The first question you might ask is, “Why did you create your own VPN service?“. The answer is pretty simple: I don’t trust any VPN service providers, and I’m not alone in my view. This article sums up many of my thoughts on the subject: https://theconversation.com/is-your-vpn-secure-109130 . The CryptoLab VPN Service was born out of the need for a secure, no-logs, easy-to-use VPN. Many people have asked me what I think of a particular VPN provider. I could never tell anyone I thought one was better then another because I didn’t like any of them. If you think a low-priced VPN company isn’t treating you as the product, you might want to think again.
Taken from a GritDaily.com article:
The core of the CryptoLab VPN Service is the Algo VPN server. If you don’t want to pay for the CryptoLab VPN Service, you can simply install one of your own. You can also read more about why I chose Algo as the foundation for the service.
So, what do you get when you sign up for the service? You get 10 concurrent connections to 11 different VPNs located around the globe. All locations offer ad blocking.
Location | Ad Blocking | Encrypted DNS |
---|---|---|
Atlanta | Yes | Yes |
Dallas | No | Yes |
Dallas | Yes | Yes |
Frankfurt (Germany) | Yes | Yes |
Fremont (California) | Yes | Yes |
London * | Yes | Yes |
Mumbai | Yes | Yes |
Newark | Yes | Yes |
Singapore | Yes | Yes |
Sydney * | Yes | Yes |
Tokyo | Yes | Yes |
Toronto | Yes | Yes |
Above, you can see what you get with the service. Now let’s talk about what you don’t get.
I’m not trying to compete with the larger VPN providers. I know I have a unique boutique service that is small enough to fly under the radar of most “bad actors”. I’m not looking to add hundreds of users to the service. I aim to serve a select crypto group.
The current price is $159/year. A 10% discount is applied if you pay in crypto.
Is your current VPN provider good enough?
That’s a very good question to ask yourself. Since most VPN providers are not transparent, it’s hard to judge. You’ll need to do your own research to understand how a company handles your private data. You are passing the trust of this data monitoring from your ISP (Internet Service Provider) to your VPN provider. Who do you trust more?
Here are 2 article to help you understand how important it is to select a reputable VPN provider.
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) – Choosing the VPN That’s Right for You
Algo servers are quick to set up and even quicker to take down. The theory that I subscribe to is Change is good. The current list of VPN connection cities will be dynamic rather than static. There is no set schedule for changes. If I find that one server is not being utilized I may remove it from service and replace it with another location. If I feel, for any reason, that one our VPNs is being monitored, I will remove it and replace it with another location. You will be notified and new VPN config files will be sent out to you.
So, now you are thinking, “If you don’t log things, how do you know if a VPN server is not being used?” I don’t log things, but I do monitor the servers. Below is a screen shot of a few things I monitor: CPU, Disk IO and network traffic usage. This monitoring is done at VPS-provider level and not something that is running on the server. You can also view the VPN monitoring page for VPN uptime.