FastestVPN Review

Pros:

• It provides “Kill Switch” option that works efficiently, which saves the user from any data leakage by stopping all the internet traffic if the VPN goes down unexpectedly.
• Four different protocols are available, and it also allows the user to switch between UDP and TCP protocol. This helps the user to maintain a balance between speed and security according to the requirements.
• The servers can be sorted in the Alphabetic order. They also provide the option of favorite server list.
• The annual plan is comparatively cheaper than the plans that many other VPN providers offer.
• It allows five simultaneous connections from one account which includes desktops, mobile devices, and routers.
• Customer support includes live chat support which provides instant replies.
• A seven-day money-back guarantee is available by which a user could judge the application before making the purchase.
• FastestVPN has P2P optimized servers, and by using them, one can take advantage of efficient file sharing.
• Inbuild NAT Firewall is provided which doesn’t allow entry of unrecognized and unwanted data packets to your system.
• It doesn’t rely on Third-Party DNS servers as it has own DNS servers.
• According to their privacy policy, it doesn’t keep any logs, and not even keep any track of bandwidth usage.

Cons:

• Because of the name of the VPN provider: “FastestVPN,” one would securely assume that it would provide a higher speed in comparison of other providers. However, the speed is acceptable but requires improvement.
• It doesn’t provide any option to connect with the fastest server, and one manually needs to check that which server location would render the fastest speed.
• Features such as split tunneling and port forwarding are not added to the application. If such features could be provided, it would make the user experience better.
• It may disconnect your internet sometimes while you turn OFF the VPN application. Although this is because of Kill Switch feature offered by the app and present in many other apps to prevent accidental data leakage.

Visit Website: Official Website

Overview:

The Cayman Islands is located in the central part of the Caribbean Sea. That’s where the Fast Technologies headquarter is located.

Fast Technologies owns the FastestVPN service and comes under Cayman Islands’ jurisdiction which is out of “Fourteen Eyes.” However, it is a British overseas territory, and somewhat control of Britain could be expected which makes the security vulnerable.

Talking about security, the application has provided features to safeguard the user, and we have also reviewed the privacy policy to see if it efficiently safeguards the user’s privacy or not.

The name of the VPN service suggests a high speed, and so its analysis is also essential to explore the capability of the application regarding speed.

As the VPN service was launched just in the year 2017, it is still in the development phase. Till now they have published six versions for Windows, four for Android, and two for iOS. This shows the continuous efforts for the development of the application.

With this review, you would know if these developments make the FastestVPN worthy or not. You will also know about the facilities they provide, and about the features that are absent & required the most.

Easy to Install:

As soon as you download the FastestVPN setup for your respective operating system, you can install it by double clicking the setup.

The FastestVPN’s InstallShield Wizard Window will appear which doesn’t provide any information except the warning that copyright laws and international treaties protect the application. Just click next and license agreement will appear.

It’s always important to read the agreement as it saves one from legal vulnerabilities. Just click on the radio button to accept the license agreement terms.

“Ready to Install” window appears which gives information about the setup type and the file destination.

The installation will start, and finish within a few minutes.

Click finish, and the next window would be the login page.

Server Locations:

In just one year they have placed the servers in twenty-two countries. Although it’s a small number, it could be expected that the number of countries would increase significantly if they move forward with the same pace.

In these twenty-two countries, the total number of server locations are twenty-eight having a hundred IPs in total. That number isn’t great, but if it increases with time, it will render a better experience to users.

Right now, out of twenty-two countries:

• Two are located in North America.
• Fourteen are located in Europe.
• Five are located in Asia.
• One is located in Australia.

According to the present server locations, it could be commented that more servers are required in North America if the provider wishes to build a good user base there. At present, even if the user base increases, there would be very few server locations to handle all the users.

In the case of Europe, this issue won’t appear as it has servers in fourteen countries. These fourteen countries are smartly selected because of which all the European region is covered easily.

When one talks about Asia, which has a huge number of potential VPN buyers, the Fast Technologies is already concentrating on building a user base there.

FastestVPN has placed its servers in the countries located around China: India, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Russia. This is beneficial for Chinese users as if one server doesn’t work or gets blocked, they can connect with another. It won’t affect the speed much as the geographical distance won’t change significantly.

However, this VPN service is not for South American and African users as there are no server locations yet. For Australian users also, there is just one server location which isn’t enough for a huge user base.

Some more locations are required to be added considering North America and Australia as the priority. That may help to increase the speed and functionality of the application.

Connection Time Analysis

Trial Number	Time taken to establish a connection (Seconds)
1	3.58
2	3.95
3	3.14
4	3.26
5	3.76
6	5.44
7	4.75
8	4.08
9	3.71
10	3.06
Average Time in Seconds	3.87

We won’t mind telling that when we first tried to connect with the server, it was messing with our internet connection!

Maybe it’s because of changes that the application makes in the Network and Sharing Settings. This error had occurred while testing the client for Windows 10. However, when we installed the client in Windows 7, such error was not found.

