1) Most of the VPNs I know of in LYN are based on the same underlying technology which is OpenVPN. Some have customized GUIs for user convenience but they all utilize the same OpenVPN technology.

There are other VPN setups available such as secure-ix (not the same as secure-ax) and relakks which I believe use the PPTP VPN which is slightly different and comes with its own set of problems.

What makes a difference is

a) How much bandwidth are you allowed to push?

Our is unlimited to the user (for Malaysian users at least)

b) How good is the bandwidth provided?

What is more important is the quality of the bandwidth. Our bandwidth are of the metered kind which is guaranteed by the service provider to us and has also pretty good peering to Europe and American networks.

Our networks are also not blacklisted from p2p networks unlike those that use FDC.

c) How redundant are your networks?

We have 8 servers located in 3 datacentres which has load balancing in place.
Few providers can match this sort of setup.

d) How do you deal with infringement notices? What if your servers get taken down?

Infringement notices are a lot rarer on our Euro servers and we have been in operation since March 2007 so we really know what we're talking about regarding this.

We were operating a mixture of US servers until April this year when our host took down at least 5 of our servers. We recovered in less than a day by bringing up new servers located elsewhere for our customers. Where else can you find such quick turnaround?

e) Support & Community

We are one of the few VPN providers that has a thriving community in our forums so you're not just joining a service but a family.

Both my partner and I deal personally with support requests that are not covered within our extensive documentation and FAQs.

We also maintain a blog that announces all major updates.

f) Integrity and Trust

We are not one of those fly by night providers who give up after encountering a hiccup. Problems are bound to happen in any service and it's about how we deal with it (for e.g. the take down of our servers in April).

We have dealt with some RM200,000 in income and have an excellent reputation and several LYN mods are our active subscribers.

g) Options

We provide both fully routed (that means everything goes through the VPN) and proxied services at no extra cost which most providers are unable to do.

To answer your 2nd question:

First of all we actually do provide a Torrentflux equivalent service to select customers though currently all slots are taken (BolehBox).

I find a lot of people are wowed by the large download speed numbers that TorrentFlux services post when they are misleading. Large numbers that have little effect to you. Why? Cause when you download it to your PC, once again you're limited by your Streamyx line. Also note that these large numbers are only achievable on well seeded torrents. It is almost like having a Formula 1 car in KL traffic except that you also have a speed limit imposed (in this case by Streamyx).

In a nut shell:

Pros of TF:

1) If the TF host does not cap the upload and has only a few people, it is great for maintaining ratios for private trackers (however this is very rare from my recent survey of available TF services). Most providers usually only allow a ratio of 1.0 and not more or cap your upload speed so this advantage is only available on 'seeder' packages which are much more expensive.
2) Works on all operating systems, only requires configuration of a download or ftp manager that supports multi-parting.
3) Ability to have a few people in different locations download from your TF account
4) Not limited by most firewalls if the download to your pc is http based.
5) Don't have to keep your PC on for the torrent download and only for the HTTP download. Good for those who cannot keep their computers on for extended periods of time.

Cons:

1) Dual download, one to TF server, one to your computer (possibly longer time to reach your pc)
2) Subject to space quota limitation on your TF account
3) Will take longer to download moderately/poorly seeded torrents.
4) Increased CPU/memory and bandwidth strain on the server so less users can be on one server (which tends to result in higher cost)
5) If customers download illegal files, the files are stored on the server and is clearly illegal since the Admin has control over the files.
6) TorrentFlux when dealing with many users can result in huge lag in its GUI due to the immense CPU strain.

Pros of VPN

1) Good for most things. Works as if you are unthrottled and gives you the speed as fast as the torrent and your Streamyx line can give to you.
2) Single download, straight to your computer with no space quotas. Download a single dvd (or a few) without worrying about clearing your quota on TF.
3) Minimal effect from other people using the VPN as we allocate bandwidth instead of sharing it completely.
4) More legally secure as none of the files are held on the server unlike TF which keeps the file on the server. This is not an issue if the TF host is in an offshore country.

