BajaNomad - VPN recommendations please

VPN recommendations please

SFandH - 7-5-2021 at 11:24 AM

My Mexican IP address is causing some problems.

Any favorite VPN providers?

Any providers to avoid?

Maderita - 7-5-2021 at 12:13 PM

I know next to nothing about VPN, but this was informative:
https://www.cnet.com/news/best-vpn/

bajabrant - 7-5-2021 at 12:44 PM

express vpn works well for me on computer and tv

JZ - 7-5-2021 at 01:50 PM

I use both ExpressVPN and NordVPN.

healthdetective - 7-5-2021 at 04:49 PM

Another vote for Nord VPN

BajaNomad - 7-5-2021 at 08:08 PM

Difficult to go wrong with NordVPN. Surfshark has wide international coverage and for many might be the better value.

https://surfshark.com
https://nordvpn.com

Look for introductory discount offers on either.

BajaParrothead - 7-5-2021 at 08:59 PM

I use Nord, but occasionally the servers in the Bay Area (need to watch the Giants) can be slow, thus delivering a resolution too low to enjoy the game.

JC43 - 7-5-2021 at 09:20 PM

I am with Kaspersky. Why? Uncle Sam is reading and listening to everything. Emails. Cellphones. Looking through your Smart-TV into your living room. Well, you might think I do not have anything to hide. Correct! But just the fact that they do it is disturbing. For me privacy is always No 1! With Kaspersky that is more or less impossible. Wrong word? Wrong thinking? Maybe. Nothing is impossible in the cyber world.

mtgoat666 - 7-5-2021 at 10:00 PM

Quote: Originally posted by JC43

I am with Kaspersky. Why? Uncle Sam is reading and listening to everything. Emails. Cellphones. Looking through your Smart-TV into your living room. Well, you might think I do not have anything to hide. Correct! But just the fact that they do it is disturbing. For me privacy is always No 1! With Kaspersky that is more or less impossible. Wrong word? Wrong thinking? Maybe. Nothing is impossible in the cyber world.

Trust the Russians!
Ya, sure, you betcha!

defrag4 - 7-5-2021 at 11:30 PM

https://windscribe.com/

pauldavidmena - 7-6-2021 at 06:46 AM

Back in 2013 I used something called OverPlay.Net to catch Red Sox games in Todos Santos. It looks like the company is now called StrongVPN, which I know nothing about. NordVPN seems to be the most popular choice from what I've been reading. My workplace uses a product called GlobalProtect from Palo Alto Networks.

tbnoble - 7-6-2021 at 07:26 AM

I use PIA, Private Internet Access on 4 computers 2 phones and television works fine for me.

SFandH - 7-6-2021 at 11:54 AM

Thanks folks. I went with the Nord VPN. $89.00 for three years, up to six devices. Works fine, like it's not even there.

advrider - 7-6-2021 at 01:59 PM

Are the VPN'S used to keep you safe on public networks? I'm thinking when we start traveling a lot next year and use a lot of public WIFI it might be a good idea?
If I'm on private system at home with a password I should be good, no?

JZ - 7-6-2021 at 02:37 PM

Quote: Originally posted by advrider

Are the VPN'S used to keep you safe on public networks? I'm thinking when we start traveling a lot next year and use a lot of public WIFI it might be a good idea?
If I'm on private system at home with a password I should be good, no?

That and they make it possible to watch stuff like YouTube TV, Netflix, etc. in other countries.

mtgoat666 - 7-6-2021 at 07:16 PM

Quote: Originally posted by JZ

Quote: Originally posted by advrider

That and they make it possible to watch stuff like YouTube TV, Netflix, etc. in other countries.

I used to have VPN on my laptop for work, when needing to access the servers. But now that we are on cloud storage, VPN no longer needed,… not sure of the why or how, that is for my IT nerds to keep up on.
Are people still using VPN? Or is that going the way of the dodo bird?

Now, the more important question is why do people take laptops on vacation? When I travel for vacation, I rarely watch TV, and then watch what’s on locally. Vacation is time to catch up on reading.
If I have to bring my laptop on vacation, then it means I have planned poorly for vacation. flock laptops on vacation!

mjs - 7-6-2021 at 08:13 PM

Quote: Originally posted by lencho

Quote: Originally posted by SFandH

Thanks folks. I went with the Nord VPN. $89.00 for three years, up to six devices. Works fine, like it's not even there.

