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Mullvad Review of 2024
- nabla9 2y agoQ for Mullvad users: How often is access trough Mullvad VPN blocked by sites?
- Tistron 2y agoIn my experience it happens, but rarely. Fairly often I get captchas which is annoying, but tolerable.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- eCa 2y agoEU user here. Streaming platforms approaching 100%. Other than that, not common, but slightly increasing.
- giantfrog 2y agoReddit blocks it. Very annoying. Edit: when not logged in.
- Izkata 2y agoDoesn't block it for me.
- giantfrog 2y agoWeird! Every Mullvad server I’ve ever used is blocked by Reddit.
- _emacsomancer_ 2y agoI think maybe being logged in or not affects this
- giantfrog 2y agoYeah this is the case—-sorry, should have clarified that
- DaSHacka 2y agoIt only blocks VPN browsing if you're signed out; it's possible GP is logged in
- szszrk 2y agoHow do you access it? App? I'm using it through mullvad with no issues, usually on mobile Firefox on desktop Firefox.
- infogulch 2y agoRedReader app, logged in.
- vsgherzi 2y agoI regularly use Reddit without an account on Mullvad, try different nodes I usually use LA 503
- Adachi91 2y agoOften if you're on a bad node that has been rate-limited, usually connecting to a different node in the region helps. However VPN blocking very often and more frequent especially this year, it seems like walls are going up everywhere. Side note: one of Mullvad's Miami servers is blocked by HN, I have to switch nodes if I land on that one because "Sorry" message.
- DaSHacka 2y ago> Side note: one of Mullvad's Miami servers is blocked by HN, I have to switch nodes if I land on that one because "Sorry" message. I frequently hit "Sorry" messages when opening a few HN links in quick succession through Mullvad too. I suppose the IPs have been flagged as potentially malicious. Not sure what it takes for that to happen though; my server that archives every post made on HN has yet to get banned or heavily ratelimited, it just hits a 429 every once in a while.
- Hakkin 2y agoIt's fairly rare during general browsing, but Mullvad makes no attempt to hide that their servers are VPN IPs, so any site that explicitly wants to block VPN users will very likely block Mullvad. Mostly an issue if you're trying to use a VPN to view geo-blocked media.
- evildojo666 2y agoOften enough. Some Mullvad locations will cause Google to throw up excessive captchas. Others will cause reddit and imgur to 403 your response. For most places, not a problem, but some WAFs are explicitely blocking certain known IPs.
- morphle 2y agoMost Cloudflare sites throw up captchas, switching to other Mullvad servers every hour does not help anymore. Reddit blocks completely. Many other YC funded startups block Mullvad VPN (I miss Paul Graham's influence, don't you?). Port forwarding was removed by Mulled company so less bittorrent peers. All magnet link search engines and 90% torrent sites block Mullvad, even though these sites advertise VPN. Enshittification is nearly ubiquitous now [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification
- OldGuyInTheClub 2y agoI get lots of Cloudflare authenticators, some Youtube content gets blocked, and a few sites will not load at all. Reddit (which I avoid as often as possible) blocks it completely [1]. Switching to a different country sometimes works but increasingly does not. I don't use streaming services apart from Youtube. Still, I am happy with the service and will continue to use it. Edit: [1] As others have written below, Reddit blocks when not logged in. Since I don't have an account, that's a 100% block rate for me.
- vitehozonage 2y agoOften. It is becoming a big problem. In the last couple of days youtube has become almost unusable. Reddit is usually blocked. Twitch shadowbans chats. A lot of random unexpected sites block it like wiki pages. Captchas make google too annoying to use (but mullvad has its own proxy called Leta but it lacks features like suggested corrections to the search). I still use it always and persist despite this. Often hopping servers will work but I might have to try 5+ different servers
- hyperliner 2y ago[dead]
- y-c-o-m-b 2y agoI switched from Mullvad to ProtonVPN for this exact reason about 1.5 years ago. Unfortunately ProtonVPN seems to be even worse at this now. It's become clear that the more popular VPN services are increasingly having connectivity problems to many popular sites (social media, streaming media, etc.)
- JTyQZSnP3cQGa8B 2y agoI use the default endpoint in Sweden, and I can’t access Reddit and YouTube without being logged in (which I refuse to do). Not an issue in the end because it’s mostly a waste of time.
- ritcgab 2y agoIt's highly dependent on the endpoint selection. Some providers' IP ranges are blocked while some are not.
- Adachi91 2y agoI've used Mullvad for quite a long time now, and haven't had too much trouble, though as of late the performance the last year seems... lower than previous ones. But honestly I think dragnet surveillance has won, so that's a moot point for usage (just my opinion). I mainly use it to keep from doxing myself (OpenVPN + socks v5), because for some reason every website you go to now wants to know if you're interested in X at [Your location]. with a footer like `[IPv4] [IPv6] [lat, lon] [First Name, Last Name] [SSN#]` Serving you proudly since 2005!
