What VPN services does everyone use?

Trying to gather a concensus of what everyone might use as a VPN client program, or if they found a server and made their own connection with Windows VPN. I've been trying tons of different programs all day, and have not fallen in love with any so far. I've also tried finding a reliable list of servers with PW's to maybe do it manually through Windows, but nothing. There are just so many out there!

Hi there

I'd suggest another approach.

Buy yourself a Domain --that can be very cheap depending on the suffix (e.g .gg guernsey, eu european Union, etc. Loads available).

Now host it in a place where you want your VPN for example you can buy hosting services anywhere on the planet.

In general though I'd avoid hosting in UK or USA as there seems to be a massive attempt by authorities in those countries to control the Internet. Any Nordic country is good as well as Hong Kong (yes still 100% OK) Israel, Roumania, Seychelles and a few others. If you insist on buying a VPN service then same caveat applies - buy one hosted in the places I've listed.

You can either register the domain name yourself :

How to Register Your Own Domain Name: What to Do, Which Registrar, etc (thesitewizard.com)

You'll then need to host it somewhere which you can do on your own servers if your ISP can handle that or buy a hosting service.

or use a registration service.

Absolutely brilliant documentation here explains the whole process

General Started with your Website (thesitewizard.com)

simply though after getting your domain host it somewhere .

To do this when you buy the domain you get it from a reliable registrar and initially the domain will be "parked" there. When it's active (takes around 24 hrs after purchasing the domain) you can move it to the hosting service of your choice. Some registrars as well as registering your domain name offer hosting services too.

Now once you've got your hosting service up and running you can set up things like L.A.M.P (Linux, apache,MySql,PHP) on a Linux host (the OS will already be set up) or W.A.M.P on a Windows server --windows hosts though usually cost a lot more.

Now you can logon to your server and do what you like with it and unlike obscure VPN servers it will run for as long as you keep the domain registered -- also if the hosting country changes the law you can move the domain again very easily - these days though that's rarely if ever necessary.

If you want you can even give your domain address an "Onion" type URL --via TOR etc if you get really paranoid about people monitoring the Internet.

For accessing "geo restricted content" Legally -- I know it's a contradiction in terms -- you might need 2 or 3 domains depending on what you want to access. If a domain is hosted in the USA for example it' s 100% legal to logon to it and access say USA Netflix even if you are somewhere in the south Pacific !!!.

A RELIABLE and fast VPN won't necessarily be cheap and it's always a risk that content can be blocked. Using your own domains makes that probability much less likely and while more complex to set up initially costs won't be much different.

Cheers
jimbo