NordVPN Review

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Today, you can browse the Internet safely and anonymously thanks to NordVPN. The features that this VPN offers to its users are truly one-of-a-kind. There will be CyberSec, double data encryption, strict no logs policy, access to Netflix streaming services, an option to use up to six devices with one account, and many other interesting features that this VPN service has to offer to its users. The monthly plan is affordable, and NordVPN has made a solid reputation since it was founded in 2012. Currently, NordVPN has over 8 million users, over 5000 servers in 61 countries. This makes the NordVPN a true powerhouse in its industry.

In this review about the NordVPN, you will find out why this VPN service is one of the best in its niche.

How private is your data while using NordVPN?

Privacy should be considered as the most important feature of any VPN service, and that is the case with this VPN. The country of NordVPN's jurisdiction is Panama, and it has a no-logs policy. This means that your activity on the Web won't be monitored or stored, so you don’t have to worry that your privacy will be endangered in any way. The encryption of this VPN service is military-grade, so you should raise no concerns about your data not being protected. What's also impressive about NordVPN is that the terms are in English, and they are pretty clear, so the users won't be confused about the text in the terms.

Besides these measures that NordVPN takes to make its customers happy and worry-free, it also offers two superb security features:

Double VPN

With Double, VPN users have the ability to "chain" VPN servers. This means that your data is going to be routed between two VPN servers. So, your data will be traveling from your PC, then to one VPN server, followed by another, and finally to the Internet. This so-called "chaining" has many advantages. One of them is, thanks to the fact that this is a double VPN, the intruder is going to have to try twice as hard to identify you. Another plus for the Double VPN is that you can chain an unlimited number of servers. Double VPN will give you complete privacy and good IP protection. 

CyberSec

This feature will block any websites that may seem suspicious. Thanks to CyberSec, you will be protected from cyber threats, and your device won't be infected by computer viruses. Also, this VPN feature act as an ad blocker. CyberSec happens to be state-of-the-art technology, and as the rate of cybercrimes rises, it can come in pretty handy to protect you from malware.

How much does NordVPN cost?

The subscription plans of NordVPN, price-wise, are one of the best on the VPN market. It is highly recommended that you sign-up for a longer time because the subscription plans will be even more affordable. Although NordVPN is a quite cheap VPN, it still tops the competition in terms of the quality of VPN service. This VPN will also offer you a fantastic option of a 30-day money-back guarantee if you find that the services of NordVPN didn't satisfy your expectations. But, the fact that it has millions and millions of happy users, you can realize that not many customers have used that option. You will also have a free trial of three days to use this VPN if you're a desktop user. On the other hand, if customers plan to use NordVPN services on your mobile devices, you will have a free trial of seven days. 

The current prices of NordVPN’s pricing plans:

·  One month plan would cost you $11.95

·  The 12-Month plan would cost you $6.99 per month

·  The 24-Month plan would cost you $4.99 per month

·  Currently, NordVPN offers an exclusive deal-36-Month plan that would cost you only $3.99, plus you get to use the services of this VPN for three months, for free

NordVPN supports many payment platforms. You can choose to make payments with credit/debit cards. What is very interesting about the payment methods is that this VPN also accepts Bitcoin, the most famous cryptocurrency.

What is it like to use NordVPN?

The process of signing up at NordVPN is pretty simple. You should have a permanent email address and not a disposable one. But, if you’re using Bitcoin as a payment method, NordVPN is going to keep track of your payments. When you make an account at the website of NordVPN, you can download the software right away. Once you’ve done that, you will get an e-mail of confirmation that will contain some helpful links. 

Here’s a detailed step-by-step process of how to sign-up with NordVPN:

1. Search for NordVPN website on a search engine of your choice (Google, Yahoo, etc.)

2. Then, you have to press the red "Get it Now" button

3. You will be redirected to a page where you will select a subscription plan that you find to be the most affordable. Previously, we’ve mentioned the various plans you could choose.

4. The following step would be to create a NordVPN account. They will just ask you for your e-mail, and the VPN will guarantee you that they wouldn’t give out your information to any individual

5. Then, you will pick a payment method that will suit you the most. You can select Visa, Sofort Banking, Giropay, Bitcoin, Alipay, American Express, and so on.

6. You’re going to see the plan that you’ve chosen, with a possible discount and the exact amount of money you would have to pay. 

7. You will finish your transaction when you click the "Continue" button, and you will be taken to the website of the payment method that you’ve chosen.

