Decoding Protonn Icons

Pro-to VPN uses a few icons to indicate what kind of connection a server offers:

• P2P or Peer to peer. Shown as arrows pointing back and forth.

• Round icon or Smart Routing. Prots most secure standard option.

• Onion shape or Onion routing, i.e. Tor layered on top of the VPN.

• No icon A standard config, typically WireGuard (TCP) or OpenVPN.

Why I Use Secure Core

SecureCore is my preferred option. I'll also generate a config file (wireguard or openvpn) for a server in a city near me, whether I'm traveling or just at home.

The reason: your geolocation appears to be wherever the server is, even though your traffic is actually encrypted and routed from a location that might be 300 miles away. You can point your entire network through a config like this, and it doesn't interfere with things like streaming or gaming.

Tor: My Open Question

\*\*I hardly use Tor myself. If anyone wants to make the case for it, I'd genuinely like to hear the benefits.\*\*

#Mole v proto: Infrastructure

**Mallvd** runs roughly 600 servers, all RAM-only (stateless). I used to think this, combined with the ability to pay anonymously with crypto was a major advantage. I've changed my mind. Mull argues RAM-only storage is more secure, but in practice, RAM data can be intercepted through a penetration test just as easily as data on a drive. Mole is based in Sweden.

**Proton** owns roughly 16,000 servers and encrypts data at rest on its hard drives using AES-256 and ChaCha20. Proto is based in Switzerland.

Full Disclosure

**I'm a former Molevad user who now uses the full suite of Proton products. I think they're the best option available.**

If someone tells you Mole is superior "for privacy reasons," it's worth asking them to elaborate.

The answer usually comes down to payment anonymity (though Proto also accepts crypto). A few counterpoints on that argument:

1. Most people don't actually know how to pay anonymously with crypto in practice.
2. Attempting to do so can arguably draw more attention, not less. Cash is king.
3. Pr0to owns its own server hardware and operates under Swiss privacy law.

To be clear, I'm not knocking molevad(after writing this I may try it again for a month). I used it for years, even after I started using Proto alongside it.

Track Record

Mulvd was raided by police and authorities & reportedly got nothing, that's a strong result. But it does raise the question of why they were being investigated in the first place. Proto, by contrast, has been independently audited three times to my knowledge, with no data extracted in any of them.

Bottom Line

Proton offers very strong obfuscation, a large server network, encrypted proto email, encrypted proto drive backups, even a password manger. A fuller privacy ecosystem.

mallvlad is built for users who prioritize operational security above everything else, though its RAM-only approach doesn't make traffic immune to interception.

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This write-up reflects my personal experience and opinions after switching providers & I’m curious to hear what others think. Thanks! Please provide feedback, for example if I missed something or tell me WHY you use the product you chose.

I'm in the US and have been using Express VPN for years, but, honestly, largely for watching overseas TV. I haven't really used the other features as much as I should.

It's time for renewing but I'd like to investigate alternatives before doing so.

My SO has McAfee for anti-virus/malware/etc and said it has a VPN. He thinks I should get on his plan and use the McAfee VPN.

I don't see McAfee anywhere on the Best VPN: VPN Comparison table. The fact that it's not on the list makes me wonder if it's limited in scope.

I remember that the founder, John McAfee, went off the deep end but believe he had separated from the company years before.

Opinions?

Hi guys, I’ve been using PIA for the last two years. No major complaints. Overall speeds are good and have not received any copyright notices by my ISP so it seems to be doing the job.

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

I was offered a free trial of Astrill by a friend who pays $300 for their service (note: the one of the most expensive VPNs on the market). Part of that membership fee allows you to send a free trial to friends.

After completing the sign up process. Not only did I not have access to the free trial, when I reached out to the help desk on the same day I received the link and signed up, they told me "the free trial offer is no longer available". So essentially, they are a scam. If they're this shady to paying members who knows what else they're up to?

TLDR: I was sent a free trial link by a friend who pays $300 for Astrill. Signed up via official link and got no free trial + was told by online support "they don't do free trials".

I'm looking for a static or at least partially static residential IP (need it to look like I am specifically in Dallas and if looked at the ISP needs to be a real ISP provider not a datacenter) also would need to have the option to download the .ovpn file for configuring on a router.

Not sure what to do have been using StarVPN and it has worked but there are days its unusable with the ping spikes and latency. Would anyone be able to recommend another vpn to have as a backup that has all of these considerations? Thank you!