- blfr 2y agoGreat service. I particularly like that you can connect to their network without redirecting all traffic and only selectively use different SOCKS5[1] endpoints[2] for different browser profiles. Ad-blocking adblock.dns.mullvad.net DNS[2] is quite nice for the mobile as well. [1] https://mullvad.net/en/help/socks5-proxy https://mullvad.net/en/help/socks5-proxy [2] every server has its socks proxy address listed https://mullvad.net/en/servers https://mullvad.net/en/servers [3] https://mullvad.net/en/help/dns-over-https-and-dns-over-tls https://mullvad.net/en/help/dns-over-https-and-dns-over-tls
- fmxsh 2y ago> "Encrypted DNS Proxy and adding ShadowSocks for WireGuard to enhance obfuscation for customers that truly need it." Seems like the user base is wider than what would be addressed by the most basic use of VPN. Mullvad would then serve a greater purpose than what many, or at least I, would be aware of.
- yapyap 2y agoi like mullvad, especially that they just do 5 € a month, no “buy 3 years worth of VPN for a bit cheaper” nonsense
- poisonborz 2y agoWhy is that nonsense? It totally makes sense to lower the price on bulk purchase. You can upload whatever amount of credit to Mullvad as well and I doubt most users purchase month to month. It's just a more elegant way to stay pricey. There are similar small independent competitors that are half their price for a year and I doubt they are half as private or less performant.
- daft_pink 2y agoI think it’s because of the way annual plans are marketed in relation to VPNs. For example, NordVPN’s homepage currently is offering 74% off, but when you click through, you have to buy 2 years of service to get 74% off and no mention of the 2 year plan is made on the ad and there is no discount at all on the monthly rate, which is 3 times the cost. So you have the choice of roughly $4 per month if you lock-in 2 years or $13.99 per month vs Mullvad’s $5.20 flat rate per month without agreeing to 2 years. It’s just been my experience that when you have to prepay 2 years up front you are giving up any recourse if the service starts to suck, the company goes bankrupt, etc. It makes sense to be a bit skeptical when the discount for 2 years is 74% vs a normal company that gives you a 10-20% discount on a bulk purchase.
- pards 2y agoSecure Connection Failed An error occurred during a connection to mullvad.net. SSL received a record that exceeded the maximum permissible length. Error code: SSL_ERROR_RX_RECORD_TOO_LONG The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because the authenticity of the received data could not be verified. Please contact the website owners to inform them of this problem.
- bartread 2y agoThat might be your network provider’s proxy blocking access. We’re currently on pub WiFi and it blocks all access to Mullvad, which is frustrating, because it means our web traffic - or at least the sites we’re visiting - are not private and can be viewed by the provider. Potentially they could also MITM TLS traffic, rendering that also insecure. I’m scowling at you Marston’s Inns. Possibly they also block other well know VPNs. I’d not be using it at all but for the fact 4G/5G signal around here is so poor. EDIT: I got the bit between my teeth on this one. So Marston's appear to use a captive portal for WiFi and, it turns out, the issue is typically the MTU (maximum transmission unit). On macOS I can get Mullvad to connect using an MTU of 1280, and can then access the article. However, the MTU setting isn't available on Mullvad's iOS app. Some additional reading suggests that I could use the Wireguard iOS app instead, which would allow me to tweak MTU, but I'm not yet sure how I could set this up to work with my Mullvad subscription. I get the impression it may be possible although I have no idea how many of the additional protections (multi-hop, DAITA, etc.) would be usable going this route.
- pentagrama 2y agoGreat that they are self hosting their support email. Curious about which software they are using, few years ago I have a good experience with the open source/self hosted OS Ticket tool to handle support tickets, follow up messages, threads, multiple support seats, etc. It has some UX issues, wondering if there is any other good solutions out there right now.
- OldGuyInTheClub 2y agoI agree that the UX could use a tweak or three. With so many sites blocking VPNs sometimes it takes a few adjustments to get through. I've asked a couple of times for a pinnable Mullvad app window so I don't have to keep opening it. I get a standard "We'll consider it" email.
- mmooss 2y agoWhere does Mullvad get all this engineering expertise? Most VPN hosts don't have the expertise of security researchers and protocol developers. It's great that they work on these issues, but the organization is a mystery to me.
- davkan 2y agoMullvad has been around for a long time and was on the cutting edge of technology when public VPN’s were becoming relevant a decade or so ago. Since then they’ve managed to stay relevant despite not advertising or being affiliated with a larger platform. In my estimation their success is largely due to word of mouth and a perception of being a legitimate company with a serious interest in security and privacy in a market rife with scams and lies. I’d imagine that’s how they attract talent as well.
- OldGuyInTheClub 2y ago> In my estimation their success is largely due to word of mouth and a perception of being legitimate company with a serious interest in security in privacy in a market rife with scams and lies. Anecdatum: I picked Mullvad because of strong recommendations from HN commenters on multiple threads.
- daft_pink 2y agoIt’s nice that they are adding shadowsocks, but it would be nicer if we could set it to just use shadowsocks 24/7.
- nullandvoid 2y agoYou can? Just go into WireGuard settings https://mullvad.net/en/blog/introducing-shadowsocks-obfuscation-for-wireguard https://mullvad.net/en/blog/introducing-shadowsocks-obfuscat...
- gonzaloalvarez 2y agoI’ve been using mullvad for years now. I can’t recommend it enough. I travel a fair bit for work and it’s a must in certain countries and certain hotel chains that have horrible privacy reputations.
- jeremey111 2y ago[dead]