Finding a VPN Provider

A bit paranoid about your privacy? Add a VPN to your router or media server to encrypt data movement from your computer, through your ISP servers, and to your final destination.

Why a VPN?

With Bit Torrent, anyone can see the IP address in a swarm and inspect the data packets being passed. With Usenet there is no swarm just a direct connection between you and the server. Additionally most providers have the added option of encrypting information via the use of SSL. The benefit of Usenet over Bittorrent is high speed data movement, however IPs are still readily available.  Usenet servers domains generally point to a common subset of registered IP address. While accessing usenet with an SSL connection, your data will be encrypted however the IP address can be traced. Using a VPN, your data requests are sent from your network, through your ISP servers, and to the VPN network. From this point onward, no one will be able to trace the origins or final destinations of your internet data. Total privacy is achieved.

How to pick a VPN service?

  • Look for a service that provides unlimited data transferring
  • Look for a service that has a large network; How many countries? How many servers? How many IP address?
  • Total IP address is important. You need an IP address to access the net, if a VPN service runs out of IP address you cannot connect.
  • Look for services that support OpenVPN, L2TP, and PPTP. OpenVPN will provide the highest level of security while L2TP and PPTP provide a wider range of device compatibility (iOS or Android).
  • Look for a service that provides DD-WRT support. This will allow you to implement VPN settings to your router instead of each computer.
  • Location, Location, Location! The closer you are to your VPNs server, the higher the chances you will have for a faster connection.

What are the benefits to VPN?

  • Being that VPN providers give you access to their network throughout the world, you can choose to use specific IP address in a specific geographical location. The enables to you to circumvent IP filters that may potentially block you from accessing content for specific countries.
  • Surf in complete privacy
  • Works on a wider range of mobile phones

What are the draw backs to VPN?

  • Monthly cost
  • Speed reduction – you will notice a 15-25% speed reduction when using a VPN. The affect will only be noticeable when attempting to max out your bandwidth.
  • You need to setup software or configure your router

A few recommended providers:

  • HideMyAss – $11.52 month to month, $50.6 bi yearly ($8.44 per month), or $78.66 a year ($6.55 per month) for all VPN protocols; OpenVPN, L2TP, & PPTP. 243 servers in 43 countries, 27,500 IP address, OpenVPN, PPTP, L2TP, Unlimited Bandwidth, and 30 day money back guarantee. Easy software for configuring VPN and DDWRT support!
  • StrongVPN – $85 per year for OpenVPN & PPTP and $55 per year for PPTP only. Number of servers and IP address depends on your plan, 7 day money back guarantee, 24/7 support, Unlimited bandwidth and DDWRT support.
  • PureVPN – $18 per month, $45 per quarter ($15 per month), $85 bi yearly ($14.17 per month) or $160 per year ($13.33 per month). Supports PPTP, L2TP/IPSEC, and SSTP, 24/7 Support, 3 day money back guarantee, Unlimited bandwidth and DDWRT support.

Onve you have picked out your Usenet Provider, Usenet Indexer, and VPN provider you need a program that can take your usenet provider’s data base, your search providers index file (nzb file) and search through your Usenet providers data base to download all the attachments and assemble into one file. This program is called a newsreader. I suggest moving on to our HTPC Software section and reading about the Sabnzbd newsreader.