VPN service consolidation by a malware company

Has anyone tried Tailscale?

FWIW, I have switched from EncryptMe to Mullvad VPN despite getting EncryptMe for ‘free’ with my eero Secure+ subscription, because it was so slow and unreliable as to make it unusable.

Wirecutter recommended Mullvad:

and Macworld…

as did Tom’s Guide:

(Note the latter two also recommended ExpressVPN, but that was before the most recent news).

Edited to Add…

Right now the Mullvad app does not work with the Monterey beta. Which I just learned the not-good way.

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Kape “used to be a company that sold malware” is how I heard it from some people who I would trust. Whether Kape can be trusted now, I don’t know.

But… the purchase had given me pause, and then I had a major meltdown of the VPN client, and a day later I got the reminder email my subscription was due shortly. No prizes for guessing what I did.

On iOS and iPadOS I now just turned on Private Relay. Until such time as Monterey is ready (and my laptop is ready for it) I have signed up on a monthly sub for the lowest plan from ProtonVPN, about whom I have only heard good things. They are the same people behind ProtonMail.

I used VyprVPN for a long time before I switched to NordVPN because they were much faster in every place I used them. When NordVPN had their server breach I was looking for good independent reviews to do my research and did trials. Most VPN reviews rehash the same lists and features and are clearly in the “review ecosystem” mentioned earlier likely favouring the one that commissioned it. ExpressVPN was clearly on my list for a while, but I am now glad I did not pick them.

After my own analysis I settled on iVPN as my primary solution and I kept NordVPN as an alternative as it has servers in more jurisdictions and is therefore sometimes faster.

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I had forgotten all about the NordVPN breach.

Honestly, at this point, I suspect that they might be one of the safer companies to use because I think a VPN company can come back from one incident like that…maybe… but two? If it happened twice, I think all bets are off and customers would leave in droves.

OTOH, I just tried NordVPN and it works great and uses the built-in VPN functionality in macOS, which means it’s going to be very easy to automate… so I might be signing up for it and dropping Mullvad… because NordVPN is much nicer to use.

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I’ve heard bad things about them, but it’s not the worst option out there.

Agreed. Think they are safe and also they handled the breach well. There have been discussions about their ownership structure and legal domicilation. A bit of background here

I have kept them on as they are normally fast and have both Wireguard protocol and also double hopping (in OpenVPN) built-in.

Suggest you do check iVPN also, just so you understand the differences. Less coverage, but fully owned servers, rather than using cloud servers.

Also noting that using running VPN software on one’s own server means that you’re routing all your traffic through that server - so if you have a lot of data transfer, watch for the per-gigabyte pricing for data overage.

It also puts all of the updates and security fixes on you to maintain.

Not horrible if that’s in one’s wheelhouse, but it’s definitely more work. :slight_smile:

If you’re only using the VPN to protect your mobile devices on public WiFi you might also consider setting up an OpenVPN server on your home router:

https://www.asus.com/support/faq/1008713/

Of course this does not help overcoming geo-blocking nor increase your privacy, since you will be using your home IP on your mobile devices.

Is Private Relay sufficient for domestic use purposes, e.g., coffee shops, airports, etc? I suspect I’ll need a new VPN service for international travel once that resumes but in the meantime, what is the groups take on relying on Private Relay domestically?

That would also be true of a hosted server solution, unless the server were located in a different country. And of course a paid-for hosted server would be traceable back to you pretty easily. :slight_smile:

Private relay will mask your identity when you use Safari but not when you use an app or a different browser. A true VPN will mask your entire computer. I normally prefer to use apps on my iPad to connect to financial institutions, etc. which I feel is more secure than using my laptop. So I probably won’t choose another vpn until I plan my next international trip.

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That’s little more than a “he said, she said” tale, and the story tends to side with Proton. Nothing they did suggests to me that Proton did anything to erode trust in their products or operations. In fact, their fairly quick decision to comply with Apple’s request that they didn’t agree with, in order to get the update through, seems to me to be user-friendly.

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I was more interested in what the comments said, not the actual article.

I have licenses for both Adguard VPN and Windscribe. Both seem very good and reputable, IMHO…

The comments were extremely critical of ProtonVPN. It took me by surprise, so I simply just had to share it! :rofl:

Wait! Negative comments? :wink:

+1 for ProtonVPN. I just read through a dozen different review sites and digging through various information on this Company owns that company. For me, ProtonVPN seems to cover my needs with good security features. #m2c

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I’ve had some issues with ProtonVPN lately refusing to connect until I reboot. May be something at the OS level but ExpressVPN “just worked” 99.9% of the time.

I’ve been a top tier Proton subscriber for a couple of years now and I have watched them evolve and grow. They have just introduced Wireguard as a protocol and a system they call VPN accelerator. I’m getting 102Mbs over my 100Mbs connection so there’s something good going on.

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