Mar 15, 2014. IVPN head office is located in Malta. They currently provide VPN connections using 15 servers spread across 10 countries worldwide (USA, Canada, Iceland, UK, Netherlands, Germany, Romania, France, Switzerland and Hong Kong). Unfortunately, the information on the number of IP addresses that they. Try IVPN free for 3 days risk free. Use IVPN on all your devices with a single subscription. You will find cheaper VPN services but you won’t find a better one. Aug 31, 2017 IVPN won't win any awards for the depth of its service, but the company offers good speeds in key locations and varying levels of anonymity.
Is a Gibraltar-based company that provides VPN services. It was founded back in 2009 by a group of information security professionals, who first met while doing their Msc in Information Security at University of London., team IVPN consists of professionals having decades of experience with large clients, including governments as well those from the finance field.
“We only use proven open-source technologies, bringing you the best value and most secure VPN possible,” the company says. For what it’s worth, IVPN is also an organizational member of EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation). Servers and locations IVPN doesn’t explicitly say how many servers it has as well as in which countries they are located. However, the company’s official website does contain a dedicated ‘Server Status’ page that lets you monitor the IVPN network in real time. A quick look at that page reveals that the company currently has over 20 servers located across 10+ countries around the world.
Some of these countries include the US, UK, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, France, and Canada. For the complete list, head. Supported VPN protocols IVPN only supports OpenVPN and L2TP/PSK (IPsec) protocols. “We do not support PPTP nor IKEv2,” the company on its website. Usage IVPN is compatible with most of the major OS platforms, including Windows (XP, 7, 8, 10), Mac OS, Linux, iOS, Windows Phone, and Android, with native clients available for Windows 7, 8, 10, and Mac OS only.
However, detailed setup guides are available for all supported platforms, including DD-WRT, Tomato, and pfSense routers. More information. Pricing and payment methods IVPN offers a total of three subscription packages: monthly, quarterly, and annually. While the first two cost $15 and around $13.5 per month, the yearly package carries a price tag of $100, which translates into around $8.5 per month. For more information on subscription and pricing, head. While those prices are comparatively on the higher side, thankfully – unlike many of its contemporaries – IVPN does offer a free trial (for 3 days though), allowing you to judge whether or not the service is worth spending money on. What’s more, even if you purchase a subscription, and are not satisfied with the service, you can still claim for a full refund within the first 7 days.
“If however you are unsatisfied with the service for any reason whatsoever you can request a full refund within 7 days of your service being activated,” the company on its official website. “In exceptional circumstances e.g. There is a technical issue which prevents you from connecting, we may refund your account up to 30 days after your service being activated.” As for the supported payment modes, IVPN’s website suggests that Bitcoin, PayPal and all major credit cards are accepted. You can also pay in cash, but that option is you’re purchasing the annual subscription package.
Another important point worth noting here is that the 3-day free trial we mentioned above is only available to those who signup using a credit card or PayPal. Limit on simultaneous connections While there’s no limit on the number of devices on which you can install IVPN’s software, the service doesn’t allow you to connect from more than 3 devices simultaneously. “Our terms of service do not permit the sharing of accounts with another person (including within a single household etc).
We recommend using a VPN router for household access,” the company. However, those in need of more connections are advised to contact IVPN’s support team.
Privacy We reached out to the team behind IVPN with a list of questions about their service. Here are their answers to some of our privacy-related queries: Q. Do you keep ANY logs which would allow you to match an IP-address and a time-stamp to a user of your service?
If so, what information and for how long? No, this is fundamental to the service we provide. It is also in our interests not to do so as it minimizes our own liability and is not required by law. Is BitTorrent and other file-sharing traffic allowed on all servers? Yes, we don’t block BitTorrent or any other protocol on any of our servers. We do kindly request that our customers use non-USA based exit servers for P2P. Any company receiving a large number of DMCA notices is exposing themselves to legal action and our upstream providers have threatened to disconnect our servers in the past.
Which payment systems do you use and how are these linked to individual user accounts? We accept Bitcoin, Cash, PayPal and credit cards.