8. Then, you will be able to complete your purchase by following the necessary steps for your preferred payment method

9. You are going t get a confirmation e-mail where you will have to verify your e-mail address and choose a password

10. Then, finally, you can log in and start using the services of NordVPN 

Excellent NordVPN Features

·  Kill Switch- this feature will stop your Internet connection in a situation if your VPN connectivity is in any way interrupted. Besides this, the Kill Switch will also block your device, whether it is a PC or smartphone, from accessing the Web 

·  SmartPlay- thanks to this fantastic NordVPN feature, you have the option to get access to hundreds of geo-restricted streaming services. Some of the most popular that you will have access to are Netflix and Amazon Prime

·  Protection for DNS leaks- you’re going to be prone to DNS leaks, if you either reset your Windows not long ago or if you’ve established your VPN connection manually. Fortunately, NordVPN is going to protect you from the DNS leaks, so you don’t have to raise any doubts

·  Onion over VPN- if you wish to browse through the dark Web and be safe, there's the Onion router to make it happen. So, you have the option to route your traffic through NordVPN, and then you can send your traffic to the Onion router. Then, you’ll be free to search for any websites of your choice. 

Connection speeds while using NordVPN

Privacy features are quite important for this VPN, but speed and performance are also of primary concern. The connection to a certain server takes up from 3-5 seconds, which is really fast for any VPN service. The average speed for NordVPN is 30 and 60Mbps. This VPN has the best performance when it's used in the US, with an average speed of 100-110Mbps.

NordVPN for torrenting and Netflix

This VPN happens to have P2P servers. Users can find the perfect P2P server both within the app as well as on the Internet. More than 4,000 servers in over 40 countries are specially made for torrenting. Apart from having the option to find the P2P server from the VPN interface, you can also find the server for torrenting with the help of the server recommendation tool you can find on the website of this VPN.  

NordVPN ensures its users with the SOCKS5 proxies. Thanks to this proxy, you can enjoy faster downloading speeds, and it will also provide you security through authentication that will make you torrenting safe and private.

Apart from being great for torrenting, this VPN works with Netflix. This is one of the most popular streaming services in the world. Many people that have a Netflix account can notice that they are offered with limited content for the country in which they reside. Netflix users from different countries all have access to different content, and to think that you could watch shows that are not from the region you live in, may seem like something impossible. For instance, you went on a summer vacation outside of your country, and you would like to watch certain Netflix movies and shows, but unfortunately, you don’t have access to do so. 

So, you would have to get past the geoblocks so you could enjoy all the possible content that Netflix has to offer. That's where NordVPN comes to your aid. Thanks to this VPN, you will be able to get past the geoblocks, and you can unblock those geoblocks with lightning-fast speed. After that, you'll be able to get access to more Netflix content. Now, we will give you the steps you should follow so you can watch your favorite Netflix movies and series from anywhere you want: 

·  First, you have to make an account at the NordVPN website and install the downloadable software

·  Then you should connect to a server in the country you would like to watch Netflix, for instance, the US.

·  Log in to your Netflix account

·  Relax, and binge-watch your preferred Netflix series or watch some movies of your liking

But why should you select NordVPN in order to unblock this streaming service? Netflix works very hard to eliminate the usage of all VPNs that want to get past the geoblocks, and NordVPN is among those VPNs. What Netflix does, is that it blacklists certain VPN ranges from time to time. But, there are a few solutions to solve this problem.

First, this VPN's network of servers, as well as the location of those servers, grows on a regular basis. We’ve mentioned earlier that this VPN has over 5000 servers in 61 countries. This means that NordVPN has plenty of IP addresses through which it sends data, in this case, your data. Also, your data will be protected with military-grade encryption.

Another solution to this problem is that this VPN has obfuscated servers that could hide the fact that you’re using a VPN to have access to the content of Netflix. Thanks to these servers, there aren't many IP addresses that are blacklisted, so you can realize how good NordVPN actually is when it comes to successfully surpassing geoblocks. 

Besides connecting to Netflix, speed is also a very important factor in having access to all Netflix content. When you get connected to this streaming service with the help of the NordVPN, you would need to make sure that your videos regularly load, without buffering. You have to able to meet the following speed requirements in order to watch Netflix movies and series: 

·  The quality of the video has to be at least 480p with a speed of 3Mbps

·  To normally load an HD video, the speed has to be a minimum of 5Mbps

What devices are supported by NordVPN?

NordVPN is compatible with many devices. This VPN is available on Android, Windows, Linux, iOS, etc. The browser extensions for search engines Chrome and Firefox are available for the users as well. Customers can use up to six different devices with one account. Those six connections can be enough for your whole family or perhaps a smaller business.

How is the customer support at NordVPN?

