When I first started using VPN services, I wanted a VPN that doesn't slow my connection down otherwise my 100mbps Down/20 mbps up connection would just be sitting there wasted.
So I tried a lot of paid VPNs and finally settled for StrongVPN, it was super fast and gave me almost the same speed as my actual connection.
I usually download movies to see them before I buy them, not knowing that was illegal back then (few years back), StrongVPN send me DMCA notices and I was about to get sued but the case was cancelled and StrongVPN just told DMCA that I had a virus which was downloading those movies. They did warn me though any more downloads of copy righted content and my account would be suspended.
Fine, I understand that from a legal point of view that they need to protect their service as well. But then come think of it, the VPN did NOT protect my privacy as they did handout my details to DMCA so I was on for a search for a new VPN. Not many choices were there that fully protect you and have a 0 logging policy.
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Next, I signed up with Private Internet Access (PIA) which was also very fast as it was still a new VPN relatively, one subscription allows you to connect up to 5 devices simultaneously so I could have my PC, tablet, phones, all connected at once for like 8 USD per month, not a bad deal.
Never have they sent me any DMCA notices so privacy wise, it wasn't bad (from my experience at least).
After the service became popular though, the speeds were horrible, sometimes I would be lucky to get 30 MBPS down out of my 1000 MBPS connection and at other times it would go all the way down to 5 MBPS.
I contacted their pathetic chat support and every time, the only solution they can think of is for my to change my DNS servers in the connection. That didn't help one bit so I gave up on it and was on a new hunt for another VPN.
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Finally, I discovered LiquidVPN and decided to give them a shot. First I asked them about their privacy policy and they confirmed they have a 0 logging policy and that I am protected. So I signed up and to my surprise, I was getting north of 93 MBPS down out of mt 100 MBPS speed and the full 20 MBPS upload.
So this was the best for me, a VPN that protects me, yet doesn't slow my connection down.
I once had an issue with random disconnections, maybe it wasn't because of the VPN but I didn't know.
So I contacted their support and they connected to my system, performed some tests and told me that I need to change my router I was having data packet loss. Had some Linksys router before, then I upgraded to an ASUS RT-AC68U router and the random disconnections disappeared but what really impressed me is that they took the time to login to my system to troubleshoot the problem not only email support. It is very rare that a company would go this far into resolving a customer's problem.
They have a 0 logging policy and never did I receive any warnings or DMCA notices while using their VPN service.
They just released their Android app as well and now my VOIP calls are super clear with no disconnections.
Their app allows you to connect via PPTP, SSTP, L2TP, and OpenVPN and has an option called Liquid Lock if you want which basically disables your internet connectivity if you were not connected to the VPN server for maximum privacy (optional feature)
Pricing is very reasonable, 4.75 USD (yearly plan) per month for 2 devices connected at the same time although they have a higher plan for upto 8 devices.
Just wanted to share my experience with you guys for anyone who is looking for a great VPN service.
They have trial plans if one is interested also he just needs to create an account and contact them.
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Spartan@HIDevolution Company Representative
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Thanks for the review.
The pricing now is actually $ 7 per month which is quite expensive but it goes down to a very good $4.75 if you pay for a yearly plan, which is what most people are interested in anyway.
Can I ask how much RAM does the application consume under heavy usage? I have a convertible device with only 2GB RAM and I've seen different VPN use some 200MB while doing nothing in particular, which is too much in my book.Spartan@HIDevolution likes this. -
not a bad price, if PIA doesn't satisfy me this year I may give them a try.
Spartan@HIDevolution likes this. -
Spartan@HIDevolution Company Representative
Check the download speed, it is giving me the full speed of my 100MBPS connection, also see the RAM usage while at full load:
2) In the other thread "Which VPN server do you use", if you remember, I told @Ethrem that OpenVPN gives me lower speeds than PPTP where he replied that OpenVPN is more secure.
Here is the reply from LiquidVPN Support regarding this:
Just caught this 1 month free trial coupon on their Twitter account, it has a 10 user limit so grab it while you can:
https://my.liquidvpn.com/cart.php?a=add&pid=32&promocode=O4YVKH8QP9Last edited by a moderator: Feb 27, 2016 -
Damn it I just lost my whole post...
