Most VPNs can handle lower quality. However, top VPNs can also handle high resolutions, and they are usually no more expensive than the competition. If you have an excellent provider, then you will also experience low latency and you don’t have to bother with buffering.

In the ideal case your VPN can bypass the so-called (and awful) geoblocking. This will unblock Netflix US or the BBC iPlayer as well as itv, Amazon Prime and so on. If you are abroad, you can also use it to unlock the content of the country you are living in. Many broadcasts are usually without restrictions, but there are also some that use geoblocking.

It is also desirable that several devices can be connected to the VPN simultaneously. Good VPNs also provide clients or apps for all major operating systems. For me personally, only vendors that also offer a Linux client are an option. Very welcome are services that have built-in protection against malware, trackers and phishing or an ad blocker.

NordVPN – superb for streaming*

Such services exist and they do not cost a fortune. For example, you can get NordVPN for about €3 per month and there is even a Linux client that works with the Raspberry Pi. This is convenient because you can easily build your own VPN router with it.

Sufficient speed for streaming

Of course, your internet speed must be fast enough to use the streaming providers. But the servers of the VPN provider must also be fast enough. Basically, the further away your location is from the VPN server, the more critical it could be.

It also depends on the VPN protocol. Some are faster than others. Meanwhile, NordVPN offers the very fast VPN protocol WireGuard in all apps. It is called NordLynx.

OpenVPN speeds are also sufficient with the provider, but speed tests have shown that WireGuard is even faster. Here is a test from Europe to Los Angeles – original speed is 50 Mbps.

This is easily enough for streaming in high quality. You could use it to unlock Netflix US from Europe, for example.

PIA is also a provider that meanwhile offers WireGuard in all apps.

That’s important: With NordVPN and PIA you get access to the WireGuard protocol on Linux, Android, macOS, Windows and iOS.

By the way: It is not that difficult to build a WireGuard server yourself. However, you are less flexible because you can’t just change the country. This means that bypassing geoblocking is not possible. This does not apply if you are abroad and want to connect to your home.

More streaming – bypass geoblocking

The streaming offers in Europe are excellent. Nevertheless, there is so-called geoblocking in every country and therefore certain contents are not available to you. The archive of Netflix US for example is the largest. If you want to access it from Europe, you need an IP address from the USA. So, you use your VPN and connect to a server in the USA.

Why does geoblocking even exist? This is of course about money. It has something to do with licenses. I find it bizarre, too. There is so much good stuff on BBC iPlayer and itv but you can’t watch it outside the UK – well Zattoo Switzerland offers BBC and itv. But if you are not living in Switzerland you need a VPN with servers in the country.

The thing is … not all VPNs can bypass geoblocking. It is a constant battle between streaming providers and VPN providers. IP addresses are put on blacklists and so on. VPN providers with few resources or smaller networks have problems to win this race. A good deal of give up and simply say that they cannot bypass geoblocking. Superb VPNs such as NordVPN can unblock almost all streaming providers.

Bypass geoblocking with NordVPN*

But also Surfshark* and Private Internet Access (PIA)* are very suitable for the task.

Streaming while travelling

By the way, there’s another reason why you might want to bypass that annoying geoblocking. If you travel to another country, you may not have access to your Netflix account, even if you pay for it – annoying, isn’t it?

Again, a VPN can help you bypass geoblocking. But that is not the only reason why you should take a VPN with you when you travel. I will explain further down how a VPN can help you when you travel (shh … it protects you!).

Streaming with multiple devices simultaneously

Now you may have several people in your household and everyone wants to stream something different. With a good VPN you are allowed to establish several simultaneous connections. NordVPN for example allows 6 simultaneous connections and also the installation on a router is allowed. A router counts as one device.

With PIA you can connect 10 devices simultaneously. Surfshark is best at this point because there is no limit to the number of simultaneous connections. These 2 providers also allow an installation on a router.

Surfshark – unlimited connections

You have to know yourself how many devices you want to connect to the VPN concurrently.

Apps and clients for all devices

Actually all good VPNs provide clients for Android, Windows, macOS and iOS. A good client for Linux makes all the difference.

For me, it is important how many devices and operating systems a VPN supports. In any case, I would like to have a client for Linux. Most VPNs on the market offer ovpn files, which you can use to manually connect to one server at a time. This is fine, but not practical if you want to change countries quickly.

Another difference is command line client or GUI. One of the most beautiful clients for Linux is from PIA (very nice client)*. It offers all functions, is clearly arranged and user-friendly.

However, there are many flavours of Linux. NordVPN offers a command line client, which is also available for the Raspberry Pi (Raspbian). So, this is my favourite because I can use my Pi as a VPN router and still change countries quickly. Therefore I can also quickly move the Chromecast virtually to another country.

PIA and Surfshark also work on the Raspberry Pi, but here you have to establish the connection manually using the ovpn file. Before you choose a VPN for Linux, you should check if the client is compatible with your distribution. Ubuntu, Linux Mint and Debian are supported by all three.

The three VPN providers also provide extensions or add-ons for Firefox, Chrome (and compatible ones like Brave*). These add-ons act as a proxy and only protect the traffic of your browser. If you want to stream via browser, this is completely OK. Please note that other internet traffic will not pass through the VPN connection.

Protection against Malware

There is another important feature I want to have in my VPN client – protection against malware, trackers, phishing and an ad blocker. At home, I normally route my Internet traffic through my Pi-hole. When I’m on the road, I gratefully use the VPN provider’s ad blocker, which also protects me from malware, trackers and phishing. Both PIA and NordVPN offer such protection.

NordVPN calls the function CyberSec and PIA names it MACE. The blocker is deactivated by default in both VPNs. The reason is that some websites do not work with CyberSec or MACE. I would simply activate the ad blocker, but keep in mind that this can cause problems.

On the other hand, I also think: If a website with activated protection against advertising, malware and trackers doesn’t work, I might not even want to visit it.

The ad blockers of PIA and NordVPN work well. As soon as I leave the house, I use such features.

Protection when using hotspots / free Wi-Fi

If you like to be on the road like me, you probably use free Wi-Fi, hotspots and so on. In most countries you can get mobile internet connections relatively easily and cheaply, but the data volume is often very limited. In other words, they are suitable for e-mail, messenger services and so on, but there is too little data for streaming.

If you use free Wi-Fi (Airbnb, hotel and so on), you never know who is on the same network or who is running it. Don’t let them spy on you and just use a VPN. This is the best protection in foreign networks.

Avoid censorship

But not only the operators of the free Wi-Fi are possibly nosy. Governments also monitor Internet connections or censor them to a greater or lesser extent. In some countries, such as Egypt, VPNs are legal, but blocked. NordVPN still works because the provider uses obfuscated servers.

Bypass censorship with NordVPN*

VPNs are not illegal in China either, but only state-approved VPNs are allowed. Thus, the point of a VPN is nullified. NordVPN can also bypass the Great Firewall of China. Many VPN providers cannot bypass such blocks – only the best ones can.

In some countries VPNs are illegal. North Korea is one of them. Just check before you start your trip if a VPN is legal or not.

But the thing is: In restrictive countries, access to VPN providers is often blocked. If you want to take a VPN with you, get one before you start your trip. If you are on the road for less than 30 days, you can even travel with a free VPN – just as a hint (30 days money-back guarantee) …

What is the best VPN for streaming?

As I said, there are many VPNs that are well suited. Of course, I can’t test all services that are on the market. But from my experience I can tell you that NordVPN (big discounts NOW)*, Surfshark (unlimited connections)* and PIA (very nice client)* work great for streaming. Thanks to WireGuard, PIA and NordVPN are very fast.

Both VPN providers offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. You can test both PIA and NordVPN before you buy.

Both providers also allow P2P, torrents or file sharing. Both providers have a strict no-log policy to keep your Internet activities anonymous.

As already mentioned, a high quality VPN only costs about €3 per month. That’s how much data protection, anonymity and privacy should be worth to you. Virtual Private Networks are really not expensive these days.

The post What is the best VPN for streaming? The answer is simple! appeared first on VPN Expert.

WireGuard and PIA: what does it look like?

Private Internet Access also provides a graphical client for Linux, which is quite similar to the programs on macOS and Windows. The only difference is that PIA uses the Linux kernel module for WireGuard, should it be available. The software even advises to install the kernel module.

In the client settings you will now find the options OpenVPN and WireGuard in Connection. If I choose the new protocol, I get a few additional options, as you can see in the screenshot.

By the way, if you click on Install in Ubuntu, a terminal window with the corresponding PPA entry will open immediately.

With Linux Mint I only got a hint to the WireGuard website. The problem will be solved in the foreseeable future anyway.

If you follow Linux you know that the VPN protocol WireGuard is integrated by default from Linux kernel 5.6. For Ubuntu 20.04 and its kernel 5.4 the protocol is available in the repositories of the distributor (from 19.10). You can find installation instructions for all major distributions directly on the WireGuard website.

PIA with WireGuard*

If the appropriate kernel module is installed, I can use it or not – the choice is mine.

Android and Windows

Under Windows and Android the question does not arise. Android uses a Linux kernel but …

This also works under Windows. It is very similar. Another nice thing about the PIA client is that it informs you about your IP addresses.

I can’t try macOS and iOS, but I think it works there as well.

Connecting with WireGuard is faster than via OpenVPN, I can confirm that. I didn’t do a speed test for Private Internet Access, but compared OpenVPN and WireGuard with NordVPN – the new VPN protocol was generally faster.

Fancy Linux Client

My personal opinion is that PIA provides one of the nicest, if not the best, Linux clients for a VPN. It is almost equal to the clients under macOS and Windows. The handling is very clear and therefore user-friendly. If you decide to use the VPN (Virtual Private Network), make sure you remember the Privacy tab.

Here you configure the so-called killswitch. This is an emergency switch that blocks traffic if the client is not connected to the VPN. The options Off and Always are clear. With Automatic the client blocks external traffic as soon as the VPN is activated.

PIA MACE is a built-in ad blocker. It blocks advertising, trackers and malware.

In the Proxy tab you can also route the VPN through a Shadowsocks proxy. This is good against censorship or in countries that block VPNs. But using a proxy is only possible with the OpenVPN protocol.

In most cases, it is sufficient to select the country with which you wish to connect. You have to experiment with the VPN protocol. WireGuard is considered faster than OpenVPN.

Under Network you can configure which DNS servers you want to use. For MACE you have to use the in-house PIA-DNS, otherwise it won’t work. You can also allow LAN traffic here, even if the killswitch is enabled. In foreign networks you have to consider carefully if you want to use this option or not.

Here you will also find the so-called split tunneling. You can decide which apps and applications should run through the VPN and which not. Port forwarding is also possible.

Supported Linux distributions

In the download section of PIA you can read that the Linux client is supported under Ubuntu 16.04 or higher, Linux Mint 18 or higher, Debian as well as Arch (all 64-bit). You can also use PIA on other Linux distributions, but you have to configure the connection manually. The vendor provides a set of relevant .ovpn files. They come pre-configured with different ports and encryption.

In many Linux distributions, the .ovpn files can be imported via the network manager. If you always connect to the same country, this is fine. If you want to change countries easily, this can be tedious. When traveling, you also want to connect to a VPN server that is near you for reasons of latency and speed.

