Ask TUAW Video Edition: VPN services

I use StrongVPN and just double checked with them about whether their PPTP is encrypted or not...and you're wrong, it IS encrypted. I was really shocked when I heard you say is wasn't because I'd been doing my banking overseas using public wifi over PPTP and had always assumed it is encrypted. I think that's pretty much the whole point of VPNs is no one can view the data no matter what transport protocol you're using.

I agree with DCdude and Nancy. I've used witopia since 2005 and they are rock solid. great pricing, more countries you can access through, and I can use PPTP (actually IS encrypted..not just a tunnel), L2TP, and Cisco IPSEC (my favorite...seems faster) on my iPad and iPhone and also use openVPN on my MacBook Pro and iMac (although you can use others too, I like openVPN as I feel it is a better VPN). as nancy mentioned, they have a combo offer for 70 dollars a year or you can choose a lower cost one. no monthly pricing that i can see but i've never had a problem and appreciate the bargain. support is miraculously done live by actual witopia employees and not outsourced. I've heard good things about strongvpn too (i don't know overplay) but witopia has never let me down and i like to stick with what works.

Another vote for witopia.net. Terrific product, easy to set up, fantastic customer service (email support and real people on chat 24/7), and good pricing. Not the cheapest, but not too expensive, either. I buy the yearly subscription and have VPN on my desktop, laptop, and iPhone. It was $70 for the year.

I use GTS VPN, they provide OpenVPN by default but you can request PPTP as well so you can use it with your iPhone or iPad

There is one very big problem with using your own router or Mac to host a VPN. Most folks have asymmetric network links. I pay for 6mb/s service, and get 5mb/s down, and .62mb/s up. The problem is that the uplink speed is the max downlink speed for any device connected to the VPN. So extreme patience may also be a requirement.

I would strongly recommend Witopia.net. Once you subscribe, you can use almost all VPN standards (SSL, PPTP, L2TP, IPSec). On the iPhone & iPad, you can use the built-in Cisco IPSec client. I never had a chance to try it on Android but I assume it works well too.
What makes Witopia a winner for me, beside securing public wifi, is that they have servers i.e. exit points in many countries. That lets me access most geo-locked websites and, for example, watch French or British TV shows from the US.
Another excellent point: their documentation and support are outstanding! I always had my problems and questions answered over chat in one session.
Not the cheapest probably but definitely one of the best VPN services.

Own VPN server running here - first OpenVPN on a Linux box, now Snow Leopard Server's VPN utility. I am not hugely trusting of third party services, so am happy to tunnel to home, and then back out again (via Squid proxy).

Sadly, Bonjour / mDNS packets do not traverse a VPN, so I use Network Beacon to back up with my Time Capsule, stream music and the like over the connection, and it all works rather well. If only there was a similar application for iOS.

I'd like to recommend NeoRouter - it is cross platform and is a 'zero config' software. Due to Hamachi's speed, limitations and cost I looked at NeoRouter for connecting two offices as well as using as a VPN service and it works great.

http://www.neorouter.com/

Also note that if you can wait for Lion a VPN server is built right into the OS. Then there will be no third party software/hardware required. Only a little port forwarding.

It's one of the features I'm most looking forward to. (At the moment I am proxying my traffic through the ssh server. It's a bit clunky next to the svelt VPN approach.)

Of course, if you're really worried about security, you can also run your own VPN server. This requires some complicated setup - you need a Mac that's on 24x7, dynamic DNS, and some minor port forwarding, but then you know *exactly* what's going on and who can access your traffic. No third parties needed.

I use iVPN, but EasyVPN is also a simple way to set this up on your own computer.