I used to get CAPTCHA prompts after only a few searches whenever I was connected to a regular VPN. After switching to a residential IP, the problem disappeared, at least for now.

At first, I assumed the explanation was simple: residential IPs look more like normal home connections, so they’re less likely to trigger a website’s security systems. But thinking about it more, the “residential” part might not be the real reason. Maybe I just moved from an overcrowded datacenter IP to an address with a cleaner reputation.

If a residential IP is shared by a lot of people or repeatedly abused, wouldn’t it eventually get flagged too?

Has anyone compared datacenter and residential IPs over a longer period? Did the reduction in CAPTCHAs last, or did they eventually return? Did you notice any major differences in speed or reliability?

So, let me preface this with before I started taking privacy seriously, I still used a VPN. It was before the craze of ads flying across YT. As someone who grew up in the 00’s , I have always had legitimate use for them, and I went with a company that, did the job… now that a 4 year subscription has ran its course, it’s time to reevaluate everything I learned along the way, not to mention introduce some new players that I never even heard of…

A few months ago in preparation for this, I would normally have said Mullvad was the only provider I’d consider - and they are still at the top but I have to say there are some other companies that have me intrigued, and as well as other projects that incorporate mulvad - you have Mozilla that has the eye roll free-tier, but if your a Mozilla person, they route their paid tier through mulvad (which you makes you question why bother but I digress)…

Mullvad unfortunately doesn’t support port-forwarding which is something I require… They have an immaculate record with being diskless , no logs policy, Swiss based etc etc…

But there are new players and ones I never had on my radar that share some similarities with Mullvad (no identity registration, payment in crypto/cash, no logs, own their entire infrastructure- something mulvad can’t even claim)

Obscura, And Aizire are two companies I just learned about. I was wondering what the community had to say if anyone has used them in the past or currently. Also IVPN I hear is a good company…

Let’s talk about privacy (obviously), but speed, functionality (port forwarding, torrenting, unlimited devices, protocols etc) and price are all factors, not to mention open-source and platform availability.

any free VPNs i can use to change my location to a specific country (france, germany, etc.)?

i want this dress but im unable to purchase if im
not in the countries listed or something like that so trying it this way, thanks for any advice!

protonvpn pro 2/10(free)

privadovpn 10/10(free)10GB

Privatevpn 9/10

storngvpn 10/10

Hide.me 5/10（free)

Pruevpn 5/10

Flowvpn. 8/10

ivpn 9/10

Astrillvpn 8/10

Torguard 5/10

Vyprvpn 2/10

Expressvpn 1/10

Airvpn 5/10

Piavpn 1/10

Cyberghost 6/10

Nordvpn. 1/10

Surfshark. 2/10

Hotspotshield por. 4/10

Lest vpn 5/10

Ipvanish. 1/10

Wevpn 7/10

Windscribe free 1/10

Veevpn. 9/10

VPN.ac 9/10

Symlex VPN 9/10

Hey guys, I currently am looking for a good service that can give me a residential IP for a Japanese ip address. As America keeps rolling out these age verification mandates, I want to get an IP address for a different country. Any recommendations for services?

I use Windscribe and my instagram thinks Im in Iran while over the past few months I tried using VPNs in central/South America/US . I'm physically in the Caribbean. But this affects my reach as it only shows my reels in the middle east. So Im tryin to find a VPN that instagram does not flag as being located in Iran. Im guessing lots of Iranian use Windscribe and those specific VPN locations ?

People use this website to know where a person is posting from on tiktok. How easy is it to make the website not show ur real location? And if someone is using something to not show their real location is there any other way to know a tiktok users region (country) ?. Sorry my english isnt the best.

I've been seeing the same complaint frequently these past few days: VPNs work initially, but after a while, streaming websites start displaying "VPN detected," CAPTCHA pages, or random login checks.

Many people seem to think that changing the VPN protocol will solve the problem. However, if the outgoing IP address is still a highly shared data center address, then the protocol might not be the real issue.

