Buffered VPN Review
Buffered VPN says they will help you experience the Internet as it should be – private, safe and fair. Those are the primary things we’ve come to expect a VPN service to give us. Does the Buffered VPN service deliver these primary things?
This Buffered review will provide the information to help you answer that question.
A VPN stands for Virtual Private Tunnel; and it’s simply a network of computers that sets up a private tunnel over a public network like the internet.
Ordinarily what you do in the internet can be seen by anyone watching (your ISP, hackers, scammers, the authorities etc); but a VPN encrypt your traffic and route it through the private tunnel established to keep it surveillance-free. Because your data is redirected through the VPN servers in getting to your online destination, it cannot be traced to you, making you anonymous.
The Buffered VPN service was established in 2013; it is a legit company registered in Gilbratar. It delivers the VPN operations of encrypting your traffic to keep you safe, spoofing your location to keep you anonymous/ private, and unblocking restricted contents to give you a free and fair internet.
RECOMMENDED TOP 3 BEST VPN ALTERNATIVES:
Note: Since you have nothing to loss, it will be a very good idea to register from this post so we can be able to assist you by getting in touch with them if you have any problem in the future. We have the power to force them into rectifying their faults. However, we cannot do anything if you try to trick the system. Just make sure you comply with their rules and regulations to make it easier for us.
Using the Buffered VPN service is 100% legal, except in a few countries where all VPN use is made unlawful, such as Saudi Arabia, North Korea, Iran, and others. However, even where its use is legal, Buffered warns that the service should be used only for lawful purposes.
Buffered VPN operates servers in 45 countries around the world. This is actually one of the highest numbers you’ll find. Many VPN services, even some highly rated ones, operates servers in about 30 or less countries.
However, in terms of VPN server network, you need a robust network with a high server count, that covers many countries, and is finely distributed. The large server count of such a robust network will ensure that you are less likely to find overcrowded servers; covering many countries will make the service excellent for unblocking purposes and location spoofing; and a fine geographical distribution will ensure that anywhere you might travel to, you’ll have a Buffered VPN server closeby to connect to for optimal performance.
Buffered VPN checks the box in the area of countries covered. They also perform admirably in the geographical distribution of their servers. They host servers in every region of the world, and even in areas often neglected by VPN services such as Africa and the Middle East. There are Buffered VPN servers all over Europe and North America; Asia is represented by Hong Kong, India, Israel (the Middle Eastern nation), Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand; Oceania is represented by Australia and New Zealand, South America is represented by Brazil and Panama; while Africa is represented by South Africa. This fine spread means that anywhere you are, you’ll find a closeby server to connect to. Check.
In terms of server count; though many other VPN services will be quick to tell you the number of servers that they operate, Buffered does not. Also, you’ll have more luck squeezing milk out of rock than getting this information from them. My conversation with a very friendly support agent yielded that depending on the popularity of the location, some countries have more servers than others. That should tell us that there are more than 45 servers in the network. Regarding the actual number, I got statement like “the number of servers does not reflect the quality of the service” and “the number of servers is classified information and that is why it is not listed anywhere“. If you’re wondering, like I did, why that information is classified; their answer is “it’s the company’s policy”.
Just so you know, the dedicated server locations page lists 104 “VPN locations”. This can (and actually has) easily be mistaken for VPN server locations. Buffered VPN clarified that the page is simply listing where you can use the VPN service. I think the page could use that short explanatory statement to avoid any confusion.
That said, though Buffered VPN is not upfront about their server count, operating in 45 countries that covers every region of the world is no small feat; this and more point to a robust server network that will serve all your location spoofing and unblocking needs.
You need a service compatible with a wide range of devices so that no matter the device you use, you’ll be covered. Buffered VPN advertises as being compatible with every device.
You can use the service on the popular operating systems and platforms – Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android, and routers (DD-WRT and Tomato routers).
The support for router means that you can use the service with Smart TV (Xbox, PS, Roku, etc.), and Boxee etc. All you need do is configure the VPN on a router, and connect the device to the router.
Users want a service that not only works with a lot of devices, but that also allows them to connect many of the devices at the same time. Simultaneous connections reduce the amount you have to pay to secure multiple devices that will be in use at the same time, because you’ll not need to buy multiple VPN accounts.
Buffered VPN allows five simultaneous connections. This is one of the best offers in the industry, and only a few services will give you more connections. This offer make the Buffered VPN a good choice for large families or a small business, as the multiple devices (up to five) of the unit can be secured with one VPN account.
Getting started with the VPN can be both as simple as ABC and not-so-simple depending on whether you’ll be using the service on a desktop or mobile device. There are Buffered VPN custom apps for desktop platforms, and this bring about the simplicity of setting up the service on the platforms.
