I’ve used proton for a year or two now and it is fine. Great for use on my phone when I want to use public/airport wifi and it sort of kind of works with gluetun (the rotating port is annoying but it still is a forwarded port).
But I’ve increasingly been annoyed with Proton as a company and am looking to migrate my email/domain to fastmail in the very near future. I COULD continue to just pay for the vpn (60 USD a year is pretty reasonable) but also feel like this is a good opportunity to “shop around”
Checked the wiki and other FAQs (which all basically crib from said wiki) and they all basically boil down to proton or mullivad… except that mullivad apparently stopped allowing port forwarding which is a bit of an issue for any torrents and the like.
So are there any other good options?
Thanks
I love Mullvad, but if you need P2P its not the best option. If you just need a VPN, though, its amazing. Today I just switched to AirVPN and am running it on Arch through Eddie. Have my qbittorrent set up to only allow connections through Eddie and just forwarded my first port. I’m very happy with it.
I think the only downside is that I could get Mullvad for 5eur a month on a month by month basis. AirVPN is 7eur or 15eur for three months, so I have to lock into the three months to get the same price.
Other providers who know what they’re doing include cryptostorm.is, PIA, and ipredator.se
Or make your own with a VPS with openvpn or witeguard
Worth noting that Italy (location of airvpn) hates vpns and is constantly fucking around with them, to the point air doesn’t even actually operate in Italy to preserve users privacy. Right now, theres no immediate risk, but it’ is worth keeping an eye on the political situation in Italy regarding VPN laws
I did read this somewhere before. I just have to take my chances at the moment. My other option was Windscribe, but unless you’re paying for a year+ their prices are astronomical.
Yeah I use airvpn myself, its just worth throwing that info out for full transparency/disclosure
Not a VPN, but you may also want to look into I2P.
https://proprivacy.com/privacy-service/guides/i2p-guide
https://youtube.com/watch?v=FNp0TRDG0BQ
Basically, a p2p protocol for the entire internet.
Its considerably more complicated to set up than most modern VPNs, where nowaday’s its usually as simple as install an app with a GUI, verify some settings and you’re good to go, and i2p is also quite slow…
… but its totally free, and you can torrent over it, and as far as I know, if you’ve set it up properly, it is basically undetectable by ISPs, due to how it uses ‘garlic’ routing: basically, a whole bunch of users net requests are encrypted, anonymized, and then smashed into a big packet… so an ISP would have to untangle all of that for every packet, and afaik, none of them have figured out how.
I2P would obviously be horrible for watching streaming content though, snail speed.
mullvad
Good choice for privacy, not so much for piracy. They removed their port forwarding feature a while ago.
IMHO if you don’t have a globally-reachable address or forwarded port, you are not really a participant of the internet, you are just a receptacle xD
One service I never see mentioned is OVPN. They have a 1-to-1 feature parity with mullvad and were an easy drop-in replacement when mullvad closed their ports:
- wireguard
- port forwarding
- no usernames/emails/registration, only account numbers
- crypto payments/cash in the mail
- same price as mullvad
- multiple device keys
- multihop
- no bandwidth limits
- setup guides
- status dashboard
I used mullvad for years, sad to see them go, and all my scripts basically worked without any change other than the server addresses/public keys. Only downside is they don’t have as many users so not as many servers. I wish more people would join up so I get more IPs to choose from :D
Mullvad is so great in a vacuum, but it seems like every other website has you writing out a captcha or blocking you outright exclusively because you’re on mullvad.
Yes! And on top of it, embedded YouTube is also starting to block access
I’ve decided I’m not using websites that block mullvad anymore. I’m talking about a hard block like reddit does and not a captcha (captcha is fine by me).
If they’re doing that much trouble to prevent me from using a VPN they must me doing some pretty shady shit with my data.
I will not move to another VPN because of all VPNs I feel Mullvad respects my privacy most.
Great for use on my phone when I want to use public/airport wifi
If you just want the tunnel encryption you can try hosting a VPN on your own home network. It’s what I do since I don’t need to spoof my location.
You are asking in the piracy community so I’m assuming you’re also using it to torrent (which a home VPN won’t help with) but you didn’t specifiy so I’m not sure
I’m with Azire, they have port forwarding and 10 gig servers. Note they were bought recently by malwarebytes, so it is possible things will change in the future. For the time being, things have been great. I moved from OVPN after myself and others started experiencing persistant failures.
