Strong VPN Review – Scam or not?
StrongVPN is a company that provides VPN service connection to customers using Open VPN, PPTP, L2TP and SSTP protocols. They currently have over 87,000 IP addresses on 458 VPN servers in 22 countries worldwide (238 PPTP servers in 43 cities and 368 OpenVPN servers in 44 cities).
StrongVPN is the sister company of Reliable Hosting, a company that provides dedicated servers and web hosting services to customers worldwide. Their head office is located at 200 Paul Avenue, San Francisco California, USA.
The company started as a small start-up in Lake Tahoe way back in 1994. They initially sell personal computers and later on began to offer Internet connection service. Soon after, they expanded to providing dedicated server and then offered world class VPN connections to users.
StrongVPN protects your browsing data and information by implementing a network interface system that encrypts all your online traffic data. It also changes the IP address that is visible online with one of their numerous dynamic IP addresses.
This kind of system defends your personal data and information from hackers, phishers and other malicious organization and individuals. The encryption of your data also allows evasion of deep packet inspection that can restrict your access to websites and applications that is being blocked by your local servers. This ability to circumvent restrictions and limitations provides you with the freedom to open all your favorite sites and online applications anywhere in the world.
Furthermore, StrongVPN defends your privacy and anonymity online, due to the replacement of your visible IP address, which serves as your fingerprint on the web, thus protecting you from identity theft and other cybercrimes.
Features of StrongVPN
Open VPN, PPTP, L2TP and SSTP protocols
StrongVPN provides customers with access to Open VPN, PPTP, L2TP and SSTP with up to 2048-bit encryption. The company has 238 PPTP servers in 43 cities (21 countries). And 368 OpenVPN servers in 44 cities (21 countries).
Device Compatibility
StrongVPN support devices that runs on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10, Windows Mobile, Microsoft Surface / Windows RT, Mac OS, iOS, Linux and Android (automatic setup application for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android). It also supports Ubuntu Linux, Bada, HP web OS, Symbian, Chromium OS / Google Chrome OS, TomatoUSB, Sabai OS, Mikrotik RouterOS and DD-WRT Routers.
Unlimited Bandwidth
StrongVPN has no bandwidth limit usage on its packages. However, there are limits on the number of server switches that you can make in a month.
No logging of internet records
StrongVPN does not keep, monitor or store any user’s internet activity records, including files downloaded and sites visited.
P2P Activities
StrongVPN allows P2P activities.
However, they do state that sharing of materials that are copyrighted is forbidden.
Accepts Bitcoin Payment
StrongVPN allows payment for their VPN services through Bitcoin.
Bitcoin is a popular payment method for customers who wants keep their payments private and anonymous.
5 days unconditional money back guarantee
StrongVPN provides users with a 5 days money back guarantee for their subscription payments.
Any users that are unsatisfied with the VPN service can claim a 100% refund within 5 days upon activation of their VPN account.
Customer Service
StrongVPN provides users with 24 by 7 customer support through Live chat. They also provide email support with the following email addresses: billing@support.reliablehosting.com, vpn@support.reliablehosting.com and general@support.reliablehosting.com.
They also have a FAQ’s and Setup section in their website to get answers to common questions and installation instructions.
Benefits of StrongVPN
- Provides dependable Online Security for you and your family
- Acts as your Virtual Firewall against hackers, phishers and other malicious individuals
- Let you enjoy browsing the internet privately and anonymously
- Allows you to access to your local TV shows and streaming sites anywhere in the world
- Protects you even when connecting to public Wi-Fi hotspots, such as cafe and airports
- Provides users with Static and Dynamic IP addresses
- Unblocks sites anywhere in the world
- Better and more secured than using proxy service
- Allows you access to streaming sites like Hulu, Netflix and others
Altogether, they have servers in 20 countries:
- United States
- United Kingdom
- Canada
- Czech Republic
- Germany
- Hong Kong
- Italy
- Japan
- Latvia
- Malaysia
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Romania
- Russia
- Singapore
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Turkey
- Luxembourg
- France
The strong VPN software interface:
Customer contact is superior with 24/7 billing and technical support. Live chat is available on the site so you can browse if you like or talk to a real person. The first agent was a little off-putting but the second agent (Shannon) was charming and really knew her stuff.
