VPN experiences

I wrote a really long thing, but after some research I've whittled it down to what I'm looking for out of a VPN provider:

-BOTH US and non-US server availability, shared IP blocks, multihop and singlehop server availability
-But NOT a US based company
-Minimal to NO logging of any kind.. the us based VPN's seem to log a little more even though it's not IP information, most of the non-US VPN's adopt a no logs so we don't have anything to reveal anyways attitude.
-P2P friendly, Copyright indifferent.
-Port forwarding available
-OpenVPN based
-Unlimited bandwith
-Guards against DNS Leaks; has some type of system to halt data transmit/receive incase the VPN drops.

Any suggestions?

EDIT: I'll be going with iVPN.net

 

I'd be interested to know what makes iVPN better if you had a minute to elaborate on that.
While I couldn't answer your question I'm actually interested in the same thing so I could cut some corners if you could share your conclusions.

 

iVPN is good and you can go with it. However, choosing among various vpn providers is a bit difficult. I have used services of HMA and IAPS. I found them the best among all. They have servers on huge count so one could easily switch between the servers of own choice. Hidemyass is offering 6000+ IP. Sounds cool to me always iVPN is also good but i have never tried it though. I think i must try it now to know that either it is among the best paid vpn service or not...

 

Well they gave me a nice discount, ended up being 85 for the whole year! Honestly there were SO MANY choices for vpn connectivity services, I tried to set a few rules to narrow the list down a bit (ie not US based, no/minimal logging) regardless of weather they were good rules or not.

I liked iVPN because they keep no connection logs that tie an IP to a timestamp, theres no way to correlate your internal IP with the shared external IP they give you. they keep server diag logs for 5 days I think. but no IPs stored.

Also they do enable port forwarding, but! the ports you're assigned change dynamically with each new IP you get whenever you connect to a different server. Maybe that's how it always works.. I just didn't expect it.

Also I liked iVPN because it was openVPN based. The installer was light weight, worked pretty much by itself, and I didn't have to do any configuring. I set my comcast dns servers to google dns servers to prevent leaks to comcast incase the VPN drops (which it hasn't and I've downloaded 12 gb's straight so far). And as for their own DNS servers, the correct ones are pushed to your openVPN client on connection so you're always using the right/safe ones. But other than that it just works! They also offer an L2tP/IPsec installer and servers as well, it's included.

Unlimited bandwith - most offer that.

I like that it gave a shared IP, but there is no dedicated IP option if that's what you're looking for.

Also, it was a relatively older company in a slew of new vpn startups, and they had decent (albeit few) rating from users and websites.

They're tech support is great, both tickets I opened were answered within 24 hours. Clean client portal web interface (you have to go here to see the new ports you've been assigned everytime you connect to a different server.

Now, overall I'm taking a bandwith hit, but I've never used a VPN before so I don't know if its usual overhead or not. The good news is the overhead seems to be similar regardless of weather I connect to a US/UK/NL/FR server (those are there server locations). Even better is when connecting to a multihop server (which may be overkill, but it's a point to note since not many other providers have this option) the overhead is the same! very little increase.

Some others offer as well but they have TCP 443 option servers incase your behind a firewall or someplace that blocks their openvpn udp connection to their servers.

And just to say again the GUI is clean and easy to use, I love it. They also have a portable installer as well for a flash drive, I suppose incase you need to get running on your vpn on someone elses computer or a public computer? I wouldn't recommended but it's there if you need it.

I found iVPN to be the best becase a lot of these features can be found out there, but not all in one place. Plus it was a good price.. 85/yr. It was originally 100 but AFTER signing up they gave me a 15% off credit.

What else can I remember that was different.. they use 256 bit aes encryption for the ssl tunnel, but most other places who utilized openvpn used 128 bit.

Also, there not based in the EU or US, there based out of Malta. Many others are based out of non EU/US nations, a lot from Seychelles.

P2P protocol is blocked on US servers (that's pretty much with anyone though) unblocked on all others.

If I remember anything else I'll put it up there. I just found iVPN had everything I needed in one place, from a decently reputable company (cough cryptocloud cough), for the right price.

If anyones interested about specifics or anything I can post screenshots of the client portal and windows openvpn gui. Also if you want to use your own openvpn GUI you can and just download their config files. I downloaded their client.

 

That's a nice discount- how did you get that out of them?
Also Malta is in the EU since 2004.

 

They applied it themselves to the first invoice after signing up/ordering the service, I think because I went ahead and opted for the 1 year 100 dollar subscription. I was ready to pay the 100, it was just a nice bonus.

I didn't know Malta was part of the EU. American Geography at it's finest!

I guess I was more concerned with it not being in a nation where privacy laws are in focus.

One thing to note though, if you're in the US, you can ONLY pay by paypal. And they're gateway is super strict, it kicks you up to the security level where you have to have a verified debit card+checking account with paypal to process payment. I didn't try with a charge card. I didn't have a paypal account, but didn't feel comfortable verifying my debit and checking with them, so I put 85 on a greendot moneypack and used it on paypal and then closed my paypal account. They had other options like CashU and a UK based pay-in-person service but I don't think those are available to US paying customers.

 

It's not American geography anymore- your new IP suggest it's very much European

 

A European who doesn't even know the EU member nations.. I shame myself lol

Inderdaad! Ik adviseer u IVPN proberen voor de 7 dagen trial, krijg je een goed gevoel voor. Meer vragen voel je vrij om vragen!

Postscriptum Nederland is awesome!

edit: also I'll put up a couple screenshots in this thread to show the openvpn client they provide.

 

I put the .exe in the start up folder - it doesn't by default. You have the option to save the password and username so it logs on automatically when you select a server, but it warns you that it's stored in a plain text file on your computer so your drive better be safe. You select the server you want, the OpenVPN window pops up and connects you, and it closes and you're assigned an IP. Simple.

 

is there a server in dallas by chance? or in texas?

 

One of the servers is dallas, but when you select US you don't get to select which specific server. You don't find out which one your using specifically until you see what DNS servers you assigned you. I often get ones in Ohio and Dallas.