

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Out of interest do you guys route all of your traffic through VPN or do you have certain tasks in VMs (such as usenet and linux distros) just running through it?
 

maj

maj

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I route all traffic through PIA. Only been using it for a month but happy with their service so far. Might look at other options come renewal next year depending on what's on offer at the time though.
 
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i implement my Nord on my Pfsense firewall and it takes all the traffic through the VPN. the speed on Nord is great. good connectivity as well
 
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I’ve used both of them and to be honest they both have their ups and downs as any service does. PIA provides awesome support and reliable ‘no logs’ policy. But sometimes my connection speed has slowed down. Anyway, I prefer NordVPN. I usually connect to the nearest server, which never seems overloaded, so my connection speed remains unaffected. In addition, its app is more customized than PIA's in my opinion. I have a two-year subscription that I bought on a black Friday deal (here I usually find discounts from different VPNs). So, I have nothing to complain.
 
Soldato
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Your best time to look is when the Black Friday deals are on. A lot of the VPN providers at the last Black Friday event were offering some very nice deals, would have to check, but think i paid something as low as £38 for 2 years of Nord.
 
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I made an account with NordVPN but didn't buy a package. Since then, they keep sending me different offers. So far I have had 66% of yearly which makes it $48 and then $79 for a 2 year plan.
 
Soldato
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I have been with AirVPN for a while now and limit my connection of servers to those based in the UK. It had always been a very solid connection and I'm happy so far. They do tend to have a sale on now and again tho, that is when I topped up my account.

I once tried pfsense but I gave up on that and bought a R7800 at a good price.

All good but I need to figure out the opposite of policy routing, as I would like my NVR to route through the WAN and leave everything else through the VPN.
 
Soldato
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Been using PIA and very impressed with the App especially with teh split tunnelling to allow some apps not go through the VPN

also got it installed as a client on an Asus Router which works well too. sadly, the router needs to be a bit beefy to achieve decent speeds, i think a PC with PFsense would be handy here
 
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I have seen PIA for $59.99 for 2 years. That works out at about £46 according to xe.com. It's through XDA-Depot so not sure if you would get the 7 day money back guarantee with this but it looks like a great offer. The link is https://depot.xda-developers.com/sales/private-internet-access-vpn-2-yr-subscription-3 and the deal ends in 6 days.

Creating an account is free on XDA-Depot.

Edit: Just seen that it says: "All sales final" and "Offer good for new Private Internet Access customers only" in the terms. Even so, if you already use PIA, you wouldn't be wanting money back anyway and you could just make a new account.
 
Soldato
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If I direct my net connection via a VPN to a server in, say, Australia, would that mean that I would get Australian Netflix? And if I used a VPN to a UK server then surely that missses the point of a VPN as UK authorities will still have access to your data?
 
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Out of interest do you guys route all of your traffic through VPN or do you have certain tasks in VMs (such as usenet and linux distros) just running through it?

I have a virtual pfsense box that I route specific services though.

Using NordVPN, usually get between 80Mb and 100Mb on my 300Mb connection.
 
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Hey all just After some advice please on setting up a VPN. In the next few days i will be getting a different internet provider and of course they will be offering a router with the install which i will change and of course with me been a new customer they will be keen to keep track of my internet activity. I do bit of torrents on the pc and use IPTV on the PC and also use IPTV on the TV downstairs and use Kodi on an android box but mainly use that for gaming and the App store and have a pi3 for rasplex. The connection will be 100meg download and 5meg upload there is only me and the Mrs as my 2 Daughters have just fled the nest. So if the VPN takes bit of the bandwith won't be an issue. So 3 questions really

1. What VPN to use
2. What routers are the best for a VPN
3. And how would you set it up i use Powerline for internet access for TV downstairs
 
Soldato
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1. There's lots of threads on here discussing VPN providers. PIA, NordVPN and ExpressVPN seem to get decent recommendations depending your needs. ExpressVPN are the only ones currently able to geo unlock Netflix US if that's important to you.

2. I'm assuming then you want network wide VPN coverage? I know Asus routers come with VPN clients and are not bad, and there's lots that can be flashed with Various custom firmwares that will do the job. Not that I have personal experience but I've seen mikrotik routers recommended as good, cost effective routers. Be aware network wide VPN coverage is very CPU intensive and so most consumer routers won't be able to use all your bandwidth and encrypt/decrypt traffic. For this reason Ive built a pfSense box that has no such limitations and does a whole lot more besides.

One other point. You say you don't mind if your VPN takes up a bit of bandwidth. This implies you are only going to use the VPN on your torrent box, in which case you don't need to worry about your router choice for VPN really as the end device will be doing the heavy lifting. If you want a router that acts as the VPN client but tunnels multiple specific devices and not others then you're into the world of policy based routing and there's not many consumer devices that do that - you'd need something like pfSense.

3. There's no real setting up of powerlines. Plug one in downstairs, plug one in near your router and you're done. They suck though. If you can in any way run a cable it will be better.
 
Soldato
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If it helps PIA also do an app that you can install on Android boxes and others which supports split tunnelling so you can tell it for example use vpn for kodi and not for Netflix etc, also tell it to auto allow local traffic so you can access your local nas even through the vpn, very handy

Pia support up to 5 simultaneous connections so basically 5 devices at once.

I recently flashed a asus router so it supported OpenVPN client, it works well with pia but speeds were slow, OpenVPN isn't hardware offloading so counts on cpu.

What I think is needed is pfsense which support OpenVPN client, speeds will be much better if the right hardware is chosen. Then once connected to hut for behind it will count as 1 device
 
Soldato
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Hi Guys I need some help.

Ive never used VPN before so i dont really know how to start. I've always just left it as is but with growing online issues (Data selling, hacking, snooping ext no help gov) I thought it was time to help myself, from google it seams i need a VPN.

With so many different option and addons NodeVPN Openvpn pi-hole pfsense, I dont know how to start or what i would need.

I do have a few question
1. Do i need something for each device or a network option ?
2. Whats the difference between nodevpn, openvpn and Pfsense
3. is it possible to get a Fast VPN which will keep up with VM
4. would i have issues gaming and streaming ?
 
Soldato
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1. It depends. If you want to send all your internet traffic through the VPN then you'll have to route all your traffic through a device that connects to the VPN, typicalLy your router. If you're only worried about browsing and have a few devices then you can just have a client on each device that you care about. For example I don't mind the Government knowing my viewing habits on my Fire TV sticks

2. I assume you mean NordVPN? NordVPN is a provider of VPNs - I.e. It's a provider you can connect to. OpenVPN is a standard/technology supported by many VPN solutions including NordVPN. pfSense is a piece of software that can act as a router and firewall which includes a VPN client to allow network wide coverage. In summary a pfSense router could use its OpenVPN client to connect to a NordVPN server to route your traffic through.

3. Not likely with an off the shelf box for network wide coverage as the demands on the CPU are too high. If you're only doing individual PCs with clients on them then a fast PC should keep up if the VPN provider can.

4. Yes potentially. Gaming it will likely introduce lag. Streaming, some providers don't like you using VPNs as people use them to bypass geolocation protection. Netflix is almost guaranteed not to work using a VPN.
 

APM

APM

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The best way to start with a VPN is by using a months subscription from a name you are happy with,then see how it goes from there.
 
Soldato
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I tested AirVPN out on a free three days trial, which you can request.

I then stayed with them and have enjoyed the speeds and choice of servers etc they offer.

Now and again they do have a "sale" and during the last one I just topped my account up until the end of this year.
 
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