PRIVATE INTERNET ACCESS VPN REVIEW
Offer. Terrible yet powerful.
BY MATT ELLIOTT Whether you are hoping to secure your protection or need play recreations that are limited where you live, a Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a helpful apparatus for gamers. Read more about what a VPN is and why it's vital.
Try not to give the repulsive stock workmanship on its site a chance to trick you; Private Internet Access is a top-notch VPN with a trifecta of reasonable estimating, incredible execution, and valuable highlights. Truth be told, it's our best pick of the five we're assessing this week. The main drawbacks to Private Internet Access are the powerlessness to choose a particular server (you can pick servers just by geographic area) and its ugly desktop application. These two issues are moderately minor, be that as it may, when you consider the entire bundle Private Internet Access gives.
Evaluating
Private Internet Access has three moderate installment designs. It costs $6.95 every month on the off chance that you agree to accept one month, $5.99 a month for a half year, or $3.33 a month for one year. In the event that you need to perceive what your association resembles, it offers a seven-day unconditional promise so you can take it for a turn. Installment choices incorporate Mastercard, PayPal, Bitcoin and the capacity to pay secretly with a gift voucher from Starbucks, Best Buy and other real retailers. For any of these plans, you can utilize around five gadgets at the same time. Private Internet Access underpins Windows PCs, Macs, Linux, Chromebooks and has versatile applications for Android and iOS. It can likewise be introduced on a few switches. I utilized the Windows application for my tests.
Highlights
Private Internet Access keeps its desktop application out of your way, which is something to be thankful for in light of the fact that it has an interface just a mother could love. Like alternate VPNs, Private Internet Access introduces a little symbol in your framework plate that gives you a chance to flip the administration on and off. Right-tap the symbol to auto-interface with whatever server Private Internet Access believes is the best association for your area or pick by nation. For the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia, you can penetrate down and pick a locale. You can't, nonetheless, select a particular server as you can with different VPNs including IPVanish (See our full IPVanish Review). Private Internet Access has a considerable measure of servers yet isn't offered in the same number of nations as some of its rivals. It has more than 3,253 servers in 25 nations, and by correlation, IPVanish has 750 servers in 60 nations.
Private Internet Access 2
Private Internet Access makes it simple to tell when you are associated; the Taskbar symbol turns green when you are associated and is red when you are most certainly not. In settings, you can empower an off button that close down your Internet association if the VPN gets detached, and you can likewise empower a promotion blocker, which is a component not usually found on different VPNs. Not at all like IPVanish, be that as it may, Private Internet Access does not give you a chance to burn through IP addresses at customary interims, which is a component less vital to web based gamers than clients hoping to abuse each quantify conceivable to cover their tracks on the web. Private Internet Access underpins OpenVPN over TCP and (UDP can be quicker than TCP since it doesn't do blunder amendment). It additionally underpins PPTP, and L2TP conventions. Private Internet Access takes into account unknown BitTorrent utilize however pieces Netflix.
Execution
Steering your Web activity through a server includes a bypass that can back off the speed of your system association, yet in a few conditions it can really enhance your ping by interfacing you to a quick server near the gaming server. Your mileage will unavoidably change, contingent upon your area and the area of the gaming server to which you are associated.
Private Internet Access
To test the execution of Private Internet Access, I ran the SpeedOf.Me test to gauge download and transfer speeds and furthermore played League of Legends to check the VPN's impact on my ping in a genuine multiplayer amusement setting. For the two tests, when I associated with Private Internet Access, I let it pick the server. Not at all like different VPNs, it doesn't show the correct area of the server to which you are associated. I live in southern New Hampshire; Private Internet Access detailed my auto association just as U.S. East.
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Private Internet Access had the speediest download and transfer speeds.
Of the four VPNs we tried with SpeedOf.Me (the fifth, WTFast, just concentrates on advancing amusement activity, so the speed test doesn't have any significant bearing), Private Internet Access had the speediest download and transfer speeds and was third as far as quickest ping on my first test by an indistinct edge however completed dead keep going on my second ping test.
Without a VPN association, SpeedOf.Me announced a download speed of 250.82Mbps and a transfer speed of 12.99Mbps. When I associated with Private Internet Access, the download speed dropped to 126.53Mbps and transfer speed tumbled to 11.95Mbps. IPVanish was second with a download speed of 93.30Mbps and a transfer speed of 11.94Mbps.