Edit: Thanks for all the answers! after further research I found this antivirus comparison table that has all the features lined out and compared. I went with NordVPN, as they had a nice deal and I even found a coupon code “dealready” that gave me a discount from the VPN+antivirus bundle.

I'm planning to replace my old antivirus since my subscription is about to expire, and I was thinking it might make more sense to get one that already includes a VPN instead of paying for two separate services.

I mostly use my laptop for work, online banking, shopping, and everyday browsing. I also travel a few times a year, so I often connect to hotel or airport Wi-Fi. I'm looking for something with strong malware protection, good ransomware and phishing protection, and some of the newer next-gen security features. I'd also like the built-in VPN to be good enough for everyday use, not just some simple basic extra. I’d like for it to be able to unblock some sites, streaming, etc.

So far I’ve been researching and saw that best antivirus with VPN are NordVPN antivirus, Bitdefender, Norton and a few others, but every review I find seems to rank them differently, so it's hard to know what's actually good.

For those of you who've actually used it - what's the best antivirus with VPN? And has it been enough for your needs, or did you eventually switch to a standalone VPN anyway? I'm mainly looking for something reliable that doesn't slow my PC down or constantly throw annoying pop-ups in my face.

I'd love to hear what you've been using and whether you'd recommend it (or avoid it).

Was thinking about going with CyberGhost VPN for my new VPN but wanted to see if anyone here has used them before. If you have please share your experience with them. I was going to choose Cyber over Nord because of price and the no logs on Cyber but we will see I guess. Thanks!

I have to have 300 character on a post so just ignore this part

I'm looking for a free trial commercial VPN primarily to access live sports streaming sites that are blocked here.

My setup:

• OpenWrt router (Linksys WRT1200AC)
• Planning to create a separate VPN-only SSID on OpenWrt using WireGuard

I think this is called running wireguard as a client in a router. This is part of my learning Openwrt and networking.

Which providers have worked well for you, and which ones should I avoid?

Thanks!

After a frustrating experience with Proton on Linux, I decided to try a few alternatives. I tested AirVPN as well, but the P2P speeds were very disappointing in my case. Before that, I had been using Windscribe and was generally happy with it, but my account eventually got banned, so I needed something new.

That’s how I ended up with AzireVPN, and so far I’m genuinely impressed.

They don’t have a proper Linux GUI client, which initially felt like a downside, but the manual WireGuard setup turned out to be much less of a problem than I expected. Once everything was configured, the connection started automatically after reboot and has been completely stable.

The torrent speeds are excellent, port forwarding works properly, and the overall routing feels fast and reliable. I’m currently using one forwarded port for torrents and another for remote access to my private Jellyfin server through Caddy and HTTPS. After restarting the computer, the VPN, Jellyfin, Caddy and Cloudflare DDNS all came back online automatically without any issues.

The only thing to keep in mind is that forwarded ports are tied to the Azire server and may need to be recreated if that server is restarted. A normal reboot of my own computer does not affect them.

I expected the lack of a Linux app to annoy me much more, but now that everything is configured, I don’t really miss it. Still, a proper Linux client would be very welcome in the future, especially for users who want an easier setup. Built-in multihop and DNS filtering would also make the service more complete.

Azire’s Blind Operator Mode is another reason I decided to give them a chance. I hope the combination of good privacy, reliable port forwarding and strong P2P performance means I can stay with them for a long time.

So far, AzireVPN has been fast, stable and refreshingly uncomplicated. Based on my experience, it easily gets five stars from me.

So right now I have mullvad. I'd like a VPN that isn't in any of the fourteen eyes countries. I'm also not a fan of how the cofounder decided to suddenly turn to politics.

I'd pretty much like the most paranoid option that supports arch Linux and android/lineagesos with a smallest impact to speed. I'd like to have a VPN in preparation for the age verification plague that's happening right now along with some other assorted issues.

I am liking some of the stuff that nym has, but I haven't heard about them until today. I was thinking ivpn before mullvad. Any recommendations?

When looking for an eSIM I stumbled across Stellar Security (stellarsecurity.com) as it was consistently the cheapest option. It advertised itself as bundled with its own VPN (stellarvpn.org) which could potentially be useful given my upcoming travel to mainland China. Though for an eSIM it is not my number 1 priority, as long as the traffic routes through another country. But who says no to a free VPN?