I’ve been meaning to try out CryptoStorm. If anyone has experience with them please share.
Just throwing in another voice for PIA. Their corporate owners may be questionable, but I’ve been with them since before they sold out and have never heard a peep from my ISP for seeding terabytes of torrents. They don’t keep logs, and they are audited to prove it regularly.
EDIT: They also have port forwarding, but not for every exit server.
PIA is such a weird one. They’re massive and know what they’re doing but ownership and jurisdiction have always been questionable. I have long suspected they cooperate with GHCQ but only on legitimate national security cases not piracy.
AirVPN, IVPN, Mullvad, Windscribe
The requirement for port forwarding narrows that down to AirVPN and Windscribe, which is an unfortunately small set of choices.
What exactly does port forwarding do and why is it better for torrenting like I’ve heard? I’ve been using Mullvad for a couple of years now but if I could get faster torrent download speeds that would be great
Port forwarding lets you connect with other hosts peer-to-peer which a VPN would otherwise block if both sides are behind one. For torrents you’d get more peers (which doesn’t matter if you’re just downloading the latest and most popular stuff) and be able to seed more effectively.
Try Orbot. I use it and works pretty great.
If you plan to torrent with your vpn. Tor isn’t a good idea. If you use it just as A VPN it could be fine ig.
If you use it just as A VPN it could be fine ig.
If I’m not mistaken Orbot passes traffic through the Tor network which will significantly reduce network speeds.
Someone feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.
Tor is not for torrents, they have documentation specifically warning against it as it hurts the network and your anonymity. Tor is TCP based. You’re looking for i2p which handles UDP, has its own torrents and integrates with torrent clients. https://geti2p.net/
Yes you are right. That is why I said it could be fine. I think most people will find it too slow. And also route all your phone traffic through tor isn’t a great idea neither because most services block Tor IP anyway.
Mullvad, IVPN and
Nym(not tested with audits yet, do not trust as much as the other two).For clearnet browsing. PIA, AirVPN and Windscribe for torrenting. Windscribe and PIA are probably good for either but this is my classification, take it as you will
I agree on this with the exception of PIA.
- Marketing is BS like most VPN
- Company is based in the USA
- They do analytics
- You cannot register “anonymously”
It’s not the worst VPN you could choose but there is better options.
Wait don’t they take crypto? Just fake your details
They also take your IP.
Over TOR?
Using VPN over TOR greatly reduces performance. Also, for most cases TOR is enough,. Why would you slap a VPN on top of it?
Cryptostorm. Supports port forwarding, and you can buy access tokens through third parties using crypto. You do not register an account or provide them with any information to use the service, other than the token.
But honestly, Proton is the best route to go.
ProtonVPN has been a known data miner for years now. Cryptostorm’s admins do know what they’re doing. If you want an audit see mullvad or ipredator
Still using Private Internet Access (PIA).
Honestly, dunno why they’ve fallen out of fashion due to the FUD about being owned by an unsavoury parent company, but the most important matter to me is if they keep logs, which they don’t. One of the few VPN companies tested on this, in court, and in a recent audit. Plus still extremely cheap (if you go for 3yr+3mo).
Port forwarding works with with this docker NAS stack. Doesn’t use gluetun, but there’s a specialised docker-wireguard-pia container as part of the stack, with a script that handles port changes. Been flawless.
Can you link to their court hearing, specifically where they refused to provide logs?
Also, do they accept crypto?
They didn’t refuse to provide logs - they don’t have logs to provide.
What’s going on with Proton the company?
Edit: ah fuck, thanks for the replies. Sigh.
Their CEO praised Trump/the Republican Party. He got widely criticised for it. Proton released a damage control statement but later deleted it after it made things worse.
People are now moving away from Proton as a result.
Who knew pirates were such babies they can’t use a product simply because the ceo has differing political views. Insane.
Wait til they hear that Tor was developed and is largely run by the US military.
No it’s insane to continue supporting companies when their leadership doesn’t align with your ideals. The only power you have is choice. Now run along and continue being the good little consumer you’ve been made to be.
