Paying for VPN Services?

[boognish]

I've always used the standard Windows VPN, but came across a few articles suggesting that paid VPNs are worth a few bucks a month

I know plenty on here are both tech savvy and private, thoughts on paying for a VPN?

Mostly concerned with keeping my accounts secure, particularity on public networks

[kvaruni]

It really depends on your needs. Some paid VPNs offer servers worldwide and don't even keep any logs of your activity. The VPN therefore hides your activity, even your country, and ensures that  the VPN provider itself doesn't know what you did. There are some good ones out there that are reasonably cheap. I am partial to https://www.privateinternetaccess.com and have used them for the last few years.

If all you want is secure access in public networks, then a windows VPN will do just fine.

[Syonyk]

If you're concerned about "I'm at a coffee shop and would prefer some creep not see what I'm doing online," then run a VPN server on your home computer and VPN back to your home internet connection (so you're secure to home, then plaintext out on the wired connection from home).  That shouldn't cost you anything.

If you're looking for something a bit more secure that also allows you to not be observed with traffic from your home connection, a paid VPN service is reasonable.  Or, if for whatever reason, your home ISP won't let you tunnel back to your machine (some block all inbound ports or put you behind a few layers of NAT).

[stlbrah]

ya, if its just for 2 computers, just rdp into your desktop. Enable rdp on your pc at home and put a password on it, and forward all traffic destined to port 3389 to your home pc on your provider's router/modem

[Syonyk]

That's not really a VPN...

[MikeBear]

http://www.hotspotshield.com/

This works fine for what you want, and it's free.

[Cathy]

What you are paying for with these services isn't exactly "a VPN"; rather, it's some combination of the following:

• Use of somebody else's computer (where the VPN software is running).
• Use of somebody else's bandwidth.
• Additional anonymity from your traffic being mixed in with other people's traffic which is being routed through the same VPN.

It's somewhat foolish to pay for a VPN service if you only care about (1) and (2) because it's much cheaper if you just pay for those services directly. However, (3) is the real value add.

Routing all your traffic through a VPN that you control and which is for your exclusive use offers no anonymity whatsoever. But if many different people route their traffic through the same VPN, then it becomes harder for the adversary to determine which traffic from that IP can actually be associated with you.

If you don't need (3) or the service doesn't provide (3), then there is no reason to pay for a VPN service. Even if you do need (3), it would be a mistake to rely on a paid VPN for that purpose (because, among many reasons, you can't actually prove that it is doing that).

[emmaplopez]

Yes paid VPN are more worth then free because with free service your data always on risk.. I am using PureVPN and I found it very secure and safe, they don't keep logs of user activities, have loads of servers and IPs which help to bypass geo restricted content and sites, great protocols which provide complete anonymity on internet... You can read full details and their pricing methods www.bestvpnservice.com/purevpn before going to purchase.. They offer free trial so it would be easy for you to test it first

[Pieve]

I bought my Nordvpn subscription after a free trial. It is a great way to understand do you like what you get from the provider or not.