Is it a MUST to pick another country when using a VPN or is it EQUALLY safe to pick a neighboring State/City to my location?
My internet speed is not the greatest, it caps up to 150Mbps when Im not using my VPN.
Turning it ON and picking a country across the sea from me just makes it worse. I end up with 40-45 Mbps which makes Downloading and Streaming a nightmare.
Can I pick a near by State/City and still remain hidden or do I HAVE to pick a whole other country?
If it matters, I am using Mullvad as my VPN.
P.S.
I have read the Guide posted on the Mullvad site to increase speed, It only got me a 5 mbps increase.
Most of times, you connect to another country for two reasons. First because you need a “local” IP address like to get access to the BBC if you live in another country. Second because your VPN provider limit some features like port forwarding or SOCKS5 server to some servers located in another country. You are not less secure when you use a server closer to your location.
Depends on what you’re using it for. I just use mine to hide my traffic from my ISP while trying to keep my speed as fast as possible (I’m not doing anything sketchy just fuck suddenlink) so i choose the server closest to me.
I DJ on line. I also will not go on the net without VPN. If you bounce across the pond for your VPN connection and then return to your host streaming site, you’ve put a lot of lag in and folks will most often disconnect from time to time. You are much better to pick a site closer to you for your exit point. Your listeners get a better connection with less delay and fewer drop outs. Other than this aspect I really don’t care where I exit within reason. Some points are faster than others. So there are exceptions. You have to play with your exit points to figure out which ones are the best ones.
which makes Downloading and Streaming a nightmare.
When that’s your use, just pick the nearest servers. Doesn’t make any difference to how other websites identify you - i.e. your actual location remains hidden to websites, but they see the location of the VPN server. What matters more is the legislation in terms of data retention etc. and if police ever happened to raid the data center (servers) or ask for logs.
Connecting across the Atlantic is obviously going to be slow down the speeds and you can’t do anything about that. Note that geographically closest isn’t necessarily fastest if coastal areas are involved (cables in the sea).
ps. I can’t believe the amount of low quality non-answers here.
whatever works? Ugh i should have used my vpn more stupid att oooh cant download that thing oooh. Fuck them. One tip if you are doing such things make sure you have one with a kill switch as my vpn sometimes once in a while diconnects. so its better to have a kill switch thingy so that it wont keep downloading while its not connected. but for anyone on the fence YES if you are download some stuff you likely “shoudnt” be… Then you need a VPN. its really an added bonus though as i have to use it to connect to second life since i was naughty in the past :-p. but yeah for those things always always use a vpn. i got a little notice from att today and yeah…but not gonna discourage me!
If you were doing something where someone wanted to pursue you legally, hopping to another country would make it harder for them. They’d have to deal with legal systems in two countries.
If you live in one of the 14 eyes, don’t pick a server that is within the 14 eyes.
If you’re worried about corporations, you should be okay. If you’re worried about the government, pick a country that’s not your own, and not in the 14 eyes.