The Raspberry Pi is also currently only supported via the .ovpn files. WireGuard and Raspberry Pi do not currently work with PIA, but they do with NordVPN.

Further information about PIA

Good at this point is that you can test the VPN for 30 days risk free. PIA offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. It’s easy to get your money back. All you have to do is request a refund from customer service. You can reach the customer service via Live Chat or e-mail. I had a problem with the Linux client in the beginning and contacted customer service via email. I received a satisfactory answer within 24 hours. This is acceptable for me. In an urgent case I would have tried the Live Chat.

Test PIA risk-free*

Furthermore you are allowed to connect 10 devices to the VPN simultaneously. This is very generous and more than most of the competition offers. In any case, you should be able to equip all your devices with the VPN. Actually, you should be able to give your whole family a VPN account. Especially on vacation or when using public WLANs, you should always use a VPN. It doesn’t matter if you are in and Airbnb, a train, a bus or a plane.

You may use PIA as a VPN router. With a Raspberry Pi you can easily build your own VPN router. The bandwidth of PIA is of course not limited.

PIA also allows P2P or file sharing.

Private Internet access is very affordable, especially for long-term packages. There are monthly packages, half-yearly subscriptions or annual subscriptions. Needless to say, the annual subscription is the cheapest. The VPN costs about €3 per month.

If you like to tinker, you can also easily create a WireGuard server yourself. This is not that difficult, but less flexible. With only €3 per month, you also have to seriously consider whether the less flexible self-made solution is worth the effort.

Concluding thoughts

Along with NordVPN, PIA is one of the few VPN giants that have now rolled out WireGuard system-wide. I use exactly these two – in other words, I had the right hunch. – I don’t deny that other VPNs also work well, but as we say in IT: Never change a running system.

Private Internet Access is partner of Purism and the developers of Linux Mint recommend PIA as well. Mint’s own developed PIA client is terrible, though – take the official one, it’s much better.

There is one thing I would like to mention though and that is to keep an eye on. PIA was bought by Kape Technologies, who also own ZenMate and bought CyberGhost as well (called Crossrider back then). So far, nothing has changed for me in Private Internet Access and 1 year subscription at that price is not risky. I just wanted to mention it. If you have any concerns here, NordVPN might be the better option. They don’t have a graphical client for Linux, but the CLI client is available for Raspberry Pi – that might be an advantage.

The post PIA (Private Internet Access) VPN: WireGuard in all Apps appeared first on VPN Expert.

Important note: The function will be rolled out step by step. Not everyone will get the new VPN (Virtual Private Network) clients simultaneously and you may have to wait a few days until NordLynx arrives. The goal is to have all new apps distributed April 24th.

Nordlynx / WireGuard for everyone!*

It is not difficult to use the new protocol.

On Android you find the new option in the settings.

What about the security and NordLynx?

WireGuard is fast, but there are concerns about anonymity. NordVPN protects the privacy of the users by using double NAT (Network Address Translation). The double NAT system creates two local network interfaces for each user. One of them is used by all users connected to the server. So, you will be lost in the crowd as before.

The second IP address is only assigned to you during the session and no data is stored on the server. You are therefore not identifiable. In the end, the endpoint will not see your WireGuard IP address, but a general one from the NordVPN network. At least that’s how I understood it.

NordLynx / WireGuard is faster – much faster – good for streaming

My speed tests have shown that NordLynx is faster than OpenVPN. However, I could only test it under Linux so far. During the release of NordLynx for all apps the provider wrote that they did 256.886 internal speed tests. According to NordVPN the new VPN protocol has left the established IKEv2 and OpenVPN far behind.

This is valid for connection times as well as download and upload were constantly faster than a connection with OpenVPN. This does not mean that OpenVPN is slow, but better performance is always welcome. You can also switch at any time, if you feel like using a different VPN protocol. The others won’t be removed.

WireGuard is roaming capable by the way. So, you can switch networks without disconnecting from the VPN server. Now it can always happen that a VPN server fails completely. But for this, the client of NordVPN additionally offers a so-called kill switch. If this function is active, it will cut off all connections to the Internet as soon as your connection to the Virtual Private Network is disconnected.

If you use your VPN primarily for streaming, a higher speed will also be handy. The minimum requirements of streaming providers are relatively low, but you will only get the lowest quality. Especially if you want to avoid geoblocking, you want to have high speeds so that you can stream hassle-free.

Lower latency with NordLynx is an advantage for VoIP, video calls and so on. So, all real-time applications benefit from lower latency and faster response times.

Does NordLynx have disadvantages?

The only small disadvantage I can see at the moment: There are fewer sites that are equipped with WireGuard.

It is possible that these countries will also be equipped with WireGuard at some point. Especially for Finland, I cannot imagine that there will be no improvements. In any case, this is a disadvantage that I can live with at the moment.

Further advantages of NordVPN and NordLynx

NordVPN is one of the most user-friendly VPNs on the market. Except for the CLI Linux client, the clients for the other operating systems are similar. You just type or click on the country you want to connect to and the software does the rest. It does not get much easier. But you can also connect just like that and the client takes the server that responds fastest. This is usually a server that is located near you.

If you only want to protect your traffic and maintain your anonymity, you don’t need to worry about the server. With geoblocking, however, it becomes more specific.

Of course, you can build your own WireGuard VPN server using a Raspberry Pi. This is not that difficult. However, you won’t be as flexible in bypassing geoblocking as you would be with a global VPN provider like NordVPN*. Besides, anonymity is most probably also not given with your own server.

If you only want to protect yourself in free Wi-Fi hotspots, hotels, Airbnb, on the bus and so on, then a self-made solution is certainly a good idea. But if you want to beat geoblocking, connect to other countries and so on, then you are better off with a VPN provider. The packages are no longer expensive. NordVPN only costs around €3 per month if you take a three-year subscription.

Short overview of the functions of NordPVN:

Take advantage of the 30-day money back guarantee and test NordLynx without risk. If you dislike the service, you will get your money back.

Test NordVPN risk free*

The provider usually does not ask questions and refunds your money rather quick.

CyberSec briefly explained

The CyberSec function is one of the best features of NordVPN. It is an ad blocker, but it also blocks trackers and malware and protects against phishing. The function is included in all clients of NordVPN, including the extensions for Firefox and Chrome.

However, the function is not activated by default. There is a good reason for this. Some websites don’t like active CyberSec. If you activate the function, keep this in mind.

As soon as I leave the house, the VPN with CyberSec is active on my smartphone. At home, my traffic runs through a Pi-Hole and/or the VPN router with CyberSec active, so I usually don’t need a VPN on the individual clients at home.

NordLynx also for Windows

The Windows version now also offers WireGuard as a protocol.

All you have to do is set it up and you can use it immediately.

I was there from the beginning

I was one of the early testers of NordVPN’s WireGuard implementation. In the very beginning (2018) there were only two servers and I had to set up WireGuard manually. With NordLynx for Linux (July 2019) testing became a lot easier. The Linux client certainly had major quirks in the beginning, but the developers reacted quickly to my bug reports. They still do that today.

Compared to the first versions of the Linux client it has improved a lot.

The Linux client has been improved and is still under active development. On its website NordVPN offers the Linux client for Debian-based (Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Raspbian) and RPM-based (Red Hat, Fedora, openSUSE) Linux distributions. By the way, the client is also available for Manjaro or Arch – it is located in AUR and is called nordvpn-bin.

Tip: After the installation via AUR you have to activate the daemon first. Otherwise, the client does not work like in the other linux distributions:

sudo systemctl enable --now nordvpnd

It works really well and the thing is fast. In Linux you can change between OpenVPN and NordLynx like this:

nordvpn set technology nordlynx

or:

nordvpn set technology openvpn

Using the command

nordvpn set cybersec on

you activate CyberSec, if you would like to use it.

Why do I need a VPN?

There are several reasons why you want to use a VPN (Virtual Private Network). As already mentioned, some people only want to protect themselves in public networks.

If you are travelling, you might like to use the open WLANs in restaurants, cafés and so on, just like me. First, I don’t know who else is on the same network, nor who set up the network. I have also seen compromised routers in countries like Egypt or Indonesia (DNS redirections).

By the way, VPNs are blocked in Egypt, but not illegal. But thanks to the stealth function, NordVPN works very well there. The service also works in other countries with censorship like Russia and China (can crack the Great Firewall). If you want to know if a VPN is illegal in a country, you should do your own research. Laws can change. In most countries VPNs are legal. In North Korea, for example, it would be illegal.

Others want to circumvent geoblocking. You can use your VPN to watch Netflix US or BBC iPlayer.

Others don’t want to put up with the stress of having to manage their own VPN server because of €3 per month. I do this for fun or because I am interested. But since I can now use NordLynx / WireGuard on Android, my own VPN server might get less attention. But I will keep it running because a backup can never hurt.

The post NordLynx: NordVPN introduces WireGuard for all apps (also Android / Windows) appeared first on VPN Expert.

Such premium VPNs may sound expensive, but they are no longer. A long-term subscription for NordVPN (big discounts NOW)* costs only a few bucks per month. Not only does the VPN protect up to 6 devices simultaneously, but it is also one of the best services if you want to beat geoblocking or censorship. The VPN is more than fast enough for well-known streaming services. NordVPN has a built-in security suite called CyberSec. More on this later.

NordVPN for your home office*

NordVPN offers clients for Linux, Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. There is even a client for the Raspberry Pi.

When I talk about VPN for the home office, I have to differentiate.

Private VPN or company VPN for the home office?

If you are employed by a larger company, you will most likely need access to the company’s network. Of course a lot can be done in the public cloud, but many services are still provided internally. In this case, your company will probably provide you with a VPN that allows you to connect to the company’s network.

If all the traffic goes through your company’s network, you’ll also benefit from other protection measures. But even smaller companies can use VPNs. Setting up your own WireGuard server and connecting the people from the home office via VPN it is not that difficult.

If you need access to your company’s network, contact your system administrator.

No access to the company network necessary

Another scenario would be, for example, if you and your employees collaborate via a publicly accessible Nextcloud. In this case, the data traffic would not have to go through the company network and you would theoretically not need a VPN in your home office. But it does no harm either.

Good VPNs offer various security mechanisms. For example, the security suite for NordVPN is called CyberSec.

How does CyberSec help in the home office?

CyberSec is an ad blocker integrated in NordVPN. The function can be found in all clients of the VPN. It can even be found in the browser extensions. However, the function is not active by default. If you want to use it, you must activate it manually. This is how it looks like in the browser extension, for example.

But CyberSec does not only block advertising. The security function also protects against harmful websites, malware and phishing.

As already mentioned, you may use 6 devices simultaneously. If that is not enough for you, I recommend you to build your own VPN router with a Raspberry Pi. This is not difficult.

You can test NordVPN before buying it because it provides a 30-day money-back-guarantee.

Test NordVPN 30 days risk free*

If you dislike the service, you can ask the 24/7 customer service for a refund.

