Time to say goodbye to Private Internet Access VPN - They sold out to a company with a history of malware and adware.

[spacelordmaster]

This is the end of the road for me with these people.

 

https://restoreprivacy.com/vpn/reviews/private-internet-access/

 

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

Never used them...

[Brandon H Supervisor]

never even heard of that VPN provider myself either.

 

when I was using a VPN to bypass region restricts on Netflix and Pandora when I was in Colombia for work I used ExpressVPN. I've also used NordVPN in the past too. Both are great services.

 

edit: HA nice. just took a look at the site listed by the OP and they have a 'Best VPN' list and it looks like Express and Nord are the top 2 so that backs up my experience with them 

https://restoreprivacy.com/vpn/best/

[Dick Montage]

I've seen Linus advertise them a few times, but I've always been happy with NordVPN.  Their name alone just conjures images of a low-rent solution designed to get to the top of web searches rather than relying upon their product (personal feeling).

[Nick H. Supervisor]

22 minutes ago, Brandon H said:

never even heard of that VPN provider myself either.

 

when I was using a VPN to bypass region restricts on Netflix and Pandora when I was in Colombia for work I used ExpressVPN. I've also used NordVPN in the past too. Both are great services.

 

edit: HA nice. just took a look at the site listed by the OP and they have a 'Best VPN' list and it looks like Express and Nord are the top 2 so that backs up my experience with them 

https://restoreprivacy.com/vpn/best/

I've been using NordVPN for a couple of months now and I've not had an issue. It was a little bumpy at the beginning since they only do a command line interface for Linux, but I found a GUI option and was using that until it got to the point where I could remember the commands by heart. Now I just keep the GUI to take a quick look to see if I'm connected or not.

I've heard good things about ExpressVPN as well, although I've never used it.

I had heard of PIA before, but the only reason I know that is because I kept thinking it stood for Pain In ###. I never heard any reviews about it as a service.

[cork1958]

I had IPVANISH for a year on a deal they offered, but then realized I didn't need a VPN. Wasn't paying for a VPN that slowed down my internet, for what I pay for that. As far as how it worked, it was great and easy to use on my Firestick.

 

Never heard of the one mentioned by OP. Have heard of the one's mentioned above and both are supposed to be excellent.

[spacelordmaster]

PIA used to be very good. Had them for 3 years. Then they got sluggish and now they were bought out by those people. No way. I went with ExpressVPN. Twice the price, but worth it.

[shockz]

I've never understood why people use these services. It's cheaper to just spin up a base Linux VM in Azure (or other cloud provider) with your specified region and install Wireguard on it. Pi-VPN makes it even easier. It's like 14 bucks a month for compute/bandwidth costs if you run it 24/7, cheaper if you only use it as needed. Unless you're consuming a crazy amount of bandwidth, it seems to me a more preferred method. Building your own with mostly full control over it.  Then again, if you're being sketchy, then I could see the argument for using these services that do it for you.

 

Since I don't ever use my VPN outside of public wifi, I actually just use my home connection with wireguard when I'm on sketchy networks. I also don't use it to bypass content restrictions or do sketchy things, so probably not an ideal solution for those that want to. 

Edited October 14, 2020 by shockz

[spacelordmaster]

9 minutes ago, shockz said:

I've never understood why people use these services. It's cheaper to just spin up a base Linux VM in Azure (or other cloud provider) with your specified region and install Wireguard on it. Pi-VPN makes it even easier. It's like 14 bucks a month for compute/bandwidth costs if you run it 24/7, cheaper if you only use it as needed. Unless you're consuming a crazy amount of bandwidth, it seems to me a more preferred method. Building your own with mostly full control over it.  Then again, if you're being sketchy, then I could see the argument for using these services that do it for you.

 

Since I don't ever use my VPN outside of public wifi, I actually just use my home connection with wireguard when I'm on sketchy networks. I also don't use it to bypass content restrictions or do sketchy things, so probably not an ideal solution for those that want to. 

Not being sketchy at all. I have to email sensitive stuff from time to time back and forth from work plus when I go out and stay somewhere, I  use the public WIFI wherever I am at so a VPN is necessary. Not everyone that has a VPN is sketchy you know. I also like the fact that I can install this service on my iPad and iPhone. It’s more about convenience than anything. The service is super fast. I have no idea how to configure my own VPN and honestly don’t have time to sit down and figure it out so ExpressVPN works for me.

[shockz]

41 minutes ago, spacelordmaster said:

Not being sketchy at all. I have to email sensitive stuff from time to time back and forth from work plus when I go out and stay somewhere, I  use the public WIFI wherever I am at so a VPN is necessary. Not everyone that has a VPN is sketchy you know. I also like the fact that I can install this service on my iPad and iPhone. It’s more about convenience than anything. The service is super fast. I have no idea how to configure my own VPN and honestly don’t have time to sit down and figure it out so ExpressVPN works for me.

Never said you were being sketchy, just that I understand why someone would want to use a service that has hosts out in Pakistan, China that do.. otherwise if you don't, why not just use your home connection with wireguard... that's "free". 

