VPNs Expert - VPNs Expert

ProtonVPN Review: An excellent VPN

2019-07-16T17:27:45+00:00

Brought to you by Proton Technologies AG, the Swiss company behind encrypted email provider ProtonMail, ProtonVPN places an emphasis on security and has both free and paid-for VPN services.

The free version provides basic endpoints in just three countries: the US, the Netherlands and Japan. There aren't any bandwidth caps on the free service but high user numbers can lead to slower transfer speeds. Paid-for tiers get you access to many more endpoints in 33 countries and additional features, including support for BitTorrent, 'Secure Core' servers for users in risky places and US video streaming.

In our latest tests, ProtonVPN's servers gave us HTTP download speeds averaging 8.09MB/s (64.72Mbit/s) from the UK and 8.51MB/s from the Netherlands. US speeds have been more variable: over the course of the past month, we've measured downloads at anything from a slightly disappointing 2.68MB/s to a quick 6.12MB/s. We also noticed quite a lot of variability in performance between individual endpoints.

The fastest speed we got this month from ProtonVPN's free endpoints was 3.91MB/s from the Netherlands and 1.72MB/s from the US.

With the exception of US services, ProtonVPN isn't great at region-shifting for streaming TV. Its Plus servers provide reliable access to US Netflix, but if you want access to European region-locked streaming services, you're largely out of luck.

Proton Technologies is remarkably transparent about where its money comes from. That includes a European Commission development grant, funding from Swiss startup incubator FONGIT (Fondation Genevoise pour l'Innovation Technologique) and the Swiss Federal Commission for Technology and Innovation (Innosuisse).

It also maintains a legal transparency report, updated whenever it receives a legal information request. Although Swiss law requires traditional ISPs to keep connection logs, that doesn't currently apply to VPN providers, allowing ProtonVPN to maintain a no-logging policy. Note, though, that Switzerland is part of the "14 Eyes" intelligence-sharing alliance, which may put off those with specific geopolitical concerns.

ProtonVPN reports that, earlier this year, a "data request from a foreign country was approved by the Swiss court system" and that it informed the requesting party that it has no records of the IP addresses its users connect from. Further information on the case in question is not available.

That makes ProtonVPN's privacy credentials a little less well proven than rivals who've been referenced in court or carried out independent audits, but nonetheless indicates a sound concern for user confidentiality.

Download ProtonVPN

ExpressVPN UK Review: The best VPN service around

2019-05-11T14:00:31+00:00

What impressed us about ExpresVPN the most, is that it has gone the extra mile to provide a great user experience.

Using a VPN can be very daunting for some, but ExpressVPN has streamlined the whole process to help you use, explore and maximise its features.

Among the VPNs we’ve tested, ExpressVPN has the fastest speed to servers in the US, Europe and Australia and the company maintains a strict no-logs policy. The client can be installed on a wide range of devices and it unblocks most geo-restricted content with ease. ExpressVPN is also packed with thoughtful and useful touches, though, and these prove the icing on the cake.

ExpressVPN has practically every base covered when it comes to setting up and using a VPN. Not sure how to use or set it up? Read one of its 100-plus online guides. Not sure what the best locations are based on where you’re browsing from? ExpressVPN lists the fastest servers based on your location. For most people, this is enough to use a VPN, but ExpressVPN has gone several levels deeper.

For example, if you want to switch locations while using the service you’ll see a pop-up message warning you to disconnect before reconnecting for your own safety, and there are even brief descriptions explaining more technical subjects such as protocols. And, if you’re not sure which tools to use to test your connection for speed, IP and DNS leaks, ExpressVPN helps you out with those, too. It’s these helpful features that cumulatively add up to a great overall experience.

Setup and basic use

ExpressVPN can be installed on over 15 devices - including PCs, Macs, browsers, phones and tablets - but you can only use it on three devices at the same time. However, there’s an easy way to secure all the devices connected to your home network using ExpressVPN. To do this, simply install the ExpressVPN app on your router. Doing this only counts as one connection and there’s a detailed guide on how to do this, including the compatible routers you can buy from Amazon. Once you’ve selected your router from the list, just watch the video on how to set up ExpressVPN on it.

