I’ve been using PIA on all my devices for the past 3 years, 24/7, and am satisfied. I do so for a number of reasons, but don’t know that any one of them would be compelling to others. In a nutshell it comes down to trust. My ISP and phone service are part of the “data industrial complex” while PIA is in the security business. In the US, net neutrality and privacy appear to be under attack. This is my way of voting (with my wallet).
This morning at CultofMac, there’s a brief article on PIA. More of an ad than an article, but the service is on sale for a third off. You can get a 1, 2, or 3 year service for $33.77, $55.55, or $77.33 respectively.
FYI ‘CultofMac Deals’ is merely a rebranding of Stacksocial deals, in which CultofMac gets a commission if you buy through their link. Stacksocial deals appear all over, on sites ranging from macworld to macbundler to others. The regular Stacksocial deal is below … but if you go through StackSocial themselves they’re offering an additional 15% off sitewide via coupon-code BOO15 (which they note on their homepage).
I think Stacksocial is great. Over the last few years I’ve bought limited, lifetime lite-Pro accounts at Droplr and CloudApp, Adguard Premium, a Mac Blue-Ray player app, an app-bundle deal, as well as a 3-year subscription to PIA for $90 (so the above deal with coupon actually gives you 3 years for $66, which is pretty awesome).
If you want detailed information on VPN’s, the only site I know off that isn’t completely tainted by affiliate marketing is that one privacy site (actual name).
I have used Encrypt.me for years quite happily. I use the minimal plan, but it keeps me safe in coffee shops and airports. The automatic connection has worked flawlessly, but you can turn it on and off easily when needed.
Using my home computer for hosting VPN would be slower and complicated by my company’s VPN, and would introduce a slower net connection into the mix. Since we recently moved to a neighborhood with gigabit internet, I might revisit using my home as the hosting site.
Yeah, I’ve steered people to this site previously. I don’t know much but it seems that not all VPN’s are not the same. If you believe the info on that site, you would think twice about the common recommendations on this forum.
There’s a chance that I’ve missed an episode on this but I think it would be truly beneficial if MPU could interview an expert on VPN.
Still, $34 for a year of PIA (or $55 for 2 years or $77 for 3) is a better deal for that service than I’ve ever seen, on Stacksocial or anywhere else. The lowest price I’d previously seen was $30 per year for either two or three years (and I myself grabbed a 3-years-for-$90 in March 2018).
I have used Private Internet Access (aka PIA) for years and never had any problems using Mac and IOS. Speeds are always fantastic, never even notice when I’m using it. Price is good for me. I buy year at a time.
I’ve used Tunnelbear when I’m on public wifi for a few years now and have been very happy. I also like their icons and messages as I’m easily seduced by cute.
I used ProXPN for a number of years but occ it bounced me out, so I switched to Tunnel Bear. No issues on TB either on my mac or IOS. I tend to use when on public wifi but don’t bother if I’m using 4G, even tethered.
FYI I’m recently getting some odd, spotty service with private internet access with some slowdowns. I was connected to the USA_East_Coast node and Google News kept giving me UK news, and then a Rakuten order was canceled and when I called about it it turns out it the order was red-flagged because it appeared that the order was coming from London. So, their VPNs have gotten a bit mixed up, and the slowness I experienced was probably due to the longer latency from using a Euro node…
I’ve used tunnelbear for a year now, and though I really should look into the specs and performance, the bears always make me smile, which can almost be counted as a feature in itself.
It’s been about six months since the last reply to this thread. I wanted to know if you’ve made any changes to your VPN choices. What are you using now? Would you recommend it? I’m just looking for something that helps me check business email, etc at coffee shops or while traveling. thanks!
Still using PIA. Speeds are fine (back to normal), however they still bafflingly have the issue in which if you choose the ‘US East’ node you end up really using a node in Great Britain.
FYI it looks like there may come a shakeup in VPNs in the near future, as the Mozilla/Firefox people are readying a subscription VPN/privacy service:
Still running my own VPN server at home on my Mac mini server. And I’ve been doing so for 9 years. Home service is 50/50 (symmetrical) and I actually see 50Mb/s when it passes through, using it for privacy.