You should breeze through the process of downloading the app and installing it. For using the service on mobile platforms (iOS, and Android), there are no custom app, and that calls for some extra legwork. You register with Buffered VPN, download the free OpenVPN connect app, then you download the OpenVPN config files from their site. However they provide detailed instructions to guide you through the process.
Using the Buffered VPN app is also very easy, mainly because there is little in the way of customizations. You can simply login, and select a server location to be automatically connected. Upon connection, the app shows your virtual location, how long you’ve been connected, data measurement, speed measurement, your virtual IP, and a prominent disconnect button. It also allows you to rate your connection, to send feedback to the service. I like the speed measurement feature; as it allows you to see straightaway how fast the VPN is.
From the settings menu, you can go to: set the VPN to launch on start up, enable the kill switch, toggle between TCP and UDP ports, and choose a port forwarding option. You can also set a port discovery mode from the “test firewall tab” in settings which is a unique feature that gives you access to public Wi-Fi without the password.
You can also choose for the app to connect to the last servers you used. There’s a “Report operational errors” button that you can disable if you do not want certain connections logs to be kept (more on this later).
On the whole, the usability of the Buffered VPN app is solid, and it comes with solid features such as the kill switch and unique speed measurement and port discovery mode.
One of the main function of a VPN is content accessibility. With streaming services making their contents location specific, you’ll need a VPN to give you a virtual IP that places you in the location where you want to access. However, the top streaming services have clamped down on VPN services, and their contents cannot be accessed simply by VPN IP masking. That’s why many VPNs cannot unblock streaming services like Netflix and BBC iPlayer. As such, any VPN service that can beat the firewall of these top streaming services and gives access to their contents is regarded as a good VPN for streaming.
In this regard, Buffered VPN comes out as a good service for streaming. The service successfully unblock top streaming sites, particularly Netflix and BBC iPlayer. This and the unlimited bandwidth offered by the Buffered VPN, makes them a good choice for the pop corn activity.
Many VPN services do not support P2P activity and torrenting; but users still seek VPNs for the activity because it remains one of the most effective ways to download files in the internet. Therefore any service that support torrenting is highly regarded.
In this regards, Buffered VPN makes a good VPN service. Where some services even go as far as calling torrenting illegal; Buffered VPN has a page that explains why P2P applications are crucial and advices using a VPN as a necessary precaution against the security risks of file sharing.
Buffered VPN does not restrict access to file sharing platforms on their servers. This gives them an edge over the competition, because many services do not support torrenting, and even some of the few that does severely limit the activity to only a few servers.
If you want a VPN service to safely and anonymously download torrents, you probably should look at the Buffered VPN service.
Buffered VPN supports only the OpenVPN protocol. The OpenVPN protocol is the gold-standard of VPN protocols. Most importantly, it is highly secure and ensures that you are always safe online. Buffered VPN says they exclusively use the OpenVPN because they prioritize your online privacy over everything else. In their words: “it’s [the OpenVPN] way more secure than PPTP and L2TP”. Also, it is highly configurable and offers complete reliability – it can quickly adapt to the changes in tech, and your privacy will not be compromised even if something were to go wrong with the protocol.
However, while the OpenVPN is the protocol recommended by every security expert, many users like to see alternatives protocols offered. When it happens that the OpenVPN protocol does not work, they’ll want to have a secure alternative protocol to use. Also, when a user does not prioritize secure connection, the PPTP can be employed for the speed it affords.
That said, the OpenVPN offered by Buffered VPN is really the protocol that everyone will like to see offered; but if a concern is alternative VPN protocols, having only the OpenVPN might be a deal breaker.
In terms of encryption, Buffered VPN uses 256-bit Blowfish encryption to secure all your private data and connections. This is military-grade encryption that is used to protect government top secrets. It has been subjected to a lot of cryptanalysis, but has remain unbroken.
With this kind of encryption, you should be rest assured that your data is safe from hackers and government surveillance even when you are connected to public WiFi hotspots.
The internet kill switch is a feature that is increasingly becoming common with VPNs. This is because it is the only thing that keeps your security intact when the VPN suddenly loses connection. All the data encryption and IP masking that a VPN does can becomes useless with a VPN connection drop when you are online. At that moment, your data (which is then unencrypted) and your real IP is exposed to all watching eyes. A kill switch prevent this by killing internet connection the moment the VPN disconnects, so that you do not continue online and risk having your privacy and security compromised.
Thankfully, Buffered VPN features this all important security tool to give you optimal security even at those VPN downtimes when the service will abruptly lose connection. Unfortunately, the kill switch is only available on the desktop clients. This means the Buffered VPN does not afford mobile devices the level of security that it affords desktop devices; and this is disappointing since most browsing is done with mobile devices. For example, connecting to different Wi-Fi hotspots is one activity that frequently causes a VPN service to lose connection; and you’re more likely to seek Wi-Fi hotspots with your mobile devices.