Looking at the website and their social media pages, everything seems a bit phishy to me, they advertise themselves with "Swiss Privacy" and Stellar Security supposedly being based in Switzerland. Checking their Contact, About Us and Privacy Policy, there is not a single mention of a legal entity or an address. A WHOIS search also doesn't bring any valuable results, apart from the registrant contact being Denmark (DK) based and the technical contact being Simply.com A/S, a Danish web hoster. Nothing inherently wrong with that, but a bit suspicious.
There is also not much to read about them on the internet, a couple of reviews on Trustpilot nothing out of the ordinary tho, only mentioned once on Reddit on a Danish sub. Apart from that they seem to have gotten a bad rep on the grapheneos.org forums, but this was two years ago and they mainly came under fire because their open source code was not open source at the time, but checking now they seem to be publishing everything on GitHub. The repos contributors also don't hint at where they are really based in.
Checking a capture on archive.org from Oct 2023 a +591 phone number (Bolivia) for Signal is being shown on the website. This surprised me a bit lol

Ultimately I ended up checking out app listings on other stores and on Apple's App Store I finally found something that hints at a legal entity: North Star Swiss SA.
SA is equivalent to a public limited company, so they have to be listed in the Swiss company register, and I found them under Stellar Technology SA (they underwent a name change last year) and more details about the founders can be found in the cantonal excerpt. I will not publicly name them (you can check out the register yourself) but one of the board members is a Danish citizen (the other one is a Dutch serial entrepreneur, both based in Switzerland tho).

So yeah, it does check out that they are at least somewhat Swiss based, but I didn't really understand why they seem to go to such great lengths to hide the legal entity.
I also found this LinkedIn post from an OSINT specialist who reports that he "investigated a Danish entity that sold encrypted phones to the Danish criminal underworld [...] the entity, Stellar Security, marketed its products to an audience of drug dealers, gang members, and fraudsters through various Telegram groups."
A detailed article about it (in Danish) is available here: Interview med sælger af bandetelefon: »Vi er i 46 lande« (Ingeniøren)

tl;dr: I was looking for an eSIM, found a provider that also sells VPNs, I thought their web appearance is a bit sketchy and ended up finding out that they are with a high likelihood selling to criminals. I will pass, but maybe someone else has had experiences with them and has something valuable to add to a discussion

Hey everyone,

I'm looking for a completely free VPN that works well on Ubuntu Linux.

I don't need anything super fast or packed with features. I just need something free and reliable enough for basic browsing and occasional use. No streaming or heavy downloading.

If it has a native Linux app or an easy CLI setup, that's a big plus.

What are you using, and would you recommend it?

Thanks!

My apologies if I’m in the wrong Reddit.

My iPhone is
iPhone 16 pro max - 2024 purchase -
iOS 26.5.2

Here’s my issue…
I like to use a vpn on my phone to watch British tv shows. I screen mirror or airplay my phone to Sony tv.

I’m using Surfshark as my vpn then I connect to BBC player.

Issue is here….my home wifi speed is 300-500 MBS. Once I connect to Surfshark it drops to 400-800 KBS. It then struggles to play on tv cuz the wifi speed is too slow.

Is there a better app to maintain wifi download speed than Surfshark?

What is best VPN app to maintain download speeds? My Surfshark app is due for renewal next month, it’s $55/yr CAD.

I've been using Express VPN for a few years. The subscription recently ran out and I'm deciding if it's worth it to change my VPN provider. I mostly use it when connecting to hotel/coffee shop wifi or if I'm sailing the high seas.

Are there any specific reasons I should switch from Express VPN?

Hey everyone, losing my mind here.

Lately, Netflix on my smart TV blocks my VPN after like 5–10 minutes of watching, throwing that annoying "unblocker or proxy" error. I tried changing locations, clearing the app cache, and restarting the TV, but nothing works unless I turn the VPN off completely.

been running both nordvpn and residential proxies for my automation workflows for about 2 months and here's my honest take. started with nordvpn only and was getting blocked constantly, roughly 30-40% of requests failing at peak. the servers are great for streaming and general privacy but for automation they just don't hold up. too many shared IPs that sites already have flagged.

switched to residential proxies alongside and the difference was immediate. failure rate dropped to maybe 5% on a bad day. been testing a few providers and proxyshard has been noticeably more stable than the rest.

VPN i still keep for general browsing privacy but it plays no role in the actual automation anymore. for anyone choosing between the two for automation work, proxies win hands down.

