MX Linux Forum

Hello guys,
I am a streaming lover and love to stream my favorite content worldwide. My focus is to secure myself while streaming my favorite content online,
Here i was looking for some best free VPN services of 2018 it is because to protect myself from cyber threats / cyber crimes.
So, i am trying to figure out which Free VPN providers are best in security perspective.
Here i found the detailed guide on best free vpn services of 2018.
This guide gathered the list of best [link removed by administrator, laced with ads for product] services for Android, Netflix, iPhone, Mac, Torrenting, Windows, Reddit, Chrome, Gaming, Download links and many more.
My point is, is free VPNs secure? i read somewhere that "if you're not paying for a product, then you're the product".
So, should i go with free VPN ?
Which VPN provider is best ?
Need your suggestions.
I got the 5 Best Free VPN Services, they are:
1. Windscribe
2. TunnelBear
3. Security Kiss
4. Proton VPN
5. Hide Me VPN

I went through this search last year. After reviewing many of them, I decided to pay for a VPN. I was not happy with the logging on the free ones (yes, they log your traffic even if they say they don't). Most did not have linux support, and they were sloooooow compared to their pay siblings. Speed was a huge consideration because a typical VPN is about 1/5 - 1/3 slower than open traffic. Yes, you are the product. Some inject ads in http, and some do not allow https traffic (an immediate red flag that your content is being mined). I would never use a VPN that doesn't use Linux open source clients (like openVPN). They are most certainly inspecting/modding your traffic before it's encrypted.

My purpose was for roaming on networks that were not my own and hence I had to treat them as unsecure. Ultimately, I went with one that had an Android client that could VPN any device tethered to my phone (a setup I use often), and worked well as a guest on hotel/coffee shop WiFi. I also wanted to be able to select applications/processes that would be routed through the VPN and leave others open. Speed was my primary concern. I only wanted to slow down apps that needed protection and leave others unfettered. The free ones didn't offer this.

I wanted minimal virtual servers and the free ones use them by the bucket load. Virtual is where the IP is registered in say Belgium, but the physical server is actually in Chicago. It's not uncommon to see dozens of IPs that are dotted all over the world, but physically they're on the same box in Dallas. This is junk.

But the free ones can be useful. Most people don't care about securing the content of their traffic, I as I do. They're actually looking to mask its origin especially if you are using streaming media like Netflix or using Kodi. But this, too, is where the pay services shine. Many provide Socks proxies which are much faster than VPN. They don't encrypt anything, they just make it look like you are in say Perth, Australia or you never left the US.

Lastly, I didn't want a VPN company in the US or any other nation that required logging. I ultimately settled on Hong Kong which is not subject to the logging regs of China -- yet!

HarisTanveer wrote:

Free VPN's entities are usually the ones you want to hide your information from and looks and logs all your traffic which defeats the purpose of a VPN unless you are using it to get around censorship.
Get a paid VPN as they don't cost much. As for the best VPN there are all differences of opinions. I use Astrill VPN in Stealth mode which uses double 256 bit encryption without logs. It costs me $60 a year.

http://www.stopforumspam.com/search

Found 3 entries for "HarisTanveer"

anticapitalista wrote:http://www.stopforumspam.com/search

Found 3 entries for "HarisTanveer"

Thanks for checking.. I removed the link as the site has product ads promoting a particulat vpn.

I use windscribe. I only need a VPN very occasionally, so this free service (with limited data) is ideal for me.

At best I'm no more than average with linux, but this is really easy to install and use compared to the others I've looked at. For the 2gb data free option, you don't even register an email address with them. If you do, you get 10gb

I couldn't get tunnelbear working on linux (it's meant to, I just wasn't clever enough!), although it's great on windows if you only need occasional use.

As for what's safe and what isn't....I'm not a techie but the free ones also offer a pay service. In other words, I'm not sure simply comparing "free v paid" will get you a decent answer. I'm sure what I use would be no safer if I paid....I'd just be able to use it a lot more. But I like that Windscribe doesn't have my name, email and bank details. I'd prefer they weren't based in the UK or USA....but they are and it works well enough. Probably some degree of risk, less so compared to not using one.

Hi rickc,
windscribe is situated in Canada, which is one of the "Five Eyes".

Wikipedia says:
"The Five Eyes, often abbreviated as FVEY, is an intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States."

History shows, that in these states internet privacy is not appreciated.
I myself would never use a cloud or VPN hosted in one of these countries.

I tested a handful VPNs and my recommandation is cyberghostVPN.
Currently the pricing is 10,- € per computer and year.
Look at ebay for even cheaper pricing.

Important: Do not forget to turn off IPv6 and turn off WEBrtc in your browser or every VPN will be compromised.

Do not hesitate to contact me, if you have questions.
Regards
Karl

waldmattis wrote:Hi rickc,
windscribe is situated in Canada, which is one of the "Five Eyes".