When using cash there is no link to a user account within our system. When using Bitcoin, we store the Bitcoin transaction ID in our system.
If you wish to remain anonymous to IVPN you should take the necessary precautions when purchasing Bitcoin. When paying with PayPal or a credit card a token is stored that is used to process recurring payments. This information is deleted immediately when an account is terminated.
What is the most secure VPN connection and encryption algorithm you would recommend to your users? Do you provide DNS leak protection and tools such as “kill switches” if a connection drops? We provide RSA-4096 / AES-256 with OpenVPN, which we believe is more than secure enough for our customers’ needs. If you are the target of a state level adversary or other such well-funded body you should be far more concerned with increasing your general opsec than worrying about 2048 vs 4096 bit keys. The IVPN client offers an advanced VPN firewall that blocks every type of IP leak possible (DNS, network failures, WebRTC STUN, IPv6 etc.). It also has an ‘always on’ mode that will be activated on boot before any process on the computer starts.
This will ensure than no packets are ever able to leak outside of the VPN tunnel. While, that’s certainly some useful information, here are some more privacy-related points that we want you to know: • IVPN doesn’t offer static IPs. Here’s what the company has to say about it: “We feel that most customers do not understand the inherent loss of privacy and anonymity associated with using a dedicated IP. When using a shared IP, your traffic is intermixed with all server traffic significantly mitigating against traffic analysis.” • The service also allows you to make multihop connections for even better anonymity and privacy, although IVPN does admit that this additional security comes at the cost of slightly slower performance.
Read more about it. • As for the information IVPN collects, the company it only requires a working email address, which is used to facilitate password resets and send important security updates related to the service. However, IVPN does store some information related to payments (depending on the payment mode opted). • IVPN also a Warrant Canary every month to keep users informed in case if any warrant is served to the company, or any searches or seizures take place. • IVPN is subject to EU law and is in compliance with the EU Data Protection Directive (Directive 95/46/EC) • IVPN uses Piwik as their web analytics platform. Read why the company thinks it’s important. • IVPN maintains a pool of 3-5 IPs per server.
IVPN in brief: P2P allowed: Yes (company asks users not to use U.S. Servers) Business location: Gibraltar Number of servers: 36 Number of country locations: 13 Cost: $100 per year When it comes down to it, there are really two kinds of VPNs: those that promise an unbelievable number of country connections and those that don’t.
This review is looking at a service of the latter type. Is a small service officially based in Gibraltar that offers what you need in a VPN, including the right privacy promises, excellent speeds in at least some regions, and an easy-to-use Windows app. The company’s mobile support for Android could use a little more work, but no service is perfect. Note: This review is part of our roundup. Go there for details about competing products and how we tested them. Features and services Ian Paul/IDG IVPN’s Single Hop tab. IVPN’s Windows app is very basic when you first fire it up.
Similar to other VPNs such as it uses a small single-pane window. There are only two tabs in the window: Single Hop and Multi Hop. If you’re not familiar with Multi Hop, it’s a feature that allows you to connect through two VPN servers instead of the usual one, to further obscure your IP address. Using the Single Hop option is simple enough.
You click on the Server panel at the top of the tab to change the location if need be, and then click Connect. Once you start connecting, IVPN has a firewall setting that will block all internet traffic should the VPN drop its connection. Otherwise all internet traffic goes through the VPN. Ian Paul/IDG Multi Hop lets you route your internet connection through two servers instead of one. Multi Hop works pretty much the same except that instead of choosing one server you choose two. One is marked as the entry server—the server you connect to first—and the other is the exit server.
The exit server is the one where you connect with the wider internet and its location is where your traffic will appear to be coming from. IVPN’s settings, available from the top-right corner of the window, don’t offer a ton of options.
The General tab has some basic settings such as starting at login (not enabled by default) and the option to automatically connect to the last server on startup. There’s also an option to automatically connect to the server you last used when you’re on an insecure Wi-Fi network.
