What VPN are you using?
What VPN are you using?
I use Proton. But I continue to run into more and more websites and services that detect my VPN and refuse my connection, or just run literally 40 captchas in a row until I just give up.
I use Proton because it has a "suite" of products under a single subscription, but that benefit is losing it's allure as some of their products are pretty shitty from a user experience perspective, their customer support is atrocious, and they don't seem to pay any attention to what their users actually want.
Does anyone track known VPN servers? Is there a specific provider that causes less problems? Does anyone test different VPNs for detection?
Thinking about cancelling my subscription and moving to Mullvad.
There are only 2 VPN providers that are worth using IMHO: Proton and Mullvad. All the other VPNs are of questionable quality or their practices make you wonder if you should use them at all (eg logging and keeping logs)
Unfortunately there are websites that try to detect vpns and block you. Fuck those websites. Don't encourage them by giving them eyeballs or money.
Proton and Mullvad are the only 2 I'd trust. I suspect that they get similar results.
Proton has gotten a lot better since launch, but it's always a moving target with these things. I really only have issues with some store sites that just don't load with a VPN, which only tells me I don't want to shop there.
ProtonVPN free (paid is still too expensive for me) and Mullvad.
I find that Mullvad is usually blocked more.
For the past 3 or 4 years I was just on ProtonVPN free tier. For past 15 days I am using Mullvad. I really like that you can choose some custom ports for WireGuard, and also the multihop.
What is unfortunate is that I can't generate separate credentials for OpenVPN, like with ProtonVPN. It just uses account ID.I have also tried IVPN for a week. Nicer UI, but a bit more expensive, sort of. They have variable pricing based on subscription length, and that just makes me dislike them enough to stick with Mullvad. €5/month whether it's 1 month, 6 months, a year or longer.
I don't remember what specifically it was, but I know I also preferred the Mullvad's ToS over IVPN, although both are fine.I also thought of AirVPN because of port forwarding, but for privacy I'll stick to Mullvad.
What surprised me with Mullvad was the payment processing speed. It only took 4 days from me dropping the envelope with money into mail collection box in Slovakia to me getting the time added. Considering that shipping to Sweden is "3-5 days", they must have just processed that basically immediately.
But perhaps I was just lucky. I'll see the next time.Mullvad, IVPN, Proton, AirVPN, or Windscribe are all fine. Depending on how much stock you put into audits the first three are probably a tier above for privacy.
Not really answering your question, but there is this open source extensions that automatically solves captchas locally
VPNs are not meant for privacy. The concept is clunky, as is the concept of our internet.
Tor or I2P are made for privacy, but the interactions with the clearnet have the same problems, you need a legal entity hosting the server, IPs are known and can be blocked etc.
Hosting your own VPN does not anonymize you anymore but is very unlikely to get blocked.
Been using mullvad for at least 3 years, no major problems so far.
Currently I'm not using it so much and my subscription ended 2 months ago, so I'm using the free version of proton which is good enough for the basics of using public wifi.
unfortunately the blocking of servers is a perpetual battle that plauges almost any publicly listed proxy (vpns, tor, etc). the only way I have found around it is using lesser known/blocked VPNs or residential proxies. both of which probably have subpar data privacy policies, if they even follow them at all.
althought it likely won't help your captcha troubles, I would like to give a huge +1 to mullvad. have been a happy customer for years. in compsrison to proton as a company they have a much more direct/benifitial effect on the web & furthuring users privacy online in my eyes.
Depends on use case and the country. I use Mullvad and Riseup VPN and something private (and Tor). Sometimes when a site has Mullvad in Europe blocked, it works when I try one of their servers outside of Europe. In my experience Mullvad is awesome, and you can try it for one month. And Mullvad, the no nonsense VPN provider, has had the same prize since years! (And no discounts like Proton trying to get you sign up for a year or more trying to keep you with Proton).
Proton, sometimes you might need to connect to a random server like something in Philippines for example, then you won't get captcha. If I encounter a site that flags my server then I do that.
Mullvad air and proton. Several computers and infrastructure thingys I have access too in addition to a handful of vpses. Nebula for overlay networking.
I use both AirVPN and Mullvad, and certain websites block them too, but it depends on which country and which server you're connected too.
Geph were not mentioned yet. It will likely not solve the problem mentioned by OP, but it is VERY censorship resistant.
AirVPN, but only for its port forwarding to sail the high seas.
Please don't downvote this [too much] but...
I'm not seeing ExpressVPN get mentioned here or elsewhere anymore except for the odd YouTube ad (perhaps this is already a tell-tale sign).
Their website states that they run it off RAM and they don't keep logs.
Is there something wrong with it / did something happen to it that I'm not aware of? (I've been a customer of theirs for some time now)
My aim with using VPN is to maintain data privacy across my Windows, iOS and Android devices, and be able to access geofenced media (e.g. a different country's Netflix library), with minimal to no access issues during browsing or streaming. What's the go-to these days?
If you don't need port forwarding, Mullvad is my pick. Since they got rid of port forwarding, I've moved to AirVPN and am happy with them. I just dislike AirVPNs' GUI app, Eddie. I mainly use Wireguard directly for their servers.
Not OP but can I just comment that there are some high-quality answers here, good discussion. Thanks!
safing portmaster SPN
Using Ivpn mainly, Mullvad and Windscribe secondly. Good ones