IPVanish is a relatively new VPN provider that launched in 2012. They are a Tier-1 provider (meaning they own and operate their own infrastructure) with an extensive background in global content delivery and networking. Their focus is to offer among the best VPN services at one of the lowest prices in the market.
We did a deep-dive into their service and our findings are detailed below.
The company was founded about 15 years ago and has its roots in network management, IP and content delivery services. They operate the fastest content delivery network in the world according to 3rd party data transfer speed tools like Cedexis. They are now leveraging that network to launch a global VPN service, IPVanish.
At the time of this review, the service has 57+ servers in 23 countries (the UK, US, Canada, Japan, Malaysia and more) and offers more than 2500 IP addresses. IPVanish also includes unlimited usage on its VPN service and up to 2 simultaneous (1 OpenVPN and the other either PPTP or L2TP) for every subscriber
IPVanish states that they’re very passionate about building out the best VPN service in terms of speed, security, stability and cost-effectiveness. Time will tell how they deliver on that goal, but a promising start so far.
The VPN is easy-to-use and can be configured comfortably by following the step-by-step set up guide (both in the text and visual form) given on the company's website.
To start with, you will have to login by providing the username and password given to you at the time of order placement. Depending on your comfort and OS support, the VPN provider allows you to configure PPTP and L2TP protocols on:
• Windows versions (XP, Vista and XP),
• Mac OS X,
• Linux (Ubuntu),
• iPhone & iPad,
• Android and;
• DD-WRT compatible routers
If you want to use OpenVPN, then you would require to download and install the openVPN client from the link provided by the website, followed by the instructions it provides to help you use it successfully. Though, the company offers its own software as well.
The VPN company provides you with accomplished support to set up VPN on each of the known operating systems via the VPN protocols available at its end. All its Window and Mac versions require you to download software before proceeding further and as far as Linux is concerned, you can use its PPTP and OpenVPN services. (I guess it has missed out on L2TP for Linux, so sad!).
For those who use specific IPVanish software to connect VPN, they would definitely have lots of things to cheer for. The client interface of its software is interactive and self-explanatory. However, we used it for Linux that uses the age old basic interface of Ubuntu, so nothing interesting as such.
After logging in with the desired credentials, you get redirected to the control panel, or the online client area. It is self explanatory with the space each for:
• Account
• Billing
• Server List
• support
The account section gives your email ID and lets you change the password.
The billing section allows you to provide all the requisite information regarding your credit card followed by the option to 'cancel subscription'.
With server list, you can check out all the servers provided by IPVanish at its end and can select the ones that would suit your specific requirements
The Support section lets you post relevant queries regarding the VPN connections
