What's the best VPN in Thailand?

[tlcwaterfall]

2 minutes ago, SooKee said:

 

Thanks.  I'm on the Astrill trial at the moment.  Looks good so far and with no visible of speed signs degradation (e.g. stalled video) albeit I haven't done a speed test as such.  I'm primarily bothered if it works or not, not so much speed counts.  Are their discounts that significant? If so, it might be worth me going monthly until thanksgiving.  At least for the year so I can get the renewals in sync.

Have you tested any Australian servers? Interested if there is a reduction of speed with Astrill there,

 

I have tested a few Vpns lately and they have all been disappointing.

[SooKee]

Not yet.  Will try over the weekend and update.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

1 hour ago, SooKee said:

 Are their discounts that significant? If so, it might be worth me going monthly until thanksgiving.  At least for the the next few months of this year so I can get the renewals in sync.

 

The last couple years, they've had different promotions each year, so it varies, but usually pretty substantial off their regular rates.

 

When I renewed last Thanksgiving, I paid $100 for 2 years of service (i.e. $50 a year) that included their Router Pro and Stealth VPN options, and allowed for two simultaneous any device connections. So I use one of those for my main router at home, and the other as an ad hoc connection that I can do manually via their apps on any particular device where I might want something different than what my VPN router is doing.

 

One of the areas where Astrill tends to be stingy relative to other VPN services is in the number of simultaneous connections allowed under their standard/base plan, which is only 1 PC/router device and 1 mobile device. That was never enough for me, so in the past, I had two different accounts with them to allow for simultaneous router and PC connections. So last Thanksgiving's special (any two devices simultaneously) was a good deal for me, because it meant I no longer needed to have a second account with them.

 

I think you'd find, the normal price of two years of service with their Router Pro and Stealth VPN add-ons is going to be quite a bit higher than the $50 a year rate from last Thanksgiving. BTW, it's what Astrill calls their Router Pro option, I believe, that allows for two simultaneous any device connections vs. their standard plan that allows only 1 PC/router and 1 mobile device.

 

More than likely, whatever they offer this Thanksgiving/Black Friday will be different, but the discount off their normal prices should be similarly significant, if they stick to their pattern of past years.

 

 

[balo]

Astrill I pay for 6 months subscription before I renew. Never had any issues, the Norwegian server (I watch Norwegian TV) was down for 3 days and I complained , they gave me an extra free month.  Good customer service. 

 

 

 

[SooKee]

@TallGuyJohninBKK. Thanks. I'll sort out the best way to cover the service until Thanksgiving. No chance to look at the web yet but the Router Pro is a service right, not a physical router? That's how I read it but I'm not sure where the Stealth bit comes in. Doubtless it'll become clearer when I get chance to bring the site up.


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[TallGuyJohninBKK]

1 hour ago, SooKee said:

@TallGuyJohninBKK. Thanks. I'll sort out the best way to cover the service until Thanksgiving. No chance to look at the web yet but the Router Pro is a service right, not a physical router? That's how I read it but I'm not sure where the Stealth bit comes in. Doubtless it'll become clearer when I get chance to bring the site up.
 

Their terminology is always confusing to me also... But re your questions...

 

Yes, their Router Pro deal is just an add-on service option to their base VPN service plans. I believe, as I said above, it gives you the right to use one account simultaneously on two different non-mobile devices, like a router and a PC. It may also have some added capability in terms of running their VPN service via a router. I'm fuzzy on that point.

 

It does NOT have anything to do with buying a router or them providing you a router. Although, Astrill does sell routers with their own VPN software preloaded onto them, and sometimes gives them away for free as part of their Thanksgiving specials, when you subscribe to some plan.  But, they're only low-grade, N only routes made I believe by TP Link.

 

Stealth VPN is another add-on service option that just is a technology they'll make available via their software that supposedly makes it more difficult for snoopy countries to detect and block people from using VPNs. It's meant for places like China...though who knows... could well end up being pertinent for Thailand as well....

 

[dr_lucas]

On 7/22/2017 at 4:25 PM, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Their terminology is always confusing to me also... But re your questions...