Most VPN services automatically send anonymous crash reports from your PC, but we like that ExpressVPN asks your permission first. The PC client also automatically detects your location and recommends the nearest VPN location based on where you are. Click the three dots beside this location to see other Recommended locations based on where you’re using the VPN from. We’re testing from London, so not surprisingly, there were a list of European countries, but we were happy to see the United States on this list, too.

When you turn it on, the VPN indicates your connection progress as a progress bar until you’re connected, which is another small feature that makes a big difference. Other VPNs, for example, take time to establish a connection and you feel like nothing is happening. With ExpressVPN, you can actually tell which connections take longer to load and tune your location preferences accordingly. More importantly, the PC client, MacOS app, Android and iOS apps, and Chrome extension all have the same list of locations - again not something we can say about its VPN competition.

By default, you see a list of recommended locations based on where you’re using the VPN from. While these are mostly countries, you also see individual cities, sometimes with numbers. For example ‘France - Paris -1’ or ‘Switzerland - 2’. Bigger countries like the United Kingdom and United States have an arrow beside them listing more locations you can connect from. For example, we saw four east-coast US servers listed.

You can favourite any option by moving your cursor to it, then clicking the star icon beside it. These then appear in a new Favorites tab at the top. The third and final tab lists four options - Asia Pacific, Europe, Americas and Middle East and Africa - with dropdown menus revealing the entire list of options in those continents. The fastest way to find and connect to a particular location that you want, however, is to simply search for it.

Express VPN Router Linksys E1200 N300 Flashed Tomato Router, Add Your Own Express Username & Password, Protect All Your Home Network With Express VPN On Your Router. By VPN-Router £97.99

Privacy and security

ExpressVPN is located in the British Virgin Islands, which has no data retention or sharing laws and isn’t part of the Five or Fourteen Eyes Alliance. The service explicitly does not collect any activity or connection logs. In fact, ExpressVPN is the only VPN service I know that’s cutting out hard-disks completely in favour of RAM-only logs. Because RAM requires power to store data, all information on its servers are wiped clean every time the RAM is refreshed. Apart from that, this ensures that all its servers always run the same code and alignment. And if you’re really keen to cover all your privacy bases you can pay via Bitcoin, too.

ExpressVPN is very clear about the data it does collect, however. For example, it knows the client and app versions you’re using, the server location you’re connecting to, and the date you’ve connected, but not the time. This information is used to help you with any troubleshooting problems and to manage the load on their worldwide network of servers without compromising any of your personal data.

The service gives you quite a lot of control over your privacy choices, too. If you dig into Options in the PC client, you’ll find some useful security boxes that are already pre-ticked. For example, the kill switch is automatically turned on so your browsing activity is not exposed in cases where the VPN disconnects unexpectedly.

ExpressVPN automatically selects the best protocol based on your device and network. The PC client has four protocols - OpenVPN (UDP), OpenVPN (TCP), L2TP and PPTP. I don’t recommend the latter two because they are clearly marked unsafe.

In terms of security, the VPN uses AES-256 encryption, which is the same level of security used by the US government and security experts to protect highly classified information. Another positive is that ExpressVPN doesn’t ever leak your DNS. While you can use the built-in tool to confirm this, we came to the same conclusion using tools on other security websites. In short, it’s one of the most secure VPN services we’ve used.

ExpressVPN - 1 Trusted VPN

Performance and speed

One of the most impressive things about ExpressVPN is its network of servers. It has more than 3,000 servers in 160 server locations splattered across 94 countries around the globe. That’s among the largest I’ve seen.

That’s not all, though. ExpressVPN is also pretty quick, achieving the fastest connection speeds to Europe, the United States and Australia of all the VPNs I’ve tested. Our speed tests were all carried out from London in the afternoon on a 60MBPS home fibre broadband connection using Speedtest.net. While connecting to a US server in New York, I lost just 12% of my download speed.

I was particularly impressed at how fast speeds were connecting to Australia. Generally, the further the VPN location you’re trying to connect to is, the slower your connection tends to be. Because connections to India were relatively slow (I lost 90% of my download speed), I had little expectations from Australia. Surprisingly, only 35% was knocked off our download speed. With every other VPN I’ve used, I’ve lost around double that figure connecting Down Under. Keen gamers will be happy that ping times were also much lower than other VPN services I’ve tested.