Cons:

1) Requires more expertise to set up
2) Subject to Streamyx upload speed (384 or 512) in seeding so might be difficult to maintain ratio in private tracker sites.
3) Requires OpenVPN so it does not work on Windows ME/98/95.
4) Firewalls can block us unless we reconfigure our server


The benefit of VPN is that you don't have to download the file twice. Also you are only limited to the hard disk of your hard drive and not your space allocation on the TF.

TF works like this

1) You ask the TF server to download your file at a good speed. (this is still subject to seeder/peer ratio). You save it on your TF server subject to your size quota.
2) You download it via HTTP or FTP from the TF server at your regular Streamyx speed.

Therefore there are two downloads happening here:
Once to your TF server. Then another time to your PC.

This isn't really a problem with very well seeded torrents as in those who use good private trackers (not demonoid) since it takes maybe 5 minutes or less to download the entire file into the server. Then it takes another how many minutes to download it to your computer based on your Streamyx speed.

But on a poorly seeded torrent (which are the majority of public trackers), even a fast connection on the TF will not help you. So you're still subject to the seeder/peer limitation and then have to download it AGAIN to your computer on your Streamyx speed.

Another disadvantage is that with the size limit, let's say you buy a 6 gb account for TF, you cannot download two dvds at a same time (4.8 gb each). You have to download one at a time AND download it off the server before starting on the other DVD download. Only AFTER you clear the space on your TF server can you start with the 2nd dvd download.

Also remember you are sharing the upload/download speed with other TF users so depending on how your TF service caps it, you might not get the full potential of the server anyway. It is all fine and dandy that the TF services post download speeds of 1-2 megabytes a second on their server but to be honest that isn't really impressive since that is the DOWNSTREAM torrent connection to the server. We have hit 7 megabytes a second DOWNSTREAM to our server so this is nothing to be overly excited about.

We may have a few BolehBox slots opening up and the best thing is for an additional RM15 you get both VPN + BolehBox which is the best of both worlds

Reuben, Thanks for your details explaination, will consider to subscribe your vpn when I am ready.

taken out to avoid misunderstanding >.<

*edited sorted*

eh...i do meant it for a joke.

sorry, i'll take it out.

hurm,can i ask something
can i use this service for p2p,gaming like WoW something like that
with my condition like using campus internet connectivity..
got firewall aka proxy..

can i use this service?

Our service does support p2p but not gaming. You can technically achieve it but it does not reduce your pings.

That's a completely different service and the efficacy of such services now that the Nagle algorithm has been disabled by Blizzard's patch is questionable though some people swear by it.

For campus internet connectivity it would work in certain cases but it depends on the way the firewall is configured.

Reuben, why use tcp instead of udp?

i thought tcp always better than udp in term of reliability >_<

sorry for asking, curious..hehe.

Udp has very little overhead and is more suitable for high speed transfers. TCP on the other hand due to the acknowledgment of packets, flow control...etc etc has very high overhead.

A high overhead would affect the transfer speed and is less suitable for p2p.

You may google tcp and udp comparison for a look at what it is.

Here is an excerpt from this article:

i cant remember when i started using bolehvpn, i think one of the early adopters to bolehvpn...
with the current new servers currently up and running, i'm a happy camper...
reuben, satisfied customer here...
thx for the great service...

The date you started using BolehVPN was 30/3/2007

More than a year already! Thanks man for the continuous support!

I gotta say that I'm a very happy happy BolehVPN user. The new servers really flies. Most torrents - even those with very little seeds or even very high and disproportionate seeds to peers ratio - flies like nobody's business!!

I've been using BolehVPN for like ummm almost a year now? I think. As with anything there were ups and downs but the team always always handled any issues or problems with speed and grace that earned my respect and my continued loyalty. Many jump ship whenever little hicccups develops, but I've always believe Reuben and his team will always come through for us.


Great job guys!!! You have one loyal customer here!!

Has it been a year? Anyway thanks for the kudos. Really appreciated and glad you like our new server mix.

reuben, renew lagi 2 bulan. dah e-mail all the datails needed. Thanks

Make it so!



And it is done!

thanks, and fast service as usual.

