How to do a Thorough VPN Test
VPN usage has grown substantially in the past years. In fact, 25% of Internet users use a VPN at least once a month, and this is seen to grow more in the coming years. This is a pretty overwhelming number since half the world’s population are Internet users! Most of these VPN users find that […]
VPN usage has grown substantially in the past years. In fact, 25% of Internet users use a VPN at least once a month, and this is seen to grow more in the coming years. This is a pretty overwhelming number since half the world’s population are Internet users!
Most of these VPN users find that VPNs are great solutions for privacy and security, but there have been issues associated with it. These issues include logging, and WebRTC and DNS leaks which lead to the exposure of your real IP address and your real identity. While most of these issues can be traced back to unreliable VPN providers, it should be every user’s goal to test their VPNs regularly. You don’t even have to be super tech-savvy to be able to use a VPN, and not much more to test it.
I run one vpn on my mac, another in my windows and then ssh out from inside linux. pic.twitter.com/NpWIWQkEIP
— Scott (@ChinchiIIing) January 16, 2019
Here are tests you can do to make sure that your VPN is safe, and some tips on how to avoid leaks. Keep in mind that we have already done these tests for the top providers we have tested, such as these two right here:
Positives Negatives Conclusion CyberGhost VPN are definitely a top 5 VPN provider. Reading their privacy policy, and the fact that they do allow p2p and torrenting traffic on nearly all servers, you may rank them as your top choice for a VPN if you do a lot of downloading.
Their software has features, like their killswitch, that put them on par with the top of the line VPN clients available. For fun, they also have a cute the animation that makes the experience that much more pleasant. They also benefit from being located in Romania as this country is well known for online privacy rights.
What’s holding them back from the top spot is their connections do drop slightly more often than we'd like, otherwise they might be #1. Their VPN Kill Switch does save you from being exposed, but no problems would be better than a solution to a problem. For the price you pay for their VPN service, one of the lowest in the industry, and all the features of their software, you can’t go wrong when you choose CyberGhost as your VPN provider. I have been using it primarily to download stuff online and it works great. It has great speeds and very minimal loss of connection which is usually handled fast enough by their very reliable customer... View More I love the fact that users data is protected and deleted every 24 hours so my privacy is guaranteed. Their speeds are also remarkably fast and am able to stream my favourite shows without any glitches... View More I do a lot of P2P downloading and have tried quite a number of different VPN services. So far this ranks as the best if your main interest is p2p and torrenting. You will get great speeds as well. Positives Negatives Conclusion ExpressVPN is among the best VPN providers with a software package that will satisfy the needs of most VPN users. Use ExpressVPN if you want:
Expree VPN has given me a consistent connection fast speeds with very limited drops. I am able to comfortably download huge files via P2P and torrenting something that i couldn't do before getting express... View More This is my third month using this service. Over this period i have enjoyed a consistent connection with good speeds and very few drops.Their customer support especially via email are great. You get an... View More Its great for p2p downloading. The speeds are pretty good for uploading and downloading heavy files. Their customer support is friendly and conducts itself in a professional manner.
If you’re willing to pay a premium price for the feature-rich software package and the huge VPN server numbers, then ExpressVPN is a good choice for you. Check them out, or other VPN providers that we’ve tested and reviewed, by clicking on the links below.
VPN test: IP address leak test
VPNs are popular mainly because they hide your real IP address and mask it with their own. This process ensures that your identity and activities remain private – you are virtually anonymous. However, a study by CSIRO in 2017 revealed that 84% of VPN providers leak user data. While the study involved 283 free Android VPN apps (which are universally terrible and not what we recommend on our site), which skews the data quite a bit in a bad way, it’s still important to check for leaks even when you are on a paid subscription plan.
To check if you have an IP address leak, test your VPN by going to https://ipleak.net/ or https://ipleak.org/. If your real IP address is reflected in any of these sites, then there’s an IP leak.
Oftentimes, IP leaks are not intended by the VPN provider. Leakage can happen when the VPN connection drops for a moment while you are connected to the network and visiting some sites. During the few seconds that the VPN connection drops, your real IP address is exposed to the website or application you’re visiting.
This is why it is important to choose a VPN provider that has a high uptime. We’ve tested several providers with impressive uptime rate, and even one with zero drops in connection for weeks. Zero drops is rare even for top-tier VPN providers because of external factors – ISP latency, misconfigured firewall, and weak signal strengths, among many others.
Yeah, your VPN connection might just drop and your computer keeps sending traffic.
A simple software firewall mostly prevents this as well. Many VPN providers actually offer some sort of "kill switch" feature.