Anybody know whether there is end-to-end encryption on these services? I've always wondered if they can see your content as it goes through their servers...

The encryption is between your device and the VPN server. Once your data leaves the VPN server and hits the WWW it's fair game. But most websites now use HTTPS connections so there is additional security within that connection. And yes, your content is visible to any switch or server it crosses. Encryption makes it less visible but if a nation state wants to see your traffic it likely will.

We've traveled the world and Nord has worked well for us even in China and other countries with highly restricted internet access.

AKgringo - 7-6-2021 at 08:18 PM

Does anyone know whether using a VPN would have allowed Blanca to post pictures while she was in Turkey?

JC43 - 7-6-2021 at 10:00 PM

Quote: Originally posted by mtgoat666

Quote: Originally posted by JC43

Trust the Russians!
Ya, sure, you betcha!

Yep I trust them more than our boys. Ours do read EVERYTHING no matter what. Encrypted? Don`t make me laugh. They know how to de-encrypt. What in the hell is a VPN worth from our boys, those who develop the VPN? They know how to return the damn thing! But if you have a Russian VPN, maybe the encryption is different? Maybe! (makes me laugh as well)

JZ - 7-7-2021 at 12:50 AM

Quote: Originally posted by mtgoat666

A couple months ago I instructed my head of IT to setup a 2nd VPN network.

We brought on a big development team from India and I need them to be able to securely access physical devices in LA.

Cloud has eliminated a lot of corp VPN requirements over the last 10+ years. But not all of it.

BajaBill74 - 7-7-2021 at 10:22 AM

If you have Windows 10...
Click on the flag in the lower left hand corner.
Click on the setting icon (the little gear)
Type PVN at the top.
It will display options. Click to turn it on.

franssuing91 - 9-19-2022 at 12:01 PM

I am also looking for a good new service to use in my work. I need to change my IP so they can't track me. Otherwise, I get a reprimand and even fines. Therefore, I have been studying different VPNs and proxies on the market for some time to choose the best program. So far, I like https://soax.com/brazil-proxy the most, but I don't want to use only it right away; I want to look for other options a little more. You guys recommended several services that interested me, so I will now look for more reviews on them and will already choose what suits me the most. Of course, I would like this service to be free, but as it will be, so will be.

[Edited on 9-23-2022 by franssuing91]

SFandH - 9-19-2022 at 02:46 PM

Quote: Originally posted by franssuing91

I am now also looking for a new good service to use for work.

I use NORD VPN. Works fine for me.

bajafreaks - 9-19-2022 at 03:42 PM

Express VPN is the first and only one I've ever used and works just fine.

PaulW - 9-19-2022 at 04:14 PM

Express VPN is highly regarded by the tech folks that test VPNs
I have it on my Win 10 and all my other devices, iPhone, Android tablet etc. Only the PC is a problem.
Let me tell you all about the horrible issue that takes a half day to fix. Turns out every time Microsoft updates my PC then E-VPN will not load. Yes it get fixed after many, many reboots and finally installing a beta download.
All the time the PC was not working all the other device kept operating correctly.
Sure having second thoughts about keeping it.

RFClark - 9-19-2022 at 04:30 PM

I use work’s VPN to bank and watch Prime. Works great!

pauldavidmena - 9-20-2022 at 07:34 AM

Quote: Originally posted by RFClark

I use work’s VPN to bank and watch Prime. Works great!

Likewise. My workplace uses Palo Alto Networks' Global Protect. Zero issues thus far.

SFandH - 9-20-2022 at 08:19 AM

I use NORD VPN on two computers. I generally don't use it unless I need to hide a Mexican IP address. Sometimes I need to reboot when I switch from one computer to the other. It's mysterious. But both of my computers are old, 16 years and 10 years, and the 10-year-old Chromebook is no longer supported so it hasn't been updated in a long time. That could be the issue.

I reformatted the hard drive in the 16-year-old Dell Windows XP desktop and installed a Linux distribution. It works great. I wonder how long it will last.

mjs - 9-20-2022 at 09:27 AM

Quote: Originally posted by lencho

Quote: Originally posted by SFandH

I use NORD VPN on two computers. I generally don't use it unless I need to hide a Mexican IP address.