NordLynx for Linux – WireGuard

The Linux client, including the one for the Raspberry Pi, offers an additional feature called NordLynx. This is the implementation of the lightweight WireGuard VPN protocol. You have access to fewer countries with it, but the protocol is faster than OpenVPN as speed tests show. But OpenVPN is not slow either.

WireGuard is a relatively new protocol that has just reached version 1.0.0. It has also been included in the Linux kernel 5.6 and is back ported to Ubuntu 20.04. With this, WireGuard has finally arrived in the mainstream.

PIA – Private Internet Access for the Home Office

The only criticism of NordVPN might be that the Linux client is only available for the command line. With Raspberry Pi this is not bad, because this method is more resource-saving.

If you are looking for a VPN with a graphical client for Linux, then PIA (very nice client)* is recommended. Another great option is Surfshark (unlimited connections)* – it’s the most affordable VPN you can trust.

Private Internet Access offers a smart graphical client for Linux as well as a function to block advertising, trackers and malware. In terms of price, the PIA and NordVPN do not differ that much. PIA is somewhat cheaper.

All three mentioned VPN offer a kill switch shown. It ensures that your device is disconnected from the Internet if the connection to the VPN fails for any reason.

With PIA you can even connect 10 devices simultaneously. Surfshark has unlimited connections. All provider offer a 30-day money-back-guarantee.

If you take out an annual PIA subscription at the moment, you will get 2 months for free because of the Corona crisis — completely free!

PIA – 2 month for free*

That’s quite a nice offer.

Will the VPN get me anything after the Corona crisis?

If you work from abroad, it has even more advantages. At home in your network you have control over it. In a foreign Wi-Fi or public hotspot, you don’t know who is using it. A VPN protects you in such cases.

This also applies to the vacation you deserve after the crisis is over. We all like to use the everywhere available Wi-Fi. It doesn’t matter if it’s in a hotel or in an Airbnb.

If you travel to countries with strong censorship, you can still keep in touch with friends and family via VPN. For example, North VPN can bypass the Great Firewall of China. VPNs are legal in most countries, including China. In Egypt, VPNs are also legal, but blocked and only Premium ones work. Good VPNs can bypass such blocks and are usually not more expensive.

Both VPN providers mentioned here allow P2P activities, also called file sharing.

If your priority is streaming, I would recommend to use NordVPN. You can use it to unblock the major streaming providers such as Netflix US and BBC iPlayer. In the end, the VPN changes your IP address and it looks like you’re in a different location.

Which is the best VPN for the home office?

In the end, any VPN that works well and has no leaks is good. Both PIA and NordVPN run several thousand servers spread around the globe. Surfshark has a somewhat smaller network but is an excellent choice as well. All providers provide clients for the most commonly used operating systems.

A VPN is generally not a bad idea. The world is becoming more mobile and after the Corona crisis some companies might keep the use of home office. Therefore, it is a good idea to start working with a virtual private network.

The post Best VPN for home office — depends on the use case appeared first on VPN Expert.

This is how you watch Paris Saint-Germain vs Borussia Dortmund live

It is really not difficult, but the order is important:

• Get a good VPN with servers in Switzerland — I take NordVPN (big discounts NOW)* — definitely one of the best VPNs for streaming.
• Connect to a server in Switzerland
• If you use Zattoo, then register at Zattoo Switzerland. You will also be able to watch many other channels, including the BBC and itv for rugby. You can also access the live stream of SRF2 directly.
• Have fun with Paris Saint-Germain vs Borussia Dortmund live!
• The only catch? Ccommentary is in German.

Why do I need a VPN for Paris Saint-Germain vs Borussia Dortmund?

The problem are licenses. In other words, it’s all about money. SRF has the rights to broadcast the game in Switzerland, but not in other countries. That’s why the broadcaster is using so-called geoblocking to block viewers from other countries.

SRF checks your IP address and if it is not from Switzerland, you are out of luck. Furthermore, you need a VPN that has proven it can bypass the geoblocking of the broadcasters. Not all VPNs work. NordVPN can handle even the strongest geographical blocks. You can also unblock BBC iPlayer, Netflix, Amazon Prime and so on.

Paris vs Dortmund with NordVPN*

You can only register with Zattoo Switzerland if you are visiting the website from Switzerland. Therefore, you have to log in to a server in Switzerland before you register.

SRF is also great if you want to watch winter sports. If you are abroad, you may need a VPN to unlock other streaming providers. Whenever there is geoblocked content a VPN might help — it’s that simple.

I also had good success with Surfshark (unlimited connections)* to avoid geoblocking in Switzerland. But I use Linux a lot and I prefer the client from NordVPN. Especially NordLynx (WireGuard) is perfect for me because it is simply faster than the protocol OpenVPN. You can read that in my speed test.

NordVPN offers clients for all devices

I recommend NordVPN for several reasons. The provider provides clients for all major operating systems. On Android and Windows the apps are very user-friendly. In Windows you can search for the desired country or just click on Switzerland.

The interface for Android looks similar. For Linux there is a command line client. This sounds complicated, but it is not. The fact that the client is not graphical also has advantages.

For example, NordVPN is one of the few providers to offer the client for the Raspberry Pi as well. This makes it easy to build your own VPN router. It’s useful for devices on which no VPN client can be installed — a good example at this point would be a Chromecast. If you also connect your smartphone to the VPN router, you can stream geoblocked content to the Chromecast. Both devices are now in the same country and have the same IP address from the location of your choice. This works 100%, I use it myself.

With NordVPN you are allowed to connect 6 devices simultaneously and the VPN router is considered as 1 device, even if there are several attached to it.

It’s great that you can test NordVPN for free. There is a 30-day money-back-guarantee. If you don’t like the service, you can apply for a refund and simply get your money back.

Test NordVPN 30 days*

However, a subscription over 3 years is worthwhile if you are a sports fan. Firstly, the month costs just under €3 and secondly, SRF has the rights to broadcast the Champions League for the next few years.

CyberSec – built-in adblocker

One of the best features of NordVPN is certainly CyberSec, which is a built-in ad blocker, but it also blocks trackers and malware and protects against phishing.

CyberSec is available for all clients, including Linux. You can also activate it in the add-ons for Firefox and Chrome.

By default, CyberSec is not active. If you want to use the ad blocker, you have to turn it on manually.

By the way, it can happen that CyberSec blocks a bit too ambitiously. Doesn’t often happen, but I’ve seen it happen. In this case, just disable it temporarily.

If you have installed NordVPN for Linux, macOS, Windows, Android or iOS, you don’t need to install an additional ad blocker. This is very convenient. I really don’t want to miss CyberSec anymore.

All advantages of NordVPN at a glance

Here is a brief overview of what makes the provider so attractive.

Test NordVPN risik free!*

So, there are plenty of reasons to use the service besides football.

Paris Saint-Germain vs Borussia Dortmund will be an exciting match

Dortmund won at home and defeated Paris 2:1. However, the star ensemble around the former coach of Borussia Dortmund Thomas Tuchel should not be underestimated. The away goal could be decisive. I estimate that Paris will score a goal in their stadium and Dortmund will need at least 2 goals to reach the next round.

But that is easily possible. After all, Dortmund has the new wonder weapon Erling Haaland. The striker just keeps scoring. I am looking forward to the game as it should be a really good one. I am really curious if Dortmund makes it to the quarterfinals.

Leipzig vs re-live

The game Leipzig vs Tottenham will take place on Tuesday and as far as I know there is no possibility to watch it for free on Free TV. However, SRF is repeating the game just before Paris vs Dortmund. The broadcaster calls it re-live and it will be shown in full length.

Maybe you can arrange not to know the result. Then you will have a CL Wednesday with two exciting matches.

Lots of football, which you can watch on Free-TV with a VPN!

Is that legal?

That’s a good question and it may be in some countries. So check yourself, please. Bypassing Geoblocking will most likely violate the terms and conditions of the respective streaming provider. If he finds out about you, he could block your account.

I am not aware of any cases where this has happened. Usually there is only an error message or a hint that a VPN is not allowed.

The post Paris Saint-Germain vs Borussia Dortmund live on free TV — it’s possible! appeared first on VPN Expert.

[su_service title=”Configuration is amazingly simple!” icon=”icon: lightbulb-o”]It may not look like it at first glance, but the installation and configuration of a WireGuard VPN server is relatively simple compared to the existing alternatives. You can also test it with your internal network if you like. The VPN doesn’t care if the tunnel is established in the LAN or via Internet. All you need is a Linux computer as server (Raspberry Pi) and a client and you can test it.[/su_service]

In a quick walkthrough, the setup of the WireGuard VPN server looks like this:

• Install WireGuard on the device you are using as server
• Enable IP forwarding on the server
• Create encryption keys on the server
• Activate WireGuard interface
• Install software on the client
• Create encryption keys on the client
• Allow the client to dial into the server
• Activate the VPN connection on the client

Are you ready? Step by step with Ubuntu and Raspbian on a Raspberry Pi as server.

The requirements for my WireGuard VPN Server

You will agree with me that there are many combinations of clients and servers. Therefore, I have to limit myself to setups that are feasible for most people.

• My WireGuard VPN Server is a VPS (Virtual Private Server). You get good and cheap ones €3.99 per month. This is my dial-in node or server to which I have root access. But I also show you how to use a Raspberry Pi as a WireGuard VPN Server.
• One client will be a current Linux Mint. The installation works the same for Ubuntu. In fact, the commands are the same for all Linux distributions that can install WireGuard. This also applies to the Raspberry Pi.
• My other client is my smartphone running Android.
• The setup is very similar for all clients. Visit the developers’ installation section and you will find many instructions and download links. There are guides for Windows, macOS, Fedora, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, openSUSE, Arch, FreeBSD and so on, among others.
• For the clients I’ll show you how to activate an ad-blocker and tracker-blocker.

[su_service title=”So many different ways” icon=”icon: lightbulb-o”]With Linux there are many ways to achieve the same result. I show you one option. If you are used to other tools and ways, just adapt the post to your liking.[/su_service]

Installing WireGuard on Ubuntu

With Ubuntu and its derivatives like Linux Mint, it depends on which version you have. Starting with Ubuntu 19.10 all you need is:

sudo apt install wireguard

But I only run LTS versions on my VPS, I have to use the PPA provided by the developers. But it is not much more complicated. Instead of one you need three steps and on Ubuntu 18.04 you don’t need the second one:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:wireguard/wireguard sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install wireguard

No additional software for server or client necessary

I want to point out that you don’t have to install any special software for server or client. Once WireGuard is installed, you can use it to turn any device into a dial-up node or a server. With OpenVPN you need a server software that has to be installed and configured separately. The server software differs from the client software. This is not the case with WireGuard.

Once the software is installed, you can use the commands shown here to allow other computers to establish the encrypted tunnel.

Install WireGuard on a Raspberry Pi

If you want to choose a Raspberry Pi (2 version 1.2 and higher) as the server, a little more manual work is necessary. But it is not complicated. The manual on the project page is only partially useful because important steps are left out. I will show you how to get WireGuard installed under Raspbian Buster and skip Stretch. I execute all commands as root. First, make sure that your Raspbian is up to date:

apt update
apt upgrade

Then we have to install the kernel headers:

apt install raspberrypi-kernel-headers

The next 4 steps can be found in the installation instructions of the WireGuard developers for Debian. We just need one additional step. The third command imports a signature for a Debian archive. Without this step, the update will fail:

echo "deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ unstable main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/unstable.list
printf 'Package: *\nPin: release a=unstable\nPin-Priority: 90\n' > /etc/apt/preferences.d/limit-unstable apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 04EE7237B7D453EC
apt update
apt install wireguard

The VPN protocol is now installed. Let’s activate the so-called IP Forwarding right now because we need it.