— jomo@mstdn.io (@0xjomo) March 23, 2018
The best VPN providers – those who are truly out there to hide your IP address and identity – have come up with a Kill Switch feature that will prevent accidental IP leakage. Users have the option to turn this feature on or off, but the ideal is to turn the Kill Switch feature on all the time. When the VPN connection drops, the Kill Switch feature automatically shuts down the network connection too so you won’t be exposed.
VPN test: DNS leak test
A DNS, or Domain Name System, is a naming system that translates a website name (which is easy for people to remember) into a set of numbers called an IP address which is more readable for your computer. Here’s a quick video that will tell you what a DNS is and how it has helped with the dynamics of people using the Internet.
A DNS leak happens when the DNS requests still goes to the default DNS server instead of the VPN’s own DNS server. The default DNS servers are usually the ones maintained by your ISP. This may not be your VPN provider’s fault though. Your operating system (especially Windows) can actually ignore the fact that you are using a VPN and routes DNS requests to the default server. The effect of a DNS leak is two-fold:
- It gives your ISP a snapshot of what you’re doing online. Although your ISP won’t know everything you did such as what items you bought online or what web pages you spent a lot of time on, the information they can get is enough to create an online profile of you which they can sell to data brokers or use for their ad targeting.
- It leaks your ISP’s IP address and location to the websites you’re visiting. Although it’s not your IP address that’s directly leaked, this information is still enough to trace your IP address.
So how do you do a VPN DNS leak test? First, connect to a VPN server located outside your country. Go to https://www.dnsleaktest.com/ or http://dnsleak.com/. If you see your ISP’s IP address and location, then there is definitely a DNS leak.
HOW TO CHECK IF YOUR #VPN IS SECURE OR LEAKING #privacy #crypto #dnsleak https://t.co/ea7jHGHxaa pic.twitter.com/cA71EuwEqs
— Freedom Hacker (@FreedomHackerr) September 6, 2016
The method described above is quite risky since you are connected to the Internet, and the presence of a DNS leak makes you vulnerable. Thankfully, there is another way to do a DNS leak test without needing to connect to the Internet. Follow the steps below:
- Open the command prompt and type: ping [server name] -n 1.
- Choose any of these server names:
whoami.akamai.net
whoami.fluffcomputing.com
resolver.dnscrypt.org
whoami.ultradns.net
- Wait for the results to finish loading.
- If you see your real IP address in any of the addresses that are shown in the results, then there is a DNS leak.
Like the IP leak issue discussed in the previous section, VPN providers have also developed ways to prevent DNS leaks. Here are ways to prevent DNS leaks while using a VPN:
- Choose a VPN provider that has DNS leak protection which is a feature that ensures all your DNS requests are within the encrypted tunnel. We’ve tested several VPN providers with this feature, and compared test results with those that don’t, and the difference is significant. There is almost always a possibility of a DNS leak.
- Choose a VPN that has its own DNS server. Some providers we reviewed even have this “zero knowledge DNS” where nothing about you is stored on their servers.
- If you are using a VPN with the latest OpenVPN protocol, you can add this line to the .conf or .ovpn file: block-outside-dns.
- Make sure that your VPN provider is IPv6-capable.
- Disable Teredo if you’re using Windows.
- Change your device or router’s DNS settings.
As you can see, these methods to protect yourself from DNS leak all boil down to one thing: choosing the right VPN provider. The best VPN providers have anti-DNS leak measures that will ensure they’ll pass when you do a DNS leak test.
VPN test: WebRTC leak test
WebRTC is a useful innovation that allows real-time voice, video chat, and P2P file sharing within the browser without the need for browser extensions. However, it poses a privacy and security threat to VPN users since it reveals the user’s real IP address. Even the best VPN providers are vulnerable, especially since WebRTC is enabled by default in most browsers.
To check if you are experiencing a WebRTC leak, go to https://browserleaks.com/webrtc or https://ipleak.net/.
To avoid a WebRTC leak, you need to disable WebRTC in your browser. It’s easy to do with some browsers such as Chrome for Android, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge, while for some browsers, you need to install addons. The section below will guide you in disabling WebRTC in different browsers:
How to disable WebRTC in Chrome for Android
- Type chrome://flags/#disable-webrtc in the browser’s address bar and tap Enter.
- Under the WebRTC STUN header, tap Enable.
- Restart your phone.
How to disable WebRTC in Chrome and Opera
Unlike its Android version, Chrome for desktop doesn’t have a built-in way to disable WebRTC. The same is true for Opera. However, there are extensions that you can add to help prevent WebRTC leaks, and here are some examples:
These extensions can block websites from collecting your IP address, but they do not fix the IP leak. Your IP address can still be stored in some websites.