Kind of related, those of you using Starlink in Mexico, where do those IP's originate?

I.e., does the world know you're connecting from Mexico?

Yes, you will be ip located to DF. SL says that they are working on a system to more accurately ip locate you to your physical location but for now my ip location is Mexico city.

mjs - 9-20-2022 at 10:59 AM

Quote: Originally posted by lencho

Quote: Originally posted by mjs

Yes, you will be ip located to DF. SL says that they are working on a system to more accurately ip locate you to your physical location but for now my ip location is Mexico city.

Interesting, thanks. Would you mind sharing that IP with us? Or at least the first 3 octets, if you're concerned about privacy?

[Edited on 9-20-2022 by lencho]

Not at home now. SL uses CGNAT so the router wan ip is in the private address range. I'll have to look at the public ip again. I have checked it previously and gotten the DF location.

mjs - 9-23-2022 at 06:41 PM

Quote: Originally posted by mjs

Quote: Originally posted by lencho

Quote: Originally posted by mjs

Yes, you will be ip located to DF. SL says that they are working on a system to more accurately ip locate you to your physical location but for now my ip location is Mexico city.

Interesting, thanks. Would you mind sharing that IP with us? Or at least the first 3 octets, if you're concerned about privacy?

[Edited on 9-20-2022 by lencho]

Not at home now. SL uses CGNAT so the router wan ip is in the private address range. I'll have to look at the public ip again. I have checked it previously and gotten the DF location.

So I currently have a public ip 149.19.171.x Not routable. Geolocated to D.F.
Have also seen CGNAT addresses but don't remember what they were.

TMW - 9-23-2022 at 07:59 PM

Quote: Originally posted by mtgoat666

Now, the more important question is why do people take laptops on vacation? When I travel for vacation, I rarely watch TV, and then watch what’s on locally. Vacation is time to catch up on reading.
If I have to bring my laptop on vacation, then it means I have planned poorly for vacation. flock laptops on vacation!

When I went on vacation in Sept 2011 I took my laptop to lookup the altitude of our next overnight stay. My wife had COPD and she had breathing problems above 5000 ft.

Lengua - 9-23-2022 at 08:31 PM

I'm not sure how any of you get You Tube TV or other streaming services???

These services are typically Geo Coded and can detect VPN services in place.

At best, maybe your VPN has a IP address for the city or regional area you live.

Enlighten me !!! we have VPN and when in La Paz we can't watch You Tube TV at all.

JZ - 9-23-2022 at 11:23 PM

Quote: Originally posted by Lengua

I'm not sure how any of you get You Tube TV or other streaming services???

These services are typically Geo Coded and can detect VPN services in place.

At best, maybe your VPN has a IP address for the city or regional area you live.

Enlighten me !!! we have VPN and when in La Paz we can't watch You Tube TV at all.

I've watched YouTube TV in about a half dozen countries.

Not on a long-term basis, but for 1 or 2 week trips. So I can't speak to the long term situation where you are in just one location. Although I'm sure that could be figured out.

Yes, YTTV knows some proxy locations are bogus and detects the use of a VPN. You just need to keep trying other locations offered by the VPN service.

The harder part is getting ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX local stations to work. YTTV puts an extra level of location verification on those channels. I only need them because I'm a huge college football fan and those are the channels they show the games on.

For those channels, you need to go in and edit the location that your browser is reporting. It only takes 30 seconds once you know what to change.

mjs - 9-24-2022 at 06:57 AM

Quote: Originally posted by lencho

Quote: Originally posted by mjs

So I currently have a public ip 149.19.171.x Not routable. Geolocated to D.F.
Have also seen CGNAT addresses but don't remember what they were.

Interesting, thanks. I don't understand how your public-facing address could be "not routable" (How could you connect to the Internet in that case?)

Where did it say "not routable"?

A couple of related links:

https://www.whois.com/whois/149.19.171.0

https://mxtoolbox.com/SuperTool.aspx?action=asn%3aAS14593&am...

I can access the internet just fine. But I cannot access my internal network from the WAN. There is no option for port forwarding or changing the SL firewall settings or to put the SL router into bridge mode.

mjs - 9-24-2022 at 07:25 AM

Quote: Originally posted by lencho

Quote: Originally posted by JZ

For those channels, you need to go in and edit the location that your browser is reporting. It only takes 30 seconds once you know what to change.

