Which VPN to choose?

TheCrow

Hi deat users, I am looking for a privacy-oriented VPN. From the GOS-homepage I know, that they recommend AdGuard as an adblocking-DNS, but how about VPN? Which would you recommend and why?
My goal is to move through the internet as private and secure as possible.

Thank you!

Schiller

Hey,
to name some VPN providers i would use:

ProtonVPN
Mullvad
IVPN

I use ProtonVPN atm, because of their all in one package with PVPN, PDrive, PMail, PCalendar, SimpleLoginPrime.
But maybe your needs and setup is different.

Because you said you want privacy? Privacy from/for who/what? E.g. ISP monitoring, government, geotagging, profiling?
Please explain exactly what you want to achieve with a VPN.

Maybe this page helps you, if you even need a VPN:

https://www.doineedavpn.com

Keep in mind a VPN isn't for anonymity.

Hope this helps a bit :)

Bradman117

If your going to use Adguard dns, Nordvpn with the Adguard DNS app doesn't work anymore as Nord stopped allowing support on there servers.

I had the best luck using Adguard DNS+ Adguard VPN

Frost

To quote @TrustExecutor from another thread.

It is also important to choose VPN providers VERY wisely. The ones I found out to be the best are OVPN and Mullvad. Both accept cash payments and both are located in a VPN friendly jurisdiction (Sweden) where data privacy laws are strong and there is no legal obligation for VPN providers to retain or collect ANY data due to VPNs not being classified as ISPs.
OVPN actually won a court case where film companies sued them to get data of one of their customers The Pirate Bay. OVPN won this case and the film company had to pay their court costs, because they could prove they did not collect or retain any data after the wireguard/OpenVPN connection is terminated.
There have been numerous cases where well known "private" VPN providers collect data on their customers and freely hand them over to third parties.

I would strongly suggest you think twice and research VPN providers carefully before you choose which one to use, especially the ones with large budgets getting shilled on social media. They may very well be honeypots of various

abcZ

Tor. Use "Orbot" (available in F-Droid).

bayesian

I use Mullvad personally. But for complete anonymity I would suggest Tor browser (not Orbot, Tor Browser).

EDIT: I use Mullvad with the WireGuard app and the configuration is blocking ads and trackers.

abcZ

bayesian Tor browser is only relevant for the data coming out of that browser, and not of any of the other data that you may be transferring. That makes its usefulness extremely LOW.

newbie24689

bayesian , Why the Tor Browser preference over Orbot?

(Not trying to pick a fight here; I don't have either yet: but FWIW, Aurora indicates 3 trackers in Tor Browser, and no trackers in Orbot)

(Just noticed that TB is available through f-droid, suggesting the trackers were removed!?)

user

https://www.privacyguides.org/vpn

dirksche

For ad and tracker blocking I use AdAway and my PiHole at home in combination with PiVPN. For safety in open Wifi's I got my PiVPN (Wireguard), and to reach anonymity in the internet I use tor.

TheCrow

Hey Schiller, hey all, many thanks you for your replies! Ive chosen Mullvad, because it seems to fit my requirements (hide from ISP monitoring and similar).

But to ask: Wouldnt it be at risk, if one uses a Mullvad-server, which is not located in a data-secure country (like Great Britain)?

alci

Side question: did any of you get voWifi / voLTE to work when using a VPN ? Those services strictly refuse to work for me when using a VPN (ProtonVPN with subscription and using domestic vpn server)...

f13a-6c3a

alci as I replied to you in GrapheneOS version 2022113000 released thread, WiFi Calling appears to be working.

Is voWifi / voLTE different?
If they dont work out of the box, did you try split tunneling and excluding system apps Proton VPN support suggested?

burningfeelings

Happy Proton VPN user here, no log policy, good speeds.

[deleted]

The best VPN is not using VPN.
You don't trust your provider and trust other company?

Consider using Tor. Install Orbot from F-droid – The Guardian Project repo:

https://guardianproject.info/fdroid/

Torify all traffic.

My personal thoughts about mentioned VPNs.

Proton - received millions from EU, there is no free dinner.
Mullvad – Sweden, Denmark are NSA's backdoor in EU.

If you want to block ads, install Netguard:
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/eu.faircode.netguard/

Then choose custom /etc/hosts and download if from:
https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts

For instance (adware+malware):
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/StevenBlack/hosts/master/hosts

mythodical

[deleted] In an ideal world, we wouldn't have reason to use VPNs or Tor. But this isn't an ideal world.

Not all ISPs are equal; some block, restrict, and/or redirect traffic
Tor is not feasible for all things internet
Not all devices provide a means of modifying their host files

No VPN service is anonymous, but for many users it is more beneficial to trust a third-party VPN over their local internet service provider.

[deleted]

mythodical

of course, Tor is the best option imo and it is for free.
what do you mean?
we're talking here about Pixels+GrapheneOS? You can change /etc/hosts using Netguard.

mythodical

[deleted] don't get me wrong, if Tor fulfills all of your workflow needs then that's great.

For many users however, latency matters and unless the state of Tor has changed recently latency has always been an issue. I haven't used Tor for a few years now, but UDP traffic was also nonstarter on Tor. The use of torrents over Tor was traditionally discouraged as well, not only for privacy reasons but also for placing an unnecessary burden on the Tor network. I don't know if any of this has changed with the advent of other projects like Orbot.

Generally speaking, folks who are interested in VPNs will be using them for more than just their phone.

burningfeelings

[deleted]

of course, Tor is the best option imo and it is for free.

Proton - received millions from EU, there is no free dinner.

Do you know who is one of the biggest backers of TOR and keeps on giving...(US GOV / NSA), do you know why? because its easy to join everyone under TOR than creating honey pots...the problem is many are completely clueless of that reality... I hope now it starts to kick in.
So yeah Proton is no free dinner but either isn't TOR... In the end of the day you will trust someone / something since there is no such thing as 100% privacy... that's how the world spins.

DevilsDueRebellion

Depending on your circumstances a VPN like Mullvad, IVPN, ProtonVPN, and also Tor.

abcZ

mythodical Tor will still slow it down, but its a lot better than it used to be. You can usually expect to get a few MB/s. Not the dead crawl of long long ago.