 

And time, hard? 

 

Deploy ubuntu VM, open TCP/UDP port for wireguard.

 

curl -L https://install.pivpn.io | bash 

pivpn -a

pivpn -qr

 

It spits out a QR code that you scan to wireguard app and you're in.

 

It's almost too easy. 

 

Wireguard also has an iPhone/iPad app. And you can force the VPN to enable always on wifi or lte even.

Edited October 14, 2020 by shockz

[+BudMan MVC]

23 minutes ago, spacelordmaster said:

I have to email sensitive stuff from time to time back and forth from work

Ok I will bite.. How exactly are you using email to work that you feel you need to use a vpn?  And if so why would it not be connecting to your work vpn?

 

What service are you using for email, that emails would be sent in the clear, or your login would be in the clear?  Do you honestly think the local wifi is doing a mitm on the secure connections used for authing and sending emails?

 

A vpn use is to stop a local wifi from seeing traffic sent in the clear.. Almost nothing is sent in the clear these days..  For the local wifi to do a mitm attack on your device trying to to something via https, you would have to trust the cert they are using to create this cert on the fly to where your going.  Or they would have to be creating certs for stuff via a CA that you trust, so compromised a major CA keys to be able to do that - that is pretty heavy attack.. You think such an attack is going on at your local starbucks?

[Xenon]

4 hours ago, spacelordmaster said:

This is the end of the road for me with these people.

 

https://restoreprivacy.com/vpn/reviews/private-internet-access/

 

This is old news. It happened almost a year ago. 

 

So far there is no evidence of anything bad with them but I would keep a eye out if you use them. 

[+Ichigo+]

This is old news that they were purchased a while ago. There were some concerns, but they are still keeping 0 logging as they did before, and even made their software open source as well https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/private-internet-access-goes-open-source/. Linus had removed them like they did with tunnel bear, but after talking with the leadership team he continued to allow them as a sponsor as they assured him about the current security staying in place and no selling of data - 

 

[Joe User]

24 minutes ago, BudMan said:

Ok I will bite.. How exactly are you using email to work that you feel you need to use a vpn?  And if so why would it not be connecting to your work vpn?

 

What service are you using for email, that emails would be sent in the clear, or your login would be in the clear?  Do you honestly think the local wifi is doing a mitm on the secure connections used for authing and sending emails?

 

A vpn use is to stop a local wifi from seeing traffic sent in the clear.. Almost nothing is sent in the clear these days..  For the local wifi to do a mitm attack on your device trying to to something via https, you would have to trust the cert they are using to create this cert on the fly to where your going.  Or they would have to be creating certs for stuff via a CA that you trust, so compromised a major CA keys to be able to do that - that is pretty heavy attack.. You think such an attack is going on at your local starbucks?

Personally,  I use a VPN in public to bypass public WiFi harvesting data for marketing, DNS snooping and QoS rules. 

 

6 years ago, my android phone could snoop on almost everything at a WiFi hotspot, today not so much. That being said, Starbucks has every WiFi user's MAC address to tie with their app and a list of what sites you visit when you're there, all in the name of marketing.

[+Biscuits Brown MVC]

1 hour ago, shockz said:

I've never understood why people use these services. It's cheaper to just spin up a base Linux VM in Azure (or other cloud provider) with your specified region and install Wireguard on it. Pi-VPN makes it even easier. It's like 14 bucks a month for compute/bandwidth costs if you run it 24/7, cheaper if you only use it as needed. Unless you're consuming a crazy amount of bandwidth, it seems to me a more preferred method. Building your own with mostly full control over it.  Then again, if you're being sketchy, then I could see the argument for using these services that do it for you.

 

Since I don't ever use my VPN outside of public wifi, I actually just use my home connection with wireguard when I'm on sketchy networks. I also don't use it to bypass content restrictions or do sketchy things, so probably not an ideal solution for those that want to. 

shockz, I use one (SurfShark) to get around geofencing allowing me to read the non-US versions of European, and Asian news sites. While your idea is attractive, I'd have to configure that setup in various providers worldwide costing more than my current annual subscription. If all I needed was a secure VPN to connect to when traveling, your solution would be more than adequate. 

   

[+BudMan MVC]

51 minutes ago, Joe User said:

That being said, Starbucks has every WiFi user's MAC address to tie with their app and a list of what sites you visit when you're there, all in the name of marketing.

Not if your on current ios or android that uses private mac when you connect to a wifi.. But they could also use that to know your at the store ready for your pickup when it joins their wifi.. Simple free solution is not to use their wifi if your worried about them spying on you for marketing

51 minutes ago, Joe User said:

QoS rules. 

And you think what vpn ports are on the top of the list of qos priority?

 

51 minutes ago, Joe User said:

DNS snooping

And you could do that with just doh or dot these days as well.. ###### modern browsers are defaulting to it..   And sure while its technically possible for them to sniff dns in the clear.. Do you really give 2 ###### if they know you hit facebook.com while on their wifi?  I mean really?  Or are you hanging out at starbucks all day surfing p0rn? 