I can say that I live in America and pay for 150/10 and the VPN.ac running max encryption is 155 down and 6 up... So XOR costs upstream because it obfuscated packets but I LOVE how they didn't tell you how much more secure OpenVPN is and that L2TP is leaving a backdoor (PPTP might as well invited them in for shots) but they highlighted on the edit of the OpenVPN protocol... That's a bold faced lie. They added an obfuscation protocol to OpenVPN that was merged upstream...
If you want to contact Liquid and get me a test account so I can do a fair comparison, I'm willing to do that but the fact you've been on L2TP while VPN.ac defaults to OpenVPN ECC (something I don't even think Liquid has) says a lot about the two. The software should always default to OpenVPN. The problem is, as they said, CPU overhead supporting the protocol... But that's on their end unless you've installed it on the router.
I'm no champion for VPN.ac - I wanted to prove Liquid wrong so I tried to connect today... Well OpenVPN has moved to 64-bit so my log failed on my phone... But on my PC it works fine. I sent them mail, they're in Romania... Shouldn't be long for a response... Actually I think they already have a beta... BRB
So the client is, in fact broken right now...
First impression... Not good.... Plus the fact that VPN.ac NEVER asks for your last name and even takes payment through diners cards and other anonymous sources... Its current VPN.ac 1 and Liquid -1 for starting off with a 30 day trial but checkout said 7 and then marking fraud and wanting more info...
No customer EVER wants to see FRAUD and then receive an email to wait for them to email you with you account info... All because you used a promo code.Last edited by a moderator: Feb 27, 2016Starlight5 likes this. -
@Phoenix Thanks a lot for that - I'm already testing.
@Ethrem Not because you used a promo code but because you used PayPal as default payment (even though you pay nothing fraud detection kicks in because of the lack of ZIP code and address). Same thing happened to me - changing it did not help but I registered once more using Bitcoin as a way of payment.Spartan@HIDevolution likes this. -
Spartan@HIDevolution Company Representative
Last edited by a moderator: Feb 27, 2016 -
So if they are going to offer something, their site needs to work. Hitting bitcoin I didn't even need an email, immediately got credentials.
Let me just be fair... The speed is just acceptable. I've used the same test on the same server with both... And I prefer NL servers for a number of reasons... I think maybe it's because you're in Dubai that you see fast speeds... I just now found out Comcast gives a faster upload to those who have Premier (highest package) cable... On the download, on average, both NL servers are running 38% lower than the actual country average and the upload download took so long I almost canceled it on the Blacksun server and then ridiculous results when it uploaded but that screams of inconsistency which means the connection had to keep reconnecting... The scary part is it finished at 11.2Mbps after making me wait over 5 minutes for the download of 50MB before it went upstream... I will say the kill switch is easy and effective. But so far the speed is bad... NL on VPN.ac always runs at least 100 down and 8 up. I have to run more tests though because Comcast apparently did the speed boost today so I have to re-run the VPN.ac tests...
I'm going to copy this because I don't want that mess of losing everything again.
... You really don't want to hear what I have to say because the fact your service has no DNS leaks, I have little else positive to say. Although I will try some servers not in the Netherlands because they all appear to be having issues, it was still on average twice as fast on VPN.ac and I even had a 50MB upload stall for 3 minutes downloading data... Just to turn around and upload at 12Mbps which skews the data entirely. Like I said, I think the NL is a mess right now so I'll try other servers, ones in the US... But not being able to change my encryption is a big issue. And even after disabling Liquid Lock, I still have to reboot... Its seamless with the admittedly far less pretty but incredibly more robust VPN.ac software.
As of this moment in time, I'd rank Liquid a 4.5/10 because of issues mentioned and price (it was 40.70 USA a year for what I have... The cheapest offer Liquid has right now is 8.83 a month, more than double... With what seems to half the speed on average and less control and no logs - if the want to complain about custom software, they need to make an easy way for customers see the logs which they don't).
They lose half a point for making you dig for the port... Many ISPs block UDP ports, mine happens to be one of them (although they'd never admit it)... Having to dig through menus and realize all I have is 256-bit OpenVPN options... Makes me wonder if you have been running L2TP through Windows this whole time... Because their software doesn't let me change the protocol. Although Liquid Lock works. Flawlessly. This software only supports OpenVPN so your posting of their email confuses me...