Enable forwarding under Ubuntu and Raspbian

Simply put, IP Forwarding ensures that all packets that impact the WireGuard interface are forwarded. For both Ubuntu and Raspbian, the easiest way to do this is to edit the file /etc/sysctl.conf. The relevant entries are already in the file, you only have to remove the comment sign — remove the hash at the beginning of the line.

If you don’t want to search for the two lines, you can insert these two lines at the end of the file:

net.ipv4.ip_forward=1 net.ipv6.conf.all.forwarding=1

Save the file afterwards. Then restart the system or activate the configuration by using the command:

sysctl -p

You can also check if IP Forwarding is enabled:

sysctl net.ipv4.ip_forward

Note: For older Pi versions and a Raspberry Pi Zero W you would have to compile yourself. It is not complicated, you can find a manual here.

Generate encryption keys on the WireGuard VPN server

The VPN protocol works similar to SSH with the exchange of encryption keys. There is a private key and a public key. The private key is top secret and the public key is — well public. The principle is well known. But we have to generate these keys first (as root):

cd /etc/wireguard
umask 077
wg genkey | sudo tee privatekey | wg pubkey

Now you find two new files in the directory /etc/wireguard called privatekey and publickey.

You don’t have to do more at this point with the keys. For security reasons, you can also really secure the file privatekey:

chmod 600 /etc/wireguard/privatekey

In my case this would not be necessary, as you can see in the screenshot above, but better safe than sorry — the command doesn’t hurt.

Setting up the server

Now the fun begins. We need to create a network interface that routes all traffic. The first network interface for this purpose is usually called wg0, but it doesn’t have to be. You can call it whatever you want. But I stick to the standard to keep things simple.

The interface wg0 serves as router. Which is why we need a subnet for our VPN. The network should not interfere with your actual network. The IP addresses should be different. If they are not, conflicts will occur and in the worst case the thing will not work at all. Therefore, I take a network that most people probably don’t use (but this is just an example!): 192.168.206.1/24. With this I get the IP addresses from 192.168.206.1 to 192.168.206.254. This is enough for me.

Since we call the interface wg0, we create the configuration file /etc/wireguard/wg0.conf. Don’t worry, I will explain the most important lines.

[Interface]
PrivateKey = <your private key>
Address = 192.168.206.1/24
Address = fddc:980e:a378:05c2::/64
SaveConfig = true
PostUp = iptables -A FORWARD -i wg0 -j ACCEPT; iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o ens18 -j MASQUERADE; ip6tables -A FORWARD -i wg0 -j ACCEPT; ip6tables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o ens18 -j MASQUERADE; iptables -A FORWARD -o %i -j ACCEPT
PostDown = iptables -D FORWARD -i wg0 -j ACCEPT; iptables -t nat -D POSTROUTING -o ens18 -j MASQUERADE; ip6tables -D FORWARD -i wg0 -j ACCEPT; ip6tables -t nat -D POSTROUTING -o ens18 -j MASQUERADE; iptables -D FORWARD -o %i -j ACCEPT
ListenPort = 51820

A short explanation

The PrivateKey is taken from the file /etc/wireguard/privatekey, which you have created before. The content comes after the = and without the brackets.

Address for IPv4 should be clear and I have already explained the range. Regarding IPv6, you should use a ULA (Unique Local Address) at this point. Even though the IPv6 range is huge, these ULAs should not be routed over the Internet (RFC4193). The possibilities at this point are incredibly high. I simply created a random private address range thanks to this website. But you can leave out IPv6 if you don’t want to use it.

PostUp and PostDown make sure that the routing entries are set when you enable or disable the interface wg0. It is important at this point to find out which network interface you want to route through or which will be your gateway to the Internet. For my Ubuntu VPS, this is ens18. On the Raspberry Pi it is eth0. You can find the interface with the command:

ip a

It looks like this and you have to adapt it in your configuration:

You can choose the ListenPort yourself. 51820 is the default, but here you can choose what you want. If you are using a firewall, make sure that the port is accessible. For example, if you are using ufw, the following command may help you in case of problems:

ufw allow 51820/udp

Let’s secure the file:

chmod 600 /etc/wireguard/wg0.conf

Activating the WireGuard interface

Once the configuration file is created, we can start the VPN interface on the server (Ubuntu or Raspberry Pi):

wg-quick up wg0

The up is followed by the name of your configuration. Simply put, it is the name of the file without the .conf — in my case it is wg0.

Now we check if the interface is also started:

wg

Great — it works!

Configuration of the clients (Android / Linux)

Now it depends on which client you want to connect via WireGuard. I will explain two scenarios and the others are similar. First, I configure an Android device to connect to the WireGuard VPN server. Then I show you how to connect your Linux client (works the same for all Linux clients).

For Android, download the necessary software from the Google Play Store or F-Droid. Open it and click on the plus sign in the lower right corner. Create a new connection by selecting Create from scratch. A screen will open, and we’ll need to fill it in:

• Name: you can choose freely
• You create Private key and Public key by clicking on Generate.
• Address: this is the IP address that the device should use in the VPN. My server has 192.168.206.1 and my client gets 192.168.206.2/32.
• You can use any DNS server you want to use. Here is the promised tip how to get an ad blocker with the VPN. Use the public pi-hole from dnsforge.de: 176.9.93.198, 176.9.1.117, 2a01:4f8:151:34aa::198, 2a01:4f8:141:316d::117.

Adding a peer

Then click on ADD PEER and use the information regarding your server:

• Public key: The public key from the file /etc/wireguard/publickey of your server or Raspberry Pi.
• Allowed IPs: 0.0.0.0/0, ::/0 (this means that all traffic is routed over the VPN)
• Endpoint: the public IP address of your server, followed by :Port, in my case :51820. It also works if you use a domain name. This is important if your Raspberry Pi is reachable via DDNS.

It looks like that on my Android device — I use a domain name and not an IP address.

In my screenshot you can also see that there is 1 EXCLUDED APPLICATION. Here you can store apps that should bypass the VPN. For me, this is the Kodi remote control Kore because otherwise I can’t control my music when connected to the WireGuard VPN server.

Allow the client to connect to the server

Now we continue on the server, and we need the public key of the client. As you can see in the screenshot above, it starts with LQ8Z. There you allow the client to connect:

wg set wg0 peer <public key of the client> allowed-ips 192.168.206.2/32

Now you can connect your Android device. If you use the command wg again, something like this should appear:

Connect Linux to the WireGuard VPN Server

I have connected my Linux Mint 19.3, but the configuration works the same for all Linux distributions. The principle is even equivalent for all operating systems. First you have to install WireGuard as described above. In my case straightforward because I can use the PPA.

Then I have to create a key pair (public / private) again. This works on the client like it did on the server:

cd /etc/wireguard
umask 077
wg genkey | sudo tee privatekey | wg pubkey

Then I create a configuration file (I call it wgclient0.conf to make it clear) with the needed values. My second client should get the IP address 192.168.206.3/32. My file looks like this (again with the public pi-hole from dnsforge.de)

[Interface]
PrivateKey = <your private key>
Address = 192.168.206.3/32
SaveConfig = true
DNS = 176.9.93.198, 176.9.1.117, 2a01:4f8:151:34aa::198, 2a01:4f8:141:316d::117

[Peer]
PublicKey = <public key of your server>
Endpoint = <IP address of the server or domain>:51820
AllowedIPs = 0.0.0.0/0, ::/0

As with the Android client, you also adapt port 51820. The DNS servers you also can choose freely.

Afterwards, you make sure that the new client is allowed to connect to the server:

wg set wg0 peer <public key of the client> allowed-ips 192.168.206.3/32

Afterwards, you can start the connection. As before, this is the name of the connection without the .conf at the end. We use the wg-quick command again on the client:

wg-quick up wgclient0

Now both my smartphone and my Linux computer are connected to the WireGuard VPN Server:

If you want to disconnect, use the following command:

wg-quick down wgclient0

It really is that simple. Once the thing is set up, you are connected in a split-second and the VPN tunnel is established.

Some additional tips and tricks for the WireGuard VPN Server

Here is a section with problems and solutions I noticed during my use. Sooner or later you might run into them as well — especially when a new kernel is installed or Linux is updated.

Autostart of the network interface on the WireGuard VPN Server

The start of the WireGuard interface does not survive a restart. But you don’t have to configure it manually every time. On Ubuntu and Raspbian we can enable the wg interfaces on boot — we auto-start it:

systemctl enable wg-quick@wg0

On my Linux client this works, of course, too, but here I would have to adjust the command in my case because the configuration file has a different name as you remember:

systemctl enable wg-quick@wgclient0

At this point it depends on how you have named your configuration files and thus the interfaces.

WireGuard is roaming capable

The connection to the WireGuard VPN server remains active even if you change networks. For example, if you leave your Wi-Fi at home with your Android smartphone and your mobile Internet connection is activated, the VPN remains active.

With newer Android versions you can also set WireGuard as continuously active VPN in the Settings via Network & Internet -> VPN. Another option there is block connections without VPN, which is like a kill switch.

In case you block connections without VPN this supersedes the EXCLUDED option in the app. So be careful with that.

User Management Script for the WireGuard VPN server

There is a WireGuard user management script on GitHub that allows you to add users on the server and create configuration files. If it’s just a few clients, it might be a bit overkill.

The nice thing about the script is that it also creates a QR code. This makes the setup on mobile devices easier because the Android client can read and process QR codes.

It’s a nice to know in case you need it.

Create a configuration file for somebody else

Of course, you can also create a configuration file for someone else. The files privatekey and publickey do not need to be created or kept in the directory /etc/wireguard. They are just fine there because the directory itself should be protected.

You can also create the keys for someone else, create a configuration file and send it. The VPN’s Android app even has an option to import such .conf files.

It probably won’t be long before the Network Manager GUI on Linux can import such files. The CLI version can already handle WireGuard.

Note if you install a new Linux kernel!

WireGuard is a kernel module that is automatically installed via DKMS as soon as the system uses a new kernel. However, if it fails to load automatically there are several options how you can fix the problem.

You can find out if the module is loaded with this command:

lsmod | grep wireguard

If the result is empty, try modprobe:

modprobe wireguard

After that the kernel module should be loaded. I just had the problem that the kernel updated itself and WireGuard didn’t run after that.

If these methods do not work, you can try dpkg-reconfigure to reconfigure the kernel module:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure wireguard-dkms

Modprobe turned out to be only a temporary solution for me. It did not survive a restart. Therefore, I usually take the approach with dpkg-reconfigure. This way the WireGuard kernel module loads automatically after a restart.

You can also persuade the system to always load the module on a reboot. To do this, edit the file /etc/modules and insert wireguard.

The module has to be loaded otherwise it will not work. How you get it to run doesn’t matter.

