Free OpenVPN vs paid vpn's

[brainhulk]

So my brother set me up with an openvpn he installed on my pfsense router computer.

What advantages do the paid ones have over the free one he set up for me?

 

[BarkingGhostar]

Nothing is free. You are paying for in a way you just don't know. Maybe they are data mining your traffic?

 

[Spacehead]

These ones were just caught with their logs down:
UFO VPN
Fast VPN
Free VPN
Super VPN
Flash VPN
Secure VPN
Rabbit VPN

They claimed they did't keep a log of users activity but the logs were found on the internet. Whoops!
"one billion database entries associated with approximately 20 million users"

In your search of VPN's check this site out. **I am not an expert on VPN's**
https://www.vpnmentor.com/

 

[brainhulk]

These ones were just caught with their logs down:
UFO VPN
Fast VPN
Free VPN
Super VPN
Flash VPN
Secure VPN
Rabbit VPN

They claimed they did't keep a log of users activity but the logs were found on the internet. Whoops!
"one billion database entries associated with approximately 20 million users"

In your search of VPN's check this site out. **I am not an expert on VPN's**
https://www.vpnmentor.com/

Hmmm that website gave good reviews on the one im using.

OpenVPN Review 2024 - Keep This in Mind Before Buying

OpenVPN review from experts and real users. Find out what everyday users and our experts think about OpenVPN after testing

www.vpnmentor.com

Business VPN For Secure Networking | OpenVPN

OpenVPN is a network security company serving the secure remote access needs of small businesses to the enterprise. Our on-prem and cloud-based products offer the essentials of zero trust network access and are built on the leading OpenVPN tunneling protocol.

openvpn.net

 

[Iron Woode]

there is a VPN thread in Security sub-forum.

 

[rh71]

Aren't there deals for paid fairly often? Slickdeals says yes. I am on TorGuard for $30 per year for its duration. Chump change.

Free is free for a reason... either transfer limits, security issues, your data, or all...

 

[Platypus]

don't use a paid VPN service if you care about the traffic that passes through it.

 

[sdifox]

Depends on your usage. If it is just your bro connecting to the plex sitting at your house, free is fine.

 

[Iron Woode]

Aren't there deals for paid fairly often? Slickdeals says yes. I am on TorGuard for $30 per year for its duration. Chump change.

Free is free for a reason... either transfer limits, security issues, your data, or all...

That is correct.

I use SurfShark and paid $65 CDN for 2 years.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

I'm using VPN.ac at US$53/year with my Gigabit fiber connection and most times seeing 400Mbps downstream throughput on the VPN connection (twice that without). No caps.

 

[manly]

Depends on your usage. If it is just your bro connecting to the plex sitting at your house, free is fine.

You're right.
As per OP's later links, OpenVPN is open source VPN software if you want to roll your own. It's not the name of a commercial VPN service like everyone else assumed. It's unclear what the OP's brother is actually doing. Did he create a VPN from himself to the pfsense server? Or did he connect pfsense to a commercial service using an OpenVPN client?

 

[brainhulk]

You're right.
As per OP's later links, OpenVPN is open source VPN software if you want to roll your own. It's not the name of a commercial VPN service like everyone else assumed. It's unclear what the OP's brother is actually doing. Did he create a VPN from himself to the pfsense server? Or did he connect pfsense to a commercial service using an OpenVPN client?

He used the OpenVPN software to create his own VPN on my pfsense server at my house.

 

[manly]

He used the OpenVPN software to create his own VPN on my pfsense server at my house.

Right, that's your side of the VPN. What about the other side? His house or a commercial VPN service?
Do you know why he put OpenVPN on your router?

OpenVPN is open source, and it works fine and is used in many places behind the scenes. It's not frequently used on client PCs because the UX tends to suck (especially on Windows).

 

[brainhulk]

Right, that's your side of the VPN. What about the other side? His house or a commercial VPN service?
Do you know why he put OpenVPN on your router?

OpenVPN is open source, and it works fine and is used in many places behind the scenes. It's not frequently used on client PCs because the UX tends to suck (especially on Windows).

I don't think it is commercial service. He said everything was free. I mentioned to him my work blocks some sites so he set it up for me just to experiment and it works. He also said it is private and the only possible 3rd party that would be able to see the traffic would be my ISP frontier communications. I don't think the pfsense server uses windows. I think he uses linux or ubuntu.

 

[kt]

I don't think it is commercial service. He said everything was free. I mentioned to him my work blocks some sites so he set it up for me just to experiment and it works. He also said it is private and the only possible 3rd party that would be able to see the traffic would be my ISP frontier communications. I don't think the pfsense server uses windows. I think he uses linux or ubuntu.

Ok, what your brother did is setting up OpenVPN server on the pfSense router so that you can connect to it from work to bypass your work firewall.

The difference between your setup and the paid ones, if they don't keep activity logs, is anonymity.

 

[sciencewhiz]

I mentioned to him my work blocks some sites so he set it up for me just to experiment and it works.

This sounds like a great way to get fired. While they won't be able to see that what sites you are browsing to, they will be able to see that you're using a VPN. From there, they can investigate further.