You’re acting like their CEOs political leaning makes any difference at all to the company. It doesn’t. All people like you are doing is making sure everyone just hides their opinions to fool numpties like yourself.
Run along and draw some swasticas on cars while calling yourself the good guys.
Capitalism has really done a number on you. It’s sad. You even admit you have to hide your opinions, but can’t understand what that really means. Ah well. It’s not like you matter anyway so keep in being a piece of shit with no self awareness!
I don’t hide my opinions, clearly, you absolute pencil.
Communism/leftism has really done a number on you.
People don’t support things and people they think are wrong, what a wild concept
You’re talking about a community that supports piracy lol. Not exactly the moral compass you’re pretending they are.
huh? Where did I say pirates are morally superior? I meant that people, in general, like to think of themselfs as good and so avoid doing things they think are bad. I don’t see where I might have implied what things are good/bad.
liberals really struggle with that concept. esp democrats. they keep thinking people will show up just because they’re less fascist than republicans.
Proton recently closed their masterdon account because of the mutual hostility
*Mastodon
if anything they’ve reopened their account with Master Don
Like basically all tech companies, the leadership are libertarian tech bros. It sucks, but whatever. The problem is also that the CEO (?) has been making public statements to try and cozy up to the trump administration over the past few months
Some of that still falls under the LTB effect (These policies benefit the company so fuck everyone else, etc) and it DOES make sense for a company to try and earn themselves an exception for the upcoming hellscape in a market that will REALLY want VPNs. But it still leaves a really bad taste in my mouth.
Not in an “I MUST LEAVE PROTON NOW” state since I like the products because they tend to be pretty honest about what they will and won’t do when the goons come a knocking and that mostly boils down to “cooperate. So do X Y and Z to protect yourself by preventing us from having the information they want”). But that, plus protonmail being kind of a shitshow if you want to keep offline copies of your emails, is motivation to shop around.
I wouldn’t exactly call Tim Berners-Lee a “libertarian tech bro”.
Just FYI, the majority of Proton AG (which includes all Proton services) is owned by a non-profit body called the “Proton Foundation”. This are headed by a board of 5 members, including Andy (CEO) and Tim Berners-Lee (the literal father of the internet as we know it).
Proton is fine.
routing traffic through Israel is not fine.
Then don’t do that? You have your choice of servers.
This is a decontextualized post from 2015 that theorizes a DDoS attack on Proton at the time was coercion to “help” them by offering to proxy their traffic through Bynet in Israel for the purpose of tampering. Is there any other info out there to support this theory? It’s intriguing and believable but also complete hearsay absent any other corroboration, context, further info, etc.
I don’t trust proton. if you think you can trust proton, feel free to use them.
That didn’t answer the question. You made an assertion, but haven’t provided any evidence to support that claim.
Please elaborate
It should be noted everywhere that this person posts this, that this is an allegation without any actual evidence to support it.
the post is the evidence.
No, the post is a conspiracy theory that gives no evidence to support the claim. You can’t use an allegation as evidence to support your allegation, that’s circular logic.
If you want port forwarding the choice is between AirVPN, ProtonVPN and Njalla. Iirc PIA also supports port forwarding, but their ownerships reputation is no good.
Mullvad, IVPN and many other services don’t support port forwarding.
Do you have any experience with Njalla? This would be my first time purchasing a VPN and I couldn’t imagine a better provider on paper.
I just don’t know anything practical about it besides it’s founded by a member of the swedish pirate party.
I’ve never used them but I heard about them in the context of private DNS and VPS hosting. E.g. they act as a middleman to shield domain the shield the client from authorities (at least to some extent — they still have to follow the laws).
Given their focus on privacy I’d trust them for torrenting at least as much as the other options. As a first VPN I’d say it’s great because of their flat 5€/m price. A few years ago I used Mullvad for that purpose — until they removed port forwarding.
If you mainly do torrenting, AirVPN is a good option. I have recently moved away from ProtonVPN; it’s too expensive.
Plus it’s run by Swiss Nazis.
Swiss nazis?
I’ll add another recommendation for Windscribe. I’ve had a lifetime subscription since 2017 and have never had issues. I use it for normal internet usage pretty much daily and the occasional torrenting.