Security leaks such as DNS leaks, IPv6 leaks and WebRTC leak undermine the good work of a VPN service. With such leaks, vital information such as your IP or DNS requests leave the VPN tunnel; and is visible first to your ISP, as well as to anyone watching. Thus, any serious VPN service should prevent these leaks.
Buffered VPN comes out as such a serious VPN. Our test of the service was positive on all counts; there was no DNS/ IP leaks or WebRTC leaks.
Buffered VPN come forward to rightfully say that the logging policy of a VPN service is one of the most important things you should pay attention to; they even give 3 reasons you should choose a VPN with a ‘No Logging’ policy, the first two being to enjoy true Internet privacy, and to take advantage of increased security. So how does the service fare on the logging front?
On a ‘why choose Buffered VPN’ listing, the service mentions “zero usage log” as one of eight reasons. This itself is revealing; the company is saying they do not keep usage log, which would mean that they keep some other logs.
So we checked deeper to know what is actually logged and how that will affect users’ privacy.
In an FAQ article, Buffered VPN explains that they do not log any browsing traffic, but that they “retain some data about your connections to our server – as requested by the law – but nothing more than that“. With this, you are assured that the sites you visit, the contents you download/ upload, and the messages you send/ receive and any other such activity will remain private.
To determine the particular connection data that is logged, we went into their privacy policy. It says the connection data logged “may include but is not limited to your devices identifiers, including unique identifiers, operating system’s version, language, IP addresses, network information, user information on the operating system, routing tables, DNS server addresses, other file system information“. If the IP addresses logged is source IP, then you can be traced to your very door. VPN connection timestamps could be combined with other tit-bits to narrow in on a user.
Thankfully, Buffered VPN says the data will be kept for only 30 days. More importantly, they allow users to opt out of such collection. You can do this by disabling “Report operational errors” in the settings menu.
That said, if we are to strictly follow Buffered VPN advice to choose a VPN with a ‘No Logging’ policy, we will look beyond them because what they have is a ‘No usage data logging’ policy
The jurisdiction of a VPN service is an important consideration because, to a large extent, it determines if your information with the service will get into the hands of the government. Some over reaching government will require retention of users’ data, and will not be shy about getting them and issuing gag orders.
Thankfully, Buffered VPN jurisdiction is far from such over-reaching governments. The company is incorporated and registered in Gibraltar with Company Number 112307; their registered official address is at Suites 7B & 8B, 50 Town Range, Gibraltar. This makes Buffered VPN 100% legal and legit; most importantly, it means they are in a privacy friendly location. With the connection logs that the service keeps, and the fact that they will disclose this information if the government come calling; it’s somewhat good to know that their location means the government will not come calling.
Also, Gilbratar is not a member of the dreaded expanded Eyes alliance – which is a surveillance network where fourteen member nations work together to collect and share intelligence. The operation of the alliance is that any user information captured in a country will get shared among half the developed world. With Buffered VPN sheltered in Gilbratar, your data is not about to circle the world.
However, it should be pointed out that Buffered VPN have their central servers in the Netherlands. On one hand, the Netherlands are a part of the global surveillance/ spy alliance; but on the other hand, they have some of the best privacy protection laws. So even the chance of the government coming with warrants to collect users’ data from Buffered VPN is slim.
A VPN encrypt your data to secure it. That takes it toll on speed, and you’ll have reduced network speed as a result. However, we don’t want services that’ll reduce speed to intolerable levels; the fast VPN services reduce speed only marginally, and you won’t notice except you were actually watching. Buffered VPN says the service “always scores among the top 5 VPNs in speed tests”.
We put the claim on the line. We took speed (upload and download) performance from a couple of locations (2 closeby locations, and 2 distant locations), average them, then compared the result to the speed readings obtained when the VPN is not connected.
On the average, the Buffered VPN service reduced download and upload speed by 18% and 22% respectively. To put this in perspective, services that slows speed by as much as to 50% (and there are many of them) are still considered fast. Therefore, true to their claim, Buffered VPN definitely gives one of the fastest speed in the industry.
It’s only a matter of time before you’ll be needing answers to some questions or concerns when using a VPN service. Therefore, its good that the service you choose provides various channels for answering users’ questions and solving issues when they arise.
Buffers VPN provides both self help channels and direct contact channels. The self help options allow you find the answers/ solution yourself in a host of support articles provided by the service. This include an FAQ section, a knowledge center, and a host of tutorials. The FAQ and knowledge center are very extensive and will probably touch the question/ issue you have.The tutorials are detailed step by step instructions on how to set up the VPN and address various errors. The Buffered VPN self help articles are not the one-liners that many services provides, but are detailed, most times adding background information that helps espouse the subject being addressed.
