Related to this post I just created.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskACanadian/s/0WlByKhMw9
I need access to my bank and investment accounts and as it appears, in China you can’t get Reddit either nor ( of course,WhatsApp and Gmail).
I’ve been risking it for too long paying my bills remotely when my son picks up the mail at home.
I have heard of NordVPN and my browser is Avast, which offers their own. But I want to know what else is out there that people actually use and what to look out for.
Thanks.
Mullvad. €5/month, no recurring payments, no logs.
VPNs that I see recommended here don’t work in China. Use Astrill. Yes, it’s a bit more expensive but it works well.
I work in IT and do networking, I don’t use a VPN for ‘security’.
The purpose of a VPN is to get you on a different network. Like you connect to your company’s office network so that you can access file shares, servers and other infrastructure that is on this network, not accessible from the public internet.
Sure you might go through some level of security systems, like UTM or Zero Trust/application aware scanning and detection, but that is irrespective of VPNs, any device in the office network goes through the same, and you can get this kind of security without a VPN.
All web traffic is https and encrypted, a VPN is really just masking your location. The exception would be if you’re on some kind of a network where you had to install some kind of security certificate, this is called man in the middle inspection, and it’s so the network you’re on can decrypt and read everything you do before re-encrypting it back to the destination. Companies commonly do this with their networks and VPNs as part of their own security. I would never install a certificate to get on a network on a personal computer under any circumstances.
I use Surfshark, but I only picked that one because there was a discount code on YouTube. I’ve happy with it’s speed and it’s always turn on on my phone.
Express VPN which I was told works in China but I haven’t been there in a long time so I haven’t tested it.
I use TunnelBear, works great for me
ProtonVPN which is included if you have a paid ProtonMail account
Vpns don’t do anything for security. Don’t waste your money. All vpns do is hide your activity from your network. What that means is you can still be hacked on a website on your computer and those are the places a hacker is going to Target anyway. The real use case for VPN is bypassing content rules about the country you’re in. Your bank website is perfectly secure without VPN. That is what SSL is for.
Can Canadians subscribers pay in CAD?
BTW eSims should have uncensored internet.
My free Avast antivirus every few weeks keep notifying me on my laptop that my location is exposed, amongst other things.
So you’re saying it’s not the threat it appears to be?
How about my phone? Not that I use my phone for anything financial, but the great firewall of China is really restrictive. There’s no Google Map, Gmail, reddit, or my usual news channel. So VPN will be useful here, but… only in China. Would it be worth it anywhere else?
Yes
Stay anonymous all the way. Just put your cash and payment token (randomly generated on our website) in an envelope and send it to us. We accept the following currencies: EUR, USD, GBP, SEK, NOK, CHF, CAD, AUD, NZD.
Their prices are in euros but you can pay the CAD equivalent. They charge 5 EUR a month which is about $7.36 CAD.
We accept cash, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Monero, bank wire, credit card, PayPal, Swish, Giropay, Eps transfer, Bancontact, iDEAL, and Przelewy24.
There is a 10% discount if you pay in cryptocurrency due to the lower transaction fees.
Our accepted cryptocurrencies are discounted at 10% due to lower fees and less administration.
Source: https://mullvad.net/en/pricing
Your location is exposed in the same way your area code on your phone number exposes your location. It doesn’t really mean anything, and locations can be spoofed easy as pie.
As others have pointed out, the one useful thing a VPN does is get around location based barriers, so those things like you mentioned are able to work.
That part has nothing to do with security though, ISP’s equipment in China is just blocking traffic to those services, like not allowing phone calls to a certain number. When you get on a VPN you are essentially connecting to someone elses phone, in a different country and then dialing these services where they’re not blocked.
We accept the following currencies: EUR, USD, GBP, SEK, NOK, CHF, CAD, AUD, NZD.
Source: https://mullvad.net/en/pricing
When you get on a VPN you are essentially connecting to someone elses phone, in a different country and then dialing these services where they’re not blocked.
What I’m planning to do is get an eSim that will work in as many countries as I will be planning to travel in the future including Hong Kong and China.
So if I get a VPN, it might only be used when I go to China. Would that be worth it?
That’s if you pay cash. Meaning putting physical currency in an envelope and mailing it to them. If you pay by card, it’s €5 and your credit card converts it to your local currency.
Yes, very good, that’s how credit cards work.
There are numerous international businesses that will accept your local currency and do the conversion on their end. E.g. Amazon US will ask if you want the charge in CAD or USD. This is different than them charging you in USD and your credit card converting to CAD.