With League of Legends, I had a normal ping of 43ms without a VPN, which doesn't leave much opportunity to get better. With Private Internet Access, my ping dropped to only 46ms. IPVanish and WTFast had pings of 44ms on this test.
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To test Private Internet Access' execution on a more inaccessible association, I played League of Legends again however this time in its Oceania district where my benchmark ping was 246ms. On this test, just WTFast could enhance my ping - and just somewhat to 241ms. When I chose a server in Melbourne, Australia my ping when utilizing Private Internet Access dropped to 914ms, which was by a wide margin the slowest of the five VPNs I tried. The following slowest was ExpressVPN at 389ms. Believing that Private Internet Access may have associated me to a moderate server in Melbourne, I ran the test again and chose the other area it has for Australia - Sydney - and saw a comparative outcome, with a ping of 946ms. As usual, your outcomes might be extraordinary, however in our testing it would appear to be Private Internet Access isn't an awesome pick for gamers searching for a VPN that will help them effectively play diversions on outside servers.
Buying Guide
Private Internet Access doesn't have the same number of nitty gritty highlights and elements of some different VPNs, yet it compensates for it with its lower cost. Cost concious shoppers searching for a solid VPN should give PIA a nearby look:
$3.33 every month charged yearly ($39.95 a year)
$5.99 every month charged at regular intervals ($35.95 per a half year)
$6.95 every month charged month to month
Note that in the event that you tap on one of these connections to purchase the item, IGN may get an offer of the deal. For additional, read our Terms of Use.
The Verdict
If its all the same to you the moderate approach of its desktop application and the failure to associate with a particular server, at that point I'd contend Private Internet Access is the VPN for gamers. It gloats a triumphant blend of quick execution and solid highlights at a reasonable cost. On the off chance that you have a specific distant district as a top priority, notwithstanding, make certain to exploit its seven-day trial to ensure you are getting a decent ping before you bolt yourself into a protracted membership.
Tuesday, 5 December 2017
Private Internet Access VPN review
Private Internet Access VPN review
A single month costs US$6.95 (GBP 4.99), but a year subscription will grant you a rock-bottom price of just $39.95 (GBP 28.70), which comes out to $3.33 per month. Price-wise, that makes PIA a top contender among the many VPN providers on the market. No free trial is available, but every subscription comes with a 7-day money-back guarantee.
PIA values anonymity, so customers can pay with bitcoin or even unused gift cards in addition to more traditional payment methods. A $25 Starbucks gift card, for example, will net you 100 days of access.
Features
You may connect up to five devices simultaneously to PIA on a single account, which makes it a pretty unbeatable bargain if you can split the bill between family members or housemates. That stipulation is device-agnostic, and PIA has apps for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android.The default connection protocol is OpenVPN, which is probably the only one you’ll need. PPTP, L2TP/IPSec, and a SOCKS5 proxy are also available.
Bandwidth and usage are unlimited, as are the number of server switches.
DNS and IPV6 leak protection can be switched on in the settings menu. The former ensures that DNS requests are routed through the VPN and PIA’s private DNS servers. The latter disables IPV6 traffic while on the VPN, opting for IPV4 when possible. These options offer a greater level of privacy, but can cause some web pages to play up and lead to connectivity issues in certain environments.
A VPN kill switch can be enabled, which stops unencrypted internet traffic entirely should your connection to the VPN server drop. This stops anyone from snooping while your guard is down and the VPN reconnects.
Does PIA work with Netflix?
VPNs are a popular way to access the increased catalog of shows and movies available on US Netflix compared to other countries, however many VPNs are blocked by Netflix. We were unable to connect to US Netflix with Private Internet Access which appears to have succumbed to the VPN ban. If access to US Netflix is an important consideration in your choice of VPN, check out our article on this Netflix VPN ban workaround or see our roundup of the best VPNs for Netflix.Setup and Interface
Setting up PIA is a breeze. You only need to activate your account after sign up once. The one-click installer is a mere 25MB and doesn’t require the user to do any configuration. After about one minute, PIA is up and running. It’s worth noting that one of my PCs automatically restarted after installation, but this was not the case on my second PC.