Alo bro reuben..

I'm already paid rm5 intp ur account using maybank2u but don't have any news from ur team till now..

thanx...

Heya man sorry it was 2 am and wasn't awake. Usually our key processes stop at 12 midnight or a little over but over that time a man's gotta sleep!

I am processing all keys right now.

Hehe sory thanx 4 da fast reply...

Keys are out! Remember to check your spam folders if you are using yahoo accounts.

Ok already got it .. but i dunno why the icon OpenVPN gui still in yellow color..

Any support queries please email us at bolehbit@gmail.com or our forums with your full openvpn log and we will help u from there. We will deal with it there as this is an ad thread

i think it is due to port not foward.

portfoward openvpn port : 1194 , UDP protocol.

Nah that's not related. We'll deal with it in the support forums.

just paid n got my new keys within few minutes

btw reuben can i know when did i start using boleh vpn? thanks

Thu, Jun 7, 2007 at 6:44 PM was the first e-mail you sent me with your request

Keys delivered Thu, Jun 7, 2007 at 7:46 PM so that was when your subscription started hehe

Long time customer

Someone named hafiz nagacekiks e-mailed us but i accidentally deleted as it in was in the spam box. As I was clearing it I only noticed it then but when I realized it was too late

If hafiz could resend that e-mail I would greatly appreciate it. Apologies for the inconvenience.

All keys submitted today will be processed and issued in the next 30 minutes. We have to rebuild the keys database due to the large numbers of keys being accumulated over the last one year. Sorry for the inconvenience of this delay.

As for comcast users, please give an alternative email, it seems that comcast treats our attachment as a security threat even though the attachment is for security usage.

All keys have been issued Sorry for the delay!

bro. oredi paid to your account. TQ

Keys delivered do check your spam cause yahoo's spam filter is broken.

There seems to be a lot of keys not being received by those using hotmail, comcast and yahoo. Please check your spam boxes or get gmail account.


All keys for the day has been issued.

All keys up to 3:42 PM are out!

bro wannna try the trial account....pm me the details plz..thanx

---

Added on May 14, 2008, 5:45 pmemailed u already


waiting waiting waiting

Already delivered to you leh at 5:48 pm. Your email is at 5:46 pm...patience a bit can ah

beauty!!! that is thunder-speed , thanx tailo

You guys are not going to believe this.

My subscription to the service ended today and I sent Reuben a late email after paying him RM30 for a month of service using Maybank2u. Within a MINUTE literally, he sent me a reply with the configuration key for another 30 days.

I don't know what else to say but damn, dude. That was some super QUICK service! Well done, Reuben and thanks!

im trying it now... hopefully everything goes well and maybe BOLEHVPN will have another customer XD

Let us know if u have any problems just drop a mail

i have configure as told in da link.... speed for torrent is like 30kbps only :S why ar

Come to our support forums I'll help you there (see my sig).

Also how many seeders and how many peers in that torrent? (don't reply here, reply in the forums). thanks!

Bolehvpn is like crack; just renewed for another 3 months.

Thanks again to Reuben and Pit Boss for providing this great service. Cheers guys!

Can I try your service out?

The one-day thing?

Sure drop an e-mail to bolehbit@gmail.com

You got an email

E-mail sent Going to sleep now so any problems just honk me up or go to our forums should have some ppl awake though our guide is pretty comprehensive as long as you read it carefully.

Reuben, I wonder why I couldnt reply to your email, by the way , just made the transfer from Maybank2U for 60 days subscription (RM50), Reference Number: 1247568174,Transaction Date/Time: 15 May 2008 23:34:49

Your subscriptions keys delivered

I'll be taking over the keys generation for the next 5 weeks due to Reuben taking a long vacation beginning tomorrow. Keys will be processed as soon as possible but there might be some interruption next week due to the WCIT 2008 congress which I'm attending. The congress schedule is quite hectic and probably will be able to issue keys before 9am, 1PM, 6PM and after 10PM. WCIT begins on Sunday and ends on Wednesday. It is advisable to renew your keys this week if you do not want any interruption.

Will be issuing today keys by 12noon.