How to disable WebRTC in Firefox
There are extensions in Mozilla Firefox that can help prevent WebRTC leak, but you can do it directly in the browser which is better. Here’s how you do it:
- Type about:config in the address bar and press Enter.
- Click on the “I accept the risk!” option.
- In the Search box under the address bar, type in media.peerconnection.enabled.
- Double-click on the search result and change the Value column to false.
How to disable WebRTC in Safari
For Safari on macOS, follow these steps to disable WebRTC:
- Go to Safari > Preferences.
- Go to the Advanced tab.
- Mark the “Show Develop menu in menu bar” checkbox. The Develop menu will now be accessible.
- Click on Develop > Experiment Features and mark the “Remove Legacy WebRTC API” option.
For Safari for iOS, follow these instructions:
- Go to Settings > Safari.
- Scroll down and tap on Advanced.
- Tap on Experimental Features.
- Toggle off the “Remove Legacy WebRTC API” option.
How to disable WebRTC in Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge
Follow these steps to disable WebRTC in Microsoft Edge:
- Enter about:flags in the address bar.
- Check the box that says “Hide my local IP address over WebRTC connections.”
- Restart the browser.
Internet Explorer does not support WebRTC, so you shouldn’t have any WebRTC leak problem with it. We included WebRTC leak tests when we ranked the top VPN providers.
How to do a VPN speed test
Aside from the IP, DNS, and WebRTC leak tests discussed above, you also want to regularly test the speed of your VPN. We also test the speed of the VPNs we review because we understand that latency is one of the most common issues encountered by VPN users. This is especially true when you use a VPN for streaming or gaming.
VPN speed is actually affected by several factors such as the following:
- Location of the VPN server: The farther you are from the VPN server you’re connected to, the more it takes for all data to travel. If possible, choose the nearest VPN server.
- The speed from your ISP: If your Internet connection is slow to begin with, your VPN connection will naturally suffer too. Take note also that most ISPs throttle the speed of your connection when you visit certain entertainment and gaming sites. Using a VPN can actually speed up your connection in this case.
- Level of encryption: There is a trade-off between speed and security because the encryption process takes time. The heavier the encryption, the more time it takes to complete.
Why you should be using #encryption in 2016 #IPBill #VPN #tor #ppint https://t.co/4VVh90O4L6 pic.twitter.com/ANMs5yrum8
— PPI Activism (@PPI_Activism) May 23, 2016
- Number of users on the VPN server: If there are a lot of cars on a lane, traffic will be heavier. This is also true with VPNs. The more users there are on a VPN server, the slower the connection will be. With a good VPN provider, you can always switch to a server with fewer people. A few will even do this for your automatically.
With these factors in mind, you can do a VPN speed test by going to https://www.speedtest.net/, http://speedof.me/, or https://fast.com/. When we compared the speed of our connection without a VPN and with the VPNs we reviewed, the difference is only within 85% to 95%.
What if these VPN tests prove there’s a leak?
Finding out that there’s a leak in your system can be quite unnerving since you are using a VPN for anonymity, privacy, and security. You don’t want anyone to get hold of your personal data! If you’re still experiencing IP, DNS or WebRTC leaks even after putting up measures to avoid it, contact your VPN provider’s support team. There might be an issue on their end that is causing the leakage while using a VPN.
If worse comes to worst, save yourself from the hassle and change your VPN provider to one of these high-quality providers we have tested.
- Unlimited bandwidth and speed
- 3,670+ servers in 60+ countries
- 7 Simultaneous Connections
- No Logging & Accepts CryptoCurrency
- 45 Day Refund Policy
Positives
Negatives
Conclusion
CyberGhost VPN are definitely a top 5 VPN provider. Reading their privacy policy, and the fact that they do allow p2p and torrenting traffic on nearly all servers, you may rank them as your top choice for a VPN if you do a lot of downloading. Their software has features, like their killswitch, that put them on par with the top of the line VPN clients available. For fun, they also have a cute the animation that makes the experience that much more pleasant. They also benefit from being located in Romania as this country is well known for online privacy rights. What’s holding them back from the top spot is their connections do drop slightly more often than we'd like, otherwise they might be #1. Their VPN Kill Switch does save you from being exposed, but no problems would be better than a solution to a problem. For the price you pay for their VPN service, one of the lowest in the industry, and all the features of their software, you can’t go wrong when you choose CyberGhost as your VPN provider.
I have been using it primarily to download stuff online and it works great. It has great speeds and very minimal loss of connection which is usually handled fast enough by their very reliable customer... View More
I love the fact that users data is protected and deleted every 24 hours so my privacy is guaranteed. Their speeds are also remarkably fast and am able to stream my favourite shows without any glitches... View More
I do a lot of P2P downloading and have tried quite a number of different VPN services. So far this ranks as the best if your main interest is p2p and torrenting. You will get great speeds as well.