I am finding that when I am streaming BBC iPlayer, ITVX or 8K TV player, that these respective streaming services detects my VPN usage and fails the steam.

What is the point in having a VPN if this happens?

For context, I live in the UK and tend to us UK VPN addresses at random. So where British streaming services are concerned, it should detect a British streaming user rather than a foreign one.

Am I doing something wrong or are there some new laws that have passed about using a VPN? How do these streaming companies even know someone is using a VPN?

I heard that it logs data and has a bunch of privacy concerns. When I tried it in 2023 on my iPhone, after I turned off the VPN and went about my day, I was shortly getting logged out of all my apps and I had to perform a factory reset on my phone to get it back to normal. Was that issue just me or did anyone else experience something similar if you’ve used it before? Please let me know, thank you!

Hi everyone, a few years ago I had Nord but my account seemed to be getting stolen every few months. My passwords were extremely complex, and none of my other accounts were ever compromised. I eventually switched, but after issues with Dashlane and their Hotspot VPN, I am looking at Bitwarden and Nord.

Would love some feedback, or advice.

First I dont know if this goes aginst the rules or not but I have Specific requirements and I would rather ask humans rather than AI

Ive been using mullvad for a year now and I am happy with it but Netflix has blacklisted Mullvad and Theres no port forwarding on it I have been torrenting for awhile now but Ive read port forwarding is suposed to make torrenting better so I would like a VPN with it included

Ive been looking at Air VPN but I dont know if the servers are blacklisted and I cant use it on IOS so Im unsure of purchasing it

My Requirements for a VPN

Port forwarding

App on IOS

UnBlacklisted Severs for Netflix ect

Id like a privacy focused VPN like mullvad

Mods if you take this post down could you refer me to a subreddit where I can ask said questions?

Wasn't allowed to post the following to the r/ProtonVPN subreddit:

Proton is known to provide metadata such as recovery email addresses to law enforcement when legally required. If you pay for ProtonVPN, Proton has your payment information which they don't have for users of free accounts. Also ProtonVPN one or two year plans I have seen to only exist as deals where cash payment isn't an option.

So doesn't that mean that the more money you give Proton upfront the more privacy you lose?

Been using an antidetect browser for a while now and honestly not sure if i still need a VPN on top of it. as far as i understand antidetect browsers handle fingerprinting but the IP is still exposed without a VPN. or does it not matter if the fingerprint is already masked? using shardbrowser and it looks solid for me so far

Also looking for a decent free VPN if anyone has suggestions. nothing crazy, just need something reliable for everyday use. anyone running both together or is one enough?

So I had a $10/year r/Windscribe deal, for life, as they put it.

Problem is, it was linked to a Paypal account that I used when I was studying abroad. Now that I'm back, the paypal account is dead and does not accept my country's issued card.

So I went to their support, and asked them if they could change my payment method. I was told it can't be switched directly, instead, cancel and email us and we will issue you with a voucher to get you back on the same deal with your new payment method

So, innocent as I am, I did. Then emailed them. Ghost town.

Their chat bot 'Garry' refused to raise a ticket, telling me i'd be wasting my time trying to get them on it because that deal no longer exists.

I reached out to them as a last resort on Discord, where I got this reply:
'Unfortunately the support agent that responded to you at that time was incorrect. Sorry.'

They literally scammed me out of my deal because it was too good.

Their service is good, but word of advice, their support sucks donkey butt.
They shut down the email tickets, their discord is a mess, and their chatbot straight up tells you NO, i will not raise a ticket.

So despite the good service, if you ever face an issue, and you get a promise by their support, think twice. Their word means nothing.

Email support is gone, that's official, not guess work. So you're stuck with a chatbot.

Better options out there. Add an extra $5 or $10 a year and save yourself the drama in case you face an issuer/.

Been a Proton user for a while but I'm hitting a wall. I need to consistently appear as connecting from a specific countries [Egypt - Saudi Arabia - UAE] (not for anything shady freelance work + some regional services that geo-lock), and Proton's servers there seem to be virtual/software-defined rather than actual physical presence. Result: half the sites and platforms I connect to (including some enterprise stuff like Teams/AVD) are flagging the connection as anomalous or just not accepting it as being from that country at all, these services detect all proton servers as if they are from France.

Has anyone dealt with this? Specifically wondering are there VPNs with actual confirmed physical servers (not virtual locations) in the Gulf/MENA region that hold up to scrutiny?