The Connection tab lets advanced users specify UDP or TDP protocols and ports. IPVPN Firewall gives you an option to have it “always on,” which means that when the program is active, it will block all internet traffic even when not connected to the VPN. If you’re going to use that option make sure you also tell IVPN to start at login under the General tab. Finally, the Diagnostics tab lets you enable logging should you need support help from IVPN. That’s all there is to IVPN’s Windows app. It’s incredibly simple, without a lot of options.
One annoyance I had with it is that the program cannot be dismissed from the taskbar without shutting it down. That means that as long as your VPN connection is active IVPN has to sit on your taskbar despite the fact that there’s also an icon in the system tray.
IVPN also offers apps for Mac and iOS, as well as instructions for how to set up the VPN on Linux, Android, routers, and NAS boxes. IVPN also has a nice guides section with helpful information, including and. Performance Ian Paul/IDG IVPN’s app with an active connection. IVPN’s overall speed score was only about 33 percent of the base speed, but that doesn’t tell the whole story of its capabilities.
The service has some of the best speeds we’ve tested for U.S and UK connections. Connection was 55 percent of the base speed, while the UK connection was 74 percent. Other areas weren’t so strong. The German connection was surprisingly weak. Most other VPNs have fast speeds out of Germany, but IVPNs at the time of our testing was the second slowest. Hong Kong was pretty good at nearly 20Mbps, and Iceland (standing in for the lack of an Australian server) was lethargic, not even breaking 3Mbps in our test. If you need an Icelandic server IVPN may not be for you, but if you’re only interested in speedy UK and U.S.
Servers IVPN is well worth looking. Privacy, anonymity, and trust Similar to many other VPNs, IVPN only asks for your email when signing up. This requirement tries to strike a balance between knowing as little as possible about you, while having enough information to keep you engaged as a customer. It’s not the gold standard that Mullvad achieves by knowing nearly nothing about you, but it’s not bad. If you need the best anonymity possible don’t use one of your primary email addresses when signing up. Once you’re signed up, IVPN assigns you a nondescript username using a combination of letters and numbers for connecting to the VPN.
Your email, meanwhile is used to sign in to the web area where your account details are. The password is the same for both. Payment options include credit cards, PayPal, Bitcoin, and cash. Most of those are run-of-the-mill for VPNs, with the exception of cash, which is rarer but not uncommon. These options allow you to pay with varying levels of anonymity, depending on your comfort level.
Ian Paul/IDG IVPN’s settings window. IVPN’s mailing address is Privatus Limited, 5 Secretary’s Lane, Gibraltar, GX11 1AA, according to the company’s. The company’s CEO is Nicholas Pestell and the chief technical officer is Fedir Nepyivoda. Other members of the team appear on the, but without last names. Although the company’s offices are in Gibraltar, the team appears to be spread out through the world. A number of employees appear to be based in Ukraine based on some basic searching on LinkedIn.
The holding company behind IVPN is called Privatus Limited as noted above in the mailing address. IVPN has a no-logging policy for its users, meaning the company won’t keep any logs about which websites you’ve visited. The company also doesn’t store any bandwidth usage, DNS requests, or other session data, according to its. When you visit the company’s website it uses the Piwik analytics platform—self-hosted on its server—to gather information about website visits. This includes information about your browser user-agent, system language, screen resolution, referring website (link you clicked to get to the website), IP address, and other information. IVPN says it “discards the last two octets” (16 bits) of your IP address to reduce the amount of information it has about you.
Overall, IVPN’s trust level is not bad. A few months ago there was a about IVPN’s desktop program EULA, which said that any disputes over the service would be handled in a Texas court. That suggested the company was based in the U.S., and not Gibraltar. That problem has since been changed and the EULA clearly states disputes will be settled in the EU. Conclusion IVPN is fairly expensive at $100 per year at the best price.
Nevertheless, it’s got a straightforward privacy policy, offers the ability to pay cash, and has some pretty good speeds. It’s a worthy choice for anyone looking for U.S.
And UK connections. IVPN offers a free, three-day trial to new subscribers and I’d encourage any potential new customer to try it out before subscribing.