Exactly what happened was, while disconnecting the virtual private network, the internet got disconnected.  When we disconnected the VPN, and then again tried to connect with it, it asked us to check the internet connection even when the internet and the router were working fine.

After we solved to connection issue using “troubleshoot problems” option, we again tried to connect with the geographically closest server. It got connected within a few seconds providing one of the lowest connection times amongst all the VPN services.

That could be enhanced further if the number of servers increases and the user base gets distributed. It’s highly appreciable that it got connected with an average of 3.87 seconds even after having just one server in our country.

Perhaps, the connection time may be obtained higher for the countries where the servers are not present.

Speed Tests

Accordibng to our observation, FastestVPN isn’t the very fast VPN! At least not in the terms of speed. Although, it is not among the worst as well!

However, we received an acceptable speed good enough to watch above average quality videos.

Fist we connected with the geographically closest server which is just 250 miles away from our location. A reduction of 66% was experienced in the case of download speed, and 57% for upload speed.

Well, we were not sure that this much reduction occurs on a regular basis. So, we tried to connect again, but the results had not changed significantly.

The United States server, which is thousands of miles away from our location was rendering a better speed in comparison of the geographically closest server. It shows that with a reduction of 39% and 49% in download speed and upload speed respectively, it is better to select the server manually instead of connecting with the geographically closest server.

The speed depends upon several factors, and perhaps, for European users, it would be higher than what we experienced. It is because of the presence of fourteen servers all over the continent.

Security

AES 256-bit key encryption is the standard requirement that one VPN service must provide. Fast Technologies offer it in all the clients, and so, if the data breaching is concerned, there are very few chances that your data is going to get leaked.

If we have a look at the other aspects from where breaching could occur, they have provided enough features to safeguard the privacy.

The Internet kill switch is one of the essential features for avoiding data leakage during VPN malfunction or when the connection gets disturbed.

With the availability of Inbuild NAT firewall, the data which is not required or the one that tries to enter without permission is avoided efficiently.

Also, the company has its own primary and secondary DNS servers with the addresses 10.8.8.8 and 10.9.9.9 respectively. There is no third-party involvement, but you are allowed to setup third-party DNS also which we don’t recommend. Because they claim that they do not log any of our online activities, DNS requests are also expected not to be logged.

According to the website, they even have an anti-malware which works in the background. However, its ability to block the malware could only be recognized with time.

Overall, the tunnel through which the encrypted data passes is safeguarded from all the possible aspects.

User Interface and User Experience

“Easy to connect, easy to explore and easy to use”

FastestVPN’s user interface is so simplified that anyone with the basic knowledge about the virtual private network and VPN clients can utilize it.

However, when it comes to user experience, many things need to be improved, and the first among all is the server sorting option. Right now, servers can only be sorted according to Alphabetic order. However, as they claim that they provide P2P servers also, they could provide a separate list for P2P optimized servers. At least, sorting according to internet speed should be very helpful for connecting with an efficient server. However, one must know that P2P servers are not available for some of the countries.

User experience is also based on the speed they provide. We can’t manually connect with every server to check the speed, and so, the server to which we had connected was rendering an average speed which can only be improved by increasing the number of server locations.

When it comes to streaming, unfortunately, you can’t access Netflix USA.

Also, disabling of the internet automatically while disconnecting with VPN could be a problem that could degrade the user experience. Such issues should be removed if found in any client.

Platforms

Clients for mainstream operating systems such as:

• Windows
• Android
• iOS
• MacOS

can be directly downloaded from the website.

However, as they focus more on Windows users, six versions of Windows Client have been launched but for MacOS, only one. So, the efficiency of the application differs according to the operating system.

FastestVPN also offers router configuration which is tested for fourteen different routers. They allow five simultaneous connections so, one could use one connection for the router, and keep other four connections for the devices which one needs to take away from the router range.

You can also install the setup for:

• Apple TV
• PS3/PS4
• Synology NAS
• OpenELEC Kodi
• Roku
• PfSense

Setup for Chromebook is available, but only with L2TP protocol which isn’t highly secure, and thus, not recommended.

Customer Support

There are four different ways by which they offer support to their customers:

• Tutorials
• FAQs
• Live chat support
• E-mail support

“Tutorials” offers a detailed description about setting up setups for different operating systems having different protocols. One can also find the router configuration for different routers on this page. 

“FAQs” isn’t a long list here, and only a few questions regarding VPN basics and about FastestVPN client are provided. Also, some of the answers are linked to various pages present over the FastestVPN website.

But, one would never or only on rare occasions will need to contact them through e-mail. There are very few VPN providers who deliver fast live chat support, and FastestVPN is one of them. While having a conversation with them, one can expect instant and relevant answers. They are also courteous and focused on solving the issue.

Conclusion

FastestVPN, although it’s not the fastest regarding speed, is one of the fastest growing VPN services. They have achieved significant growth by establishing servers all over the world and providing clients for various platforms.

However, they need to improve their speed and features provided in the client. That would not only increase their user base but will also place them among the top players of the VPN industry.

Because of its cheap long-term plans, one could invest in it if the basic need is just to encrypt the data and utilize geo-restricted websites.