Advanced features
Do you need a VPN that goes beyond the basics?
Signing up for any VPN gives you the same core functionality: the ability to securely route your internet traffic through one of the provider’s servers. That should be enough for most situations, but some companies go further, adding even more features to protect your privacy and keep you safe online.
Regular VPNs pass all your traffic through whatever server you select, for instance. This offers a lot of protection, but if someone could see when you logged in to the VPN, and the server you were assigned (some providers keep this kind of session information), there’s a chance they could connect your traffic to some action online.
Some providers offer an extra layer of protection by routing traffic through multiple servers. IVPN has a “multihop” feature where you could connect to a server in the US, for example, then exit through the Amsterdam server, making it much more difficult for anyone to track your web activities. Perfect Privacy has a similar feature, which it calls “cascading”, while SlickVPN’s Hydra tech routes your traffic through random servers.
Buffered VPN’s client isn’t quite as capable. It has some welcome and unusual features, but there’s nothing technically surprising. Mullvad also appears to be a very ordinary service, at least initially, but don’t be fooled – there’s a lot going on. It can handle IPv6 tunnelling, blocking and leak protection, even with IPv6 over IPv4.
Browsing Mullvad’s specs shows there’s plenty more to like, including provisional support for WireGuard, a new VPN protocol likely to go live in the Linux kernel in 2017: a strong sign of a provider that knows what it’s doing. Mullvad would probably be our pick for experts, but Perfect Privacy gets very close. Advanced features include a configurable kill switch, port forwarding, leak protection and some interesting stealth modes. There are novicefriendly functions, too, including an optional TrackStop module that blocks access to known tracking IPs.