VPN - the best??

[Noggin]

I think I'm going to finally (well in a month!) man up and attempt a VPN again!

Various reasons -

The site I use to watch and record uk tv is expensive (and I've not used it since Strictly finished!!)
A friend can let me have a login for Sky
I have a (very old) iPad that I can use the VPN on so that my laptop stays on the 'normal' wifi

Sooooo -

Can you recommend me a decent one?

I tend to put things through the iPad onto the TV using an old Apple TV blob


"Edited"

[weeksy]

LEts put something up here before we start....

The forum will not go along with methods that are techincally illegal. I know VPNs are not illegal, but as a forum owner we can't be seen to condone something that will be used illegally in this context.

Sorry if that sounds harsh.... but, hey that's the joy of running a forum, it's not you who gets in the shit when people start posting all sorts of very dubious links.

[Yambo]

I've been using SurfShark for about a year now. It was cheap as chips and I have it on PC, laptop, phone and TV.

I have no problems with BBC but ITV recognises it which is a bummer but I don't watch a lot of TV anyway.

M uses Le VPN without any issues at all.

[Ditchfinder]

If it's a skyGo login I'm not sure you need a VPN - pretty sure last time I was in France it worked fine on my laptop without

[Noggin]

LEts put something up here before we start....

The forum will not go along with methods that are techincally illegal. I know VPNs are not illegal, but as a forum owner we can't be seen to condone something that will be used illegally in this context.

Sorry if that sounds harsh.... but, hey that's the joy of running a forum, it's not you who gets in the shit when people start posting all sorts of very dubious links.

Totally get that. Sorry, didn't really think it through. I've edited a bit so it's more a general request

[Noggin]

If it's a skyGo login I'm not sure you need a VPN - pretty sure last time I was in France it worked fine on my laptop without

TBF, haven't tried it yet!! I'll ask if I can have the login to see

It may well work for a while (visiting), but possibly not longterm?

[Ditchfinder]

Ah SkyGo rules changed on 0101/22 https://www.sky.com/help/articles/viewi ... he-eu-faqs

[dern]

I've been using nordvpn and it's fast and reliable. Don't know anything about its applicability for your use case but they do a money back deal so you could try it.

[Rockburner]

I've been using nordvpn and it's fast and reliable. Don't know anything about its applicability for your use case but they do a money back deal so you could try it.

I had a NordVPN account while I was travelling in the van, (so about 2, 3 years ago)

Price was good (I got a 3-year deal so it was cheap)

Service was pretty reliable.

The Interface on the App (for mobiles) and Desktop (laptop) was good and easy to use.

If any particular service started to recognise the IP that it sees (ie the IP belonging to NordVPN from which your requests were emanating), then it was relatively easy to reset the NordVPN connection to use a different one (and they were adding new IPs all the time).
You could setup the NordVPN connection to emanate from any continent (eg USA/South America/Europe), and also by Country - again - very easy to do.

When I returned I kept the account for a bit, but didn't renew it because I wasn't using it any more.

[Kneerly Down]

I found ExpressVPN to be the best one that worked reliably beyond the Great Firewall of China.
However, it costs a fair chunk of change.

[Noggin]

I've been using nordvpn and it's fast and reliable. Don't know anything about its applicability for your use case but they do a money back deal so you could try it.

I had a NordVPN account while I was travelling in the van, (so about 2, 3 years ago)

Price was good (I got a 3-year deal so it was cheap)

Service was pretty reliable.

The Interface on the App (for mobiles) and Desktop (laptop) was good and easy to use.

If any particular service started to recognise the IP that it sees (ie the IP belonging to NordVPN from which your requests were emanating), then it was relatively easy to reset the NordVPN connection to use a different one (and they were adding new IPs all the time).
You could setup the NordVPN connection to emanate from any continent (eg USA/South America/Europe), and also by Country - again - very easy to do.

When I returned I kept the account for a bit, but didn't renew it because I wasn't using it any more.

I'll have a look

I found ExpressVPN to be the best one that worked reliably beyond the Great Firewall of China.
However, it costs a fair chunk of change.

I did look at this one, but it seemed to tell me that it wouldn't work on my old iPad

[Rockburner]

I did look at this one, but it seemed to tell me that it wouldn't work on my old iPad

If the iPAD is old enough that it's no longer receiving IOS updates, then you're screwed.
The vast majority of apps for iPads simply won't download (let alone install) onto an iPad that's too old for the IOS update.

I have a iPad Mini v2 (or might be a v1, not sure), and it's utterly useless now (except as a digital photo-frame) because NOTHING will download to it.

This is how Apple make damned sure you buy new products, even if you're a lazy person*.



* (snark aside - it's also how they make damned sure that all the software on the iPads is up to date, secure and safe to use).

[Noggin]

I did look at this one, but it seemed to tell me that it wouldn't work on my old iPad

If the iPAD is old enough that it's no longer receiving IOS updates, then you're screwed.
The vast majority of apps for iPads simply won't download (let alone install) onto an iPad that's too old for the IOS update.

I have a iPad Mini v2 (or might be a v1, not sure), and it's utterly useless now (except as a digital photo-frame) because NOTHING will download to it.

This is how Apple make damned sure you buy new products, even if you're a lazy person*.



* (snark aside - it's also how they make damned sure that all the software on the iPads is up to date, secure and safe to use).

I have a sneaky suspicion that it's v1 or v2. But TBF it's doing ok still - can use netflix, prime and other stuff on it. Just couldn't use the VPN that was recommended by friends out here!!

I should be able to afford the vpn, deffo can't afford an ipad for a while!! LOL

[DefTrap]

I use a preconfigured VPN router from SpiderVPN (you basically plug it into your existing router and then you can connect to that network - either by a router port or the Wifi it broadcasts). So then you just choose the country you want the router to be anonymised in (I'm normally on UK but sometimes go US).

I prefer the router option as then I can connect from any device around the house - phone, media player, laptop etc. And you obvs don't need an App for every device.

It's about $8 month

Fairly reliable - very occasionally it'll die and everything needs a reboot but then a lot of electronics do that to some extent

[Noggin]

I use a preconfigured VPN router from SpiderVPN (you basically plug it into your existing router and then you can connect to that network - either by a router port or the Wifi it broadcasts). So then you just choose the country you want the router to be anonymised in (I'm normally on UK but sometimes go US).

I prefer the router option as then I can connect from any device around the house - phone, media player, laptop etc. And you obvs don't need an App for every device.

It's about $8 month

Fairly reliable - very occasionally it'll die and everything needs a reboot but then a lot of electronics do that to some extent

Cool. Can you still connect to the original wifi instead if you want to?

[DefTrap]

Cool. Can you still connect to the original wifi instead if you want to?

Yeah two separate networks - each broadcasting a WiFi

But it really depends what you want to do. If you'll only ever want to VPN connect on your firestick for example - then you could just install the VPN App of your choice on that rather than bothering with a router.

[formula400]

I use ipvanish, 45 dollars for the year.

[DefTrap]

I set up my sils FireStick to use ExpressVpn, also fine.

[Noggin]

Cool. Can you still connect to the original wifi instead if you want to?

Yeah two separate networks - each broadcasting a WiFi

But it really depends what you want to do. If you'll only ever want to VPN connect on your firestick for example - then you could just install the VPN App of your choice on that rather than bothering with a router.

I set up my sils FireStick to use ExpressVpn, also fine.

Thank you. I need to use my phone or find a different (more modern!) tablet for ExpressVPN, but I'll have a look and see if they can find a way to use the current one

[Felix]

Would something simple like using the Tor browser not work for what you want?