Latest VPN Reviews 2023

[Kingpin]

5 hours ago, BrettGC said:

 your credentials have been found on the "dark web", or you get a message of a suspicious login from whichever organisation you have the account with.  A lot of the hackers don't exploit the information themselves, they sell it to the highest bidder but it could go either way.  

There is a lot involved with ID theft crimes, malware spyware etc, the question is where's the connection to not hiding an IP address. VPN marketing may say yes but if that's all there is, it isn't much.

1 hour ago, longway said:

GOOGLE wants to know "who" is looking for "what" so they can sell your Identity. With the VPN on they don't know who you are so they refuse query service until it is turned off. FWIW, DuckDuckgo.com search engine allows the VPN to be active. I travel a lot and use hotel WiFi so that's why I use it. An Once of prevention...

Never use Google, and DuckDuckgo has been compromised too. Brave and Startpage are better options, no VPN needed.

Edited January 14, 2023 by Kingpin

[Peaceful John]

On 1/14/2023 at 7:23 AM, Gator said:

I use one for the same reasons many already have listed. Privacy, security and a couple of my banking sites won’t work here unless I show I’m in the USA. 
 

@ Peaceful John and any other tech savvy members: are you watching Prime, etc on your laptop or do you have your vpn rigged to work with your tv? Prime on my tv “knows” I’m not in the USA and is in travel mode, hence the programming is very limited and mostly only offers shows for rent or purchase. If you have your vpn linked to your tv as well, may I ask how you did it? 

Gator, great question.  My problem is with my TV using Fire Stick (Amazon).  I was chatting with the Tech's at Nord just a couple of days ago about that problem with Prime and after an hour or so of trying different things, we figured out my problem.  I'm using a fire stick (Amazon) and if I installed the fire stick in the Philippines, Prime will always know that's where I am, regardless if I use a VPN or not.  The Tech gave me a list of US locations to connect too that will get me around this problem "some of the time".  If you're watching a series like Jack Ryan on Prime, I was starting to watch Season 5 episode 3 when it blocked me.  I switched to one of the newly provided locations, started with episode 4, and it worked without any problems.  We watched episode 3 on my laptop then back to the TV.  There's no assurance it won't happen again in the future, but at least I know what the problem is.  The long-term fix is; when I make a visit back to the US (or your home country), get a new Fire Stick from Amazon, set it up while I'm in the US, then bring it back to the PI to use (or you can have family or trusted friend in your home country do it and ship it to you).  Another option is; if you can set up your Fire Stick with the VPN already turned on (such as loading the VPN directly to your router or loading it directly to your TV) then it will assume your location is where your VPN is connected too.  For Nord users, I will list the servers to connect to below.  If you use Express VPN (and the other services), contact your Tech Customer Service (via Chat) and ask them for the list of servers in the US, Australia, England (or other countries) that are optimized for streaming. Most Techs will give it to you right away, but some want to work on your issue first.  Either way, get the server list and use those locations. It solved the Netflix issue for me right away and made the Prime problem better.  At least I have access to the US movies and the Prime membership free movies.  I hope that helps and is not too confusing.  If it is, let me know and I'll be happy to clarify.  One more tip I just remembered, clear/erase the cache and data for Prime before your try what I mentioned above.  This, if you're not aware, will erase Primes' short-term memory and when you go to open it again, it will be like it's the first time.  Again, I hope this helps.  Good luck my friend and if you're being flooded out like me, I hope your feet stay dry.

john

Servers for Nord VPN;

United States #10116 - 185.255.130.101
United States #8392 - 192.145.116.100
United States #8474 - 192.145.117.100
United States #8510 - 192.145.118.100
United States #8698 - 192.145.119.100

One FYI; I'm not a big fan of Amazon, but it is a good option for getting better quality items here.  Currently, Amazon has "free shipping" to the Philippines and no Import/Country charges or taxes.  Those of you that have ordered from them in the past know that the shipping and Import/Country charges can add up to a lot of money (at times doubling your order price).  So, if you or the family needs something, this would be a great time to order it before they figure out how much money they're losing.  Good luck to all.  j

[Peaceful John]

34 minutes ago, Peaceful John said:

If you have your vpn linked to your tv as well, may I ask how you did it? 

Sorry Gator, I didn't answer this question.  If you use the Fire Stick, you can install the VPN by locating it in the Apps section and the install.  If you use Roku, or another type, Roku for sure doesn't permit it to be installed on their stick.  I'm not sure their reasoning for this, but I did chat with one of their Techs and he told me they had no plans to allow it in the future.  Again, I'm not sure why???  I can't comment on the other sticks because I have no knowledge of them.  If you use a stick that doesn't allow it, you can install it directly to your TV (if it's a smart TV) or install on your router, which is the preferred way.  If you have a service like PLDT Fiber, they won't permit me to load on the router (they control the access to the router software and even trying to change the password to your network is a pain the in butt).  But if I understand your situation correctly, I would probably install on my laptop and Mirror to TV or connecting direct to the TV via HDMI cable (assuming your laptop has an HDMI port).  I do some gaming so I usually have a strong laptop using a 17-inch screen, but as long as you have a reasonable laptop with 4 gig video memory (dedicated or shared), then you should be good.  I totally understand if any or all of what I've said is fuzzy or hard to understand.  I'll help you or explain the best I can.  Good luck my friend.

john

Edited January 15, 2023 by Peaceful John

[Gustav]

I forgot about the topic for a minute and *boom*. It sounds like NordVPN or SurfShark will work well, and avoid ExpressVPN.

I'm looking for a good service because last time I was in the Philippines. some of my content and banking was blocked. I used NordVPN but I wanted to know what might be better because of the more recent blocking of services if you are using a VPN (which means the content providers generally know the exit points, which also means so does everyone else).

Thanks.

[Possum]

I have been paying for Nord vpn for 2 years. I have zero complaints. On one occasion I had a small problem and contacted their support, within an hour problem solved.

[OzeMike]

10 hours ago, Gustav said:

I forgot about the topic for a minute and *boom*. It sounds like NordVPN or SurfShark will work well, and avoid ExpressVPN.

I'm looking for a good service because last time I was in the Philippines. some of my content and banking was blocked. I used NordVPN but I wanted to know what might be better because of the more recent blocking of services if you are using a VPN (which means the content providers generally know the exit points, which also means so does everyone else).

Thanks.

Interesting...I've always read ExpressVPN was one of the best but tried to watch Netflix UK yesterday using it ..set to London...and Netflix is blocking it. Maybe Nord VPN is better.

[BrettGC]

Just now, OzeMike said:

Interesting...I've always read ExpressVPN was one of the best but tried to watch Netflix UK yesterday using it ..set to London...and Netflix is blocking it. Maybe Nord VPN is better.

If you feedback to Express customer service they may be able to fix the issue.  It's a constant game of cat and mouse between VPN's and streaming services.