I'm shopping for a VPN providers, and really struggling to find a detailed and non-biased breakdown of the various options. A number of years ago, I recall finding an extremely detailed VPN comparison spreadsheet that had 30+ columns, which were contained criteria by which the VPNs were judged both quantitatively and qualitatively. I can no longer find that table, so I suspect it has been removed, but I did find the less-comprehensive table, below:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ijfqfLrJWLUVBfJZ_YalVpstWsjw-JGzkvMd6u2jqEk/edit?usp=sharing
In the thread posted by the owner of this sheet, a few commenters pointed out that the highest rated VPN providers in this table just happen to be the ones that advertise most aggressively and are well-known for buying positive reviews from tech blogs, which are pretty clearly designed to be misleading. I too am suspicious that this table can't be trusted, however I really am not knowledgeable about VPNs, so before passing judgement, I figured I should consult those who know more about it. I also recognize that a strong marketing team and an excellent product aren't mutually exclusive, however I think that generally applies more in markets where economies of scale play a significant role, as does mass-adoption, which fuels loads of well-informed, independent research (ex: the car market and phone market.) That obviously isn't the case with the VPN markets... but I'm still sorta holding out hope.
If I end up excluding this table, I'm not sure where to turn at that point. Shilling is extremely pervasive in the VPN market, so it's tough to trust any one person or any one thread. It's also well established that a few of the large VPNs actually own a number of review blogs, so I can't really trust blogs either.
I guess I'm here hoping to be told that my suspicions about this table are unfounded, and / or that another excellent, unbiased resource for comparative VPN info exists. Any help would be appreciated!
Gotcha, your own server makes it better clearly, but you originally said it was on a VPS.
To be clear though just because I'm anal, you mean YOUR server? Not a VPS you pay somebody else to use? As in you can physically touch it if you want?
whats the difference in trusting a remote vpn provider or remote vps provider? from a privacy standpoint... btw my vps is hosted in russia and I cant touch it... can you touch the server that host your vpn???
I'd argue that deanonimation would be easier.
In a VPN you have hundreds of clients and also hundreds of outbound connections, tho not impossible is way harder to find out which connection is being piped to which client. On you own hosted VPS, if you have a dedicated ip is easier, all the traffic will be redirected to only one address, then one of your client.
Even with a vps with a shared ip the number of clients mantaning open connections is probably way lower on average.
I don't know what size my vps provider is compared to your VPN provider but I'm pretty sure they would tell the US government to fuck off if they asked for data... They are from Russia
You are missing the point, in this case the vector would not be someone requesting data but someone surveiling the VPS or VPN server's traffic and drawing conclutions out of it
the NSA sees all traffic.... how is your VPN traffic not traceable?
It is about the ability to trace back, not to be traced.
Ws1------|----++++++++---| Ws2------| | ----Client 1 Ws3------|. VPN |----Client 2 Ws4------| |----Client 3 ... | | ... Wsn------| |----Client m
Since there are multimple outside conections (wb1..n), the traffic to the VPN clnent is encripted and each client can have multiople connections (thats why i used Client m and not Client n) you can not in a reliable fashion tell which connection will be sent to which client.
Now your case:
Ws1------|----++++++++---| Ws2------| | ----Client 1 Ws3------|. VPS. | Ws4------| | ... | | Wsn------| |
You can in that case reliable say that all the traffic is being piped to Client 1, because ks the only client.
From there a motivated party can trace back you traffic to you ISP, if you got a fixed IP you can be trace back to.
If you are behind a CGNAT that party will need help from your ISP, to see where the fraffic went. Which tbf I neglected to mention before, but still changes the trust from you VPS to you ISP.
To be REALLY fair this tho no wholly easy is also not incredibly hard given you have the right hardware in the right place, I just wanted to explain why mixing your traffic with others has an advantage over a single person VPN
"you can not in a reliable fashion tell which connection will be sent to which client."
You easily can if you can see all internet traffic like the NSA can
Not if going first through a MIMO ofuscator. Which is what the VPN is.
Or could you explain how would you be able to tell which connection goes to which client?
if you can see a server is sending 167 packets of X size and you can see a client is receiving the same, it doesnt matter that it goes through a VPN? You probably also could time the packets... or decrypt them if they are encrypted using a CA
It's a transfer of trust either way, point being you don't have physical control over it, and therefore have no idea what's actually happening on the other end, you're not hosting it, they are, you're just administering it.Russia is NO fan of privacy, arguably worse than the US, and now talking about banning all VPN use.
My server is in my house physically. I'd never host my own VPN because I could never compete with what commercial ones in privacy respecting countries can do, let alone needing more outsourced servers for changing my location all over the place, which I do regularly.
Russia may be worst, but I doubt that they will share data with the USA and I will never visit Russia.
If you don't host your own VPN, what's the difference