Review by our expert
Latest positive user review
(User reviews are not verified)
Latest negative user review
(User reviews are not verified)
Review by our expert
PrivateVPN advertises itself as one of the best VPNs for streaming at a low price. It also claims to have great torrenting support, strong security features, and a true no-logs policy. But PrivateVPN is a small company, so can it compete with the biggest VPNs?
To learn the answer, I tested out everything it offers. My global team and I found out if it really lets you stream securely in the bes...
Read all
Latest positive user review
Works Great for many years.
I've been using their service for a great many years, and I'm very pleased indeed. Great service and s... upport, and more than enough speed for covering my needs. As long as they have coverage in countries I need to connect to, the number of servers in total is less relevant, as long as the servers they Do have provide enough speeds. They also support Wireguard, which is seldom mentioned in these reviews, probably since they don't have it in their native app, but they do and it's rock solid using that with their provided config files, and that in and of itself also increases the connection speeds, at least for me. All in all, they provide anything and all I want from a VPN provider. What others see as a downside, split tunneling and such, I see as a strength. I want my VPN provider to stick their nose in my business as little as possible, but rather provide a "clean VPN line" and then let Me decide what to do with my routing table. In short, they're Great, for my needs, but others will have to test and make up their own minds. :-DMore
Latest negative user review
Been There
I've been using PrivateVPN for a year. The main reason was due to good price. It's slow, on certain ho... urs of the day you can't watch video smoothly. They have down time or some other problem frequently and it take ages to fix it. Customer support are so poor that my mum without IT knowledge could probably do a better job. Now I switched to another one and feelings for PrivateVPN is much worse because I have something to compare withMore
Review by our expert
Smart DNS Proxy claims to offer a 3-in-1 service that includes a proxy, a VPN, and a SmartVPN. In reality, I found out it really only offers 2 services — the proxy and the VPN. The proxy claims to offer fast access to 400+ sites and services (by rerouting only your traffic to those specific sites), but doesn’t provide any online privacy or the option to change your IP address. The VPN encrypt...
Read all
Latest positive user review
I'm happy with Smart DNS Proxy since 2016
I have used Smart DNS Proxy since 2016 on my Firestick (UK Prime) from Malaysia. It allows me to acces... s all UK content, including BBC iPlayer, NowTV, ITVx, Britbox, 4, 5, and PrimeVideo and Disney+ (US). I had to give up Disney+ access when I got NowTV(UK) due to the Region setting. I had no trouble accessing Netflix USA until I stopped watching Netflix on my tv and just used the tab when I travel. I found their Customer Service to be ok. They certainly helped me set up my router settings when I first signed on with them. After 2 bi-annual subscriptions, I went all in and got the Lifetime subscription in 2020. I didn't know SmartDNS was acquired by another company till recent when I found out that they are now based in Turkey. They were based in Mauritius or was it Seychelles up to then.More
Latest negative user review
Doesn't do half of what you say it does!
I have multiple devices (Fire TV, Apple TV, SmartTV, Computer, PS4 and an ISP-provided set-top box. T... he SmartDNS Proxy App only works on one of them - the SmartTV. I am actually not sure that the app is even supported any more, which is a shame because when I connect to one the their servers using the app, I can stream almost anything. However, it is a completely different story when using the config settings provided by SmartDNS service staff.
As has been started, it is overly complicated to setup. Your router must be configured to not use IPV6. If you don't know how to do that, stop right now.
You can then decide whether you want to set up the SmartDNS Proxy IP addresses in your router, or configure them on each individual device. The service staff have, over the years recommended BOTH!
You are told to use server IPs which are located closest to you. Yet when you have issues (which you will. A lot) the service staff tell you to use apparently random server locations.
It is impossible to set up SmartDNS Proxy on an Amazon Fire TV. This device WILL let you change to static APs but it has 8.8.8.8 (Google) and an IPV6 address HARDCODED into it - which the service staff would not acknowledge despite me sending screenshots of each setup page. So no matter which SmartDNS server IP address you use, Fire TV will know that you are using a VPN = no streaming.
BBC iPlayer is supported, for sure. But it works about 50% of the time, with the usual error message that basically tells you that BBC knows that you are not in the UK.
Amazon Prime is very similar.
SO do not plan to watch a TV series - I will guarantee that you will get halfway through before the streaming service drops you!
I am really at a loss to understand how some of these reviews contradict my findings. I have, over the last 5 years, spent HOURS with the service staff (which incidentally seems to have halved in number (and there is now NO live chat) and we have not got something to work. For example - I want to stream my favourite sporting fixture the Rugby 6 Nations. I can GUARANTEE that even though I will have been watching a program on iPlayer the day before, the second this sporting fixture starts, BBC iPlayer AND ITVX both stop working with Smart DNS Proxy.
The ONLY reason I am still with them is that I bought an extended membership. When that is up for renewal, I will drop this service like a hot potato.More