You can contact the NordVPN customer support team via Live Chat, e-mail, or through social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. On the website of this VPN, you will also find the FAQ ( Frequently Asked Question) where you could find answers to questions like: "How do I upgrade my plan?" or "Do you accept Paypal?". The customer support team responds in a matter of minutes, and the staff is very professional and kind.

Using NordVPN on Windows

NordVPN makes it quick and easy to install their Windows client. When visiting their download page the site automatically detected our platform and displayed the Windows download link.

The application opens by displaying a world map focused on your current continent. This interactive map can be dragged around with the mouse, and it can be zoomed in and out of with the mouse wheel. Hovering your pointer over a location displays its name and left-clicking on it will connect you to the selected NordVPN server.

While this menu seems excellent, it comes with its own problems. For example, accessing locations in regions crowded with countries is rather difficult because the location markers are overlapping with each other. Luckily NordVPN also provides a list of servers sorted alphabetically, this list also has a search bar that you can use to quickly find any country.

Next to the countries, there is a more button by clicking on it a more targeted server selection screen will appear. NordVPN also provides special servers that support P2P torrenting, or Onion Over VPN. There are also options for servers with Dedicated IP and the option to use Double VPN which will relay all network traffic through two VPN servers instead of just one.

There aren’t too many settings provided that the users can fiddle around with. In the general settings menu, there are the usual options like starting with Windows or turning connection notifications on and off. The option to automatically connect to a server got its own tab called Auto-connect with the option to add trusted Wi-Fi networks.

The service also features an internet kill switch and an additional app kill switch. The Internet kill switch blocks all internet traffic if the VPN connection drops, while the app kill switch closes the selected apps when the VPN disconnects.

Under the Advanced settings tab, we can enter a Custom DNS server, this feature is especially useful if you want to use a PI hole or another secure DNS service. Turning on the Obfuscated Servers option the VPN will bypass firewalls and internet restrictions. This option only works with OpenVPN protocol. The last option available is labeled Invisibility on LAN, toggling this option on will make our device invisible to any other devices on the same local area network.

Considering everything, Nordvpn provides a solid and easy to use Windows client. The main problem we ran into was with CyberSec which is supposed to block ads and malicious web content at the time of testing it failed to block any ads. Except for the ad blocking not working at all, we didn’t run into any other bugs while testing.

Using NordVPN on your smartphone

If you need to use NordVPN on your phone, there’s no reason for worry. The VPN provides apps for every major platform, with all of the same server and security features as on the desktop version. If you wish to stream content or access sites from your phone to watch geo-restricted shows, you can do so by using one of many NordVPN-dedicated streaming servers. They are also conveniently available on mobile and tablet devices. Here’s a quick overview of how you to use the NordVPN mobile app:

1. Open Up the mobile NordVPN app and choose the appropriate option for you

2. Access the My Account and Settings Tab, where you can tailor specific security and auto-connect features. 

3. Alternatively, you can access the Quick Connect option and instantly connect to the best server available

The smartphone applications of NordVPN can be downloaded from two different sources. The simple way of installing them is through the app stores. But installing the program form the Google Play Store has its drawbacks, because of Google’s policies the application can’t have the option for ad blocking. Luckily the .apk installer file can be downloaded from NordVPN’s website and this version comes with all the features.

On the first launch of the app, you get the chance to get a 7-day free trial, there is no other way to get a free trial of NordVPN. The trial version is a fully-featured and functional version of the service. But don’t forget to cancel your subscription if you don’t plan to continue using NordVPN or it will automatically charge you.

Just like in the Windows app there are two ways of choosing the best server location for our needs. The main menu is a large interactive world map where servers can be selected by tapping on them but this can be hard to do on smaller devices in this case, we would recommend using the server list. Using the search bar above the server list makes it easy to find the location you are looking for.

As usual, the Android version has somewhat fewer features than its Windows counterpart but there is still a lot to fiddle around with.

The application has the option to use servers that support P2P which is useful if you want to use torrent services, the other connection method is Obfuscated which helps bypass firewalls and internet filtering services.

Adblocking and malware protection service CyberSec is also available through the settings, as well as the option to disable all LAN network communications. NordVPN provides options for Split tunneling, this is always a nice feature to have, it lets the users choose which applications should use the VPN.

NordVPN provides its users with the option to choose between two VPN protocols either OpenVPN or NordLynx. NordLynx is NordVPN’s own VPN protocol built on WireGuard, while WireGuard has some privacy problems NordVPN claims to have fixed these. For maximum security, users like to see a built-in Kill Switch but NordVPN doesn’t provide one instead, they provide instructions on how to turn on the Kill Switch built into the Android os.

