Hi! So I have had surfshark for a while and been generally quite satisfied. They do everything I need them to do this far with no fuss and bundle in some handy other services as well.

My annual plan expires in a couple of months and I’m curious what else is out there, as I only started SF because it was heavily discounted at the time. From a new provider, I just need privacy, the ability to torrent totally public domain content, and a static IP. Do you have any suggestions for other options worth considering? I just like to have options. Thanks in advance!

  • Reason_He_Wins_Again@alien.topBEnglish
    4·
    8 months ago

    Isn’t this a subreddit about selfhosting? How is no one talking about OpenVPN?

    I run an IPSEC vpn between me and my server. OpenVPN for the SSL vpn when I’m on the road. Split-tunnel is the default, but if I log in as a different user then I routes all traffic out the VPN.

    • ludEnglish
      2·
      8 months ago

      Try self hosting WireGuard instead of openVPN it’s much faster.

  • YioUio@alien.topBEnglish
    2·
    9 months ago

    I have Proton Unlimited, so got the VPN included. Otherwise I would use Mullvad

  • dervish666@alien.topBEnglish
    2·
    9 months ago

    I’ve been using PIA for a good few years now, never had a problem with them, slightly concernced that I appear to be pretty much the only one, does everyone else know something I don’t?

    • Index@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      2·
      8 months ago

      They were acquired by some VPN megacorp and AFAIK, all their credible postings and court stuff happened prior to that, so their credibility is unknown today

    • Solo-Mex@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      8 months ago

      I switched to PIA very recently after my Nord subscription ended. Also Nord doesn’t support port forwarding and I wanted to improve my seeding. But PIA has been a disappointment. Using their app on my Win11 desktop, I often see messages on Reddit and elsewhere that I’ve never seen before about “no internet”. It also seems like responses are delayed and sometimes my screen just remains blank after clicking on a link. I’ve never experienced any of that before switching to PIA. And perhaps the biggest gripe, I intended to use PIA with Wireguard on my NAS but after much searching, I cannot find anywhere that PIA releases their WG keys. So I can use WG on my Win11 app but not on the NAS. Oh, and port forwarding? Yeah, apparently that has to be ‘renewed’ periodically so that too, is a PITA on the NAS. Luckily I’m still within the 30 day refund window, just have to figure out where to go next. Maybe AirVPN. In fact, that would be a no-brainer for me except for one thing – Air doesn’t have a server in Mexico and I do need that occasionally. PIA has one that’s incredibly slow but at least they have one.

  • Stetsed@alien.topBEnglish
    2·
    9 months ago

    I use protonvpn due to me getting it with my proton unlimited bundle, and on the plus side with some scripting I can use the proton NAT-PMP forwarding with my qbittorent to get port forwarding while… distributing and acquiring Linux isos.

      • huntman29@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        8 months ago

        I had just paid for yearly service on Mullvad, then port forwarding got removed a month later… so I’m just letting the payment lapse then I’ll just stick to ProtonVPN full time.

    • broken_cogwheel@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      9 months ago

      I made the same move. Mullvad is still fantastic but Proton is also fantastic and works just as well for my purposes.

  • XxNerdAtHeartxX@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    9 months ago

    Since Mullvad got rid of Port Forwarding, I use TorGuard for checking out LinuxISOs

    But I still use Mullvad on my pc/phone, since its the best

  • Nnyan@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    9 months ago

    I don’t think you can go wrong with NordVPN, Proton or Mullvad. I find Nord and Proton have better speeds.

    • ludEnglish
      2·
      8 months ago

      Try WireGuard!

      It’s so much faster.

  • ArrogantAnalyst@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    9 months ago

    AirVPN since about 8 years. Highly recommended. If you want something flashy that wins design awards looks elsewhere :) from a technical perspective they are absolutely top notch with every feature you could possibly wish for.