Nevermind, found the protocol... But can only change ports on OpenVPN.
Btw they lied to you. Performance tripled on L2TP... I just ran it three times... That service is not optimized for OpenVPN... Security, maybe... But L2TP is what you're optimized for...
Basically, they don't have the processing power that VPN.ac does. It's not been a bandwidth issue, its an encryption issue. They have dedicated servers per protocol... Shady business. Plus they use caching. 1.5/10 because it works. Speed even in the states is garbage unless you use L2TP and you can't change the port which is a huge issue... Let's see what @downloads thinks...Last edited by a moderator: Feb 27, 2016Spartan@HIDevolution likes this. -
You know Phoenix, if you use IDM to download you force the maximum speed out of your connection in most cases, you should download using you browser and from different sources, or use a correct speedtest like nperf among others..
Getting 12MB/s isnt really something.. -
There are some problems on my end so far.
The good - app defaults to OpenVPN as protection and uses almost no resources.
The bad - out of my 100mbps connection I have failed to get above 30mbps and on most occasions I've only achieved 25mbps.
I've tested it with VPN servers nearby and I have confirmed that the same file from the same server is being downloaded at 100mbps without VPN and at around 25mbps with OpenVPN enabled. I still get almost 100mbps with L2PT but I would rather use OpenVPN.
As @Ethrem said - the performance triples to quadruples if L2PT is being used instead of OpenVPN.
Another problem - once I disconnect from whichever server I connect to at first I can't connect to any other server, the application is stuck at "connecting" for a while until it gives up/times out.
Killing the app and even the service does nothing to help even though that is the sollution to this problem suggested by LiquidVPN.
I have tested this on two machines - one running Win 7 64bit, NOD32 and Outpost firewall, the other running Win 8.1 32bit and Avast Premier - the same thing happened so I'm inclined to assume it's not my configuration that is a problem.
The inability to connect can be fixed by switching from OpenVPN to L2TP - you can reconnect at will with L2TP but not with OpenVPN. I tried testing it with native OpenVPN application without the LiqiudVPN GUI - which I suspect is the problem here, but OpenVPN is a pain in the rear to configure and route traffic through, so I will have to go back to it. -
Try running another VPN after it... it installs as a service... I had to uninstall it in order to use my *portable by default* VPN.ac
That performance hit is too much, especially for the cost... I signed up for one year of VPN.ac for like 41 bucks... And I have full control of ports and everything (Comcast decides to intermittently mess with ports) and no less than 50Mbps even on the servers that are overseas and basically exist for P2P... US servers, not less than 112... out of 150... average is higher though. I think the internet is ready to crash completely today because of how everything has been acting so I'll give Liquid a try again but in order to get VPN.ac to work again I had to uninstall the app which I take issue with... I know many people who have a VPN for work and one for home... The portable app may annoy stupid people but stupid people shouldn't be using a VPN in the first place... its advanced stuff meant for people who know what they're doing... also, the kill switch does NOT recognize itself after a reboot. I'm on cable so its easy to do a DHCP reset but yeah... no. -
I don't have a problem with running another VPN after LiquidVPN though. I can't reconnect to LiquidVPN once I have disconnected from LiquidVPN
That only happens with OpenVPN connection and is apparently a known issue. -
Spartan@HIDevolution Company Representative
I never noticed this issue but that's due to the fact that I don't use OpenVPN due to its slower speed.
PS: I am using NOD32 v9 x64 as wellLast edited by a moderator: Feb 26, 2016 -
Starlight5 Yes, I'm a cat. What else is there to say, really?
I believe we do not have dedicated Recommend me a VPN topic yet, and since other VPN providers are mentioned here - here goes nothing, I'm asking for advice in this thread.
I need an ANONYMOUS & SECURE, truely zero-logging, torrent-friendly VPN provider with stable connection and working killswitch software. 10Mbps is OK, I'm usually on crappy connections anyway - but it should meet all my other requirements. Most articles about and reviews of VPN providers are ads, differentiating only in degree of crappiness, so I'm asking fellow NBR members to guide me. (=Last edited: Feb 25, 2016 -
Spartan@HIDevolution Company Representative
Try a free 1 month trial and see for yourself: https://my.liquidvpn.com/cart.php?a=add&pid=32&promocode=O4YVKH8QP9
register using the Bitcoin payment method not PayPal as you're not making a real account for now
Just did a test on the Romanian Fawn Server (L2TP) and here is my speed:
My actual connection is 100MBPS Down/20 MBPS up
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Starlight5 Yes, I'm a cat. What else is there to say, really?
