Private Internet Access Review

Welcome to our Private Internet Access review, where we have a look at one of the top offerings in the VPN line.

A VPN is a service that improves internet security and allows you to bypass censorship other Internet restrictions, by creating an encrypted connection between your computer and the VPN server. Read here (http://www.australianvpn.com.au/what-is-a-vpn/) for more information on what a VPN is and what it can do for you.

Local Fast Australian Servers

Private Internet Access offers over three thousand servers in 25 countries. These countries include Australia, which is a plus for those of us who prefer our online gaming lag-free. For those who want to use their VPN to pretend not to be Australian for Netflix-related purposes, there are a multitude of servers in the US and the UK to choose from. If you’re planning to use Private Internet Access to use Netflix, you should know that since Netflix cracked down on VPN usage in early 2016, Private Internet Access servers have been working erratically if at all to access Netflix.

Private Internet Access Pricing

Their prices are firmly on the cheap end of the spectrum, with a monthly bill running you US$6.95, a six-monthly bill costing you US$35.95 every six months (that’s only US$5.99/month) and an annual billing option which will run you a measly US$35.99 once a year (Only US$3.33/month, which is frankly ridiculously cheap). Remember that your bill may fluctuate because of the exchange rate, as the prices are quoted on the website in US dollars.

For this price, they offer five simultaneous connections, which is pretty top-tier right there, only beaten by NordVPN’s six devices and way ahead of the rest of the pack who average out at two or three.

1 Month

$6.95per month

$6.95per month

• 6.95/month

Buy 1 Month

1 Year

$39.95per year

$39.95per year

• Best Value
• Save 52%
• Only $3.33 a month

Buy 1 Year

6 Months

$35.95per year

$35.95per year

• Save 14%
• Only $5.99 a month

Buy 6 Months

Private Internet Access Features

They also include unlimited bandwidth, support for P2P and VoIP (Voice-over-IP), and a positively draconian zero-logging policy. They do not keep logs of traffic, DNS, or session data, which should make the security-conscious among you happy. Since they do not filter, monitor, throttle or log user activity, they also quite pointedly mention that they can’t know if you are using Bittorrent or similar protocols, which is nice if you are planning to use the service for torrenting.

Private Internet Access also offers an in-house DNS server which protects against man-in-the-middle attacks and similar DNS-based security threats.

During Private Internet Access review testing, Private Internet Access performed solidly in the middle of the field, better than some and worse than others, and did not noticeably slow browsing speeds.

Software

Private Internet Access offers apps for Windows, Mac, and Linux, all with a pleasingly minimalist design. Getting set up was as simple as installing, opening, and logging in, and the apps are not resource hogs like some other VPN apps we could name. The flaw in the minimalism came into play when errors occurred and it was almost impossible to find out what error, or why.

Some of Private Internet Access’ features include:

• Pleasingly minimalist apps without a lot of bells and whistles, which should please those who don’t want to spend endless hours faffing about with their settings.
• No traffic logs. Private Internet Access neither does not log their users’ data in any way.
• Support for PPTP, OpenVPN, and L2TP/IPSec.
• Kill switch. Private Internet Access’ apps will secure your Internet connection when you lose connection to the VPN, meaning that you will never be caught broadcasting your data over a private network.
• Shared IPs. Private Internet Access routes their client traffic through a wide variety of IP addresses through an anonymous system, further increasing their users’ security.
• DNS Leak Protection. Built-in feature that ensures that DNS requests are not broadcast on the open web, but are made through a safe and private no-log service.
• Bittorrent friendly. Since they don’t log user data, they have no way of knowing whether their users are torrenting data, and have gone on record as saying that they wouldn’t stop them if they did.

Summary

Basically, bar a few hassles here and there – the fact that you can’t access Netflix via them anymore and they don’t seem to be working to change that, and the fact that troubleshooting is almost impossible due to the lack of error messages – Private Internet Access is definitely among the best of the services we’ve reviewed.

We hope you enjoyed our Private Internet Access review. Comments, questions, concerns? Leave a note in the comments.

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