Proof

Hi everyone,

My friend and I spent the last 2 years building a new type of VPN service. We had faith in our idea and went all-in with our life savings. We both work full-time jobs and had to work on our project after work and on weekends. This resulted in us working 16+ hour days over the course of the last two years.

We recently launched our service and so far, so good. We also launched in the middle of lockdown ( Victoria, Australia ) which made some things tricky.

We look forward to hearing from you :)

// Things we built into the VPN that makes it unique -

Streaming Automation - Connect to the VPN region nearest to your location and still access content from overseas streaming services. We take away the need for you to jump around VPN regions. You can also set regions for specific streaming services. For example you can set your Netflix region independently - similar to how a smartDNS service works. This means no more searching for the "right" server to connect to. Just connect to the VPN and we take care of the rest.

Device Profiles - You can have up to 100. Each profile allows you to have unique settings for when you log in. For example, you can have one for your computer, another for your iPad, another for your partner, another for your child, etc.

Advanced Port Forwarding - You no longer need to keep track of IP addresses or configure your software to work with the VPN ports you are given. Just tell us which port to forward to and which device profile and it's done.

For example, if you set up a web server on your computer and enable port forwarding, regardless of which VPN server you ever connect to ( any server, any region ), to access your web server you would go to username-mydevice.oeck.me:portNumber - It stays the same :) - Also great for legal torrenting.

Ad, Malware, Social Network and Adult blocker - You can pick and choose which ( if any ) of the blockers you want enabled for each device profile. This allows you to turn on Adult blocking for children's devices but keep yours open. It is also very extensive and does a good job of blocking most ad, tracker and malware domains.

Custom filter - You can take the blockers even further by adding your own domain block-list on a per-device level. This gives you complete control over each and every device. This is very powerful and is easily built on.

Custom DNS - You can set your DNS on a per-device level. You can choose for the VPN to give you complete control to your DNS, or set your DNS and still allow the VPN to take control over certain domains in order for the channels and blocking to still work. This means you can even use your own DNS if you wanted to.

Automated server selection - When a user connects to a region they will always connect to a server with the most resources available. This completely removes the need to server-surf on the users end. They just connect to a region and they will be sure to jump on the server within that region that has the most resources available at that point in time.

To see a full list of our features please visit our features page. It is completely free to use for 3 days if you want to test our service out. We don't require any payment details during the trial.

Regards,Peter & Cameron @ Oeck.

EDIT: I am seeing some really nice posts coming through on my phone congratulating us, etc. I am not sure why they are not appearing on the thread, but we would like to say a huge thanks to everyone who was kind enough to do so!

EDIT 2: Thanks for the past 10 hours everyone. It has been great! Time to get some rest. I will answer more questions in the morning! Thank you to all the users who wished us well and all of the users who tried our service! It means a lot to us :)

EDIT 3: Holy shit! This blew up. I will do my best to get through all of the questions you all have. I will be in/out all day. Huge thanks to everyone who took the time to ask us a question and participated in the discussions!

Final EDIT: Thank you very much for the discussion everyone. This was a lot of fun and we would like to thank all of you for participating and all the positive feedback. Thank you to everyone who asked questions and took interest in the discussion and thank you to everyone who tried our service. We really appreciate it! If anyone has any other questions please feel free to reach out to us.

Thanks!

Comments: 535 • Responses: 67  • Date: 

thriftwisepoundshy657 karma

Will you have a canary page to show you haven’t gotten compromised by governments?

Peter_Dujan458 karma

Hi thriftwisepoundshy,

We have things in place for that which work like a warrant canary but much better. However, we are happy to provide one so all non-customers can see and provide a bit more transparency. The link to the Canary can be found in the footer of our website. You can also find a direct link to it at https://www.oeck.com/canary.txt

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

MTGDoktor141 karma

What things do you have in place that are better then a warrant canary?

Peter_Dujan251 karma

Hi MTGDoktor,

We don't log any user VPN traffic whatsoever. There is nothing to hand over. However, should something happen which may compromise the privacy of our users we will shut down all systems in the affected jurisdiction indefinitely. We can start all of the servers back up once the legal issue has been fixed.

Regards,Peter @ Oeck.

moleware124 karma

That doesn't sound great for either users in the jurisdiction...

twosupras306 karma

True, but I’d rather be pissed and get a HTTP 500 than catfished along thinking my traffic was protected.

moleware355 karma

You'd get an HTTP 451 I'd hope.

Peter_Dujan153 karma

Amazing comment!

bdsee44 karma

Is your company registered in Australia? (I'm assuming so) ...don't you legally have to keep data for like 2 years or something? I.P. addresses and such?