Wow, I had no idea browsers report location (though I do see Chrome popping up windows something about "Page requesting location info", which I always cancel).

How does the browser know where you are, and what do you edit to change it?

Browser will report the computer location from the computer's location services. Computer gets that from GPS, wifi access points, ip address, etc. You can control this in windows settings ( don't know about Apple). Google will also use your phone location if you're using Chrome and logged into your account.

mjs - 9-24-2022 at 07:38 AM

Quote: Originally posted by lencho

Quote: Originally posted by mjs

Ah. Suppose that could be an obstacle if you want to use it for remote monitoring or control. Don't camera providers have some way for their devices to automatically instigate an outgoing connection from the non-routable LAN they're sitting on, so you can talk to them via an external server?

They do because the camera "calls" home (usually to its Chinese masters) to establish the connection. They and smart home devices are also inherently insecure. At a minimum they should be put on a guest network to semi isolate them from your lan.

As for remote access, there are a number of ways to make that work. Setting up a private vpn on a cloud server using wireguard or Openvpn for example. Tailscale makes that fairly easy if you have a little networking knowledge. There are also some remote proxy services like Ngrok that can expose an internal computer to the internet. Security needs to be strongly considered when doing this since it bypasses your routers built in security.

mjs - 9-24-2022 at 07:57 AM

Quote: Originally posted by Lengua

The best way to bypass the geo restriction is to setup a private VPN. The streaming services are always looking for the ip address blocks assigned to VPN providers. Netflix is probably the most aggressive at this. If you have your own ip address in the area you "want" to be in and then use a private VPN to connect your remote device.

BWOE, if you own a home in the US you could setup a router there that ran a VPN program. Then when you are traveling you connect your laptop to your house network using the private VPN of your home router. Now all of your laptops internet traffic goes through your home's internet connection and appears to the streaming service or any other website to be originating from your US address.

There is some technical requirements to make this work reliably (good upload speed) for streaming but it's relatively easy if you have a fiber connection at your US address.

It's also possible to do this using a cloud service provider like AWS but that comes with ongoing service charges whereas doing it yourself only requires the initial hardware cost of the appropriate router.

unbob - 10-20-2022 at 06:59 PM

Easy no-brainer answer to "best VPN"? Mullvad.

I've used Mullvad for years and it is without doubt the best VPN on the planet. (sorry for the hype just can't help myself!)

Yeah, there are cheaper VPNs out there but Mullvad is worth every penny and solid.

Buy either the 6-month ($29) or 12-month ($57) voucher on Amazon - then sign-up in total anonymity - no personal information entered whatsoever.

Plenty of reviews, blogs, etc available on the 'net for research.

Mullvad voucher

[Edited on 10-22-2022 by unbob]

BajaNomad - 10-21-2022 at 09:20 AM

Quote: Originally posted by bajafreaks

Express VPN is the first and only one I've ever used and works just fine.

PaulW - 10-21-2022 at 10:37 AM

Express VPN wotks fine on my iPhone and my Android tablet with appropriate APPs

PaulW - 1-22-2023 at 09:22 AM

True. Changing the VPN location will help, but it is a trial and error to choose a location that is not overloaded. Express gives you a preferred location, but I still have to turn it off for certain links.
Fortunately for my bank I can leave it on and get connected.
I wonder if the sites that don't work with the vpn connected are site related as opposed to the VPN related?

Lee - 9-27-2023 at 12:47 PM

Quote: Originally posted by advrider

Like many, I use NordVPN. It makes people think I'm in LA when I'm in Cabo. I have it connected on the road and at home -- I don't disconnect ever. (Well, some hotels don't like the VPN, nor does my bank.)

No one can see what you're doing, what sites you visit, or how long you've been on a site. It also hides your location, searches, downloads, and any other activities, such as gaming or steaming.

I've heard good things about Express.

God bless High Tech.

JZ - 9-27-2023 at 01:09 PM

Just used ExpressVPN in Spain and France last week. Worked like a charm to watch YouTube TV.

For local channels like ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox apps like YouTube TV do a 2nd level of location check using your browser's stored location. It took me about 20 mins of fiddling with it, but I was able to spoof my location in the browser. There are several YouTube videos and blogs telling you how to do it.