Best Reccommended Vpn To Use In The Phillipines?

[ibemarshall]

I did a search of the forum for any posts relating to VPN (virual private network) experiences in country/Philippines and came away with nada.

 

I am looking to setup a VPN to use in-country during my 3 week visit next month.  There are a mind-numbing number of VPN services when you BING or GOOGLE online.  I am interesting in using one that has a decent if not superior track record when using from PI.

 

Does anyone have any experiences good or bad or reccommendations for me in this regard?

 

 

[MikeB]

I used HMA (Hide my ass) for about a year but had a billing problem that took weeks to correct so the 2nd time it happened I jumped over to StrongVPN. It's ok, their tech support is, imo, all bad; if you are having a problem their solution is to tell you to switch protocols or servers until one works. But I'm not that concerned with encryption, I just need a US IP address. The free ones have adware but, for 3 weeks, you might go that route.  

[Nellie07]

It has been around two years since I started using UKTVAccess... I am quite happy with this one. Their service and
speed is brilliant. Paying around 4 pounds a month. (tried other vpns before this, but mostly had buffering problems and their technical supports failed to help)
 my uktvaccess account works fine on my new android
tablet and with windows 8 ...

hope this helps

 

Cheers

Nellie

.
 

[ibemarshall]

Thanks for the report back Mike.  In doing some research, recent reports about HMA have been poor.  StrongVPN gets good Customer Service comments so I will keep them in mind.

 

Nellie - It sounds like you have discovered and been using uktvacess with great success.  I know how frustrating it is to be watching a stream and then you get the dreaded 'buffering icon'...are you using this to access BBC stuff (IPlayer) or do you also use it for accessing US sites as well?

 

Thanks be to you both - Cheers~

[Nellie07]

 

Nellie - It sounds like you have discovered and been using uktvacess with great success.  I know how frustrating it is to be watching a stream and then you get the dreaded 'buffering icon'...are you using this to access BBC stuff (IPlayer) or do you also use it for accessing US sites as well?

 

Thanks be to you both - Cheers~

 

Hi,

with this VPN you can surf the internet as if you are in the UK...don't think it gets US channels..but gets all the uk channels and player options..

[sjp52]

This one you can pick the country you want to unblock ( Unblockus ). Its $5 and it works great. You set it up on your router and all your devices are unblocked. Or you can install it on just one laptop or computer. Its kinda nice for netflix, When I get tired of the selection of shows in the US Netflix, I just go to UK Netflix or Canada Netflix or what ever country and watch a bunch of different movies.

[ibemarshall]

This one you can pick the country you want to unblock ( Unblockus ). Its $5 and it works great. You set it up on your router and all your devices are unblocked. Or you can install it on just one laptop or computer. Its kinda nice for netflix, When I get tired of the selection of shows in the US Netflix, I just go to UK Netflix or Canada Netflix or what ever country and watch a bunch of different movies.

 

First I have heard of this one.  It sounds like it works well.  Any issues with connectivity or the dreaded 'buffering' I have experiences with other vpn services?  Thanks for the suggestion!

[sjp52]

This one you can pick the country you want to unblock ( Unblockus ). Its $5 and it works great. You set it up on your router and all your devices are unblocked. Or you can install it on just one laptop or computer. Its kinda nice for netflix, When I get tired of the selection of shows in the US Netflix, I just go to UK Netflix or Canada Netflix or what ever country and watch a bunch of different movies.

 

First I have heard of this one.  It sounds like it works well.  Any issues with connectivity or the dreaded 'buffering' I have experiences with other vpn services?  Thanks for the suggestion!

I have been using it for a year now and no issues so far

[MikeB]

Any issues with connectivity or the dreaded 'buffering' I have experiences with other vpn services?

The only "buffering" I have seen from an end-user perspective is with a media player, I haven't seen a VPN that does that. Your connection should be seamless, but they all have some overhead or latency. If your broadband connection is crap so will be your VPN service. All the big ones require contracts and credit cards; since you're only needing this for 3 weeks, I would go with a free one unless you need high encryption for security reasons. Here's a link for some recommended free VPN services - http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2390381,00.asp. There are lots more. 

[jkim248]

I've been using Strong VPN for about 1 1/2 years.

I signed up in Shanghai China.

I tried Hidemyass for a while because I think they were the only VPN web site I could access from Shanghai.

But Switched to StrongVPN because you can set up a Buffalo opensource router to pass all network through VPN.

So you can connect XBox 360 or Apple TV and stream from U.S.

 

Currently I have PDLT 10 Mbps connection which I get about 9 Mbps to servers in Philippines (speedtest.net)

But when I use StrongVPN to San Francisco static server, most times I get LESS THAN 1 Mbps! with Latency of about 400ms!

Awful!

 

I've tried pinging StrongVPN servers in San Franciso and New Work and they're all in the 1000ms range.

So I need to work with their Tech Support to find an acceptable connection.

 

BUT

 

When I was at the Marriott, which has Very fast free internet connection. (You don't have to be guest you can go to their lobby and get the connection but there are a lot of free internet trollers their too.) I was getting in the 2 Mbps range.

 

ALSO

 

When I use Strong VPN via PC network connection, I get almost 2 Mbps range in 200ms latency range.

The difference between the router vs PC connection is; one is static server, the other is dynamic.

 

 

So, you'll have to see what kind of connection you'll have at your hotel/apartment and what kind of connection you want to use. (static via router? or dynamic)

None of the major VPN providers seem to be blocked in Philippines so you can wait til you get here to sign up for one.

 

Kinda side topic.

Porn is illegal in Philippines so those sites and related sites are blocked.

Youtube, facebook are not blocked.

 

If you have a computer in the US you can leave on while your trip here, you can always Splashtop, teamviewer, gotomypc to access what you need from here. TeamViewer? is completely free I think.