On the other hand, their pricing is higher than most. Formerly, the packages were really confusing. There was no “pay a price and access the network” deal. For example, the Lite and Standard packages for either PPTP or OpenVPN, at $7 and $12 respectively, would get you US servers. Period. If you wanted 19 countries, it was the Deluxe packages, at $15USD and $20USD, depending if you wanted PPTP or OpenVPN. If you wanted France, too, you had to choose the Premium package – for $30 a month, you got both PPTP and OpenVPN.
Fortunately they could simplify all these packages to just one which now includes all protocols and all servers.
Our StrongVPN Speedtest Results (median values)
- Upload Speed: 15Mbps
- Download Speed: 18 Mbps
- Ping time: 51 ms
Speed Test of StrongVPN servers
According to their privacy statement ( http://strongvpn.com/policy.shtml ), StrongVPN doesn’t keep any logfiles anymore right now. Formerly they used to.
StrongVPN Plans and Pricing Overview
The service offers a simple all-in-one package. If you prefer a monthly payment you get it for $ 10.00/month, the yearly plan of $ 69.99 includes a discount of 41%, which would be only $ 5.83 per month.
StrongVPN Mode of Payments
- Visa
- MasterCard
- Discovery
- American Express
- PayPal
- Google Checkout
- Western Union
- Bitcoin
StrongVPN: Pros and Cons
Pros
- Over 500 VPN servers in 22 Countries
- Unlimited bandwidth
- No logging at all
- Allows torrent
- Bitcoin Payment
- 5 days money back guarantee
- Device compatibility
- PPTP, L2TP, SSTP, OpenVPN and IPSec protocols
Cons:
- No Free Trial
- A little bit expensive
- Limited server switches
- US company
StrongVPN Review Conclusion
StrongVPN is a first rate VPN service provider that delivers fast and dependable VPN connections. However, it is located in the US and is subject to their laws which can change anytime, concerning logging and anonymity.
Go to strongvpn.com
They gave my information to the police and I was arrested.
Why I was arrested: I angered the wrong person by sending an anonymous email. The person I emailed is politically well-connected and were able to get the local PD to subpoena my logs from StrongVPN. It was later determined in court that I did not break any law. But.. The fact that strong VPN provided my account billing info (name, address, VPN and originating IP), which is how the cops found me, was quite upsetting. When I contacted StrongVPN after all was said and done, they keep those logs for a VERY long time. Needless to say, I am no longer using this service and if you value your privacy you’ll stay away from them too.
The fallout from all this is that the arrest and accusations, although dismissed, has ruined my career and no one will hire me for computer work despite my 20+ years in this career.
StrongVPN is based in the USA and as such, if served with a subpoena from law enforcement, they will turn over all your private information such as account holder’s name, your billing address, original ip address, login times, and total traffic history. Another company HideMyAss recently turned over information for one of their subcribers and he was arrested and, currently, in jail. Just google what HideMyAss did. Ahh, so much for privacy. Don’t trust these US based companies…Pick a VPN company based in a different country so if they’re subpoenaed they will ignor it and rip it up.
I used this company’s vpn service for a few months. At first they were ok, but lately, I noticed that Paypal, Amazon and most of US goverment websites and larger international organizations easily recognize me as someone who “came” not from the “right place”. While logged in through strongvpn my access was restricted or limited by many online stores and websites. Like they knew where I am “coming from”. I was able to figure out what happened: strongvpn has a few (5-10) IP address in the US and they do not rush to ever change them. Everyone now knows their range of IP address and if you use strongvpn, the websites you visit will know you are using VPN.
Do not rely on strongvpn for encyprtion. Their encryption for openvpn is weak. I eventually changed to Perfect privacy. I
Consistently terrible. Service wouldn’t even work in two locations in Japan, so I was given a free three months, technical support told me to reset my Macbook keychain, which effectively erased all my saved passwords. Technical support is based in Belarus (from what I can tell) and really doesn’t amount to much when they can’t get the services to work. Right now I’m in Vienna, and the connections are patchy at best.
Just like the airport they have to verify all info about u.plus it takes hours for them to reply back in chat. Very sketchy company.
I used strong vpn for a considerable amount of time but recently changed computers and have not been able to get any direct assistance, I get emails that are not of any assistance. I try to get into my account and get pop ups saying email is not recognized but receive emails from the company at the same email they don’t recognize. After y current subscription expires, I will not renew
This VPN is strong but just by name. The slowest and useless VPN I have used ever is StrongVPN. I could never watch a full video using this VPN. Then I started searching about VPNs on google and heard a lot about Astrill and almost all of my friends are using Astrill. Had to see for myself why so many people use “Astrill VPN”. So, I purchased it and it really is pretty great. Works super and super fast.