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Ask Slashdot: Finding a Trustworthy VPN Service?

Posted by timothy on from the mowing-the-astroturf dept.

New submitter Cheeze ball writes "I've recently moved to Europe and I'd like to setup a VPN so I can get Hulu, Netflix, and a few other services. I've found plenty of sites offering cheap VPN services, but they all seem just a tad too shady. Searching for any reviews on them only brings up pages of positive reviews on sites whose only content is said review. Does anyone have any suggestions on reliable reasonably safe VPN?"

8 of 193 comments (clear)

  1. Run your own by dskoll · · Score: 4, Informative

    Get a cheap colocated server in the US and then run OpenVPN or whatever flavor of VPN you prefer.

    1. Re:Run your own by QuantumRiff · · Score: 4, Informative

      You can get a vm at rackspace for about $11 a month: http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/cloud_hosting_products/servers/pricing/

      Or of course, there is always the ever popular Amazon..

      --

      What are we going to do tonight Brain?
    2. Re:Run your own by QuantumRiff · · Score: 3, Informative

      Downloading 30Gb with it (since you only pay outgoing bandwith) adds about $4 to the bill for the month. You do pay for bandwidth, but it isn't very much.

      --

      What are we going to do tonight Brain?
    3. Re:Run your own by Cthefuture · · Score: 4, Informative

      That's too much. Check out lowendbox and find something you like.

      Since you don't need disk space, much RAM or CPU then you should be able to find something that will work for less than $20 a year. They usually come with a fair amount of bandwidth.

      --
      The ratio of people to cake is too big
    4. Re:Run your own by houstonbofh · · Score: 4, Informative

      Why when there are so many services? And to answer the OPs question, look at the review here. http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-providers-really-take-anonymity-seriously-111007/

  2. WiTopia, TunnelBear by jaffray · · Score: 4, Informative

    I've been using WiTopia a little over a year and had no problems with it.

    BoingBoing recently posted a link to TunnelBear, which has several positive reputable reviews.

  3. Confused...and performance is a problem... by Shoten · · Score: 2, Informative

    Okay, for one thing, I'm trying to figure out why you're worried about "safe". Your intent is to watch Netflix and Hulu with the VPN service? What are you worried about? Yes, I know...both take credit cards...but they do so over SSL.

    Your biggest problem will be throughput, and potentially latency. A VPN does not help with network performance, and neither does adding more hops to the route that the traffic will have to follow...especially when the server with be US-based and you'll be on the other side of the pond in Europe. So whatever service you do look at, make sure that they will be able to keep the data flowing at the bandwidth rates you need, and without causing problems from latency. And remember...latency and bandwidth are kind of related, but not the same thing. You can have high latency on a huge pipe, and low latency on a skinny one.

    --

    For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
  4. Re:Is it legal? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Legal? Well, if you're concerned about that - or anonymity - you should probably be looking a VPNs which accept Bitcoin in payment. *Those* are the providers that actually care about protecting their clients. Here's a list:

    https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade#Connectivity

    Bitcoin does have its uses...