If you’ll rather communicate with a customer support agent; Buffered VPN provides the email service, an online contact form, and a live chat. First, Buffered offers 24/ 7 support on all these channels. This is extremely impressive; the support department of most VPN services will only be alive during their normal business hours.
Also, the response to enquiries is the fastest I’ve seen in all my experiences with VPN services. Email enquiries get answered in about 10 minutes; that’s exemplary. Live chat submissions don’t get put in queues; there’s no case of agents not being unavailable; the live chat gives instant feedback.
Also, the support agent are not only friendly but knowledgeable. It is not a case of sacrificing quality responses for fast responses. They talk to you, giving you specific answers; and not simply giving you copy-and-paste answers from an article, or simply giving you a link to some article.
The Buffered VPN support service is the best I’ve seen in everything – friendliness, timeliness of response, and quality of response.
Buffered VPN has one service offering with three subscription plans. Whatever plan you subscribe to, you get the same features; the only difference is how long you get to use the service. The subscription plans are: one month, 6 months, and 12 months (plus one extra free month).
The single month plan costs $12.99; the 6 months plan cost $59.94, which breaks down to $9.99 per month to give a 23% cost saving; while the 12 months plan (which is technically a 13 months plan) cost $99.00, which breaks down to $7.62 per month to give a 41% cost saving.
Services whose month to month subscription is $10.00 and above are considered expensive; Buffered VPN’s is $12.99. Q.E.D. Buffered VPN is expensive. Their best value deal despite having a massive 41% discount still stands at $7.62 which is more than twice the best value deals of some very good VPN services. If you want an inexpensive service, you’ll have to look beyond Buffered VPN. Let’s continue to see whether Buffered will wow with some exceptional features to justify their steep prices.
You’ll want to check for the payment methods that the VPN service supports whether there’s one that is available for use in your region, as well as whether it is convenient to use.
In this regard, Buffered VPN does not burst the ceiling with many options. If alternative payment methods is a chief concern to you, you’ll be left disappointed. The service only supports PayPal and the major credit/ debit cards (Visa card, Master card, America Express and Discover card). This means that none of the whole range of e-wallets are supported. These methods entail submitting sensitive information as part of the billing process; and some users might see such as threatening to privacy.
If you’re one of such users; there is good news for you. Buffered VPN also accepts bitcoin payments which makes it possible for you to pay for the service anonymously.
VPN services are increasingly offering money back guarantees which allow users to request a refund of their payment if they find that the service does not live up to some expectations. In this regard, Buffered VPN is no exception.
In their words “Our users always come first”; and to back this up, they offer a 30 days money back guarantee, which means that you can use the service for up to 30 days and still request a 100% refund of your payment. On the face of it, this looks like a very generous offer; the refund window (30 days) is one of the highest in the industry, and many other services offer only one or two weeks. However, you should not that you will not be eligible for refund if your usage exceeds 10 GB of bandwidth, or 100 sessions, or 10 hours of sessions during this period.
All of a sudden, it’s no longer so generous, a heavy user will easily exceed 10GB of bandwidth. The 10 hours of session condition makes the whole 30 days a joke; a user can literally exceed this in a day. We’ll prefer a ‘no questions asked’ refund policy that is truly free.
You should also know that the 30 days refund window applies only if you purchase the service directly from Buffered VPN; if you use a third party (such as Apple App Store), you”ll have a 14 days window.
Many services offer free trials to allow users test the service free of charge before committing to a paid subscription plan. However, Buffered VPN does not offer free trials. They advise that you should use the money back guarantee if you must test-run the service.
Buffered VPN is a 100% legal and legit VPN service. They take care of security and privacy by using only the secure OpenVPN protocol, with strong blowfish 256 encryption. Also, they plug all security leaks, provide a kill switch on their apps, and do not log usage data; they’re nested in privacy friendly Gilbratar, and allow you to pay anonymously with bitcoin.
However, some users would want to see alternative protocols, and a kill switch for other platforms without custom apps; and many would also want to see the no-logging to be more than usage data.
Furthermore, Buffered VPN provides intuitive desktop apps, which makes the service very easy to use; the service can be used on every device, and you can use one VPN account to protect five devices at the same time. Speeds are excellent, customer support is excellent; and the service is excellent for streaming and fully supports torrenting.
I liked
Not so sure:
I didn’t like:
Royal Vegas Casino can be found here: www.royalvegascasino.com. The casino website is available in 14…
If you're looking for where to buy CBD based products with ease, this PureKana review…
Hostwinds is a web host that has been in operation since 2010. They provide shared…
Zodiac Casino, renowned for its unique astrology-themed gaming experience, offers players a celestial journey through…
Romwe is an online fashion store that was started in 2010. It says that its…
Manhattan Slots is a legitimate online casino that has been in operation since 2004 with…