Witopia personalVPN Adds West Coast Servers...

[Mayo]

In the Not So Good Early Days of public VPN servers one paid a sometimes significant price for online security: a big hit speed-wise. When I first began using public VPN services my download speeds were as low as 1/4 the normal speed of Charter's broadband servers...

Fast-forward to 2008. Witopia recently added west coast servers; previously all traffic was routed through servers near Washington D.C.. The new servers should theoretically increase data transfer speeds for users on the west coast, although such increases should be fractional at best... But since I still find myself routed through the east coast servers at times, the new servers probably have more to do with providing redundancy rather than noticeably faster data transfers for us Left Coast Dwellers.

On the other hand, tests that I have done show a consistent pattern of faster data transfer speeds when using Witopia vs. the Charter servers.  I have a 5mbps download/500kbps upload account with Charter. I usually experience somewhat less than that, which is to be expected... But when I have tested the Witopia servers I have seen download speeds that are up to 2mbps faster and recently my upload speed was roughly twice as fast as Charter. Presumably Witopia is not as stingy when it comes to restricting data upload data transfer speed.

I have been using the Witopia servers more in the past six months or so since I began having e-mail and Web site problems that all evidence points to being associated with Charter's servers. The nice speed bump is a little gravy on the flaky buttermilk biscuits Witpopia serves up. (Can anyone tell from that last line that I am on a diet???)

Witopia personalVPN: Security and Speed For Only $40/Year

[sandbox]

There are many VPS to choose from, I find them faster and more reliable by far.. and yes more expensive.
http://www.asmallorange.com/services/vps/

$40 annual VPS's sounds to good to be true....and so.....

[Mayo]

SB, the service you linked is different than the kind of public VPN services I recommend for individuals... At A Small Orange you supply your own domain and they configure a VPN server for you, which you can then customize however you please. It allows small businesses and the like to have a VPN server at their disposal without having to purchase equipment, set it up and maintain it; it's a pretty nifty idea if you want a dedicated VPN server without the muss and fuss.

personalVPN and its brethren are geared toward serving individuals who want a very secure Internet connection mainly when they are traveling and will be using wireless and wired hotspots with questionable security, namely all of them... It also provides anonymous Web surfing. (You can also use it at home; besides the anonymous surfing a VPN server provides significantly better security than a wireless LAN encrypted using WEP or WPA.) You don't have to provide your own domain and there is no bandwidth limit based on your subscription plan like A Small Orange. For example, personalVPN supplies the freeware application Tunnelblick as part of its installation package so a person can easily and quickly connect to the Internet via a Witopia server. When the personalVPN service isn't needed you just connect via your usual ISP server. Installation is easy and a secure connection is just a mouse-click away...

I'm adding A Small Orange to my security Bag of Tricks.  But I think that individuals are better served by a public VPN server because it is a lot simpler to use than setting up a dedicated VPN server that allows for more options than most people need.