 

Yes, their Router Pro deal is just an add-on service option to their base VPN service plans. I believe, as I said above, it gives you the right to use one account simultaneously on two different non-mobile devices, like a router and a PC. It may also have some added capability in terms of running their VPN service via a router. I'm fuzzy on that point.

 

It does NOT have anything to do with buying a router or them providing you a router. Although, Astrill does sell routers with their own VPN software preloaded onto them, and sometimes gives them away for free as part of their Thanksgiving specials, when you subscribe to some plan.  But, they're only low-grade, N only routes made I believe by TP Link.

 

Stealth VPN is another add-on service option that just is a technology they'll make available via their software that supposedly makes it more difficult for snoopy countries to detect and block people from using VPNs. It's meant for places like China...though who knows... could well end up being pertinent for Thailand as well....

 

Astrill is an excellent example of a company with some potential but very very poor management.

Despite what their order page says - their "Router Pro" is basically the PC "Stealth VPN" (higher grade encryption), but for routers, especially good for countries like China (RouterPro got actually nothing to do with speed, unlike what they wrote). This is quote of what their sales person told me. To be precise - the 2 simultaneous connections of any type of device come with their ProAddon, not with the Router Pro. The ProAddon includes both Router Pro and Stealth VPN.

 

TLDR; I have been using almost every possible major VPN service provider on the planet and I can honestly say that Astrill has one of the worst customer support of all, if I can even call it that. (examples below, if you wanna keep on reading)

Admittedly, they do have a few really good servers and good routing and their router applet is quite unique (Only PureVPN has something similar) and useful (on Asus-Merlin at least, but very very buggy on DD-WRT 3).

Bottom line is - if you are never going to contact their CS, you will be OK with their VPN, although they are, as TallGuyJohninBKK pointed out above - quite pricey and stingy when it comes to simultaneous connections. They get even pricier if you add any of their add-ons (like the +$5/mo Home Plan that offer 5 simultaneous connections instead of 2). They also don't offer any 1 month package, only 3, 6 , 12 and 24 months.

I have had excellent results with VPN.AC, StrongVPN and PIA (PrivateInternetAccess), which are significantly cheaper and much better in so many ways.

 

Examples of Astrill poor CS (all during my 7 days trial):

- I had to wait 3 (!!) days to get a response to a ticket. The response I finally got was totally unprofessional & unrelated to my issue. (I asked about the reason for slower speeds via the router applet compared with the windows program and the answer was that it is caused by "a political meeting held in China". (!!!)

I am not kidding, that's what they wrote.

 

- When trying to contact their online chat support, I got a "welcome" response from their staff, and then no response for over 45 minutes until I just closed the chat.

- When I wrote this complaint about it (link), while I was waiting with that chat windows open and emailed  it to their sales, support and management emails, they merged the ticket and closed it immediately. No response whatsoever.

- When scheduling a remote support (TeamViewer) session, with a 2 hours window, I was sitting next to the computer and waiting for 4.5 hours until I decided to contact their online chat support, luckily this time with success, and was told that I will need to wait as they are too busy (nobody bothered to even inform me via the ticket). Another TeamViewer session schedule (12 hours in advance!) also was not done and followed by an answer to the ticket 2.5 hours after the scheduled window ended.

 

They simply couldn't care less about customers.

 

[SooKee]

I think part of the problem for some folks is what they want to use the VPN for. If just for regular browsing any one of the paid (even unpaid) might be fine. If they want it to access foreign catalogues of services like Netflix and Amazon Prime the options, from even the little research I've done on the subject, reduce drastically given the drive of these providers to block VPN access to their services.

 

Troubling your comments about Astrill though. Take them out of the equation and, aside from Express (there may be others) what's left?

 

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[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I agree, Astrill's customer service can sometimes be poor and frustrating. At other times, they've been helpful. It probably depends on who you end up talking/chatting with.

 

Fortunately, I rarely have any reason to contact their customer service. For me, once signed up, their VPN service just works, no technical problems, very good speeds and routing, easy to configure and use.

 

Yes, they are pricey, which is why whenever I mention them, I always advise anyone thinking to sign up to wait until their upcoming Thanksgiving/Black Friday specials, which occur every year and offer very good discounts.

