Looking for VPN recommendations.

I live in China and am looking for a new VPN provider to get around all the blocking and slowdowns with everything. If anybody has any suggestions, I would be happy.

 

Have you tried the free version of HotSpotShield?

Its a stand alone software for PC and Android devices. The best part, even network admins wont know what you are doing on internet.
The downside, you cant use it while doing speed test, as you will get very slow speed tests, but it will not slow down your internet speed, download speed or torrent speed. If your torrents come to a halt, simply turn it off and torrents will resume their downloads.

 

Yes, I tried it years ago. That sort of stuff hasn't worked in China for a while. The last time I know of anybody being able to successfully use any free proxy was almost two years ago.

The internet censorship situation in China is very bad and it is always getting worse. So many things are blocked and there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. And many things that aren't outright blocked are throttled so much that they are barely usable. I used to manage just fine without a VPN but things have kept getting worse and worse. Now I prefer to keep the VPN enabled 100% of the time because without it the internet experience is severely castrated.

What I am looking for is a new private VPN I have log into and pay for. My previous one was run by my girlfriend's alma mater, and I guess her login credentials finally expired.

Edit: Also, I have no VPN now, so searching for a new VPN by myself right now is pretty much impossible as all the search results are censored or blocked.

 

Have you considered an itwin connect device?

Pay once VPN forever


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

Not exactly. That creates a VPN between whatever two computers you attach the USB dongles to. There is also free software that can do the same exact thing. That product simply exchanges the hassle of setting up software with the hassle of having to keep track of the two physical dongles. You also still need a second computer to attach the other dongle to. For the cheap end, I could use a VPN to connect to my dad's main workstation, and then access the internet from there. Too slow. On the high end, I could rent my own server in Hong Kong or Singapore to connect with, but the cost of that would be astronomical.

What I am looking for is a good reliable service to that is explicitly for me to connect via VPN to their servers outside of mainland China to then access the internet from there.

 

Well not exactly.... even by itself the sticks allow one to connect to the itwin servers in the US/Netherlands/ Singapore

 

Really? The articles I found on them spoke nothing of that and even specifically said that whatever you are doing could still be blocked or tracked from the other computer you are connected to.

Edit: Ah, I see now. You can also connect to their public VPN server. I'll look into its performance.

 

Let me know how it works for you.

I have tried downloading patches from US servers using this stick, there are some speed penalties however browsing and YouTube works

 

Astrill and Hidemyass VPN always worked for me (don't know if they'll work in China, though)...

 

Looks like somebody wants to play a bit of BF4 in China (jk).

According to a quick Google search, Express VPN apparently has good ratings and goes for about $8.32/month. Taken from a website reviewing VPNs:

Spoiler

Positives: Fast speed, optimized for China, servers in 33 countries (including Hong Kong & US West Coast), works on all devices, multiple VPN protocols, highly secure, no logging, 30 day money back guarantee.

Negatives: Pricing is a bit high (though worth the extra cost), US company

ExpressVPN is engineered to provide a fast and reliable connection to its customers in China. Unlike other VPN companies whose software is frequently blocked from China, ExpressVPN is known for maintaining highly stable service to its users there. The fast speeds are some of the best we’ve tested, and they have a large network with hundreds of VPN servers and lots of spare capacity. ExpressVPN offers server locations in all major continents, but for the best experience from China, they recommend that you connect to one of their Asia or US West Coast locations.

ExpressVPN provides easy to use apps for desktop (Windows/Mac/Linux) and mobile (Android/iOS). You can connect both at the same time for no additional cost. Downloading and launching the apps is straightforward and does not require any special technical skills. We also found their customer service team to be helpful and quick to respond to our questions.

One reason that ExpressVPN is such a popular choice for China is that their highly secure OpenVPN is not blocked by the firewall there. You can also select alternate VPN protocols such as L2TP/IPSec and SSTP directly within the ExpressVPN software. We should mention as well that ExpressVPN does not log users’ activity, which is something we definitely approve of out of principle.

While pricier than some of the other providers we’ve tested, ExpressVPN nevertheless secures our number one spot. The premium features, server locations and high speed network more than justify the added cost for China users. We also like their all-in-one approach to pricing: no additional charges for bandwidth, location switches, mobile access, etc. And with their generous 30-day money back guarantee, you really can’t go wrong with them.

There's also vyprVPN, little cheaper per month, and gets a good score as well (9.6/10 vs 9.9/10 for ExpressVPN).