ExpressVPN is not only nippy in far flung locations. I also witnessed impressive results when connecting to European servers, with losses of just between 10% to 20% of download speed. Connecting to a server in Belgium, for example, the download speed loss was a mere 7%, which is again, the best speed I’ve seen.

That said, ExpressVPN clearly seems to have prioritised some VPN locations over others. I saw download speed drops of 20% when connecting from London, UK to a server in the same city. While other VPNs provide slightly faster speeds, this was still fast enough to browse and stream HD video, though, so I wouldn’t necessarily count that as a negative. While we would never promote using a VPN to access restricted content, ExpressVPN does let you access a wide range of content if you’re travelling abroad and want to access content from your home country, including BBC iPlayer, Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Express VPN Router Linksys E1200 N300 Flashed Tomato Router, Add Your Own Express Username & Password, Protect All Your Home Network With Express VPN On Your Router. By VPN-Router £97.99

Mobile apps

The Android and iOS apps look and work exactly the same as the PC client, so there’s no learning curve when moving from device to device. The only change is that the PC client has little star icons that appear beside VPN locations so you can favourite them, while on Android and iOS you need to slide the locations you want to the right to add them as favourites.

As with the desktop client, the ExpressVPN mobile clients let you select which protocol you want to use. On Android, the options are UDP and TCP, while the iOS app adds two additional options - IPsec and IKEv2. As with the PC client, the mobile apps also helpfully let you know which protocol is best for speed and security, which ones have the fewest VPN locations, and which ones won’t function on all networks.

The Android app does have a few additional extras compared to iOS, though. For example, you can enable split tunneling so that only certain apps use the VPN, while others use the internet as normal. Another unique feature is the option to launch specific websites directly from the ExpressVPN app, thereby saving you valuable time. You’ll see the option to add websites when you first turn on the Android VPN.

ExpressVPN - 1 Trusted VPN

Chrome extension

ExpressVPN’s Chrome extension works in sync with the PC client. This means that if you’re connected to Germany on the PC client and launch your browser, the extension will automatically display a notification telling you that it’s connected to Germany. Switching the VPN off or changing locations on either PC client or Chrome extension will automatically be reflected on the other.

The Chrome extension interface is a bit basic given the uniformity across the PC client, and the Android and iOS apps – for example, you can’t favourite locations – but the company has admitted this will be resolved soon via an update. Connection speeds are not vastly different from what we experienced on the other platforms.

The Chrome extension does, however, have tools to let you check your IP address and for any DNS or WebRTC leaks. HTTPS Everywhere is enabled by default, which means you’re automatically directed to safer HTTPS versions of thousands of websites. Even better, this works regardless of whether or not you’re using the VPN, so long as you’ve installed the extension.

Apart from that, the extension doesn’t have any of the bells and whistles that other services provide, such as ad-blockers. ExpressVPN’s Chrome’s apps were independently audited by security firm Cure53, who backed up ExpressVPN’s claims that it doesn’t comprise the privacy and security of its users in any way.

Check out our Experts UK Tech Reviews

Price

In the world of VPNs, premium speeds and features mean only one thing: premium prices. Sign up for one month and ExpressVPN will cost you £9.92 and its six-month plan is £45.94, which works out at £7.66 per month. If you refer a friend, you and your friend both get extra 30 days free.

The cheapest way of paying is to stump up for the whole year in advance; this costs a grand total of £76.59, which amounts to £6.38 per month. Unlike other services we’ve reviewed, ExpressVPN doesn’t have plans that exceed a year. Both NordVPN and Surfshark, for example, have three-year plans that amount to £2.29 and £1.59 per month respectively.

And there’s no need to panic if you decide you don’t want the service after a couple of weeks or so. All plans have a 30-day money back guarantee and cancellation is done via ExpressVPN’s Live Chat service. If you want to try ExpressVPN without having to pay anything, you can do that via the Android and iOS app. Both can be used without paying for seven days, but note that if you use this method, you’re restricted to using the VPN on the device you sign up with; it doesn’t give you cross-platform access.