 

And, they also are one of the commercial VPN services that continue to offer good working connections to some of the U.S. streaming services that have been trying to block VPN access. I use them regularly for that purpose, and these days, never get the dreaded "error" messages.

 

[lelapin]

I use SaferVPN very successfully

 

[dr_lucas]

1 hour ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

I agree, Astrill's customer service can sometimes be poor and frustrating. At other times, they've been helpful. It probably depends on who you end up talking/chatting with.

 

Fortunately, I rarely have any reason to contact their customer service. For me, once signed up, their VPN service just works, no technical problems, very good speeds and routing, easy to configure and use.

 

Yes, they are pricey, which is why whenever I mention them, I always advise anyone thinking to sign up to wait until their upcoming Thanksgiving/Black Friday specials, which occur every year and offer very good discounts.

 

And, they also are one of the commercial VPN services that continue to offer good working connections to some of the U.S. streaming services that have been trying to block VPN access. I use them regularly for that purpose, and these days, never get the dreaded "error" messages.

 

 

The examples I have given were just a few of the many issues I had with their CS in these 7 days. I just tried to make the post as short as possible. If I posted the entire ticket here, you'd be shocked.

Their service/support is poor and frustrating most of the times, not just sometimes. Especially if you need them for anything a bit more advanced than reinstalling their program on your computer. There are horror stories about their support all over the net.

Luckily for you, you rarely need to contact them. I sure hope it will stay this way. :)

 

Special Thanksgiving and Black Friday/Cyber-Monday promotions are also offered by almost all VPN providers. And many commercial VPN providers work well with U.S. streaming services, although you are right that some are blocked and this dynamic list of blocked IP changes daily.

Astrill IPs could be targeted (again) one day, and since they offer a "no refund" policy after the first 7 days (link), you might get stuck with them if you paid for a long term package and nobody who gives a damn on the other side of the "phone".

Although either way (with or without the discount), it is small money for me, I won't put my money or support a company that so badly disparage its customers. That's me tho.

 

2 hours ago, SooKee said:

Troubling your comments about Astrill though. Take them out of the equation and, aside from Express (there may be others) what's left?

There are many options, and YMMV based on the

- ISP (TRUE, TOT, 3BB, AIS, CAT etc.) that you are using

- The package you have from that ISP and the connection type (xDSL, Cable, Fiber etc.)

- The destination you need to be connecting to 

- The time of the day/week.

- The protocol and port type and number used. (for example, encrypted OpenVPN gets optimal performance on x86 based computers, thanks to AES-NI. Also UDP is usually best for faster speed, far better than TCP)

 

Most VPN providers offer a free trial (usually 7 days, but can be anything between 1 day to 30 days). Some with no advance payment and some require advance payment and refund in case you cancel before the trial ends.

I have tested many VPNs here in Bangkok, using TRUE Docsis, TOT Fiber and 3BB Fiber, with mixed results.

The best ones, based on my own experience, in no particular order:

vpn.ac, expressVPN, strongVPN, VyprVPN, NordVPN

I'd add PIA, but I know they are currently blocked by some streaming providers.

 

You are absolutely right that almost any VPN would be sufficient for regular browsing VS international streaming services, which require a better VPN. I recommend checking out the ones I listed.

If you can, use them all at the same time on trial first, to be able to properly compare and choose the best one for you. :)

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

5 hours ago, dr_lucas said:

Their service/support is poor and frustrating most of the times, not just sometimes. Especially if you need them for anything a bit more advanced than reinstalling their program on your computer. There are horror stories about their support all over the net.

Luckily for you, you rarely need to contact them. I sure hope it will stay this way. :)

 

 

That's obviously been your experience, but not mine. I've been a paying customer of theirs for probably the past 4 years or so, meaning I've voluntarily renewed each subsequent year. So at least for me, they must be doing something right.

 

Nonetheless, I'll concede your point on customer service and agree, don't use Astrill if you need top-flight hand-holding support. But do use them if you want a fast, reliable, stable VPN service with servers that typically are not blacklisted.

 

Last year, before renewing with Astrill, I did free trials with a handful of other services -- Express, Vypr, Pure and I think one other -- and none of those worked well for my particular streaming needs. The year before, I'd done a trial with PIA, and their speeds were horribly slow for me... So, YMMV.