@Phoenix, I read not only your review, but the whole topic, and LiquidVPN was criticized by other members too much. Namely, L2TP is unacceptable for me, for security reasons - OpenVPN or IKEv2 only. Should have mentioned that I need it ANONYMOUS & SECURE right in the first post.
Last edited: Feb 25, 2016Spartan@HIDevolution likes this. -
I assure you LiquidVPN is quite secure. If you are having issues connecting with OpenVPN there are a lot of possibilities as to the cause. It could be anything from 2 OpenVPN based apps running at the same time with 2 TUN/TAP adapters enabled to an Antivirus issue. Many AVs that do sandboxing will sandbox the latest version of the TUN/TAP adapter. We recommend disabling the AV while installing and connecting.
If its a slow speed thing then again there could be a lot of causes. I would start by disabling your AV to see if the real-time shields are causing the slowdown. Someone mentioned the manchester server as being slow or unreliable... Which is very odd considering the monthly tests done here https://www.vpncompare.co.uk/fastest-uk-vpn-server-february-2016/ routinely put us in the top 3. Matter of fact I do not think we have left the top 3 in the whole year of testing that location.Starlight5 and Spartan@HIDevolution like this. -
Starlight5 Yes, I'm a cat. What else is there to say, really?
Well, LiquidVPN offer seems great, but not suitable for me - after I made myself familiar with their Terms of Service. I also adjusted initial post to make my requirements more clear.
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No VPN will make you anonymous. Sadly internet and anonymity is something that has been dead for 20 years.
Spartan@HIDevolution and Starlight5 like this. -
Spartan@HIDevolution Company Representative
Warbux likes this. -
Great, it should be said that at least 1 version of Kaspersky has a reputation of killing OpenVPN connectivity. I wish I knew which version but the only thing I know is its one of the versions that modify the installed network adapter drivers.
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Spartan@HIDevolution Company Representative
I never go for these suites as they tend to interfere with my system more than I like, I only have the Antivirus standalone version.Warbux likes this. -
There are a lot of assumptions in this post that are false. There is a lot of wrong information in this post as well. From implying that we don't recommend OpenVPN wherever possible, misquoting our prices and making misguided statements about caching it is quite clear what you are trying to do.
All I am going to say is rerun the test without an antivirus enabled and make sure to select a few different speedtest servers to eliminate issues on their end. Right now L2TP/SSTP/PPTP has been having some issues because of the glibc patch we had to apply last week but the fact that you still tripled your speed on it over OpenVPN means there is something more serious going on with your end of the network.
Oh and, why on earth are dedicated servers per protocol "shady" We use something called routing and to use real routing techniques you require more than your average ubuntu server with OpenVPN and openswan on it. In case you didn't notice we are providing 3 different topologies for users to select.
Again you are making false statements to people from a position of authority. You do a disservice to the community.
You do not need to uninstall the app to make them both work. Both apps use OpenVPN source code. So in essence, it's like installing two versions of MS office. When they are both running at the same time you are going to have problems. Instead, try doing ctrl alt delete and stopping the service of the one you do not want to use and then go to the tun/tap adapter and disable the one from the service your not wanting to use. Then try using the 2nd one and it will work.
P.S. Please stop calling it a kill switch. It is much more advanced than a kill switch. Take a look at your firewall rules when its enabled and when its disabled. It uses WPF APILast edited by a moderator: Feb 26, 2016Spartan@HIDevolution likes this. -
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He is not a user or a potential customer as he has already stated. Instead, he is trolling someone else's thread and providing false information. Anyone that uses OpenVPN knows it can be temperamental especially if you are trying to run multiple tun/tap adapters alongside other software suites that inspect, secure, block or route network traffic. So in essence, it is his fault. I even offered to hop on his machine and fix his "Comcast" issues for him. That's what I call good customer service! BTW he was talking about Comcast blocking ports for his favorite VPN service as well as ours. Not just LiquidVPN -
He is definitely not trolling anyone's thread, give over. This is a review thread for LiquidVPN and he offered his opinion. It's not a flattering one and that what's annoying you.
