Virgin Media is a British broadband internet service provider, sporting a rock star image. However, that analogy is anything but positive, as the company’s actions are often surrounded by controversies: the previous acting CEO opposing the idea of net neutrality; monitoring and blocking file sharing activity; and most importantly throttling people’s internet connection. As a matter of fact, this throttling was definitely something that grinded users’ gears, considering they subscribed to the company’s services by falling for Virgin Media’s blatant advertising of “unlimited bandwidth”.
To make matters worse, the company’s latest Super Hub 3 seems to have difficulties connecting to any VPN, which was previously used by many users to counter most of the problems. Luckily, the Internet of All Things always comes up with something to eliminate this problem once and for all.
The list of grievances committed by Virgin Media mentioned earlier is just the tip of the iceberg; in fact, the company committed some heinous crimes against its own clientele.
For starters, they utilize bandwidth throttling during peak hours, a method the company has perfected to such extent it would be brilliant hadn’t it been used against paying customers. Years ago the company ‘only’ set a threshold limit regarding both upstream and downstream for every customer. Then they removed the downstream throttling for packages above 30MB – an obvious marketing ploy – only to change their policy once again. At the time of writing Virgin Media claims that the maximum amount of throttling is 40%, even though customers experienced bandwidth restrictions above 50%.
But we’re still not at the bottom of the barrel: in 2008 it was rumored that Virgin Media partnered with a former spyware company for ‘data pimping’. In simpler words, Virgin wanted to get their hands on click-stream data and resell the acquired information to third parties for dubious purposes. After widespread protest, however, Virgin Media decided to drop the idea.
And last but not least we have something that is a downright practice used by totalitarian regimes: censorship and site blocking. The most famous case of that was when the company tried to censor customer access to a certain Wikipedia article because it featured controversial cover art of a rock album.
Boosting the protection of your privacy with a VPN seems to be a wise move, especially if you are a Virgin Media client. In fact, a VPN has nothing but advantages: not only such a service could defeat bandwidth throttling by rerouting the data stream through private servers, but it also masks IP addresses, effectively circumventing geo-restrictions and regional censorship.
It also goes without saying that encrypting internet connections prevents companies from gathering personal data about individual browsing sessions. Although this particular ISP denies interest in data pimping, one can be never cautious enough – especially seeing how Virgin tried applying this dubious method back in 2008.
But it seems Virgin Media cannot be fooled so easily: Super Hub 3, the most popular router used by the company, has trouble running a VPN. Several customers reported that Super Hub 3 is unable to connect properly to any VPN service, something the router’s predecessor was capable of without any problems. In fact, the issue seems to be so prevalent that VPN service providers had to jump in and offer temporary solutions. PureVPN, the company we included in the list of recommended VPN providers below, suggests the following: customers should go to the Websafe section in their Virgin Media account and turn off the ‘Virus safe’ option. Additionally, switching to PPTP, L2TP or the IPSec protocols in the router’s control panel and then restarting the device should also do the trick.
Despite these solutions, official forums are chock-full of unsatisfied users seeking remedy to their problems. However, some clients managed to trick the router by disabling the IPv4 firewall protection in the Firewall section or by enabling modem mode.
Tinkering with your own equipment just to enable VPNs is only half the battle: you should choose a competent service with features that make the dangers and flaws imposed by Virgin Media things of the past.
PureVPN has more than 6,000 servers worldwide with reliable, secire, and uninterrupted connections, compatibility with over 50 devices, and excellent customer service.
Prices start as low as $2.11 per month for the VPN, and those willing to pay a little more can get their hands on a password manager, file encryption, and personal privacy manager – all under the same subscription. Plus, with a 7-day free trial, 31-day money-back guarantee, add-ons, and discounts of up to 83%, it would be a mistake not to consider PureVPN as a viable option.
IPVanish made a strong entrance as a VPN service provider in 2012, long before VPNs became so common, and it’s been further improving its service ever since. Fundamentally, this solution specializes in providing customers with secure and encrypted internet connections across all devices.
Offering customers an impressive 2,200 servers worldwide to choose from, IPVanish is both comprehensive and reliable. It’s also one of the few VPN providers that manage a big portion of its infrastructure in-house, owning 80% of its servers and only using self-developed software for its service. This reduces the company’s reliance on third parties, making it an even more trustworthy option.
As one of the strongest VPNs on the market, IPVanish also boasts a vast range of features that not only provide faster speeds but also permit a custom encryption level and all other elements of a VPN connection. With prices starting as low as $2.99 per month, users certainly get a lot for their money.
With an extensive server network spanning 105 countries, apps for all major platforms, and even extra security tools like an ad blocker, ExpressVPN delivers all you need for a private and secure online experience.
The software is easy to use across all devices, and the speed trumps many of its competitors, making it one of the fastest VPNs on the market. Android and iOS customers can make the most of a 7-day free trial with unlimited bandwidth and everyone can enjoy three months for free when opting for annual billing.
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