 

I'm not sure why anyone would need Astrill's help in installing or reinstalling their apps on a computer. They have a stripped down Windows dialer .exe program, a more full blown Windows application that supports more of their protocols such as Stealth VPN, and of course you can simply take your server address of choice from their list and set that up using Windows' built-in VPN protocol under Networking. All of which are pretty simple to install, configure and use.

 

 

[dr_lucas]

1 hour ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

That's obviously been your experience, but not mine. I've been a paying customer of theirs for probably the past 4 years or so, meaning I've voluntarily renewed each subsequent year. So at least for me, they must be doing something right.

 

Yes, obviously  it's my own experience, but since we both are probably impartial, it's ok for us to be sharing our own experiences. I am sure you had a good experience with their servers as you say, so did I, as I wrote above.

I personally also had excellent experience with other VPN providers, but also received much much better service.

 

 

 

1 hour ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Nonetheless, I'll concede your point on customer service and agree, don't use Astrill if you need top-flight hand-holding support. But do use them if you want a fast, reliable, stable VPN service.

 

I'm not sure why anyone would need Astrill's help in installing or reinstalling their apps on a computer. They have a stripped down Windows dialer .exe program, a more full blown Windows application that supports more of their protocols such as Stealth VPN, and of course you can simply take your server address of choice from their list and set that up using Windows' built-in VPN protocol under Networking. All of which are pretty simple to install, configure and use.

The "if you need them for anything a bit more advanced than reinstalling their program on your computer" comment is just an attempt to explain what to expect from their support. Obviously I didn't need this kind of basic assistance, but someone else on this thread mentioned they helped him with TeamViewer re-installing the program, so I took it from there.

Do I seem to you like a person who needs a top-flight hand-holding support? 

I assume not. Yet I still had horrible experiences with their support due to multiple issues with their router applet, and luckily it's fully documented if you want to see how bad they can be.

I honestly hope you will never need their assistance, especially for anything advanced.

 

 

1 hour ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Last year, before renewing with Astrill, I did free trials with a handful of other services -- Express, Vypr, Pure and I think one other -- and none of those worked well for my particular streaming needs. The year before, I'd done a trial with PIA, and their speeds were horribly slow for me... So, YMMV.

 

Yeah, sure, YMMV since performance depends on many factors, as I briefly explained in my previous post.

 

A lot of additional useful information is available here: https://restoreprivacy.com/best-vpns/

Important to note that for streaming, the most important thing to check when using a VPN is single thread download speed from the same location (using http://testmy.net for example) and not a service like http://www.speedtest.net that offers only multi-thread download (and upload) tests.

For anyone who wants to read more - there is  a lot of very useful discussion, especially by Pib and  TallGuyJohninBKK on this this TV thread: https://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/949508-3bb-vs-ais-fiber-vs-true-online-fttx/

 

[dr_lucas]

One more thing I forgot.

Anyone who would like to test the VPN connection performance for streaming Netflix from another country, do this:

- Connect to a server in the same country

- Use https://fast.com/ after connecting to the VPN, and test your speed. (this is Netflix's own speedtest site)

- Compare your speed with this list:

0.5 Megabits per second - Minimum Required broadband connection speed

1.5 Megabits per second - Recommended broadband connection speed

3.0 Megabits per second - Recommended for SD quality

5.0 Megabits per second - Recommended for HD quality

25 Megabits per second - Recommended for Ultra HD quality

[balo]

12 hours ago, SooKee said:

Troubling your comments about Astrill though. Take them out of the equation and, aside from Express (there may be others) what's left?

 

I have been a customer with Astrill for 4 years , never experienced troubles with customer support. But I am not a demanding customer , some of the servers in Europe were down and I got a quick reply from online support several times. 

 

As long as it works I am happy - 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

1 hour ago, dr_lucas said:

I assume not. Yet I still had horrible experiences with their support due to multiple issues with their router applet, and luckily it's fully documented if you want to see how bad they can be.