Secondly you know very well that anyone remotely security conscious - and everyone who feels the need to use VPN definitely must be so - would not allow anyone to "hop on his machine", so don't sell it as a customer service - you know very well no one is going to take you up on this offer. Feel free to post a solution to this rather than promise a solution if and when allowed on someone else's computer.Ethrem, katalin_2003 and alexhawker like this. -
Did you read the original review? Are you saying he is not "security conscious" because he allowed me to hop on his machine and troubleshoot his issue?
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I'm not sure your attitude is going to get you lots of clients but I am not going to stop you man. Feel free to continueEthrem, katalin_2003 and Spartan@HIDevolution like this. -
Spartan@HIDevolution Company Representative
All I wanted was to provide my honest opinion and user experience of the best VPN I have ever used (in my experience off-course).
I still think LiquidVPN provides excellent customer service, leaving aside that they connected to my PC to detect the data packet loss I was experiencing, they reply very quickly sometimes I feel like it's a chat because of how quickly they reply and they just recently helped me remedy my issue of slow connection to the OpenVPN servers (PPTP/L2TP are fine) so again, in my experience, I've had excellent service.
I recommend if anyone having issues to open a support ticket to troubleshoot it, as @Warbux stated, sometimes it is because of a user's configuration, previously installed VPN, Antivirus, etc. which they may not even think of. My problem was resolved by uninstalling NOD32 as its HTTP scanner or some other component was causing the issue, even disabling NOD32 doesn't do a thing, I've had this before, it's like it's disabled but some things still interfere with the system.
I posted this thread/opinion. Anyone is free to try it, test it, reach out for support, why? because IMHO it is really worth it for the speed and protection it offers (0 logging, torrent friendly, no DMCA) -
I gave the OP 10 free 30 day coupons for people if they wanted to try LiquidVPN and asked them to select btc to bypass any fraud detection. From that point on your mod started trolling the guy.
I have no vested interest in this community. I am not here to make friends and I did not expect to win over the core of your community by coming here and calling out a mod for his troll like behavior. I came here to set the record straight and to win over John Q public that happens to find this thread by accident.
Have a Nice Day -
You are not even slightly coherent at this point - in this post you claimed Etherm made your price look "30% higher" - in this it's already "50% higher". By Monday it's going to like 1325% higher
And how does claiming you have servers optimized for L2PT while having separate servers for OpenVPN and L2PT make him a troll? (please don't respond - it's a rhetorical question. I can provide a google link to what that is, as it apparently is a new custom here). You do have separate servers (not that I have a problem with that) but unfortunately your OpenVPN speeds are far far slower than L2PT (I realize that OpenVPN is really the Flash of VPNs and we are not going to be using it in a few years but that is not the point). So is that an incorrect statement? Not as far as I can see.
As for giving @Phoenix free 30 day coupons - it's a very nice move on your part and much appreciated. I'm not a big fan o 7-day refunds and I'm (or might be on any given week) too busy to find the time to deal with all the variables of a VPN (firewall low-level driver, app configuration, AV, port forwarding - which apparently can improve OpenVPN speeds) and so on. So it's cool that you guys provided such a service - one that I've been using all day long (L2PT though). That said the worst part of LiquidVPN is not limited OpenVPN speeds nor is it the problem with reconnecting (the latter of which might probably be solved by ditching LiquidVPN app and using OpenVPN one as it seems the problem is between the two) - the biggest downside is your behavior.
As you say - you did not come here to make friends - and you certainly made none. You could have handled it a lot better - we have a lot of notebooks re-sellers on the forum and while I'm not a big fan of those guys, they very rarely act like that.
What's wrong with just addressing technical issues and not calling people names?
Anyway - have a beer and relax man (I know I am). No one is accusing you of anything or conspiring against you with their friends ( @Ethrem - we are friends now, so you owe me a beer) - when people have complaints about your service they do just that - complain.
