{"id":721,"date":"2012-08-26T14:26:50","date_gmt":"2012-08-26T07:26:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.4amexpat.com\/?p=721"},"modified":"2012-08-26T14:57:26","modified_gmt":"2012-08-26T07:57:26","slug":"choosing-a-vpn-for-thailand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.4amexpat.com\/choosing-a-vpn-for-thailand\/","title":{"rendered":"Choosing a VPN for Thailand"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.4amexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/censorship.jpeg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-722\" title=\"censorship\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.4amexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/censorship-249x300.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"249\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.4amexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/censorship-249x300.jpeg 249w, https:\/\/blog.4amexpat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/censorship.jpeg 466w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 249px) 100vw, 249px\" \/><\/a>There are more and more reasons for everyday\u00a0internet\u00a0users in Thailand to use a <strong>Virtual Private Network<\/strong> (puts all your network traffic into an encrypted tunnel, which exits at some remote sever location). \u00a0Here are some of the main ones:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Access USA based content like <strong>Netflix<\/strong>, <strong>Pandora<\/strong> and <strong>Hulu Plus<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Bypassing Thai censorship and their <a href=\"http:\/\/facthai.wordpress.com\/data\/blocked\/\">blocked sites<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Avoiding data logging by Thai ISPs<\/li>\n<li>Securely transmitting your data past packet sniffers or Thai ISPs<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Once you decide you need one, you need to consider that not all VPN services are the same. \u00a0A few questions to ask yourself:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Do you care if they keep logs and for how long?<\/li>\n<li>Will you be downloading pirate content?<\/li>\n<li>Do you wish to gain\u00a0anonymity?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Remember you can&#8217;t be\u00a0anonymous\u00a0if you pay with your credit card or payment service with your name on it. \u00a0Some VPN providers like <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/strongvpn.com\/\">StrongVPN<\/a><\/strong> give you great access to to USA servers for Hulu and Netflix, however they don&#8217;t allow <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eztv.it\/\"><strong>eztv<\/strong><\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/labaia.ws\/\"><strong>Pirate Bay<\/strong><\/a> torrent downloads and they don&#8217;t have a method for anonymous payment.<\/p>\n<p>Here are two great round ups of VPN services:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/which-vpn-providers-really-take-anonymity-seriously-111007\/\">Torrentfreak<\/a>\u00a0 &#8211; Services that take privacy seriously<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/lifehacker.com\/5759186\/five-best-vpn-service-providers\">Lifehacker<\/a>\u00a0&#8211; 5 Best VPN services<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I have tried a few, and can like the ease of set up of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.securitykiss.com\/\">SecurityKiss.com<\/a>. \u00a0They offer <strong>Bitcoin<\/strong> anonymous payments, free accounts capped at 300 MB per day, <strong>Open VPN<\/strong> support, and helpful set up guides. \u00a0 Their free\u00a0service\u00a0is a great way to try out a VPN for the first time.<\/p>\n<p>If you want a solution you mostly\u00a0control, you can launch a <a href=\"http:\/\/holgr.com\/blog\/2009\/06\/setting-up-openvpn-on-amazons-ec2\/\">OpenVPN server instance in the Amazon EC2<\/a>\u00a0cloud. \u00a0You can allocate your own users and control the server. \u00a0Obviously\u00a0you would need to\u00a0follow\u00a0the Amazon Terms of use.<\/p>\n<h3>Here&#8217;s a checklist to look at when comparing services:<\/h3>\n<h4>Do they make their logging policy clear<\/h4>\n<p>Logging directly affects your annonymonity. \u00a0Based on the laws where the server is, the VPN provider may feel they need to log and keep those logs for long periods of time. \u00a0Many countrys have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eff.org\/issues\/mandatory-data-retention\">mandatory data retention laws<\/a>. Larger VPN services will feel the need the be compliant. \u00a0Servers in countries without these laws can have no logging or short logging policies.<\/p>\n<h4>Do they make an effort to support multiple payment types<\/h4>\n<p>Some services offer only Paypal or Credit Card. \u00a0This is a tell. \u00a0A company serious about providing access to oppressed users around the world will need a method like <strong>Webmoney<\/strong>, <strong>Western Union<\/strong>, <strong>Liberty Reserve<\/strong> or <strong>Bitcoin.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h4>Has Hulu or Nefix blocked their exit IPs<\/h4>\n<p>Some of the bigger services may\u00a0constantly\u00a0battle with US based media as they discover their US server and IP is being used\u00a0excessively. They will block the IP and your VPN will no longer have access. \u00a0Good providers with switch servers and IPs and keep the access flowing.<\/p>\n<h4>Do they have multiple server choices in the came account pacakage?<\/h4>\n<p>You should have USA for accessing certain\u00a0regionally\u00a0blocked sites. \u00a0The Olympics TV coverage highlighted the need for a UK based server to watch live <strong>BBC<\/strong> coverage. \u00a0But you also want servers in other countries for reasons like website testing, avoiding USA govermental snooping and changing your routine.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; There are more and more reasons for everyday\u00a0internet\u00a0users in Thailand to use a Virtual Private Network (puts all your network traffic into an encrypted tunnel, which exits at some remote sever location). \u00a0Here are some of the main ones: Access USA based content like Netflix, Pandora and Hulu Plus. Bypassing Thai censorship and their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[74],"tags":[24,78],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v18.5.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Choosing a VPN for Thailand - 4amExpat.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.4amexpat.com\/choosing-a-vpn-for-thailand\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Choosing a VPN for Thailand - 4amExpat.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; There are more and more reasons for everyday\u00a0internet\u00a0users in Thailand to use a Virtual Private Network (puts all your network traffic into an encrypted tunnel, which exits at some remote sever location). \u00a0Here are some of the main ones: Access USA based content like Netflix, Pandora and Hulu Plus. 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