Is your WireGuard VPN server behind a NAT router?

Do you use a solution with a Raspberry Pi that is behind your home router? Then make sure that the necessary port is open and will be forwarded. In my case, I would have to open port 51820.

If you just can’t find the error, but are sure you have everything configured correctly, check your router. Maybe it blocks the connection.

Good solution, but with shortcomings

The solution with our own WireGuard VPN server works, and very well. However, it strongly depends on what you want to do with the VPN. Of course, you are not anonymous with your solution. Either you use a VPS that can be traced back to you or your Raspberry Pi uses the connection of your ISP (Internet Service Provider).

The setup is also only partially suitable for bypassing geoblocking. If your Raspberry Pi or your VPS is in the UK and Netflix USA it won’t work. Same goes for your Pi in the USA and you want to watch BBC iPlayer.

The WireGuard VPN Server works very well if you want to protect yourself in foreign networks like are free Wi-Fi or hotspots in hotels, cafés, Airbnb, airplane, bus, train and so on.

The price is of course also an argument. A VPS costs €4 for per month and it doesn’t sound like much money. If you also install your own Nextcloud on it, it might be worth the money. But if you only use the server as a VPN server, you should know that trusted services like NordVPN (big discounts NOW)* and Surfshark (unlimited connections)* are cheaper. The latter VPN provider costs less than half and is the most affordable VPN service you can trust. Both providers are superb at bypassing geoblocking and you get access to Netflix USA, BBC iPlayer and so on.

Personally, I prefer NordVPN because the Linux client also runs on the Raspberry Pi and you can easily build your own VPN router with a Raspberry Pi. NordVPN has also been providing NordLynx for quite some time now and this is their WireGuard implementation for Linux. The connection is faster, as speed tests show.

The solution with the Raspberry Pi as VPN router also works, of course, if the Pi is client itself and logs into your VPS WireGuard VPN server.

The post WireGuard VPN Server – Ubuntu, Raspberry Pi, Linux, Android appeared first on VPN Expert.

Perhaps I will explain briefly the Six Nations’ point system, which can be a bit confusing:

• A team gets four points for a win.
• Two points are given to each team in case of a tie.
• A Try bonus point is awarded when a team scores 4 or more tries in a match.
• A loser bonus point is also awarded if the team loses with 7 or fewer points.
• If a team wins a Grand Slam, i.e. every 5 games, it receives 3 additional points.

The system is clear. It should encourage the teams to play as attractively and offensively as possible and never give up.

How to watch Six Nations Rugby for free from everywhere

I won’t beat around the bush here. In the UK the tournament will be on free TV, but for streaming you need a good VPN, otherwise you’ll run into geoblocking. I always use CyberGhost for bypassing geoblocking. The VPN provider is known to be able to bypass even the toughest blocks. I am sure that CyberGhost will serve me well again in the Six Nations.

VPNs are no longer expensive. For long-term subscriptions you only pay about 3 € per month. The technology is not only good for streaming, but you can also protect your devices with it. I will go into this further down.

Can’t I watch the Six Nations in other countries? Yes, but that most probably costs money … Let me explain for example in Germany.

Rugby Six Nations — not on public TV in many countries

If you want to watch the Rugby Six Nations for example in Germany, this is only possible via DAZN. You need a subscription for that.

In England the BBC and itv Hub broadcast the competition on public TV. The games are shown alternately, as you can find on the website of the organizer.

BBC and itv stream the matches live, free of charge and on public TV, but only in the UK. If you come from another country, the providers will block you. They use geoblocking technology and that prevents watching from other countries.

The streaming providers can tell which country you come from by your IP address. If you use a VPN to connect to a server in another country, it looks as if you are at another location. Now the streaming provider will no longer block you. If you are connected to a server in the UK, you seem to be at the right location.

But you need a good VPN with many servers. Streaming providers work with blacklists and if a server will be added on one of these, you will also be blocked.

However, you have to register with the BBC — you need a television license. But the BBC only asks for a postcode. So, any postcode in Britain… all right?

Are there any other possibilities?

Yes, of course, Zattoo! But only Zattoo Switzerland and Zattoo UK, and they work with geoblocking again. Now we have the same problem again. You need a good VPN with servers in Switzerland or the UK. But there is more to it. I explain what you have to do:

• Get a good VPN
• Connect to a server in Switzerland or the UK
• Set up a free account for Zattoo Switzerland or Zattoo UK
• Have fun with the Six Nations!

There are other VPN providers that offer servers in Switzerland and the UK. They are not bad either. CyberGhost is one of the cheapest providers you can trust. There are currently no limits for simultaneous device connections.

Can I watch the Six Nations on free TV from anywhere?

Yes! However, you will have to use a VPN if you are not in the UK or another country where the event will be broadcasted on free TV. I’m glad that I can unblock BBC and itv Hub with my VPNs.

I have tested both CyberGhost and ExpressVPN. Both deliver enough speed for a hassle-free streaming of the Six Nations. With my little trick you can watch your favorite sport for free and from anywhere.

Is that legal?

VPNs are legal in the UK and most other countries as well. However, this does not mean that you can do illegal things with it. It’s your responsibility what you do with it. Even with a VPN, you have to abide by the laws of the country you are in.

Bypassing geoblocking is not illegal, but it probably violates the usage guidelines of the operators. Broadcasters block viewers from other countries for licensing reasons – so it’s all about money and broadcasting rights.

For this reason, streaming operators use technology to detect VPN usage. Only the best VPNs can bypass this technology because they constantly change IP addresses, use camouflage modes, and so on.

if you download copyrighted torrents or other protected media with a VPN – that is illegal. With youtube-dl, it’s probably quite a grey area.

Can I watch the Six Nations with a free VPN?

Possibly – however, it is not advisable. Providers of free VPNs often limit bandwidth and data usage. You don’t need that much bandwidth for streaming, but if you only have a few hundred MB of data, the fun ends rather quickly.

Some free VPNs have also been caught selling users’ data. Others show advertisements and so on.

Services like CyberGhost* or ExpressVPN* are really not expensive and cost less than a beer per month. If you consider all the other advantages of the services, then such a VPN is absolutely worth the money. So, I’d rather pay 3 bucks per month for unlimited bandwidth plus infinite data and know for sure that I won’t run out of juice in the middle of a game.

Many free VPNs also throttle the speeds so much that trouble-free streaming is not even possible. I don’t bother with such things because of the few bucks – you probably don’t either.

There is a little trick that allows you to use high-quality VPNs for free. Most providers have a money-back guarantee of 30 days. This is also true for CyberGhost and ExpressVPN. In this case, you can use the service free for 45 days. If you don’t like the service, you can request a refund. Note, however, that you have to do this in time. You will usually get your money back within a few days. I have tested this with both and it worked. No annoying questions were asked, and they didn’t try to upsell me anything.

Can I watch the Six Nations on my phone or tablet?

The services presented here also offer excellent apps for Android and iOS. You can also use your smartphone to connect to a server of your choice and watch Six Nations Rugby.

If you have enough mobile data, you can watch Six Nations Rugby on the go with your smartphone or tablet. Of course, you can access BBC and itv on mobile devices. Watch Rugby as much as you want and where you want. When you want is limited to the live games, of course. I probably didn’t need to mention that, did I?

In any case, have fun! Six Nations Rugby is always a great show. I’m already very curious to see who will take the crown this year.

The post Six Nations Rugby 2023 Live / Public TV – watch from everywhere! appeared first on VPN Expert.

The provider has made a name for itself to be one of the best VPNs for streaming. The provider always manages to get around the strong geoblocking of providers like Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Zattoo and so on. You can unlock almost every popular streaming platform from abroad with this VPN. I travel a lot and know that.

For streaming you need speed, as you know. The provider delivers here (Speedtest: OpenVPN — WireGuard / NordLynx). Starting point was a line with 50 Mbps.

The speed is high enough to allow streaming in very high quality. But the VPN provider has much more to offer and I will introduce you to all the features.

A quick overview of the best functions

A short, clear summary at the beginning seems appropriate to me. This will give you an overview of what the VPN provider has in its portfolio.

Test NordVPN risk free*

Now that we have a rough overview, we will take a closer look at the goodies the VPN has to offer.

General information about NordVPN

The provider has its headquarters in Panama. This means, of course, that NordVPN is outside the legislation of the USA and the EU and therefore not within the 5/9/14 eyes alliance. That’s why the provider does not have to adhere to any data retention laws and can offer a strict zero-logs policy.

NordVPN has started to change the servers so that the operating system only runs in RAM.

NordVPN currently provides way over 5000 servers in about 60 countries. You will find a suitable VPN server in your area. There are about 1500 servers in the USA, roughly 600 in the UK and hundreds in the rest of Europe.

NordVPN offers user-friendly clients for Linux, Android, Windows, macOS and iOS. Furthermore, there are plug-ins for Firefox and Chrome. Installation on a router is allowed.

Another highlight of NordVPN is that you can connect up to 6 devices simultaneously and protect them.

NordVPN offers a 30-day money back guarantee. If you dislike the service, you can apply for a refund and you will get your money back.

CyberSec is one of the best features of the service. You find it in every client the provider has to offer. It is an integrated ad blocker. CyberSec not only blocks annoying advertisements, but also protects against malware, trackers and phishing. You have to activate it manually.

NordVPN in detail

As mentioned above, installation on your router is allowed, as long as your router supports it. However, you can easily create your own VPN router with a Raspberry Pi. With that setup you can control the bandwidth if you want to. This method would protect your entire network with NordVPN. Furthermore, you can also provide a VPN to devices for which there is no client. Examples at this point would be a Chromecast or a Smart TV on which you cannot install apps.

For devices with Android TV you don’t really need a router because the Android app works perfectly.

Money-back guarantee – 30 days!

Various service providers offer a money-back guarantee but it’s a pain in the ass to apply for the refund. You might be asked annoying questions, why you want to quit and so on. Maybe they also offer you extras to convince you to stay. In any case, it is not that easy to get your money back.

NordVPN does not ask questions. You decide to take advantage of the money-back guarantee? So be it and the provider lets you go. I know that because a friend of mine did ask for a refund. He wanted to watch BBC iPlayer and he could unblock it. But was watching less than he thought. Meanwhile, he got hist Nord subscription again because he really likes his BBC iPlayer. At least that tested the refund policy for me.

Test NordVPN 30 days*

In any case, during the test phase you will get your money back without any problems if you ask for a refund.

Security functions, data protection and privacy

Of course the provider masks your IP address. All serious VPNs do this. But this is not only good for streaming Netflix US, BBC iPlayer and so on. It also hides your location from other data collectors. Data is the new gold and if the big companies know your location they can create personalized advertising.

Because we’re on the subject of advertising and trackers. CyberSec is one of the best features of NordVPN. It is a built-in ad blocker. CyberSec blocks not only ads but also trackers. It also protects against malware, phishing and other threats from cyberspace. In my home I use Pi-hole to protect my network. But as soon as I leave the house, CyberSec is activated. The function is available in all NordVPN clients even in the extensions for Firefox and Chrome.