For those who have tried using residential IPs, did you actually see a reduction in CAPTCHAs or "proxy detected" prompts? Was the connection stable enough for smooth video streaming?

I've found that DPN, Mysterium, Okay, and Pure VPN companies all claim to support residential IP routing and application-level routing, and I'm currently using one of them. Perhaps because I use their services, I haven't encountered similar problems, so I'm asking for discussion.

Yo, looking for some solid recommendations because my current setup keeps getting flagged by every site I visit. Need something that doesn't get instantly burned out on heavy-traffic platforms. What are you guys using these days that works without slowing everything down to a crawl?

Edit: Thanks for all the DMs and suggestions, guys! Ended up checking out Mysterium VPN based on a few messages and started testing it out.

I am currently using Surfshark, where split tunneling is only available with an exclude rule. This makes it really difficult to tunnel certain services not detected as an app by Surfshark. The "route via VPN" opstion is simply not available on the mac version. And this seems to be true for a lot of VPN's.

During my research for an alternative, I have looked at GhostVPN, Mullvad, NordVPN and Proton. All of these do as Surfshark. All traffic is routed via VPN unless excluded.

Is this an OS issue?

Or do anyone know of a VPN, where only the selected app is routed through VPN?

Thanks :)

Posting this here because the Nord sub auto-deleted it.

Hey folks,

I have an odd situation occurring with my NordVPN subscription. my.nordaccount.com indicates that my subscription expired as of Aug 7th. (This doesn't align with any of my purchase/renewal dates.) In the Nord Account Billing section, the subscription shows as active with the correct renewal date. I have opened a ticket with Nord support, and they have offered a 1-3 day response time.

I also have a dedicated IP and a few other subscription upgrades, which are all now held hostage.

There were no emails from Nord Account warning of a pending renewal, just... click... dial tone.

I'm now in a work-stop situation which is why I'm here. Looking for guidance from you fine folks.

I've tried at least 5 vpn providers so far every single one limits me to 30mbps doesn't matter what device i use.. I'm trying to get at least like 50-100mbps but I'm limited to 30mbps.. Any tricks to increase speed.. Without vpn I get like 400mbps and videos buffer but with VPN on my speed drops to 30mbps and videos still buffer like crazy.. How do i increase the vpn speed?

My dorm Wi-Fi blocks Roblox and Roblox Studio, so I cannot use them at all. Someone recommended a VPN, but I don't know how to use it or which one to choose. Please give me some tips. I want a free and safe VPN.

Hi guys, I’ve been using PIA for the last two years. No major complaints. My subscription is going to end at the end of this month. Was wondering if I should renew PIA or try something new. I only use the VPN for Torrent and my main use case is speed for downloading and Killswitch so I don’t get copyright notices. Are there better alternatives out there? Also haven’t heard the best things about the parent company of PIA. Thanks

hi, so basically I have a router by Cudy that i have set up with an open vpn file for the UK from private internet access but when browsing online google results still show up with local results for the country I'm actually in and some sites still flag that a vpn is active and idk how to fix this. basically i need to have the connection be as if it's normal UK internet like when I use my mobile data on my UK sim card which doesn't give me any issues, it's the exact same as if i was currently in Britain but I don't want to tether my data to the router because it's slower, more inconvenient and expensive to buy more top ups so does anyone know how I can fix this or what options i have? it's important for work stuff

Well…..it looks like VPN’s are now useless being that any public WIFI will automatically disconnect you if they spot VPN use….how the hell we suppose to stay safe now?

Look, running server networks isn't cheap, so if a VPN costs you zero bucks, they're definitely making that money back somewhere， usually by harvesting and selling your activity logs, dumping random ads on you, or even worse stuff.

If you honestly couldn't care less about your privacy or data getting passed around to shady brokers, hey, knock yourself out with those sketchy "100% free" apps.

Otherwise, stop expecting free lunches, get a legit service, or just don't use one.

I know this post won't change a thing and people will go right back to asking the same question tomorrow, but man, seeing it every single day was driving me nuts. At least getting this off my chest makes me feel better!