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Q: What paid-for VPNs work best here?
After years of fighting the Great firewall with free proxies and vpns like freegate, ultrasurf, cocoon, hotspot shield etc I think I finally give in.
I need to pay for a good vpn service. Obvious reasons being too much insecurity and instability with the free services.
So, what VPNs do you all use and how efficient are they?
11 years 39 weeks ago in Web & Technology - China
For me, Astrill worked well 100 per cent of the time. It wasn't all that cheap, but it was very reliable - also, we used to live in Xinjiang and decided to do some research on the place we were living. I stumbled across some seriously seditious shit; no knock at the door. I'd say it's secure!
Astrill is awesome.
You can download any of your favourite TV shows easily.
I'd recommend Astrill too. It is very flexible and good value for money. With it you can switch your server to different countries.
I won't mention any by name, (as I don't want 'them' to find out about it) but do a google search and ensure whatever one you chose is
a. Fully encrypted and
b. has a large selection of nations proxy IP addresses to use.
Also don't just go for the cheapest, Caveat Emptor.
If you know a foreign businessman then ask if he has Free Gate. It was developed so people could get around the firewall when doing business. If someone you know has it they can dump it on a flash drive and give you. I know you asked about paid-for VPNs but only chumps shell out cash for em.
AdamE:
There can be/is serious security issues with using free vpn services. i don't think it's a good idea advising people to use them.
beaufortninja:
nothing wrong with them in my experience. Also, much less complicated to use. And they're free. Can't beat that.
Hugh.G.Rection:
I totally disagree. You may have been lucky with the free ones and if so I'm happy for you, but in my experience with VPNs you get what you pay for. If you use free VPN's it's highly likely, especially if they're not encrypted, that you will be 'monitored' from time to time. Now if those 'monitors' are also corrupt they may then 'sell' any information they acquire on to less scrupulous people.
AdamE:
Well certainly nothing seems wrong with them, because they work. They get you the access to the sites you want to acces.
But they are very insecure in the sense that you don't know whos running that service or those servers. It very well could be criminals running the servers and monitoring/logging your activities, quite a which can be used for identify theft/finincal fraud/etc etc.
Or like someone else said, it could be people who sell your information to other parties (spam bots/malware distributors) etc etc.
Also if not encrypted properly then the government or police or whoever may want to look at what your doing, can do so.
At least with a paid vpn provider you can look up their company information and verify that they are a legitmate company and aren't running vpn servers to commit crimes against you or others.
If you are going to use a free service though, just make sure you only visit sites that aren't that important such as banking sites, emails, facebook, etc etc.
AdamE:
oh btw... i used freegate when i first came to china. so im not knocking it, it does work. i just don't trust anything thats free because i have no way of knowing who's running those servers and they are doing with my information.
I'm not sure which ones are good, but Witopia no longer works for me. I paid $70 for the year before coming to China, and it conked out on me about two months ago. Even when it did work, only one IP address out of 60 worked...and I spent an hour on arrival in China figuring out which one that was.
I use Freegate now but it's been down most of the time since the Diao Yu Dao thing started up.
I have been using "StreamVIa" for some time now, costs £3.99 month UK pounds.
Quite good, several different servers to choose from, works with facebook, youtube.
Btguard i got here excellent customer service . they never delay to help me and its really very fast vpn service
I would say the VPNinja! It works like a charm and it's speedy speedy fast! I use it to watch Youtube video's. I was so happy when I finally got it! I'm going back to watch some more Dragons's Den and seeing what good upcoming fights are coming around the Bend!
