VPN Services
Everyone should be using a VPN. Thats’s why I use three. I used them for different devices. Proton for network, iVPN for phone and Mullvad on my computer. Why do I use three different? Well it’s to separate traffic as much as possible. Separation is key in privacy. When you want extreme privacy, it is very important not to trust a single company with everything. VPN is the same. Here is a comprihensive guide on how to set up all VPN services.
Mullvad VPN
When the Swedish police knocked on the door of the Mullvad VPN office. The police got nothing. This is evidence of strong policies of zero-knowledge. To me this is not bad, the easy way will rarely pay off. So the police should go and do real police work instead of trying to pull innocent people’s data alongside criminals. A lot of the time it also seems that the good old police work, will work better than mass surveillance. Mass surveillance has never done anything good.
I personally found Mullvad extremely reliable on my Mac and Linux computers. It never fails me and if I should say my honest opinion which is why I am here, I’d recommend it for computers over Proton. With that said I would not use it for Networks. It sometimes do get blocked by websites more often than ProtonVPN so that’s why I use ProtonVPN on my network. Also on my phone it drained the battery to such a degree, that I had to charge it twice a day. And that was when I barely used it. Now that issue isn’t on the computer.
Setup
• First and foremost download and install Mullvad VPN.
• On Mullvad VPN open the settings by clicking the settings icon.
• Click on “DAITA”.
• Enable it.
• Enable “Direct Only”.
• Go back.
• Click on “Multihop”.
• Enable it.
• Go Back.
• Go to “VPN settings”.
• Enable “Kill switch”
• Enable “Lockdown Mode” (Optional – Explained Later)
• Add a custom DNS if you want.
Thats it now you have the same settings as me. I do not have Lockdown mode on my Mac as it fucked my connection completely, not in the correct way, I couldn’t reconnect to my Wi-Fi and it just didn’t work right. You can test it if you want, I would recommend it if I could get it to work the right way myself.
iVPN Setup
iVPN is a great VPN service. Just like Mullvad, no sign up, they don’t know who or care who you are (and I am sure they also don’t want to). iVPN has several great features that makes it a choice that is up there with Mullvad.
Installation & First Launch
First, you must get the application from F-Droid, the app is there on install and doesn’t need any added repositories. When it is done installing, press open.
On first launch you will have to connect the VPN, it will ask you for notification. I do like to keep any VPN notification because it does assure me that I am connected. First thing’s first, press the connect button and it will bring up a login screen. On the right side of the Account ID screen is a QR code. You can scan the code you have on iVPN or you can write in the account id that you got on purchase. When you did that it will log you in. Connect you VPN, then press okay on the pop-up.
Settings
What you will see in the upper right corner is a clock wheel, click it.
• Enable “Multi-hop connection”.
• Pick 2 locations of your choice (preferably different countries).
• Add a custom DNS (Optional).
• Enable “IPv6 for WireGuard VPN”.
• Click “Always-on VPN” then “GO TO SETTINS”.
• Then click the clockwheel.
• Enable “Always-on VPN” and “Block connections without VPN”.
• Go back to the iVPN app settings.
• Now go to “AntiTracker” and enable it at the top.
• See “Block list” and click on “CHANGE LIST” below it.
• Set it to “Restrictive” or “Comprehensive”.
• Go back and enable “Hardcore mode” if you don’t want Facebook and Google (Optional).
That’s how easy it is to set up iVPN and for a VPN that is this easy to set up it is well worth it.
ProtonVPN
I personally use ProtonVPN strictly for networking. I do not use it on GrapheneOS, Mac or Linux as I use Mullvad On my computers and iVPN on my Phone. Besides, ProtonVPN is part of an ecosystem which I am still very much against, I used to think it was great when Proton used to have 3 apps – that was mail, vpn and drive. That was it and that’s where they should have stopped. I wanted to use Proton to begin with because it wasn’t a centralized service.
Anyways here is the guide for setting up proton on the firewall