Wikipedia says:
"The Five Eyes, often abbreviated as FVEY, is an intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States."

History shows, that in these states internet privacy is not appreciated.
I myself would never use a cloud or VPN hosted in one of these countries.

I tested a handful VPNs and my recommandation is cyberghostVPN.
Currently the pricing is 10,- € per computer and year.
Look at ebay for even cheaper pricing.

Important: Do not forget to turn off IPv6 and turn off WEBrtc in your browser or every VPN will be compromised.

Do not hesitate to contact me, if you have questions.
Regards
Karl

Cheers Karl, I'll mull it over. My issue is that I only use it with Tor, and only for about 20 mins a month. Doesn't seem worth paying.

They sure are...I am using free VPNs for some time and haven't got any issues.... YET

Free VPN only can access you to restriction website but didn't keep your browsing anonymously. That's why I will never suggest you use free VPN. I'm an Australian citizen and I'm using CyberGhost VPN for gaming purpose its is the best cheap VPN for Australia to play games. I will recommend you to use paid VPN for anonymous browsing.

We've been using VPN services for the past 7 or 8 years in our family. We stopped using free VPN services for several reasons. ONE, almost all free VPN services have a seriuos impact on the speed with wich you can use the Internet, once the VPN has been activated. TWO, as more and more people use that very same service, you'll notice an even greater drop in speed, primarily during rush hours where most people are online smultaneously. THREE, a lot of VPN services are just good for browser usage which does not include sharing/downloading on third party software applications which are not Browser based, and FOUR, these days there are some phenomenal commercial VPN services available which are dirt cheap.
PIA and Expressvpn are two services that we've been very happy with. Little to no loss in connection speed, thousands upon thousands of servers Worldwide, protection for third party apps, Linux compatible, excellent help system, and best of all - both of these are very affordable to use. NordVPN also has an excellent reputation and costs less than $3 bucks monthly on a 3 year plan.

https is my favorite VPN .... free and fast ;-)

There is an excellent VPN-service called Cyberghost that I use since years.
It is very fast and reliable.
And the best is:
by it at ebay and it will cost you only 12,- € PER YEAR!!

https://www.ebay.de/itm/CyberGhost-6-20 ... =R40&rt=nc

oops wrote: Thu Jul 05, 2018 4:56 am https is my favorite VPN .... free and fast ;-)

That's a good point, most of the sites are now encrypted that kind of eliminates the need for VPN.

Adrian wrote: Fri Jul 20, 2018 6:11 pm

oops wrote: Thu Jul 05, 2018 4:56 am https is my favorite VPN .... free and fast ;-)

That's a good point, most of the sites are now encrypted that kind of eliminates the need for VPN.

Hmme.. for those like me, who not have seen a need for VPN (yet), it might be of interest to know what you guys actually using VPN for. To add: I do get daily a new (external visible ) IP and can reset my IP whenever I like.

fehlix wrote: Fri Jul 20, 2018 6:20 pm

Adrian wrote: Fri Jul 20, 2018 6:11 pm

oops wrote: Thu Jul 05, 2018 4:56 am https is my favorite VPN .... free and fast ;-)

That's a good point, most of the sites are now encrypted that kind of eliminates the need for VPN.

Hmme.. for those like me, who not have seen a need for VPN (yet), it might be of interest to know what you guys actually using VPN for. To add: I do get daily a new (external visible ) IP and can reset my IP whenever I like.

I do not know, just using it. Kind of cool to see that I am browsing from Italy.

@felix, I've been using a VPN whenever I'm online for a >few years now. As far as I'm concerned it is a political statement. As I'm old enough to remember when the government of my country used to prosecute people for doing the things that countless other entities including itself are doing 24/7 these days. Apart from just about every site wanting to track your IP (which of course a VPN hides - among other things)

What was once illegal re. the invasion of an individual's privacy, has now become mainstream, to the point that some things just cannot be done online without you surrendering access to information that identifies you in your online travels (plus). Even certain government "public" web pages can not be viewed whilst using a VPN! (Many corporate - & other - entities, often use VPN technology to protect themselves from industrial espionage.)

Also, I have, & will NEVER use a free VPN. Anyone who is seriously interested in protecting their privacy can still benefit (see note at the end) from doing a web search & spending a few hours reading.

After doing so, they won't use a free VPN, nor will they use quite a number of the paid for ones, as most of them keep logs & data that makes the user personally identifiable, also, many of them track their users when they access their sites, via social media applets (something that came out fairly recently).

Note: I put "still benefit" in bold, as I, being a person who has lived on the web for far too many years now, has watched the continued corporate ownership of the web, with sadness - web content surely ain't what it used to be, re. there is nowhere near the variety of sites providing info' on a given topic coming up in a search from any of the search engines (not just g**gle's) as there once was. Apart from that, I can search & get no hits, on topics that once I could - not illegal topics.

