personal VPN recommendations?

This may be old stuff to some people, but I've done a handful of searches over the last couple of days and I just haven't found much. Here's my question: I'm wanting to use a personal VPN at an apartment building that has unsecured wifi, and I'm wanting any reviews, comments, etc. from anyone who has purchased their own, or used a freebie. I've so far downloaded iPig,

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has worked fairly well, but I've also been looking at "personalVPN" from WiTopia. iPig is limited to a 10 MB bandwidth on their free service, or you can purchase (I believe) 30000 MB for $30. I'm a bit confused about the bandwidth issue. I assume this means you can download 10 MB worth of whatever, but is that total or for a certain period of time? Or, for the $30, does that mean you're limited to 30GB of download and then you must pay another $30? I think there is an assumption with this jargon that I've missed.

Any recommendations or advice will be muchly appreciated.

Mark

Reply to
Mark Rathgeber
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I use Witopia. At $40/year, it worked very well for me and has no download limit.

Larry

Reply to
Larry Finger

The first 10MBytes of traffic is free. Anything over that, you pay.

There's a list of VPN vendors in the FAQ at:

I've used IPig and Jiwire. Both work but I prefer to use the VPN server provided by a friend, or the one at various ISP's. Many ISP's provide VPN service. For example:

You might want to check with your ISP if they have one available or are planning to setup a VPN server.

I also use my own VPN server located in my router. It's PPTP which comes with Windoze, so there's no additional client. The problem is speed. My DSL outgoing bandwidth is only 768Kbit/sec, which is the speed of my VPN when going through my router. I only use it for a fast email check as it's too slow for downloading. If your home system is on much faster cable internet, it might be more usable.

I also tried the free iPig server (free for up to 5 users) instead of terminating the VPN in the router. It worked about the same as the PPTP VPN in the router. However, since it requires that I leave a computer running at my house, I decided it wasn't for me.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

This still doesn't quite answer my question. 10MB per what unit of time? 10 MB total, per second, minute? There's an assumption with this lingo that I have apparently missed.

If it is 10 MB total, I would think you would use this up pretty quickly, and if it's 30 GB for $30, I would think you would go through those increments quickly also, although I really don't know.

MR

Reply to
Mark Rathgeber

My guess(tm) is that it's per year. The English on the web pile is vague and lacking in detail. The clue is that if you click on the "purchase" link on the iPig page at:

it says: "Add 30000 MB of bandwidth to your iPig account. For most users, 30000 MB of bandwidth will last for a whole year of using the iPig public server. Unused bandwidth expires one year after purchase. Secure your wireless connections now with iPig!" So, you get 10MBytes free for testing, and have to wait a year before you can do it again. Like the page says, it's only a "test" account to see how it works.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Well, now, THAT makes sense. I guess I'm becoming an old f*rt. Ever since college physics class, ( a LONG time ago), I'm at times obsessive about units, or the lack thereof, and I've always been a bit puzzled anytime a number is attached to "bandwidth," which itself puzzles me, because when I think of bandwidth, I think of the shortwave radio spectrum. How's that for a tangent? Anyway, I didn't read every bit of their fine print, and this clears up this issue, at least. Many thanks, and have a good Sunday.

Mark

Reply to
Mark Rathgeber

Thanks. I'm having a traditional Sunday, where I do repairs and favors for friends and neighbors. It's just like work except I don't get paid.

Bandwidth is a really awful term. It's a muddle of baud rate, TCP thruput, UDP thruput, RF data rate (for wireless), bytes per nebulous time interval, and marketing hype. To insure maximum confusion, KB can be 1024 bits or 1000 bits. Consider yourself fortunate not having to deal with it every day.

Incidentally, I'm 60.7 years old and am currently a curmudgeon. Old fart comes somewhat later.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

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