Looking for Third Party VPN W/O Significant Network Speed Hit
4everpleased
Enthusiast - Level 3

As the title indicates, I am looking for a VPN app (Windows) which will not significantly ding my network speed. I have FiOS (75/35). I understand there is normally a speed drop while connected to a VPN but dropping from 75Mbps to 1.5Mbps is unacceptable. I have only tested Spotflux so any other suggestions would be appreciated.

To clarify, any app would have to be compatible with PeerBlock. I do not care about advertising as Ad Block Plus takes care of that. As for speed, on average, I would expect no less than 20-30Mbps. Also, I want the ability to choose my own servers (whether foreign or domestic).

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Re: Looking for Third Party VPN W/O Significant Network Speed Hit
twaysive1
Enthusiast - Level 2

Check out https://www.ipvanish.com

I'm on a mac, but the windows app works well too. While connected to one of the Miami servers, which are in the same state as me, I can often get nearly my full 75 Mbps down when using openvpn (udp). IPVanish has servers around the world, some have better speeds than others. Your speed will depend on a few factors, distance from server being used, server load, etc. For best results I'd suggest using one of the "A" servers, example mia-a01, lon-a02, nrt-a01, etc.

Re: Looking for Third Party VPN W/O Significant Network Speed Hit
VUser50
Contributor - Level 2

I remember ProXPN and Astrill both being decent. I think Astrill did limit torrenting to certain somewhat slower servers however.  I don't quite know about 20-30mbps speeds but I think both offer a trial period. (both were way better than 1.5mbps thou) Here are a list of Lifehacker reccomendations.

Peerblock often isn't super effective since companies change IPs. Certainly wouldn't discourage caution but even mainstream VPNs are pretty good about not disclosing their user databases (and the best don't have databases). 


@4everpleased wrote:

As the title indicates, I am looking for a VPN app (Windows) which will not significantly ding my network speed. I have FiOS (75/35). I understand there is normally a speed drop while connected to a VPN but dropping from 75Mbps to 1.5Mbps is unacceptable. I have only tested Spotflux so any other suggestions would be appreciated.

To clarify, any app would have to be compatible with PeerBlock. I do not care about advertising as Ad Block Plus takes care of that. As for speed, on average, I would expect no less than 20-30Mbps. Also, I want the ability to choose my own servers (whether foreign or domestic).


Re: Looking for Third Party VPN W/O Significant Network Speed Hit
CaptainSTX
Contributor - Level 3

I use StrongVPN running on a VPN router with a side VPN processor and get 70/30 most of the time to a VPN server 250 miles distant.   Running their application on my Windows 7 PC I didn't do quite as well.

I also use Astrill VPN running on Iphones, Android phones, tablets etc. and it sets up very nicely and their application is very feature rich with many useful options such as dual gateways, etc.   Unfortunately the best speed I could get using my VPN hardware was 40 Mbps down.

Every year when my contracts come up for renewal I try several new VPN providers to see if I can find someone better.

I suggest you sign up for one week or  one month contracts and test who works best for you.   Lots of variables including how good their application is, where their servers are located,  how far you are from the server, the power of your hardware and how much bandwidth a VPN provider has connecting them to the Internet.   Secondarily you can look at price and what you believe their security is.  

Keep in mind that using VPN improves security in certain situations, but on the Internet nothing is totally secure and no one is totally anonymous.  

Re: Looking for Third Party VPN W/O Significant Network Speed Hit
4everpleased
Enthusiast - Level 3

@CaptainSTX wrote:

I use StrongVPN running on a VPN router with a side VPN processor and get 70/30 most of the time to a VPN server 250 miles distant.   


Thanks for this. I am very curious about your setup. I have a signifcant amount of computing equipment lying around my home office. Can you walk me through how you configured your setup? I can put some of this computing equipment to work.

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Re: Looking for Third Party VPN W/O Significant Network Speed Hit
Hubrisnxs
Legend

I use Cyber Ghost, and I can't recommend it enough.

It's stellar.

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Re: Looking for Third Party VPN W/O Significant Network Speed Hit
4everpleased
Enthusiast - Level 3

Hi Hubrisnxs. I considered CG during my first round of testing but discounted it because of the limitations. However, now that I am not concerned about free vs paid, I gave them a whirl. I remoted into my home computer and successfully connected to a foreign server. The result of my speed test was not as pleasing - 3/3. Additionally, the CG GUI threw a fit with Peerblock. However, I would almost bet that would improve with some trial and error.

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Re: Looking for Third Party VPN W/O Significant Network Speed Hit
CaptainSTX
Contributor - Level 3

@4everpleased wrote:

@CaptainSTX wrote:

I use StrongVPN running on a VPN router with a side VPN processor and get 70/30 most of the time to a VPN server 250 miles distant.   


Thanks for this. I am very curious about your setup. I have a signifcant amount of computing equipment lying around my home office. Can you walk me through how you configured your setup? I can put some of this computing equipment to work.


The challenge with running a VPN is that the encryption/ decryption requires a good processor and lots of RAM.

Most routers just don't have the necessary power.  

My current setup is an ASSUS N66U router running  Sabai Technologies Ver 5.5  firmware with the VPN processing off loaded to their VPN Accelerator which contains (I believe an Atom Processor )  and 4 Gigs of RAM.

In your case if you already have equipment you might want to repurpose a PC to serve as your VPN router by obtaining the version of DD-WRT that can be run on a PC,   intstall a Gigabyte NIC (maybe two)  and hang a switch off one of them and you would be good to go.

I didn't go this route because before moving Stateside I lived on an island where electricity cost $0.55 per Kwh and  a PC isn't as electrically efficent and I also travel overseas  so being able to transport a router in my suitcase is easier  than stuffing a PC in.

Good luck!

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Re: Looking for Third Party VPN W/O Significant Network Speed Hit
4everpleased
Enthusiast - Level 3

...as a follow up to my earlier comment, after further testing, I am not satisfied with the speed I get while using Cyber Ghost. The best download speed I have received was 3.4Mbps. I first connected to a German server and then connected to a server closer to my home. Additionally, I chose servers across the states. At no time did I ever get anywhere close to my required minimum speed.

Hubrisnxs, can you share your experiences with Cyber Ghost? What is your native speed and what speeds do you normally obtain while using Cyber Ghost?

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Re: Looking for Third Party VPN W/O Significant Network Speed Hit
4everpleased
Enthusiast - Level 3
Thank you very much. I am going to evaluate what I have in-house and experiment with this a bit.
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