This censorship of the web seems to me, to have everything to do with what the corporate think tanks that run much of the web can make money out of. In combination, of course, with those that we call the elite, who's self serving & continued, ongoing desires to control the topics that the populations of the world view.

All this being a part of their ever present effort to control how the little people think. Which, one way or another, is an oft repeated story. e.g. Bibles & church services in Latin, so as to keep the little people where they belong (I'm just picking an easy well known one - I'm not picking on that branch of Christianity in particular), it has gone on since time immemorial in so many different forms. Though nothing has ever been like it is in this day & age...

It often makes me wish computers were never invented, as without computers, Big Brother, just can not exist.

Thank you, handy. So far I had only looked at the spying web bugs in my personal radar. Now I will deal with VPN and Tor. Let's have a look.

Adrian wrote: Fri Jul 20, 2018 6:11 pm

oops wrote: Thu Jul 05, 2018 4:56 am https is my favorite VPN .... free and fast ;-)

That's a good point, most of the sites are now encrypted that kind of eliminates the need for VPN.

Yes it's the main reason why I have no need to use a VPN from my home box.
...And it's like the arms race, even if the shields are more and more powerful, the swords in front are more and more powerful too ... the flaws are even at the material level (not only software eg microcode ) ... so who wants can, it is just necessary that it is not accessible too easily.

handy wrote: Fri Jul 20, 2018 8:54 pm ... It often makes me wish computers were never invented, as without computers, Big Brother, just can not exist.

It's very philosophical.
All these little connected individuals (that we are all) make me think of our small cells that make up our body, as a living being in their own right ... each one is controlled, managed, fed, renewed to produce an entity even more complex that exceeds us or will perhaps exceed one day ?

handy wrote: Fri Jul 20, 2018 8:54 pm web content surely ain't what it used to be, re. there is nowhere near the variety of sites providing info' on a given topic coming up in a search from any of the search engines (not just g**gle's) as there once was. Apart from that, I can search & get no hits, on topics that once I could - not illegal topics.

This is so true...Case in point. I was searching a couple of days ago for information regarding the quality of drinking water in a certain area not so far from me, (specifically regarding the types of heavy metals found in given samples). Nothing resulted, on several search engines...Save for one reference buried 5 pages deep on Google, and that was four years out of date and very sketchy on scientific data. Several years ago, I could have pulled a wealth of independent and corporate studies on that particular subject from the web...The dumb-ing down is appalling and worrying in equal measure..

Good article regarding this topic: https://fossbytes.com/is-free-vpn-safe/

Although I am using a free VPN myself, but it is not doing me any good.... I totally agree with lots of experts here that it does not properly mask your activity nor provides any data encryption. A safe bet is to waste some money on some of best VPN services and take advantage of their service to the fullest.

Thanks for all the info I might go for the paid since it has more security offer, I'm thinking PureVPN.

Mod Note
I know the poster is trying to be helpful, but advertising is not allowed on the Forum.
One can mention the service but not post a link to it. ie I use xxxxx.

HarisTanveer wrote: Tue Jan 23, 2018 6:52 am Hello guys,
I am a streaming lover and love to stream my favorite content worldwide. My focus is to secure myself while streaming my favorite content online,
Here i was looking for some best free VPN services of 2018 it is because to protect myself from cyber threats / cyber crimes.
So, i am trying to figure out which Free VPN providers are best in security perspective.
Here i found the detailed guide on best free vpn services of 2018.
This guide gathered the list of best [link removed by administrator, laced with ads for product] services for Android, Netflix, iPhone, Mac, Torrenting, Windows, Reddit, Chrome, Gaming, Download links and many more.
My point is, is free VPNs secure? i read somewhere that "if you're not paying for a product, then you're the product".
So, should i go with free VPN ?
Which VPN provider is best ?
Need your suggestions.
I got the 5 Best Free VPN Services, they are:
1. Windscribe
2. TunnelBear
3. Security Kiss
4. Proton VPN
5. Hide Me VPN

The long and short of is "if it's free, you are more than likely to be the product". No free lunch i'm afraid especially with free versions of commercial software.

oops wrote: Thu Jul 05, 2018 4:56 am https is my favorite VPN .... free and fast ;-)

Are you implying that https protocol is a VPN? As far as i know https relies on asymmetric encryption that uses public and private cryptographic keys to mask all the data that is shared between your device and the website you access.Also makes sure the data received by both the web server and the client device isn’t altered in any way. It minimizes the likelyhood of man in the middle attacks. a VPN is a service you can use to protect your online data and identity when you browse the web. Also, it helps you bypass firewall restrictions and geo-blocks that can prevent you from accessing the content and websites you want. You can also mask your geolocation.