 

I personally don't get why anyone connects to these so called "free" spots in the first place - does not your phone get 10x the speed via its cell data connection anyway?  Unless your dead zone - have never seen a free wifi connection that was faster than my cell connection.. So if so worried about them spying, why would you use it?

 

And to be honest, I would rather let starbucks know I was on facebook.com while waiting for my order, vs payin $x a month just hand over all that info to some vpn service, who says they don't log.

[spacelordmaster]

1 hour ago, BudMan said:

Ok I will bite.. How exactly are you using email to work that you feel you need to use a vpn?  And if so why would it not be connecting to your work vpn?

 

What service are you using for email, that emails would be sent in the clear, or your login would be in the clear?  Do you honestly think the local wifi is doing a mitm on the secure connections used for authing and sending emails?

 

A vpn use is to stop a local wifi from seeing traffic sent in the clear.. Almost nothing is sent in the clear these days..  For the local wifi to do a mitm attack on your device trying to to something via https, you would have to trust the cert they are using to create this cert on the fly to where your going.  Or they would have to be creating certs for stuff via a CA that you trust, so compromised a major CA keys to be able to do that - that is pretty heavy attack.. You think such an attack is going on at your local starbucks?

Dude I use PGP encryption to send emails out....LOL....Again, the VPN is only when I use a public WIFI. I do not use the VPN at home, and no, my work place does not have a VPN.

[spacelordmaster]

56 minutes ago, Joe User said:

Personally,  I use a VPN in public to bypass public WiFi harvesting data for marketing, DNS snooping and QoS rules. 

 

6 years ago, my android phone could snoop on almost everything at a WiFi hotspot, today not so much. That being said, Starbucks has every WiFi user's MAC address to tie with their app and a list of what sites you visit when you're there, all in the name of marketing.

That's another reason I use a VPN in public WIFI's. And also to answer the other dude's comment about using my cell phone connection, unfortunately that can't always be possible, especially when all I have is 3GB of WIFI hotspot on T-Mobile plus the fact that not everywhere I go has signal. There are places where the cell signal simply sucks and you have to rely on a WIFI hotpot.

[spacelordmaster]

And by the way, their service has gotten really bad. Slow as hell, constant disconnects. It's been terrible,

[+BudMan MVC]

6 hours ago, spacelordmaster said:

Dude I use PGP encryption to send emails out

So you authing to your email is encrypted, you sending the email is encrypted.  And the email itself is encrypted.  What is the point of the VPN?

 

I get it your cell service sucks.. So you use the local wifi.. My point is pretty much all traffic is encrypted these days, and your encrypting the email itself.. And your vpn sucks - but sure lets pay X $ a month so my connection can suck more than it already does.. I don't get it...

 

Other than you sending dns in the clear - what part of your internet traffic do you actually think is in the clear?  That this local wifi could see?  This is no longer everything in http, and open wifi.

[Joe User]

On 14/10/2020 at 12:46, BudMan said:

And you think what vpn ports are on the top of the list of qos priority?

Port 53, which is what I run my VPN connection on. And heck yes is it a high priority. 

 

On 14/10/2020 at 12:46, BudMan said:

And you could do that with just doh or dot these days as well.. ###### modern browsers are defaulting to it..   And sure while its technically possible for them to sniff dns in the clear.. Do you really give 2 ###### if they know you hit facebook.com while on their wifi?  I mean really?  Or are you hanging out at starbucks all day surfing p0rn? 

 

I personally don't get why anyone connects to these so called "free" spots in the first place - does not your phone get 10x the speed via its cell data connection anyway?  Unless your dead zone - have never seen a free wifi connection that was faster than my cell connection.. So if so worried about them spying, why would you use it?

 

And to be honest, I would rather let starbucks know I was on facebook.com while waiting for my order, vs payin $x a month just hand over all that info to some vpn service, who says they don't log.

Honestly, why should I give them more info and why should I make it easy on them? I know it's all going to wind up at Facebook in some profile,

 

If you want my info, you can pay me for it.

 

As for speed, I'm happy you're in an area with great cell service. I'm not so lucky.  Most of the time I get low end 4G speed and 'm lucky my music streams without skipping.  Also, I'm glad you have unlimited data for your phone,  tablet and/or laptop. I don't and I would blast through my monthly data cap in days.

 

Again, it' not as big of a deal as it was about 5 years ago when most things were cleartext, I just keep it for convivence at this point. The $3 a month isn't that bad for the small benefits.

[spacelordmaster]

On 14/10/2020 at 20:46, BudMan said:

So you authing to your email is encrypted, you sending the email is encrypted.  And the email itself is encrypted.  What is the point of the VPN?

 

I get it your cell service sucks.. So you use the local wifi.. My point is pretty much all traffic is encrypted these days, and your encrypting the email itself.. And your vpn sucks - but sure lets pay X $ a month so my connection can suck more than it already does.. I don't get it...

 

Other than you sending dns in the clear - what part of your internet traffic do you actually think is in the clear?  That this local wifi could see?  This is no longer everything in http, and open wifi.

Exactly what Joe User said. Read his comment.