PIA runs entirely from the system tray. There’s no dedicated GUI except to tweak settings, and even that is very minimal, design-wise. The system tray icon is red for off, gray for connecting, and green for connected. Right clicking the icon will bring up the server list, as well as a button for the settings menu and the option to send a slow speed complaint. The system tray design choice makes PIA very non-intrusive, but it lacks any indication of whether a server is down or experiencing high traffic.
The settings menu is where you enter you username and password, decide when the app runs, choose encryption and connection protocols, and enable/disable different features.
The mobile app is as bare bones as its desktop brethren. It comes with many of the same features and options including the mighty kill switch. That said, it’s a low-resource app that doesn’t even rank in my top 10 biggest battery consumers. You can enable one-click connect, which turns on the VPN as soon as the app is opened.
PIA supports DD-WRT, Tomato, and PfSense routers if you prefer to set up the VPN in your router instead of each individual device in your home or office.
Servers and Performance
PIA runs servers in 24 countries, with multiple locations in hotspots like the US and UK. That number pales in comparison to some rivals, but it should be sufficient for most users. We never had a problem connecting to any server on the list, and connections are remarkably stable. Not once did the connection drop and engage the kill switch, even on the mobile app over wifi.Setting up PIA is a breeze. You only need to activate your account after sign up once. The one-click installer is a mere 25MB and doesn’t require the user to do any configuration. After about one minute, PIA is up and running. It’s worth noting that one of my PCs automatically restarted after installation, but this was not the case on my second PC.
As for speed, 1080p HD video on Youtube and Netflix played without ever having to stop to buffer. I even played a few matches of Brawlhalla–a Super Smash Bros-style fighting game on Steam–online with no noticeable lag or disconnections.
To make the speed tests as empirical as possible, we downloaded the same 82.7MB file (compressed from 103MB) three times from three different servers at three different times per day for a total of nine tests. For comparison’s sake, we did the same for ExpressVPN, which I also happened to have installed, and without a VPN as a control group. I connected to servers in Florida and Texas in the US, which are geographically closest to me, and in London. In the boxplot below, the thick black line represents the median download time, while the red diamond represents the mean. Lower is better.
PIA scored the lowest median download time (73 seconds), but inconsistent performance led to it scoring the highest mean average (94 seconds). This suggests that its servers can be fast but are probably more susceptible to slowdowns during peak usage periods. It may be worth noting that the furthest outlier was during our London test at around 5 p.m. local time.
Keep in mind that this test is not a definitive indicator of which VPN is fastest. The inherent volatility of the internet adds a significant factor of randomness, so VPN speed tests should always be taken with a big grain of salt. My original location is in Bogota, Colombia, where I run these tests on a 10 Mbps connection. Those with faster connections may well notice a larger discrepancy in speeds.
Security
AES-128 encryption, SHA1 authentication, and RSA-2048 handshake are the recommended default settings under which we did all our speed testing. AES-256 and Blowfish are also available for encryption and SHA256 for the authentication, as well as five other handshakes. You can even opt to disable encryption and authentication altogether for a faster connection, but it’s not recommended as doing so eliminates all your VPN’s security measures.The VPN kill switch, DNS leak protection, and IPV6 leak protection can weed out most remaining vulnerabilities.
PIA is a logless VPN, meaning it doesn’t monitor your traffic or any activity that takes place over the VPN. This is especially important because the company is based in the United States, well within the jurisdiction of the NSA and other government agencies. Without user logs, however, there’s not much to give up.
Of all the protocols available, OpenVPN (the default) is most secure for the widest range of purposes.
Customer service
PIA offers 24/7 live chat support, but no phone support. The live chat support responded within seconds around midnight on a Sunday evening, US East Coast time zone. We were even more pleased to discover that the customer service reps weren’t typing from a list of cookie-cutter responses, but actually seemed to be quite knowledgeable about their product. All of our questions were answered quickly and succinctly.The website contains a useful FAQs section as well as extensive forums where users can pose questions, advice, and comments to each other and PIA staff.
During our testing we never received a single unsolicited email or any other communication from PIA. The apps contain no ads nor promotions.
Verdict
Despite its humble looks, PIA stands tall among VPN providers for its low price, rich security features, and great customer service. Performance can be inconsistent, but it’s nothing a quick server switch won’t be able to solve in most cases. We would have liked more server locations, but that’s quite a minor complaint. Five simultaneous devices is a huge perk usually reserved for more expensive family plans, and the fact that you can pay with bitcoin or gift cards makes PIA that much more anonymous.
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