 

 

FWIW, I also run VPN off my wifi router. But instead of using an add-on applet, my ASUS AC wifi router fortunately has PPTP client compatibility as part of its firmware. So all I had to do to get my connection working was:

 

1. Log into the ASUS firmware and go to the VPN section and select PPTP as the protocol.

2. Fill in and save 3 pieces of info:

   a. the server address I want to use

   b. my account name

   c. my password, and then

3. Click CONNECT.

 

I like the ASUS firmware for that kind of easy setup and functionality.

 

[dr_lucas]

Yeah, Asus firmware is good, but Asus-Merlin is much better (if available for your specific model). Highly recommended. 

[dr_lucas]

By the way, why do you use PPTP instead of OpenVPN?

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

2 hours ago, dr_lucas said:

By the way, why do you use PPTP instead of OpenVPN?

Generally, faster streaming speeds with PPTP vs Open VPN, at least in my experience.

 

PPTP is also much simpler to set up on my ASUS router vs using Open VPN.

 

[dr_lucas]

10 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

PPTP is also much simpler to set up on my ASUS router vs using Open VPN.

 

Bingo. That's why I was trying to use the applet. It is much simpler than any of the ASUS router options and it offers, on paper at least, a lot of useful, yet east-to-use features, such as tunneling or exclusions of specific devices (e.g. using the VPN on my smart TV but excluding my computers from the VPN), tunneling/excluding specific WiFi bands etc.

The problem with the applet is that it that it is buggy, especially on my Linksys' DD-WRT, but not so buggy on my AsusWRT-Merlin router. However, due to hardware limitations - it is slower on the ASUS as it only uses OpenVPN which is CPU bound. This brings me to the next point.

 

 

10 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Generally, faster streaming speeds with PPTP vs Open VPN, at least in my experience.

 

This is going to be a bit technical.

TL;DR

In most cases, the general advice is to not use PPTP: (link)

PPTP is an insecure protocol which normally doesn't really offer any performance benefit over the very secure OpenVPN, except for cases where OpenVPN is being used directly on routers (or other devices) with a weak CPU that limits OpenVPN performance, ie. the bottleneck is the CPU.

Latest routers, such as Linksys' WRT3200ACM and Asus' RT-AC86U come with quite powerful 1.8 GHz CPU, which are capable of handling very high OpenVPN speeds, even up to 200Mbit/200Mbit (link)

 

I understand some people use the VPN only for streaming, so don't really care much about security, but bear in mind that PPTP can also be easily detected by the ISPs and throttled if and when they will choose to do that (I know of at least one local ISP that already does).

 

Full technical details:

OpenVPN is a single-threaded protocol. ie. it can only use one CPU core and just 1 thread. There is no benefit to multi-core CPUs and no benefit to CPU multi-threading.

Routers are small devices with limited CPU capacity. Usually they are around 400MHz, while most better ones currently at users homes go to 1GHz. This is fairly little compared to e.g. quad-core 2.4GHz CPU you may find on your PC. Furthermore, these chips are usually cheap ARM or Broadcom models that do not support AES-NI instruction set - an instruction set implemented by Intel for fast hardware AES encryption. AES-NI instruction set support on CPU has dramatic influence on overall encryption computation capabilities of the machine. You can find further information at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AES_instruction_set 

 

You can confirm that the cap is caused by your router's CPU by telnet or SSHing into router and running "top" command while performing speedtest. You will see your CPU is at 100% and its OpenVPN process eating all the power. 

If you connect with OpenVPN using your PC but get better performance on the PC when using PPTP, that's normally because the VPN provider assigns a different server for PPTP connections or does some other behind the scene configuration changes to prioritize PPTP, otherwise, if it is the same server - you'll normally get the same or even better speeds with OpenVPN when using a modern PC.

 

Recently Linksys released their high-end open-source consumer router with 1.8 GHz CPU, the WRT3200ACM. Based on my own test results, I was able to reach ~130Mbit/80Mbit on a connection to Singapore using its OpenVPN (DD-WRT 3 firmware).

RMerlin, the developer of the AsusWRT-Merlin custom firmware (improved Asus firmware) was able to reach ~200Mbit/200Mbit using the new RT-AC86U, which was released just a few months ago, and is equipped with a 1.8 GHz Broadcom CPU.