The zero-logs policy is the promise of the provider that no traffic, data, DNS queries, IP addresses and so on are stored (Panama → you remember?). Even if authorities come with court orders, the provider cannot release anything because he has nothing to hand over. This of course greatly improves data protection and privacy.

The automatic kill switch (emergency switch) comes into action if the connection to the VPN server fails for any reason. The VPN client immediately interrupts the connection to the Internet and protects you from data leaks. The kill switch therefore ensures that no data traffic leaves the encrypted VPN tunnel.

The kill switch is optional and you have to activate it manually if you want to use it.

DNS and data leaks

Once you are logged into the VPN, you use the DNS servers of the service. This has two advantages. First, it protects you from so-called DNS leaks. If you are using the VPN, but the DNS servers of your ISP (Internet Service Provider), they still know which websites you are visiting. In addition, your Internet provider cannot intercept the DNS queries and thus block certain websites. Some countries censor the Internet in this way, even in Europe. DoH (DNS over HTTPS) will bring improvements here, but this will take time.

A brief explanation of DoH: With DoH, DNS queries are processed and encrypted via the HTTPS protocol. So far, this works unencrypted via UDP. So, with DoH the ISP or the authorities can no longer sniff or censor DNS because they do not know that it is a DNS query (DoH uses port 443). DoT (DNS over TLS — port 853) also encrypts and would be faster, but DoH leaves fewer traces — port 443 is blocked nowhere because almost all HTTPS requests won’t work anymore.

Security functions – even more data protection and privacy

NordVPN uses on state-of-the-art encryption. The VPN encrypts with AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) 256-bit. This is encryption is military standard by the way. The VPN provider also offers a function called Double VPN. If you activate it, the VPN client routes your traffic not only through one, but through two VPN servers — so it is double encrypted. You should know that this reduces the speed a bit. Most people won’t need this feature, although it increases privacy.

Protect your privacy*

You also have the possibility to use Onion Over VPN. This is basically like using the Tor Browser or a private Tor Tab in the web browser Brave* via NordVPN. What’s the point of that? Your ISP or a government agency can see that you are using Tor (The Onion Router), but of course not for what. If you connect to NordVPN, the spies won’t know you’re using Tor. Tor is slow but secure. If you want to hide the fact that you’re using Tor from the authorities or ISP, this is an excellent option.

Soon everything will run in RAM

The provider is currently preparing to convert all servers so that the operating system only runs in the main memory aka RAM. However, RAM can only store information if it is powered. If a server is switched off, for example, the entire operating system is deleted. In other words, the server does not store sensitive data on a permanent mass storage device. So if a server is seized and taken away, the authorities would have to shut it down. You see what I’m getting at.

NordVPN provides several VPN protocols for you to choose from. By default, the provider uses OpenVPN. But NordVPN also supports IKEv2/IPsec, WireGuard and SOCKS5. The browser extensions act as proxy. Most devices support any of these protocols or there is a native client available. If you want to configure the VPN manually, you can connect almost any computer to the network of the provider. With OpenVPN you can choose between UDP and TCP.

Special servers – Stealth server, P2P, dedicated IP address

NordVPN offers some special servers. Talking about privacy I have already mentioned Double VPN and Onion Over VPN. But there are more special servers.

The provider allows P2P file sharing / torrenting and provides special servers for this. There are a lot of them. So if you are a friend of file sharing, you will surely like this feature.

Dedicated IP servers are also available. With this you get a special IP address — always the same because it is a server just for you. This is not to be confused with the feature dedicated IP address, which is only used for you during a session moment. In the latter case, there are dedicated IP addresses for the USA, Germany, Great Britain and the Netherlands. You can order the function in the customer area when you log in. It is not really cheap but that is somehow understandable. Most people won’t need a dedicated IP address, if I’m honest.

There are countries where VPNs are illegal and some governments block Virtual Private Networks. If a country blocks VPNs, they do not necessarily have to be illegal. That’s a fact. Egypt, for example, blocks VPNs, but a VPN in itself is not illegal. This is annoying, especially if you want to avoid geoblocking or use PayPal.

Bypass censorship with NordVPN*

For such situations NordVPN offers stealth servers or obfuscated servers. These are special servers that are made not to be detected or recognized. With these special servers you can bypass VPN blocks like you find in China and Russia.

It works, I have tried it myself several times.

NordVPN apps and clients for several operating systems

The provider offers clients for all major operating systems. You get apps for Android, iOS, Windows and macOS. I will go into the Linux client in more detail further down.

The apps are very user-friendly, so even VPN newbies will get used to them rapidly. The client offers a map with which you can quickly connect to the desired location. This is obvious, as you can see in the following screenshot. It’s the client for Windows.

The app looks very similar on other operating systems — included mobile devices. Therefore, it’s the ideal companion for your smartphone, tablet, iPhone or iPad as well.

Similar usage on different systems is convenient. If you have several devices in use, you won’t get confused.

But there are a few small differences between the apps and clients. In Windows, you can automatically connect to the VPN if an insecure WLAN is detected. With the Android version you can be automatically connected as soon as you use the mobile internet, Wi-Fi or in general. Of course, you can choose a preferred location for the connection.

Android App and Split Tunneling

The Android app also offers a feature called split tunneling. This allows you to route certain applications and traffic through the VPN. Sometimes you just don’t want certain apps to run through the VPN. So, you configure exceptions that are routed past the VPN. Yatse is such an app on my device. I use it to control my Kodi on LibreELEC or even stream content to my Android device. This traffic always stays in my local network and therefore I can exclude it from the VPN.

Some services don’t like VPNs and in this case you could configure an exception (or better try obfuscated servers first).

Client for macOS: be careful, there are two versions!

If you want to use the VPN with macOS, you have to be careful. There are two versions. The version from the App Store uses the VPN protocol IKEv2/IPsec.

If you have problems with that client, download the OpenVPN version. A friend of mine did and somehow the software from the App Store did not work well. Since he alternatively uses the OpenVPN version, the problems are solved. Don’t ask me why — just keep it in mind.

The client for Linux is a bit different, but that has its advantages. Let’s take a closer look at the special client.

Client for Linux

My main operating system is Linux and that’s why I am very interested in a good Linux client. NordVPN offers a Linux client for the command line. This has advantages, especially if you want to use a VPN on a Linux system without a graphical user interface.

But the fact that there is no graphical client is also no problem. You can configure the client to automatically connect to a specific country at system startup. If you want your computer to automatically connect to the UK, the command is as follows:

nordvpn set autoconnect enabled UK

The Linux client still offers all the functions you find in the graphical versions, including CyberSec, obfuscated servers and a kill switch. Furthermore, you can switch the CLI client to NordLynx. This allows you to use the fast and slim WireGuard protocol instead of OpenVPN.

The client is actively developed and NordVPN reacts rapidly to bug reports. I reported a few bugs in the early days of the client, and the developers have been ironed out rapidly. For a few months there are no issues with the command line client. That’s very pleasant.

NordVPN for Raspberry Pi – the client also works here

If you have Raspbian installed on a Raspberry Pi and you want to use a VPN, NordVPN is one of the best options. The command line client does not need many resources.

Many also use a Raspberry Pi headless and completely without GUI. Most VPN providers offer OpenVPN configuration files and you can connect to a server manually. But you have to watch out for DNS leaks at this point.

With the client of NordVPN on the Raspberry Pi you can connect to the desired country quickly and without complex configuration. Furthermore, the software uses the provider’s DNS servers by default and automatically prevents DNS leaks. NordLynx / WireGuard also works on the Raspberry Pi.

I explain at the end of the blog post how to install NordVPN under Linux and Raspberry Pi.

NordVPN extensions for Firefox and Chrome

First I would like to mention that the add-ons work not only for Chrome, but for all Chromium-based browsers. This includes Brave, Vivaldi and so on. I installed the add-on in Brave and it works perfectly.

NordVPN also offers extensions or plugins for Chrome and Firefox. But this is a proxy and not a pure VPN. In this case only the browser is routed through the VPN and not all network traffic. You can quickly and comfortably choose in the browser which country you want to be connected to. That is really nice.

Using the browser extensions, you must be aware that only the browser traffic is routed through the VPN. The rest of the traffic goes through the network you are currently connected to.

Although the add-ons act like a proxy, the provider still provides you with CyberSec. This is very convenient because it gives you an ad blocker in your browser without having to install additional add-ons. By default, CyberSec is deactivated. If you want to use it, do not forget to activate it.

The add-on for the browser has another advantage, as you can see in the screenshot above. You can easily block WebRTC. WebRTC can be a potential data leak. But some applications will not work without it. Maybe you have a multi-browser strategy like me. One has WebRTC active and the other has no WebRTC.

SmartPlay and Geoblocking

The VPN provider has a reputation for being superb in terms of streaming. I can confirm that. To be perfect for streaming, several factors are necessary. Of course, Internet speed is one of the most important factors. At this point, however, NordVPN is delivering.

The quality and requirements of the streaming providers define how fast your Internet connection has to be. Netflix for example has a minimum recommendation of 0.5 Mbps. But for Ultra-HD 25 Mbps are required.

Other providers only work reasonably from 2 Mbps and so on. At this point it is best to inquire at the streaming provider you want to use. If the basic speed of your connection is fast enough, NordVPN will definitely deliver high enough speeds to stream even in Ultra-HD.

Unlimited bandwidth is another important point. It is of little use to you if your connection is very fast, but only provides small amount of available data per month. The first two points here are the biggest problems of free VPNs. Either they are very slow or there are limits to the amount of data you can use. This is not ideal for streaming.

Bypassing geoblocking is important when:

• You want to watch foreign channels, programs, series and movies that are subject to geoblocking. For example, Netflix has different libraries in different countries. This is due to licensing laws. If you want to watch Nextflix US from Germany, you need a VPN that can unlock the service. BBC iPlayer only broadcasts in the UK. The BBC is known to broadcast great shows so you want to unlock it. The ITV Hub is also interesting for people with a preference for British television. Apart from that, BBC and ITV also broadcast live rugby on free TV and so on. SRF (Swiss Television) for example broadcasts Formula 1 almost ad free and also various matches of the UEFA Champions League and Europa League on free TV. In many countries you need an expensive subscription for this.
• A second option is if you are abroad and want to watch television from back home. You are a British expat but want to watch BBC, ITV and so on? You most likely need a VPN. Geoblocking always has something to do with licenses. That’s why almost all sports broadcasts in all countries are geoblocked.

NordVPN offers a function called SmartPlay. This is basically a combination of VPN and SmartDNS technology. With a Smart DNS you can also bypass geoblocking, but your connection is not protected. You also have to manually change the DNS server every time. That can be annoying.

Streaming with NordVPN*

The client of NordVPN automatically configures DNS for you. As soon as you connect to a server, SmartPlay does the heavy lifting. You save time and don’t have to worry about it.

Internet speed could even increase — if the ISP throttles

Talking about the speed of the Internet, which is critical for streaming. Even today, some ISPs still throttle the Internet connections based on your activities.

But if the ISP can’t see what you’re doing, it can’t throttle you because of your activities. Sure the ISP could throttle the whole connection but it can’t justify it. So, most ISPs don’t throttle at all in this case, and your Internet connection may even become faster with a VPN.