- Huge server network
- Wide variety of countries
- Available on many operating systems
- Easy connectivity
- Little information on VPN client features
Positives
Negatives
Conclusion
ExpressVPN is among the best VPN providers with a software package that will satisfy the needs of most VPN users. Use ExpressVPN if you want:
- A ‘one button’ approach to connectivity.
- A consistent connection speed with few drops.
- To be able to download via P2P and torrenting.
- A wide range of server host countries for unlocking geo-blocked content.
- IP, DNS, and IPv6 leaks protection.
Expree VPN has given me a consistent connection fast speeds with very limited drops. I am able to comfortably download huge files via P2P and torrenting something that i couldn't do before getting express... View More
This is my third month using this service. Over this period i have enjoyed a consistent connection with good speeds and very few drops.Their customer support especially via email are great. You get an... View More
Its great for p2p downloading. The speeds are pretty good for uploading and downloading heavy files. Their customer support is friendly and conducts itself in a professional manner.
- Unlimited Bandwidth & Speed
- 1300+ servers in 60+ countries
- 10 Simultaneous Connections
- No Logging
- 7-Day Money Back Guarantee
Positives
Negatives
Conclusion
Apart from the obvious reasons like high-speed performance and impressive customer protection, there are several other elements that have made IPVanish a one-of-a-kind VPN provider:
- Reliability of connections
- Speed of connections
- Dedication to privacy and anonymity
- Commendable customer support
- Exceptional Tier 1 network
- Thorough support categories
- Competitive prices
- Unlimited Bandwidth & No Speed Limits
- 650+ Servers in 26 countries
- Up to 12 Simultaneous Connections
- No Logging & Accepts CryptoCurrency
- 30-day Money-back Guarantee
Positives
Negatives
Conclusion
While the company may not have the broadest and most impressive VPN network in the world, it has over 660 servers in some of the most popular countries in the world. StrongVPN’s software is more or less adequate, but at times, switching between servers can be clunky. The pricing can be considered at the industry average, and you receive a reliable VPN service in return. If you’re searching for a long-term VPN plan, the yearly package is affordable and recommended. StrongVPN’s customer support service is above-average and really impressed us. Its on-page content sections feature a lot of useful information, including guides, FAQs, and how-to articles. The support team can be reached via email, phone, or live chat. Our experience with the support team was surprisingly positive; during our live chat, the agents responded promptly and with a friendly, informative attitude. The company has solid customer protection policies, with its “Zero-Logging” policy particularly standing out. All in all, we recommend StrongVPN for anyone who wants to do browsing, torrenting and P2P, video and music streaming (including Netflix), or geo-unblocking.
I got strongvpn during my first ever trip to Africa where was going to work for an year. I had read about geoblocking in most parts of Africa and couldn't think of missing out on netflix and other stuff... View More
Their 7 day money back guarantee is what caught my attention and from then on i have been their customer for the last 8 months. The speeds are very good and i have had very few instances where i have ... View More
I paid for the service after learning that they offer a 7 day money back guarantee. I didnt want to risk my money in a service that would fail me. Luckily it turned out to be exactly what i had wished... View More
- 70+ Locations / 100% 1st-Party VPN Servers
- 30-Day Money Back Guarantee
- Bypass VPN Detection / Smart IP Address
- 30 Simultaneous Connections
- Audited No-Log VPN
Positives
Negatives
Conclusion
VyprVPN does many things very well, and their partnership with SpiderOak for encrypted storage is a real bonus. Use it if you need encrypted storage that is also transported with top-notch encryption. With 15+ years of experience in the Internet industry, and a strong dedication to privacy from spying, VyprVPN offers you an exceptional Tier-1 network. Everything you do with them, including billing, their server network, and support, is handled by VyprVPN and the Golden Frog Network parent company. VyprVPN is recommended for those who want to do general browsing, video streaming, and to unlock geo-blocked content. Their no-logging policy also makes them a great option for those seeking to download torrents and stream anonymously. It is also great on public Wi-Fi for anti-hacker defense. They have above-average pricing, but their extra features and Tier-1 network do make them a good deal if you are looking for exactly what they offer.
I came across a feature about Vyprvpn Chameleon encryption. With this technology am able to bypass restrictive networks put in place by governments, corporations and ISPs to achieve an open internet experience... View More
This is my third month using vyprvpn and so far everything has been as i had anticipated. The speeds are great and i am able to stream stuff that i previously couldn't from this region due to geo blocking... View More
VyprVPN has been my VPN service provider for the last 2 years working in the horn of Africa. I am able to access most sites that some of the states in this region have blocked. These guys offer a reliable... View More