That means, that with these routers, especially the AC86U we can take advantage of the full speeds of OpenVPN, without the need to compromise security using insecure protocols like PPTP.

P.S. my internet package is 200/100 fiber.

 

The Astrill story

Astrill with their 1pc+1mobile device limitation, especially in that price point, is ridiculous. I don't know of any other commercial VPN provider that has such a limitation. If you want to simultaneously connect several devices at home/office, you must use a router that support VPN.

As you probably figured out by now, I wanted to use my router to connect to Astrill's OpenVPN servers using their applet and tunnel a permanent VPN connection to my smart TVs, for direct streaming from my country, while leaving the other computers out of the VPN network. In other cases I wanted to use the applet to connect some PCs on the network to the VPN while excluding others.

To make a very long story short - it worked in some cases, while barely worked in other cases or not at all.

And that's because of some bugs in their applet.

I reached out to them to report these bugs and try to find solutions or workarounds, but as I reported with the examples before - their CS was terrible. Note that they did eventually (after dragging me for 12 days) confirm that it is a bug in their applet and tried to sell me their extremely overpriced and weak R6400 router.... 

They also have lots of other strange limitations. For example: in their TOS: https://www.astrill.com/tos.php section 5.7 they say that for the +$5/mo home plan that allows you to use 5 devices at the same time - they can be used simultaneously "in the same household" (ie. using the same internet connection, not in separate locations/connections)

Their refund policy is also overly strict and IMHO unfair https://www.astrill.com/refund-policy.php 

They require customers to provide their mobile phone numbers to get verification SMS. Many people using VPN do that to keep their privacy and stay anonymous. No other VPN provider that I know does that.

Their support staff almost never write their names when they respond, except for 1 person.

They never pick up their phone.

Their support chat can be offline for hours (leave a message option only). When they are online, they answered me and let me wait for over 45 minutes until I closed it, completely ignoring all my messages (see my screenshot).

It can take days, in some cases, until their support replies and even then it can be a very unrelated and unprofessional reply.

In all the times I scheduled TeamViewer remote support session, they always ignored it, making me wait for hours by the computer, for practically nothing.

They don't have any public list of servers with their current capacity and load, like many VPN providers do.

The overall impression I got is of a very illusive and poorly managed company. 

But yes, they do have some good servers, I admit. Based on my personal experience, so do other VPN providers, for my usage pattern.

 

16 hours ago, balo said:

I have been a customer with Astrill for 4 years , never experienced troubles with customer support. But I am not a demanding customer , some of the servers in Europe were down and I got a quick reply from online support several times. 

As long as it works I am happy - 

Then you'd probably be happy with any of the other VPN providers I listed before, pay less, be able to connect more devices simultaneously when needed and get, based on my own experience, a much better & quicker support (read: usually real-time via chat that actually works) whenever you need it.

 

 

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Re your comments above, everyone's free to make their own choices based on their own situation and experience.

 

In my case, I have a pretty good ASUS AC router with 128MB/128MB specs. I'm not worried about security as the only real purpose I use the router VPN for is streaming and geolocation. And so long as the VPN server is showing the correct IP in the desired location, I've never had any problems with being blocked and such. (There was a time when Astrill (and many others) got effectively locked out by N, but they managed to remedy that and that's no longer a problem with their service.

 

When I want to use the VPN for security purposes, I use their full blown Windows app in Stealth VPN mode, which is a version of OpenVPN. But in the testing that I've done in the past as an end user, I get faster streaming speeds with the straight PPTP on the router than I do with the Open VPN/Stealth VPN app running on my PC. Which seems to make sense because there is more encryption overhead on Open VPN/Stealth VPN than there is on PPTP. So that's why I do it that way.

 

(I've never taken the additional step of trying to use Open VPN on my router and/or install their OpenVPN applet on my router. Though as best as I recall, on my particular ASUS router, the OpenVPN client functionality is built into the ASUS firmware. So all I need to do to use the ASUS firmware OpenVPN client, as best as I recall, is to upload the particular OpenVPN profile info for the desired VPN server--not install and use a standalone applet.)