Support and customer service at NordVPN

The customer service is available around the clock or 24/7. You can contact NordVPN in several ways.

The fastest way to speak to a support representative is to use the Live Chat. Usually the waiting times are short and you will get help quickly.

As mentioned above, I have also communicated with the support team via email due to initial problems with the Linux client. I usually had an answer within 1 hour.

If you prefer to take things into your own hands, you can also have a look at the FAQ on the website. But itanswers only very general questions. If you have a more specific problem, save yourself the detour via the FAQ and contact the customer service immediately.

For a refund within the first 30 days you also contact a member of the support team.

Accepted payment methods

You can pay the provider in different ways. Of course all major credit cards are accepted. This includes Visa and Mastercard. Sofort is also an option.

Nice is that you can also pay NordVPN with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. This is handled via CoinPayments. PayPal still works, but not in all regions. It depends on where you are living and you need to check.

There are other payment options like Amazon Pay, Alipay, UnionPay and so on. It is like everywhere else: Getting rid of money is usually no problem.

Just over €3 per month!*

A long-term subscription for NordVPN is really cheap. At the moment it only costs just over $3 per month. That’s a bargain for the features provided.

Save money with a VPN

If you pay for a VPN, you may save money elsewhere. If I want to buy a monthly pass at Eurosport, it costs me for example €6.99 Euro in Germany. I connect to NordVPN in to another country I suddenly was offered a subcription for only €4.99. Of course the content is different and you might want to check that. But with Eurosport Romania you get the games of the Premier League and FA cup. It is a bit trial and error I have to admit but it is worth it.

It is not uncommon practice for service providers to query your location based on your IP address and then charge you accordingly. It is not guaranteed that you will save money. But it’s worth a try. Try it for flights, hotels and so on. But never forget to delete your cookies in your browser first. Even better, use the incognito mode (Chrome) or a private mode (Firefox). Maybe use different browsers for requests from different countries.

Does my Internet speed suffer from NordVPN?

As with all VPNs, the Internet speed may decrease. How much depends on several factors. A rule of thumb is: The closer the VPN server, the higher the speed (unless the server has some problems).

But this is of little use if you are in the UK and need a server in the USA because of geoblocking. But even here, NordVPN delivers sufficiently high speeds. As mentioned at the beginning, I have speed tested NordVPN. It primarily examines whether OpenVPN or WireGuard (NordLynx) is faster. But you can still see that the speed is sufficient for Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Zattoo, Amazon Prime and so on.

A few more tips & tricks

Like everywhere else, it can happen that a server has problems or is simply temporarily overloaded. If you find one server extremely slow, just switch to another. In most cases the problem is solved. The fastest way to notice low speeds? During streaming! The app is buffering and lags. For normal surfing, social media and email, it doesn’t matter if the speed drops temporarily.

This also applies to problems with geoblocking, by the way. The streaming providers and VPN providers are in a constant fight. If a server has landed on a blacklist, you probably can’t use it for bypassing geoblocking anymore. Just take another server and try again. If it doesn’t work at all, please contact the support. The support staff will tell you a server that should work. The provider is also honest and will tell you if a certain service does not work at the moment. Especially because of geoblocking it is crucial that the VPN provider operates many servers. NordVPN currently provides more than 5000!

Is there actually a free trial version of NordVPN?

No, there is no longer. The provider used to provide a free trial version. However, the VPN provider no longer offers such an option.

But that is not so bad. As I said, there is a 30-day money-back guarantee and that is as good as a trial version. Of course, you have to pay the money first. If you don’t like the service, you will get you cash back without any problems.

In some ways, such a version is even better than 3 or 7 day trial versions that other providers offer. You have a full month to test the VPN thoroughly and all features are unlocked.

Protected using public Wi-Fi or hotspots

As soon as you use a public Wi-Fi or a hotspot, you should protect your device. It does not matter which VPN provider you use for this. Important is that your device is protected.

Protect your devices!*

You don’t know who created or maintains the public Wi-Fi or who else is on the same network. After all, you don’t know everyone in the train, Airbnb, holiday apartment or hotel. Especially when it comes to holidays, we all like to use free Wi-Fi. But they can be insecure. With a VPN you encrypt your connection and hackers can hardly attack you from the same network. Especially in a public Wi-Fi a kill switch like the one from NordVPN is crucial.

Install NordVPN in Linux

Since there is no graphical client, the installation in Linux is done in a few, uncomplicated steps.

It doesn’t matter if you want to install the Linux client in Ubuntu, Linux Mint or Raspbian (Raspberry Pi). All three systems are based on Debian and use the package manager of it. For these systems you need the .deb file. You find in the download area of the vendor. For Fedora, openSUSE, Red Hat or CentOS you need the .rpm file.

You install the .deb file as follows:

sudo dpkg -i /Pfad/zur/Datei/nordvpn-release_1.0.0_all.deb sudo wget https://repo.nordvpn.com/gpg/nordvpn_public.asc -O - | sudo apt-key add -

After the first steps you update the package list:

sudo apt update

Now you install NordVPN:

apt install nordvpn

NordVPN and .rpm file it works like that:

sudo dnf install /Pfad/zur/Datei/nordvpn-release-1.0.0-1.noarch.rpm

Update package list:

sudo dnf update

Install the client:

sudo dnf install nordvpn

Now you can log in and connect. From this point onward it doesn’t matter if you use the .deb or .rpm version.

nordvpn login
nordvpn connect

The NordVPN client connects you to a server selected by the client. You get all possible options if you use this command:

nordvpn

you get all possible options:

Open the documentation — or man page — for more information. That’s easy:

man nordvpn

You swap between OpenVPN and NordLynx (WireGuard) like that:

nordvpn set technology NordLynx
nordvpn set technology OpenVPN

This also applies to the Raspberry Pi. NordLynx is faster, but there are currently fewer locations available.

While you are typing use the Tab key on your keyboard for auto completion. Try nordvpn [space] and press Tab twice. That’s great, isn’t it? Now try nordvpn set [space] and a double Tab.

That also works with c, cities and so on. Play a bit around as it speeds things up.

NordVPN for Linux!*

Don’t be scared of the command line. It’s a lot easier than it seems at first.

Other Linux systems: Of course you can also use the service with other Linux systems that are not based on Debian or Red Hat. However, you have to configure OpenVPN connections manually. NordVPN provides the necessary files. If you are using a Linux system like Arch Linux, you can certainly establish an OpenVPN connection manually. But watch out for DNS leaks!

NordVPN: Conclusion

NordVPN is an excellent universal VPN. VPN beginners will quickly get along with it and for professionals there are many advanced features.

The VPN is very versatile, since it runs on all major operating systems. Support or the native client for Raspberry Pi is one of the best options. Why? I have explained it. It allows me to build a VPN router relatively easily and thus connect several devices to the VPN without having to install any software. Only few VPNs offer a client for the Raspberry Pi.

You may connect 6 devices simultaneously, but at home I use my VPN router. That is more convenient. I also use it to connect devices like Chromecast or Smart TV with a VPN.

You get enough speed to stream content in very high quality. If you use Linux and switch to NordLynx you get even more speed.

For what the service offers, it is really cheap. The longer you subscribe to the VPN, the cheaper it gets. For a 3-year subscription you pay just over €3 per month* — that’s more than 70% discount. The protection of your data and your privacy should be worth that little money.

The post NordVPN Test 2023 — Security, Speed, Advantages — DISCOUNT! appeared first on VPN Expert.

The right question however must be: What is the cheapest VPN that is trustworthy!

Surfshark – cheapest, trustworthy VPN!*

If you are very picky you could actually start an argument about cheap and affordable. What we don’t want to argue about is trustworthy and secure. You are sending your data through the network and the server of the VPN provider you have chosen. The VPN must be trustworthy. It must protect your privacy, your data, and keep you anonymous.

Only if those conditions are met you should consider a provider for your choice as the cheapest VPN. Let’s make a longer story short and I’ll present the cheapest VPN I would recommend. That is Surfshark (unlimited connections)*.

Why is that my choice? Because it has all the features that a premium VPN needs for about half the price! Read on and I’ll explain.

Features of Surfshark

Because Surfshark is so cheap you might think that it doesn’t offer a lot of features. Wrong! The VPN provider has plenty to offer.

For a start you can connect unlimited devices! Most premium VPNs allow 5 or 6 connections simultaneously. Surfshark hast no restrictions here. Equip your whole family with Surfshark! This offer might not be here forever, and they probably change it at some point. So be quick and get this great deal now.

Surfshark – unlimited devices!*

With CleanWeb Surfshark provides an integrated ad blocker. But there is more. CleanWeb also blocks tracker and stops malware and phishing attempts. You basically get a little security suite with Surfshark.

Whitelister ist a feature that other VPNs call Split Tunneling. With Whitelister you determine apps that don’t use the VPN connection. Why is that important? Some banking apps don’t like VPN connections. You decide which apps are using your local IP address and which the IP address of the VPN server. Choice is always good.

Different security protocols

Per default the VPN uses the protocol IKEv2/IPsec for all apps. But you can choose OpenVPN as well if you like to. There is a third choice and that’s called Shadowsocks. It’s designed that people in countries with VPN blocks can also use it. You might have heard of the Great Firewall of China. Other countries censor the Internet as well and block VPNs. Russia or Egypt would be examples. Surfshark can go around VPN blocks — I have tested it!

There is even an option in the apps that’s called NoBorders. It’s specifically designed to bypass censorship and blocks like the Great Firewall of China.

What about WireGuard? The VPN provider is of course aware of the new kid on the block. They test it at the moment and if found secure enough they will implement WireGuard in the apps.

Your connection is of course encrypted with the highest standard of AES-256-GCM.

Not Logs, Camouflage Mode, Leak Protection and a Kill Switch

You value your privacy, right? Here are some great news! Surfshark is located in the Virgin Islands and that is outside the 5/9/14 eyes alliance. On the website you find a warrant canary and it looks like that.

Switching on the camouflage mode means that your ISP (Internet Service Provider) cannot see that you are using a VPN. That is actually good for additional privacy.

So-called footprinting you can avoid with the MultiHop feature. Instead of 1 VPN server the data will move through 2. That is a bit slower but better for privacy.

Surfshark provides DNS leak protection. That means that your DNS queries are private and the ISP or other prying eyes cannot track your activities.

A kill switch is another layer of protection if you switch it on. In case your VPN connection drops the kill switch will cut all traffic to the Internet. No data can leak. That is essential if you are a privacy conscious user.

Geoblocking and P2P with the cheapest VPN!

With Surfshark you can unblock the best streaming portals as well. It provides unlimited data and bandwidth. Why is that important? Streaming uses a lot of data and it would be a shame if your series or movie suddenly stops.

For streaming, you also need high speed. Don’t worry with Surfshark. It’s the cheapest VPN you can trust but it doesn’t cut corners on speed. I guarantee you that. Streaming in high definition is possible.

P2P file sharing and torrenting is allowed! All servers of Surfshark allow torrent downloads and P2P. Not every provider is that generous!

Support for all major operating systems — even Linux

This affordable VPN provider offers clients or apps for the most popular operating systems and devices. Of course macOS, Windows, iOS and Android are supported. But you also get a client for Linux. It’s a command line client and that’s not a bad thing. But for now you only get support for Debian based systems (64-Bit) like Ubuntu or Linux Mint.

