[byuu]

Another thing often overlooked with VPNs is that they're just not that fast. I have a 600/40 connection, and I've tried at least six for-pay VPN providers. The fastest one I found (won't mention as my goal isn't to advertise for them) hits, at best, 100/30. And even then, only over L2TP. For whatever reason, OpenVPN is always slower on every PC I've tried this with.

And obviously, you gain a good deal of latency, especially if you use an overseas exit point.

And now we get to deal with shitty services like Netflix punishing privacy-conscious users and blocking access to paid accounts while your VPN is up.

[rz2k]

I've used SoftEther VPN software on the type of cheap VPS you find on lowendbox.com.

I notice little if any change in speed. If anything, download speeds seem more consistent in speed without long pauses (or momentary bursts in speed).

It's very easy to install and configure, but I'm not sure how good it is at addressing the point of having a VPN, since I don't know how well the software has been audited by other people, and I wouldn't know where to begin. The same goes for how I must trust the VPS provider.

[manquer]

You can setup your own on digital ocean or aws light sail you will get better bandwidth... IP will not be blocked as it will not be known vpn IP and it can be rotated.. not saying these are solutions to the privacy problem only the technical ones

[chrisper]

Digital ocean is blocked by Netflix . At least when I used it with my VPN.

[Icedcool]

Wow... this is astounding.

[guitarbill]

Potentially a workaround is getting a business account/connection. I doubt most businesses will want any kind of data gathering. So they'll be exempt but obviously more expensive. Could be worth it for no speed loses/VPN hassle.

Maybe they'll even offer pay for privacy on consumer accounts? It's just the price you pay when most people don't know about the issue, or don't understand the issue, or don't care about the issue.

[st553]

I've been using PIA for a few years and have been disappointed to see an increasing number of websites blocking VPN access.

[byuu]

That and CloudFlare ... more and more frequently I've been asked to solve those really annoying "pick seven of these sixteen pictures that have X in them" captchas. Those take way too long and I'll often just leave the site instead of answering it.

[angry-hacker]

Plus you will be banned participating from so many places because the vpn and vps ip blocks are over abused and blocked.

[staticsafe]

VPNs will definitely incur overhead and latency costs, yeah.

OpenVPN can be fairly slow if you are sharing CPU usage (ex. VPS provider) with other users. You are also most likely implementing NAT on your VPN server which is probably not accelerated unless you are paying for an expensive appliance that does so.

[gambiting]

I use Private Internet Access and I can easily max out my 300Mbps/50mbps connection, both ways, when connecting through a neighbouring country(I'm in UK, and usually use either Sweden or Netherlands exit points)

[herbst]

Netflix doesn't block me with VPN. Is this also a US thing?