Ethrem, Starlight5 and alexhawker like this. -
Now if we take what he said at face value then our absolutely lowest price plan would be Sidekick on an annual plan which is $57.00. Divide that by 12 and you get 4.75 per month.... Add 50% to it and you are only at 7.13 per month... My quick estimation gave him the benefit of the doubt. He actually tried to say our lowest priced plan costs almost double what it actually costs.
Might I add with LiquidVPN you get 4 topologies (shared IPs, Public IPs, Modulating IPs and Dedicated IPs) SmartDNS built-in with access to over 2000 IP addresses and it more than makes up for the extra connections.
If I have a dedicated server only running OpenVPN it is optimized for OpenVPN because that is all it runs. Sure I can take it a step farther and modifying sysctl, pushing sndbuf and rcvbuf to the client and changing the txqueuelen (which of course we do all of the above) but Linux does a pretty good job of optimizing for OpenVPN on its own.
Addressing technical issues is fine when people pose technical questions. However that was never the case. No one asked a technical question they just trolled the OP -
ALLurGroceries Vegan Vermin Super Moderator
When I do run into problems though, it's always easier to blame the user.
Ethrem, katalin_2003 and alexhawker like this. -
Spartan@HIDevolution Company Representative
I just tested a ew OpenVPN servers, got great results with the Germany and Romania server. Mind you, I am in Dubai
Test on the Blacksun server(Netherlands) =
Down = 20 MBPS
Up = 14.3 MBPS
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Test on Kudo (Romania) Server =
Down = 70 MBPS
Up = 11.13 MBPS
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Test on Titus server (Germany) =
Down = 75 MBPS
Up = 16.5 MBPS
==============================
Test on Chaos server (Manchester) =
Down = 10.3 MBPS
Up = 12.42 MBPS
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Test on Crane server (Switzerland) =
Down = 21.25 MBPS
Up = 10.5 MBPS
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Test on Zeta server (USA) =
Down = 20.90 MBPS
Up = 9.90 MBPS
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this is with Kaspersky AV 2016 (latest version) and I set an exclusion for the LiquidVPN folder in Kaspersky -
Starlight5 Yes, I'm a cat. What else is there to say, really?
FWIW I purchased myself a year of suitable VPN service already, so advice is no longer required. Won't disclose the provider, to prevent more flame in this topic.
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@Starlight5 A review (in a separate thread) would be much appreciated.
Spartan@HIDevolution and Starlight5 like this. -
Starlight5 Yes, I'm a cat. What else is there to say, really?
@downloads my usual internet speeds are nothing to call home about; I will consider the possibility when having access to better connection.
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Wow... Me, the most lax of any of the mods, a troll?
I did the math in my head and may have done it wrong, I'll admit that. But treating me like some idiot that doesn't know how to - oh I don't know - run a virtual machine in case something wasn't working right in my Windows configuration... Wow. I wish you the best of luck because I wouldn't even let my best friend tunnel into my system for remote access. You're banned now but I'm sure you can still read this thread. My android app stopped working on my VPN... Their customer service was back to me in minutes while their developer tweaked the app and figured out the issue and sent me an old build because their framework was clashing with Samsungs garbage TouchWiz hybrid (aka fake 64-bit) ART implementation. I was asked to review and that's what I did. I don't really think you did yourself any favors by insulting my intelligence and getting in a fight about the fact you can't seem to make OpenVPN stable because your servers don't have the CPU back haul to handle it. That's not my issue, that's your issue. My VPN provider actually does have a literal kill switch. It kills the gateway entirely. If the VPN goes down for any reason, no Internet traffic of any kind can go in or out. That's a kill switch. I have to either use ipconfig to restore the DHCP or use the button in the app.
Thank you for the free trial but I gave an honest review. My VPN provider, in my opinion, is superior to your service. If you didn't want opinions that came from people who could practically build a computer with their eyes closed, you shouldn't have come on a technical forum and offered passes. Math or not... My VPN is currently 3.39 USD a month with their promotion when purchasing a year... They're cheaper and don't have rude customer service making excuses for the lack of ability to provide servers that can run 256-bit and 512 HMAC without buckling. I lose between 5 and 15 percent of my connection speed depending on the time of day.
Some people. Me... A troll? @downloads would be more likely to troll than me.Starlight5 likes this.
LiquidVPN Review
Discussion in 'Networking and Wireless' started by Spartan@HIDevolution, Feb 24, 2016.