If you want to use the VPN on a Raspberry Pi you need to set it up manually using the .ovpn files. As an alternative you can get the slightly more expensive NordVPN (big discounts NOW)* as they provide a client for Raspberry Pi. A VPN on a Raspberry Pi is great because you can easily build your own VPN router!

The cheapest VPN also works with Amazon FireTV, Apple TV. Xbox and Playstation. That’s great news!

Chromecast and VPN works, but you need a VPN router. In this post I explain how to do that.

For the browsers Firefox and Chrome you get extensions. With those not all traffic is going through the VPN but only the one from your browser. But that’s OK if you need to switch fast within your browser.

Awesome! Can I test it?

Yes, you can! Here is another great thing about this VPN provider — Surfshark offers a 30-day money-back guarantee on the 2-year subscription. If you don’t like the VPN you ask for a refund. It is really that simple.

As you see in the screenshot, you get an 82% discount on a long-term subscription. For as little as €1,79 or $1,99 you protect your privacy, bypass censorship and beat geoblocking on as many devices as you like! P2P and torrents are a nice extra on top!

Test Surfshark 30 days risk free!*

Surfshark has over 1000 servers in 61 countries. That is plenty of options and especially important for beating the geoblocking of the big streaming providers.

By now you have to agree that Surfshark is the cheapest VPN you can trust. If not — I really can’t help you, sorry!

Cheapest VPN but awesome customer support

In case you run into problems, Surfshark provides support via 24/7 live chat.

You can also contact the customer support via email if you like and have more time.

The website provides an FAQ as well but you only find the most common problems. In doubt contact the customer support because you are paying for it, right?

Let’s recap the cheapest VPN

• Unlimited devices and connections
• CleanWeb ad blocker — also block tracker and stops malware and phishing attempts
• Whitelister — control what apps are using the VPN connection
• IKEv2/IPsec and OpenVPN
• Shadowsocks for restrictive countries (China, Russia, Egypt) — NoBorders mode to bypass censorship
• Encryption with AES-256-GCM
• Beat Geoblocking — watch BBC iPlayer, Netflix and other streaming portals from everywhere in the world!
• Unlimited bandwidth — binge-watch BBC iPlayer and Netflix from everywhere.
• Strict no-logs policy — the provider does not log your activities at all.
• Camouflage mode — your ISP will not know you are using a VPN!
• Protect your privacy even better with the MultiHop feature.
• DNS leak protection
• Supports all major operating systems and devices like Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Amazon FireTV, Xbox, Playstation and has extensions for Chrome and Firefox.
• 24/7 customer support via live chat and email.
• Torrents and P2P file sharing is allowed.
• Over 1000 servers in 61 countries.

What do you think by now? For under 2 bucks all those features! You won’t find a cheaper VPN that you can trust.

Get Surfshark while the price is low!*

What about free VPNs?

Wouldn’t a free VPN not be the cheapest VPN? That is actually a really good point and money wise you are of course correct. But there is a big catch with free VPNs: most of them are not trustworthy! Let me explain.

Things cost money, that’s how the world is working. The more servers a VPN provider has the higher the costs. Of course, you also want the latest security features and so on. Developing and maintaining thins also cost money.

Premium VPNs make this money because you pay a monthly fee. For Surfshark that’s as little as under 2 bucks a month. That’s nothing.

Free VPNs come with a catch — always. I don’t know any free VPN that hasn’t some sort of restriction. Some throttle the Internet speed and some give you only a tiny data allowance. But it can get a lot worse!

Free VPNs also need money to run their infrastructure. Because nobody pays them some of them are very creative to generate an income. They might even sell your data to third-party advertising companies!

If they don’t do this, they will show ads in their apps. That’s not much better because you normally find tracker in ads and in worst-case adverts carry malware.

So instead of protecting your privacy and security some free VPNs compromise it! That’s the opposite of why you want a VPN!

Let me ask you a question now: Would you rather use a free VPN or you opt for the cheapest VPN that is trustworthy?

Surfshark — awsome value!*

How to install Surfshark?

The installation is straightforward. After you subscribe to Surfshark you download the app for your operating system and install it. On an Android smartphone you get the app on Google Play Store for example. That makes it even easier.

After the installation open the app and log in. Now choose the country you want to connect to. That’s handy if you want to bet geoblocking. If you are searching for a maximum of protection, take the fastest server.

As a rule of the thumb you can say that the nearer a server is the faster the connection. It makes sense because the data has less distance to travel.

Install the cheapest VPN on Linux

Installing Surfshark on Linux is a bit more effort. Linux users know how to deal with .deb files and it’s not that hard to be honest.

Download the .deb file and open a terminal. Navigate to the folder where the file has been downloaded to. Most probably the folder is called Download.

Now install the file and the command looks like that:

sudo apt install /path/to/surfshark-[file-name].deb

Once that is finished you need two more commands:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install surfshark-vpn

You connect to the VPN (best / fastest server) using this command:

sudo surfshark-vpn attack

You want to disconnect? No problem:

sudo surfshark-vpn down

To get all the possible commands call for help!

sudo surfshark-vpn help

It is really not that hard to run Surfshark on Linux. But to be absolutely fair the cheapest VPN is not the best option for Linux. NordVPN offers a much better Linux client and you get WireGuard for Linux as well — that’s faster than OpenVPN!

Save money with a VPN!

Did you know that you can save money using a VPN? It’s true!

Some websites and vendors check your IP address. If you visit from a country where the income is higher, they give you a different price. I can show you. Check Eurosport player for example. Two countries — two different prices. The 2 Euro you save on a subscription here already pays for the cheapest VPN.

This method sometimes also works for hotels, flights and so on but not all the time. It is definitely worth a try!

The post What is the cheapest VPN? That’s the wrong question … appeared first on VPN Expert.

• Get yourself a VPN that works in Egypt. NordVPN (big discounts NOW)* and the obfuscated servers of the provider work great.
• Open the website of PayPal log in.
• That’s it, now you can use the financial service as usual.

Not just PayPal is blocked in Egypt

This statement is somewhat misleading, because in the case of PayPal I believe that the service itself blocks access if you are visiting from Egypt. So it should be enough if you connect to a VPN server somewhere in Europe. But there is a catch.

Egypt blocks VPNs, at least often. You can get around those blocks if you use a VPN with a stealth mode. NordVPN* for example has obfuscated servers, and they work. Also [AirVPN] has a stealth technology you get around the VPN blocks. The VPN protocol SSTP also works but not a lot of VPN providers offer it. [PureVPN] does. I mainly use NordVPN as this is working well in Egypt. Most free VPNs don’t work in Egypt by the way.

NordVPN – use PayPal everywhere!*

By the way, in Egypt you can easily get a sim card for tourists at the airport and the data permission is high. For about 30 Euro you can get up to 80 GB if you get a special offer. If not, you still get 40 GB. Not bad, right? You can even use it for streaming content from home, but you need a VPN that can bypass the blockade and geoblocking.

With the 3G/4G connections there are also problems with video telephony (VoIP) via WhatsApp, Viber or Skype, for example. Personally, I prefer to use Telegram anyway, but there is a similar problem. There are enough people who use other messengers. NordVPN offers very user-friendly apps for Android and the already mentioned obfuscated servers. With that, video telephony via Skype and other programs works.

CyberSec is a blessing in Egypt

Maybe you use public Wi-Fi in your hotel, in a café or even in a dive center. The problem at this point could be so called hijacked routers. I have seen that many times — no joke. This means that you will be redirected via DNS hijacking to harmful websites or you will see plenty of annoying ads.

NordVPN’s CyberSec protects against malware, harmful websites, trackers, hackers and also acts as an ad blocker.

Even if you are using a public Wi-Fi, you use the DNS servers of the VPN provider, and they are normally clean. Also, you are connected to your VPN server via a tunnel, and malware from the public Wi-Fi cannot attack you. This also applies to any hacker that may be on the same network.

Other advantages of a VPN, not only good for PayPal

By the way, it does not matter if you travel to Egypt or to different countries. You should always use a VPN or Virtual Private Network as soon as you use an unknown network like in an Airbnb or also on a train. They are untrustworthy!

If you use PayPal or any online banking, you don’t want the operator of the public Wi-Fi to snoop around. Prying eyes is the last you want to have while doing online banking. Of course, the connections to banks and financial service providers are encrypted per default, but when it comes to the money, additional protection can’t hurt. Especially not when so many routers and access points are compromised.

Modern VPNs encrypt your connection with AES-256 and NordVPN offers a feature called Double Encryption. It routes your data through two VPN servers. This is good for anonymity, but not quite so good for speed. In Egypt, it should be enough to use the obfuscated servers.

Protect your data with NordVPN!*

NordVPN is good, affordable and works with PayPal

NordVPN currently costs only about $3 a month if you choose a long-term subscription, making it one of the most affordable options on the market. You can use up to 6 devices simultaneously, so all devices should be protected while on vacation. Thanks to the user-friendly applications for Linux, macOS, Windows, Android and also iOS, NordVPN is perfect for beginners. Get it just for your vacation and if it doesn’t suit you, take advantage of the 30-day money-back guarantee.

The VPN is known to be able to unlock streaming providers like Netflix, Amazon Prime, BBC iPlayer or Zattoo. I mean if you are on vacation you really shouldn’t watch too much TV. But it’s good to know that you could if you wanted too, right?

By the way, there are also extensions for the browsers Firefox and Chrome. You can use CyberSec in the browser extensions as well. In this case, however, not the entire traffic runs through the VPN, but only that of the browser. Basically it is a proxy — but it is faster.

The support of NordVPN is available 24/7. If there is an urgent problem, you can contact them via live chat. The support is fantastic. I once had a problem with the kill switch in an early version of the Linux client. I contacted the provider a got a solution on the same day. The kill switch is another feature I would like to point out. If the connection to the VPN is interrupted, the client will cut all network connections. This prevents unwanted data leaks.

Do you travel a lot or you are a digital nomad? In any case you should definitely have a VPN in your luggage. Not only Egypt, but also many other countries censor more or less strongly.

Scuba diving in Egypt is great — but don’t forget to pack a VPN

The Red Sea is really something special if you are a scuba diver or like snorkeling. Just the Thistlegorm with its history is always worth a visit. There are not many places on earth where you can shoot pictures like this in just 30 meters of depth.

Maybe you don’t have to use PayPal in Egypt at all and get along well without streaming and VoIP in your vacation. But everyone has an Internet-enabled device these days and most people use it to read or write messages.

I can tell you from my experience that I have seen and cleaned many compromised routers. Most of the time, even resetting to default settings doesn’t help because the firmware of the routers is outdated, and they are quickly attacked again. One option is to buy a new router. Another option would be to protect your guests with something like Pi-hole. The problem would be partially fixed now. But many don’t know even the project or have trouble setting it up.

But you have the option to take protect yourself and you can take a proactive approach. Get a trustworthy VPN. They are affordable now and a great travel companion.

The post Use PayPal in Egypt — it’s actually quite easy with a VPN! appeared first on VPN Expert.