nVPN Review
VPNs have become the favorite solution for internet users who want to protect their privacy and bypass restrictions. Thanks to the extensive selection of options available in the industry, everyone is bound to find a service that is right for their needs. You may not have heard about nVPN yet, but if you have been exploring the VPN industry and still haven’t found a solution that suits you, this provider is certainly worth a look. nVPN has been around for over 7 years and its developers have a strong commitment to offer a service that can be trusted and that takes privacy very seriously. They support a great selection of features and protocols that you won’t even find with some of the most popular providers. In this review, we’ll find out more about what nVPN offers.
Speed
For our speed test we chose to test two servers, NVPN’s UK4 server and US2 (Chicago) Server to get a contrast on the two locations in so far as latency,performance and availability of service goes.
The results of our speed test were as follows:
UK4 Server
US2 (Chicago) Server
Over all the speed was satisfactory and didn’t affect the quality or the experience when streaming on services like YouTube and Amazon.
Privacy and Security
Since nVPN was established, it has focused on offering a strong level of security and privacy protection. The creators of the service run nVPN with privacy in mind and every possible step is taken to prevent eavesdropping, government surveillance, hacking and other issues that affect internet users. The protocols available with nVPN are OpenVPN, L2TP/IPsec (IKEv1 and IKEv2), Squid and SOCKS5 Proxy. The Squid Proxy is a practical solution that is enabled by default and it can be used in combination with OpenVPN or on its own. Given that PPTP is a weak protocol, nVPN has opted for leaving it out from the list of options supported.
To ensure that your online traffic is highly secured, nVPN offers 256 bit AES-CBC encryption by default in OpenVPN, which is the strongest protocol available. SHA512 is used for handling authentication and 2048-RSA for handshaking. You can also opt for 128 bit Blowfish-CBC with SHA 1, which provides less protection but can be useful for tasks that require more speed than security. Being able to choose the encryption strength that suits your needs, gives you flexibility to manage the security of your connection. Thanks to the wide selection of protocols and the high encryption that nVPN offers, your connection will be safe, even when you use public WiFi. With nVPN, you are protected against eavesdroppers, man-in-the-middle attacks and other threats that lurk on internet.
nVPN aims to be a reliable option for anyone who has concerns about the privacy of their online data. The company is registered in Iceland and it operates from different locations in Europe. This keeps them away from the influence of international surveillance agencies like the feared NSA. More importantly, nVPN has a strong no logs policy that is set to ensure that your privacy is truly protected. They don’t keep logs of your IP addresses, timestamps or traffic and any requests from third-parties are handled internally, without exposing your details. Additionally, the accept Bitcoin payments through BitPay, so you can remain anonymous in every possible way.
Features
nVPN works with a variety of platforms including Windows, Mac, iOS, Linux and Android. You can also set up the service on gaming consoles, as well as routers running DD-WRT and other custom firmware and nVPN’s website offers helpful guides for these configurations. Once you choose a plan a pay for the service, nVPN offers instant automatic setup without additional fees. All their plans offer unlimited bandwidth and they don’t throttle your connection. You can download or stream content without issues and VoIP services work well and without disruptions.
The speed will depend on the protocol selected, but in general, nVPN offers steady performance without disconnections. The proxies are significantly faster (since traffic they don’t encrypt the traffic by default) and are the ideal solution for gaming, or streaming, which require good speeds. Plus, if you use the sTunnel feature that nVPN offers, the proxies are secured with SSL encryption. This gives you the best of both worlds as you can enjoy speed and security. nVPN uses shared IPs (unless you opt for a dedicated IP plan) and the Anti Port-Clash function, helps to avoid that two customers clash using the same port simultaneously.
Port forwarding is another convenient feature available with nVPN and it allows you to open ports as needed, without relying on your router setup. In the Members Area, it is possible to configure TCP protocol with 443 port, which an effective way to bypass firewall restrictions in schools and work networks.
There is also a feature designed to defeat DPI (Deep Packet Inspection) so you can overcome online restrictions in countries like Iran and China. This can be achieved with two available methods. One being sTunnel and the other recently added option to use tls-crypt or Obsproxy as dependable methods of bypassing deep packet inspection.
Although it is not possible to have multiple connections through OpenVPN due to its security settings, you can connect using different protocols for each device. As nVPN suggests, you can take advantage of the 5 protocols supported to connect up to 5 devices. You can use OpenVPN for your desktop, L2TP/IPsec (IKEv1) for your laptop, IPsec RSA (IKEv2) for your smartphone and so on.
Servers
nVPN has 69 servers distributed across over 40 countries including United States, Brazil, Canada, Spain, India, South Africa, United Kingdom and Panama. However, it should be noted that when you subscribe to the service, you can only choose one of these location. While this limitation would be disappointing for some, it may be practical when you just need access to content from a specific location or when you are mainly concerned about disguising your real IP address. You can only switch between country servers once for free. Switching servers is easy and can be done quickly and if you prefer to access all the servers in their network, you can opt for the unlimited switch feature, an add-on that allows you to access over 2000 IPs and all the countries supported by nVPN.
Plans
nVPN offers shared IP and private IP plans to allow customers to choose how they want to manage their online connection. You can opt for monthly Shared IP plans for $6 per month or extend the subscription for one year for $40, which reduces the monthly price to just $3.33 per year. If you need a dedicated IP, you can get this option for $8 per month or $60 per year, meaning that the price per month is only $5. As previously mentioned, for an additional fee per month, subscribers can buy the Unlimited switch option to access all countries. A wide selection of payment options are accepted including Payza, Bitcoin, Skrill, Yandex and PayPal.
Customer Support
The website is very simple, but provides detailed information about the service and it features practical setup guides as well. The Support section includes a comprehensive knowledgebase and FAQ. If you can’t find answers to your questions on the the website, you can contact nVPN via Ticket. They generally reply within a few hours, but some tickets are replied in a matter of minutes. The best thing about nVPN’s support is that they are knowledgeable and very clear in their responses. They go right to the point and are very helpful and friendly.
Conclusion
nVPN offers a convenient service that is clearly geared towards enhancing the security and privacy of its customers. The true no logs policy and the high level of encryption they provide, make them a great choice for users who are very protective with their privacy. The downside is that you can only select one VPN location and switch once when purchase a standard subscription. However, many users are only interested in a particular location and if you really need more, you can get access to all the servers in their network for an extra fee.