Also your network graphs are unreadable on a phone using dark mode.

Probably sounds like I'm shitting on you, I'm not. I'm certainly interested in your service.

Peter_Dujan19 karma

Hi bdsee,

We are not registered in Australia as Australia has really dumb laws regarding data retention and privacy. We set up shop in Hong Kong which has very good privacy laws for companies. Unfortunately China is most likely going to destroy that and put shitty laws in place in the next 1 - 2 years, so we are moving the entity to Singapore. We also don't have any servers located in Hong Kong.

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

nyaaaa11 karma

We don't log any user VPN traffic whatsoever. There is nothing to hand over.

Uhh, there is plenty of other things...

Peter_Dujan51 karma

Hi nyaaaa,

Yes, there are. And you can see what we don't log, what we monitor and why in our privacy policy ( www.oeck.com/privacy-policy/ ).

Regards, Peter @ Oeck.

jeronimoe37 karma

Are you using a cloud provider to host your vpn, or have you setup your own data centers across the world?

If using a cloud provider, what keeps governments from going a level above you to subpoena them to track information?

Peter_Dujan5 karma

Hi jeronimoe,

We use AWS for hosting the website ( not the databases though ). That's it! The rest is all of our own hardware hosting in racks in certain datacentres in multiple countries.

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

thriftwisepoundshy55 karma

Could you please also include a photo of a canary. If the photo changes to a gagged canary (or dead) because they gagged you from stating that you hadn’t been gagged, we will know you may have been gagged by a gag order. Thanks

Peter_Dujan80 karma

Hi thriftwisepoundshy,

That's a lot of gagging. You should probably be using a VPN when online :p

Regards, Peter @ Oeck.

kittymmeow148 karma

  1. You might want to include your reddit username and today's date in your proof page. Yes that indicates you are doing an AMA at some point but not when or who, so someone could have spotted that on your site and came along and impersonated you on here.

  2. You say this is a new type of VPN service, in what way is this any different than any other VPN?

Peter_Dujan60 karma

Hi kittymmeow,

Thank you very much for that suggestion! I have now updated the page :)

I apologise for this wall of text. But here are some of our unique features.

Streaming Automation - Connect to the VPN region nearest to your location and still access content from overseas streaming services. We take away the need for you to jump around VPN regions. You can also set regions for specific streaming services. For example you can set your Netflix region independently - similar to how a smartDNS service works. This means no more searching for the "right" server to connect to. Just connect to the VPN and we take care of the rest.

Device Profiles - You can have up to 100. Each profile allows you to have unique settings for when you log in. For example, you can have one for your computer, another for your iPad, another for your partner, another for your child, etc.

Advanced Port Forwarding - You no longer need to keep track of IP addresses or configure your software to work with the VPN ports you are given. Just tell us which port to forward to and which device profile and it's done.

For example, if you set up a web server on your computer and enable port forwarding, regardless of which VPN server you ever connect to ( any server, any region ), to access your web server you would go to username-mydevice.oeck.me:portNumber - It stays the same :) - Also great for legal torrenting.

Ad, Malware, Social Network and Adult blocker - You can pick and choose which ( if any ) of the blockers you want enabled for each device profile. This allows you to turn on Adult blocking for children's devices but keep yours open. It is also very extensive and does a good job of blocking most ad, tracker and malware domains.

Custom filter - You can take the blockers even further by adding your own domain block-list on a per-device level. This gives you complete control over each and every device. This is very powerful and is easily built on.

Custom DNS - You can set your DNS on a per-device level. You can choose for the VPN to give you complete control to your DNS, or set your DNS and still allow the VPN to take control over certain domains in order for the channels and blocking to still work. This means you can even use your own DNS if you wanted to.

Automated server selection - When a user connects to a region they will always connect to a server with the most resources available. This completely removes the need to server-surf on the users end. They just connect to a region and they will be sure to jump on the server within that region that has the most resources available at that point in time.

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

Znarl97 karma

I started reading your headline post on your VPN service and was trying to imagine what could be added to existing offerings to improve of them. Didn't come close to the features you've listed and was surprised.

Sounds like you're spent a lot of time frustrated with using streaming services over VPN and have automated away a lot of that frustration. Your solutions are going to be well over the heads of average consumers. Do you have any plans to dumb it down so average people who just want it to work understand you have a solution for them?

Edit. Also wanted to ask, you sound like an Australian national so can be ordered by the Australian government to put a backdoor in your VPN service and require you never to devoldge this information. Doesn't that mean anything you say can't be trusted?