 

In my case with Astrill, I'm subscribed to their Pro Add-On service with Router Pro VPN and their Stealth VPN service, all of the above that allows two simultaneous device connections. So in my case, that means 1 always on router device and then a second available periodically used connection to be used as needed on any PC or other device in the house when I want to use a different kind or location VPN from my router setup.

 

When I renewed last Thanksgiving during their promotional period, the particular deal I described above ran $99.95 for two years of service -- which works out to about $4.16 per month. For what I get and the extent to which I use their service,  I'm perfectly fine with that. And, as best as I can recall, I've had absolutely no need or reason to contact them for any problem in the past 12 months.

 

I do recall, a couple years back, I had a problem with their credit card processing company balking at my payment because my card address and my location country were different -- but that was something contact with their customer service worked out pretty quickly.

 

When I renewed last Thanksgiving, I wasn't asked for and didn't have any kind of SMS verification process. I think I've given them my mobile number in the past, but I don't think I've ever received any SMS from them of any sort ever since I've been a customer. Perhaps that's some kind of new thing now for new customers. I have no way to know.

 

 

 

[Xaos]

Openvpn is free

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

[dr_lucas]

15 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

When I renewed last Thanksgiving, I wasn't asked for and didn't have any kind of SMS verification process. I think I've given them my mobile number in the past, but I don't think I've ever received any SMS from them of any sort ever since I've been a customer. Perhaps that's some kind of new thing now for new customers. I have no way to know.

 

Then you may want to read this:
http://best10vpn.com/astrill-vpn/review/

 

 

 

In my case, I have a pretty good ASUS AC router with 128MB/128MB specs.

Might be some misunderstanding.
When I mentioned the Mbps I was talking about OpenVPN throughput, not the router's flash and RAM.

And when I was talking about performance specs, I referred to the CPU power.

The only ASUS AC router I know with these specs is the AC58U, which has quite a weak 717Mhz CPU (weak for OpenVPN), so you are definitely better off using PPTP for your usage pattern. 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

1 hour ago, dr_lucas said:

Then you may want to read this:
http://best10vpn.com/astrill-vpn/review/

 

 

I think their overall review and verdict is fair (although, I've never encountered the same kind of customer service issues as you and the reviewer have):

 

Quote

 

Verdict 7.4 

Getting Astrill VPN setup with the right account and trial was an exercise in frustration. However, once I got my services running, the experience wasn’t half bad. The speeds are quite decent and the applications work well with plenty of servers to choose from.

 

 

[thaiflyer1]

Astrill to the BBCIplayer seems to be down this p.m.........................tried a few different servers

[SooKee]

Might be some misunderstanding.
When I mentioned the Mbps I was talking about OpenVPN throughput, not the router's flash and RAM.
And when I was talking about performance specs, I referred to the CPU power.
The only ASUS AC router I know with these specs is the AC58U, which has quite a weak 717Mhz CPU (weak for OpenVPN), so you are definitely better off using PPTP for your usage pattern. 

Thanks for the info on this. From the review site you posted TorGuard looks to be a good option.

Sent using Tapatalk

[thaiflyer1]

2 hours ago, thaiflyer1 said:

Astrill to the BBCIplayer seems to be down this p.m.........................tried a few different servers

Working again........................

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

22 hours ago, dr_lucas said:

The only ASUS AC router I know with these specs is the AC58U, which has quite a weak 717Mhz CPU (weak for OpenVPN), so you are definitely better off using PPTP for your usage pattern. 

 

I have a variant of the AC58U, being the ACRH13, which does in fact have a 717 MHz quadcore Qualcomm processor.

 

[balo]

11 hours ago, thaiflyer1 said:

Astrill to the BBCIplayer seems to be dow

I use UK server 5 on BBC, seem to be running smoother than 1 2 and 3 .

 

 

[SooKee]

16 hours ago, SooKee said:

Thanks for the info on this. From the review site you posted TorGuard looks to be a good option.

Sent using Tapatalk
 

Checked on their website and for related news -  seems like they have some very good Black Friday deals too, one of the deals was 75% one of the bundles, of course, will need to check the specifics of whether that includes the actual Pro VPN service (and not just add-ons) but looks promising. so I might look to this company come Black Friday.