Express VPN Router Linksys E1200 N300 Flashed Tomato Router, Add Your Own Express Username & Password, Protect All Your Home Network With Express VPN On Your Router. By VPN-Router £97.99

Customer support

In most cases, you may never need ExpressVPN’s customer support because there are more than 100 tutorials, including videos and step-by-step picture tutorials helping you install and find your way around the software. We also like that ExpressVPN’s entire website is well optimised for search engines, so simply typing a search query into Google will likely take you to the correct webpage.

If you need something outside the tutorials, help is always at hand, via ExpressVPN’s 24/7 customer online chat support. I quizzed them on a variety of topics, varying from easy through to quite technical and I found the customer service agents were always quick to send across the relevant links or provide clear instructions. The agents were all polite and friendly, always started by introducing themselves, and never took longer than a minute or so to answer our queries.

Verdict

There are many reasons why ExpressVPN is one of the best I’ve ever used. Its PC client and apps are well designed and easy to use, speeds when connecting to the US, Europe and Australia are super fast, it’s extremely safe, easy to use and has 24/7 customer support.

As with any software or service, it has minor flaws but overlooking these is easy because the rest of the package is so good. To summarise, ExpressVPN is among the best VPN services around. It might be expensive, but you get what you pay for.

ExpressVPN - 1 Trusted VPN

Norton Security Deluxe 2019 Review

2019-04-23T18:08:18+00:00

Norton Security remains almost exactly as it was last year. This means that the Standard and Deluxe editions are still weirdly identical: the only difference is that the Standard package is for a single device, while a Deluxe subscription covers up to five.

There’s also a Premium edition for up to ten devices, which adds parental controls and a cloud backup service with 25GB of included storage.

If you're tempted by Norton's Deluxe security package then Amazon is currently offering it for just £14 as part of its Spring Sale. That means you can get great data protection with Norton's antivirus and firewall for under £15 over a whole year. The software is easy to use and, at this price, a no-brainer for anyone looking to upgrade their device's security. Get it quick or miss out.

Features

That leaves the regular versions with real-time and on-demand scanning, plus a firewall and browser-based protection.

On that note, one thing that’s changed in the past 12 months is that the old Norton toolbar has finally been ditched, and replaced by native browser extensions for Norton’s Safe Web and Identity Safe (that is, password manager) tools. These are fine as far as they go, but they’re freebies: you don’t need to buy Norton Security to get them.

Other than that, the feature set is pretty slim. The disk defragmenter and clean-up tools are so obviously superfluous it’s faintly insulting, but we do like the startup manager.

At first glance, this doesn't look like the most useful tool, but you can click on any item to immediately see all sorts of information about where it came from, when it arrived on your system and how many other Norton users are running it.

Indeed, it’s when digging into technical detail that Norton is at its best. The front-end may look sparse and dumbed-down, but click the little Settings link in the corner and you’ll find pages and pages of highly granular options to play with.

Performance

When put through its paces by AV-Comparatives and AV-Test, Norton gave a mixed performance. It achieved impeccable scores for malware detection, but it wobbled a little in the false-positive tests: both labs experienced bogus warnings when installing and then first using legitimate apps.

Norton isn’t a winner in the speed stakes either, achieving an overall score of 89% – although it performed well in the web browsing and application launch tests, which are the activities where you’re most likely to notice a slowdown.

Norton Security Deluxe 2019 | 5 Devices + Utilities| 1 Year | Antivirus Included | PC/Mac/iOS/Android | Activation Code by Post

£34.65 Buy now

Verdict

At the end of the day, equivocal test scores and a mishmash of features make Norton Security hard to really fall in love with. For five devices it’s very affordable though; if you’re looking for a simple yet highly configurable security suite, it deserves a look.

BullGuard Internet Security 2019

2019-02-27T18:18:46+00:00

BullGuard’s latest Internet Security package looks a lot like the 2018 release. The only difference is that the interface has been stretched to include new buttons for identity protection options and the home network scanner – but you’ll have to pay an extra £20 for these as they’re only included in BullGuard’s Premium Protection suite.

Features

BullGuard Internet Security does comes with a reasonable set of features. As well as real-time virus detection, the suite includes its own firewall, plus a safe browsing component to steer you away from dodgy links on Google, Bing, Yahoo and Facebook.

The parental control module is sophisticated, letting you block websites by category for specific accounts, set time limits on internet and computer usage, blacklist apps and block the transmission of certain bits of information.