Peter_Dujan86 karma

Hi Znarl,

You're not wrong! It took a lot of effort to set it up the way we wanted it to work. Unfortunately the cost per user is much higher than if we had just set up a traditional VPN service. However, we didn't want just another VPN, we wanted a new type of VPN.

My mum is 62 years old. We built the VPN so she would be able to use it. Every time we completed a feature, we tested it on her. The only thing we said was "Always connect to your closest region". I would say it is around 90% beginner friendly. If you use it with your mind "switched off" as though you have never used a VPN before, you will be able to get most of the benefits from it. If you dig a little deeper, it is very powerful.

The problem we are facing is how to "show" it. It is hard telling someone they can connect to the VPN closest to their location, but still access services from the UK, USA, Italy, Greece etc automatically.

Obviously we have not automatically unblocked the entire internet, but we chip away it it bit by bit.

EDIT: " Also wanted to ask, you sound like an Australian national so can be ordered by the Australian government to put a backdoor in your VPN service and require you never to devoldge this information. Doesn't that mean anything you say can't be trusted?"

We are from Australia, but the company isn't located in Australia. However, the backdoor issue is not a real thing. The government has since cleared it up that they are not able to do so. The issue is the people in charge of "laws" generally don't know what they are implementing. You can find out more information about the issue at https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/about-us/our-portfolios/national-security/lawful-access-telecommunications/myths-assistance-access-act

FYI - We don't agree with the bill or the manner it was passed, but it is not a bill that allows the government to force developers or employees to do things such as create back doors.

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

c0rrupt8210 karma

Can we get a reply to his edit regarding backdoors, please.

Peter_Dujan4 karma

Hi c0rrupt82,

Replied!

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

c0rrupt825 karma

Thank you, appreciate that.

I just installed on my windows 10 machine and the only options are 4 in a drop down box, none of which suit me as I sit in China. I tried the Seattle option as its geographically the closest to me but it just gives me an error when I click on the connect icon.

Peter_Dujan20 karma

Hi c0rrupt82,

Really sorry about this but if you are in China you will need to submit a support ticket. We have a new app that is almost ready to go, but we will need to send it to you. You should be able to connect once you have the new app.

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

WannaBeeLibrarian105 karma

Hi there,

I'm completely ignorant about the VPN process. I have an ELI5 understanding, but nothing more.

My kid is certain that we should be using a VPN service. I'm old enough to not know wtf it means. But I'm young enough to know that he's right.

Help?

Peter_Dujan64 karma

Hi WannaBeeLibrarian,

Basically at its core a VPN service is a privacy service. It prevents your ISP from snooping on your online activities. Since nobody knows what you are doing online when you're connected to a VPN service, you get to keep your privacy online.

In addition to that, there are other benefits that may or may not suit your needs. If you want to unblock streaming content for example, a VPN is a good solution for that. If you look through our features and benefits you may see something you like, and you may not see something you like. But at the end of the day I believe your kid is right, purely due to the service keeping you private.

- Hope this helps!

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

WannaBeeLibrarian22 karma

Yup. When dealing with tech, always listen to the kids. I'll read more in depth. Honestly, it's intimidating because I don't understand the basics, so details seem overwhelming.

If we were to buy in, would there be an ELI5 on how to set it up and use it correctly?

I'm not old, but I'm really feeling grandma vibes on this.

Peter_Dujan13 karma

Hi WannaBeeLibrarian,

It is fairly simple to set up. We do send an initial email with instructions. You can see those instructions at https://www.oeck.com/manual/learn/

If you run into any issues, please open up a support ticket and we will do our very best to help! You can access the support system via your website menu ( Dashboard > Support > Technical Support ). Here is the direct link https://www.oeck.com/support/

Please make sure you're logged into the website when opening a ticket as it will alert you when we reply. If you lodge it as a guest you will need to keep using a temporary password.

I would suggest starting off just by using our apps directly. If you want to go further you can then look into setting it up on routers, etc. But that is completely optional. Most of my friends and family simply use the app alone.

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

linkster579 karma

I think the biggest issues with most vpns are speed, latency and privacy. Can you go into some detail on how you’ve accounted for these concerns? IE data logging, subpoena response, nodes, geo redundancy and underlying protocol. Are you using WireGuard for example? So far I’m pretty impressed with your initial feature set.

Peter_Dujan76 karma

Hi linkster5,

Thanks for your questions!

We built Oeck because we were not really impressed with other services on the market. We spent money on the things we found important. Our upstream providers are both high quality. We do not log user activity at all. We purchased all of our own hardware ( including our routers in the datacentres ). Even if somebody was to physically take a server, there is nothing but RAM and CPUs.