To make the service more comfortable to use an auto-connect option is provided. Using Auto-connect the users can select when they want the VPN on the service will turn automatically on and off.

Overall the mobile applications of NordVPN provide everything that users would look for in a mobile VPN client. The trial version is a nice way of bringing new customers in, and the cancellation is simple there are no traps or hidden fees. A built-in internet kill switch would be nice to see but it’s not hard to enable the one built into the OS.

NordVPN on Linux

NordVPN doesn’t provide a graphical application for Linux but they do provide a well made and easy to use text-based terminal application. Because there is no GUI it is harder to use the service on Linux than on other platforms.

Installing the program is pretty hard and there are several steps that are easy to mess up. NordVPN provides a good tutorial to help users with installation, but even if somebody closely follows the guide it’s easy to make mistakes.

Once we managed to install the application its menu can be accessed by typing nordvpn into the terminal. The program will display all its options and features, but before we can use any of it we have to log-in to our NordVPN account using the “nordvpn login command”.

The client provides a surprisingly large amount of features. The VPN protocols can be changed between OpenVPN and NordLynx, it also has a built-in internet Kill Switch. Malware and ad blocking service CyberSec is also available which is really nice to see, it’s not often that we see a built-in ad blocking service on Linux. The last major feature that’s good to have is called Obfuscate, by turning this option on the VPN will try to bypass firewalls and internet filters.

When finished turning on or off features, the next step would be selecting a server location from the server list. The server list can be accessed using the “nordvpn countries command”. After finding a suitable server location you can connect to the service using the “nordvpn connect UK” command, just replace the UK with the country of your choice. When done using the VPN we can just enter the “nordvpn disconnect” command and the service will disconnect.

Overall NordVPN’s Linux client once installed is fairly easy to use, but the installation could be made easier and it would be really useful to see a graphical client in the future.

How to use NordVPN on your router

We tested NordVPN on a router running AsusWRT firmware but the service supports any router compatible with OpenVPN and they do provide a lot of guides for different firmwares.

Setting up a VPN connection on any router running AsusWRT is really simple, and NordVPN’s website has a really good tutorial for people who are new to setting up VPNs on a router.

First, we had to navigate to the VPN panel on our router’s configuration page here we selected add profile, gave the connection a name, entered our name and password provided by NordVPN on their website (please note that these aren’t your NordVPN login credentials, these are automatically generated and can be found on the “My Account” site).

NordVPN provides easy to use configuration files that have all the necessary configurations for the server of our choice, these config files can be found on NordVPN’s website.

The main reason why people use VPNs on routers is that it forces every device on your LAN network to use the service. That means even devices which you can’t normally install a VPN client on (smart home device, media player...) will be routed through your private encrypted tunnel. The only drawbacks of using a virtual private network on your router are that it’s difficult to turn on and off and it’s hard to switch servers.

Setting up NordVPN was a really pleasant experience, and we didn’t run into any problems or noticed any bugs while testing the service.

Server Locations for NordVPN

NORTH AMERICA Canada; Canada - Montreal; Canada - Toronto; Canada - Vancouver; United States; US - Buffalo, NY; US - Charlotte, NC; US - Chicago, IL; US - Dallas, TX; US - Denver, CO; US - Jackson, MS; US - Las Vegas, NV; US - Los Angeles, CA; US - Louisville, KY; US - Manassas, VA; US - Miami, FL; US - Minneapolis, MN; US - New Orleans, LA; US - New York, NY; US - Phoenix, AZ; US - Saint Louis, MO; US - Salt Lake City, UT; US - San Francisco, CA; US - Seattle, WA; Mexico

CENTRAL AMERICA & CARIBBEAN N/A

SOUTH AMERICA Argentina; Brazil; Chile

EUROPE Albania; Austria; Belgium; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Bulgaria; CzechRepublic; Croatia; Cyprus; Denmark; Estonia; Finland; France; Georgia; Germany; Greece; Hungary; Iceland; Ireland; Italy; Latvia; Luxembourg; Moldova; Netherlands; North Macedonia; Norway; Portugal; Romania; Serbia; Slovakia; Slovenia; Spain; Sweden; Switzerland; Turkey; Ukraine; United Kingdom

ASIA Hong Kong; India; Indonesia; Japan; Malaysia; Singapore; South Korea; Taiwan; Thailand; Vietnam

AFRICA & MIDDLE EAST Israel; South Africa; Turkey; Unated Arab Emirates

OCEANIA Australia; Australia - Adelaide; Australia - Brisbane; Australia - Melbourne; Australia - Perth; Australia - Sydney; New Zealand