Bullguard Internet Security 2019 Retail, 3 User (Single), Multi Device Licence, 1 Year

£12.75 Buy now

Refreshingly, BullGuard’s PC tune-up module isn’t an optional extra, but a fully functional component – although you can achieve similar results using Windows’ built-in tools.

Finally, we come to the most distinctive feature – an integrated backup client. This connects to Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive, so you can take advantage of any spare cloud storage you may have knocking around. And a profile system makes it easy to combine this with larger backup jobs to external devices and locations on your local network.

There are a few notable absences: there’s no webcam protection, and while ransomware isn’t as epidemic as it once was, it would have been nice to see an anti-ransomware feature. There’s no secure browser either.

Performance

A 99.9% protection score sounds great, but many of BullGuard's closest rivals, such as Kaspersky and McAfee, scored a perfect 100%.

Similarly, BullGuard’s false-positive rate of 2.1% doesn’t sound too bad, but does not represent a good score when compared with the very best in 2019's security suite field.

Price and verdict

You might be inclined to overlook that when you clock the price: BullGuard Internet Security costs a stiff £50 if you download it directly from the publisher, but boxed copies of last year’s suite – which will update to the latest version on installation – can be found on Amazon for a fifth of the price.

Bullguard Internet Security 2019 Retail, 3 User (Single), Multi Device Licence, 1 Year

£12.75 Buy now

Even so, when your irreplaceable data is at stake, we would suggest that you opt for a package with more encouraging anti-malware credentials.

NordVPN Review

2018-09-20T18:28:32+00:00

NordVPN‘s virtual private network service provides clients and instructions for a wide range of operating systems and devices, with excellent support for international video streaming services.

Features and usability

It’s easy to choose your endpoint from the desktop client, which also provides shortcuts to endpoints with specific extra security features, including double VPN, DDoS protection, Onion routing via the Tor network or support for peer-to-peer torrenting.

Its advanced settings include an option to automatically connect to a VPN when Windows starts and a customisable list of applications that you can apply a Kill Switch to. This means that, if your VPN connection drops, the applications won’t send or receive any data via your standard internet connection, helping to keep you secure.

See: Top UK Tech Reviews

NordVPN has one of the best-value subscriptions around. Two years works out at £55.75, or £2.32 per month, while its annual and monthly subscriptions are about median for the industry. A three-day free trial is available so you can ensure that it provides all the services you need before you commit for an extended period, and those in search of extra anonymity can pay in bitcoin.

The service is owned by TelFinCom, headquartered in Panama. The country has no data retention legislation in force and NordVPN itself has a no-logging policy.

Performance

Transfer speed tests via its UK and Netherlands endpoints maxed out our server’s test connection at around 10.5MB/s. As in previous years, Nord’s weak spot is its US speeds, which came in at 1.8MB/s (14.6Mbit/s) this time around. That’s fine for most purposes, including streaming video, but is a little sluggish compared to both some rival service providers and our non-VPN reference speed of 4.75MB/s.

We were particularly pleased with NordVPN’s performance in our streaming tests – we were able to view region-locked content on Netflix USA, UK and BBC iPlayer. It has a huge number of servers in 62 different countries, which doubtless helps its IP addresses keep off streaming industry blacklists.

Why buy NordVPN?

NordVPN consistently performs well in our tests, with an excellent range of features at low to middling cost, depending on which subscription you opt for. It’s one of the few VPN providers to considently go undetected by Netflix and BBC iPlayer, making it a great option for those who want to watch region-shifted streaming content.

Owned by Panama-based TelFinCom, NordVPN has, at the time of testing, 4247 active servers in 62 countries, from the UK, USA and most of the EU to less commonplace endpoints in Egypt, Vietnam, Taiwan, New Zealand and Russia.

Panama has no data retention legislation in force and NordVPN itself has a no-logging policy. NordVPN says that it runs services in restrictive countries such as Russia by fully configuring the servers it rents from local ISPs itself.

Verdict

If you’re a streaming media enthusiast, NordVPN provides the best combination of features and cost, as well as being an excellent all-round VPN for security. If that’s less important, Private Internet access is cheaper, with faster US connection speeds.