You can read about what we monitor and why on our privacy policy ( which we made easy to read ). You can also find out more technical information in our FAQ page.

We currently only support OpenVPN but Wireguard is on the roadmap. We are really happy to hear that you like our features. Feel free to try it out. It is free for 3 days. We don't even require payment details to test it out!

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

spider_8443 karma

Australia government is pretty bad when it comes to private data. Have you encountered any difficulties with the law during this journey?

Peter_Dujan75 karma

Hi spider_84,

We actually set up the entity in Hong Kong ( before the China issue ) due to Australia having bullshit privacy and data-retention laws. Although China is chipping away at the privacy of the Hong Kong people, it still has good laws regarding privacy for businesses such as VPN companies.

Having said that, we completely believe they will pass a data-retention law within the next 1 - 2 years which will mean Hong Kong is no longer a viable country for the business. We are already planning to move the entity to Singapore.

I would like to say however, that we do not have any servers in Hong Kong whatsoever. Even so, none of our servers log users traffic. We don't have anything to hand over.

Regards, Peter @ Oeck.

Big_badBlobby_mofo35 karma

Sorry to be a downer, but either you spent two years building your own VPN software and stack, in which case no thanks nobody should trust that at all, or you spent two years incorporating a company and building a website.

I guess the real question here is: what’s your tech stack, is it open source, has your VPN implementation been audited?

Are you building on top of wireguard, openvpn, or something else? What modifications to the protocol have you made?

Peter_Dujan9 karma

Hi Big_badBlobby_mofo,

Our VPN uses OpenVPN as its protocol. We created a custom back-end for the way the servers communicate with each other and we use all of our own hardware. Our apps are not open source as we use proprietary libraries. Even though we are big fans of open source software, it does not really mean much when it comes to VPNs, as if a VPN wanted to do harm to their users they can do it from the back end.

The same applies to the auditing. It is just a show that big VPNs can show off which costs a fortune. There is nothing stopping a VPN from being audited and then doing damage to their users after the fact.

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

MNCPA18 karma

Why should the average person use a vpn?

Zubon10242 karma

Youtuber Tom Scott gives a good outline of why most people DON'T need a VPN.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVDQEoe6ZWY

Peter_Dujan13 karma

Hi Zubon102,

Indeed, this is very good example for what a standard VPN service can do for its customers. Not everyone needs a VPN. However, just from a privacy point of view I personally believe everyone should use one, even a very basic one.

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

Peter_Dujan13 karma

Hi MNCPA,

It really depends on what you want to do online. If you want added privacy, geounblocking abilities, network filtering, control of children's web traffic, etc then a VPN is good for you.

There is a really good website found at www.privacytools.io which shows you the benefits of a VPN. Oeck is more than a VPN, but if you are asking strictly why the average person should use a VPN that resource will help.

Regards,Peter @ Oeck.

du5t15 karma

Hi from Melbourne as well! Your feature set looks amazing. Would the smart routing allow someone to play games on US servers but with the low latency of a local server? E.g. I can't currently play rocket league with someone in Canada because the ping is too high.

Peter_Dujan21 karma

Hi du5t,

Glad you like it! You won't be able to get ping times as low as you would if the server was located in Melbourne as it has a long way to travel. However, depending on who your ISP is, you may get a lower ping using Oeck as our upstream provider peers with a few different networks and some of those networks are used by gaming services. This gives you a pretty straight line with minimal hops to the gaming servers. But the only way to know for sure is to try it out. There is no guarantee one way or the other.

Regards, Peter @ Oeck.

Izikiel2315 karma

Just wanted to say nice job, I don't have a need for a VPN now but this one seems nice and easy to use.

Since I have to ask a question, what are your backgrounds?

Do any of you specialize in networking or did you learn on the job?

Peter_Dujan11 karma

Hi Izikiel23,

Thank you very much for the kind words!

We are both into computers and technology and have been since we were young. Our actual jobs are industrial automation engineers and fitters. We do use "non-industrial" tech throughout our jobs though, such as VPN and networking technology.

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

toolatetopartyagain6 karma

Our actual jobs are industrial automation engineers and fitters.

The website is very well designed. You outsourced it or did that yourself?

Peter_Dujan19 karma

Hi toolatetopartyagain,

Thank you very much! We could not really afford to outsource anything so I ended up doing the website by myself. The graphics were done by a freelancer on Fiverr.

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

toolatetopartyagain16 karma

Job done real well. I hope you are successful with your venture. Best wishes.

Peter_Dujan10 karma

Hi toolatetopartyagain,

Thank you so much for your kind words! That is really awesome of you :)

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

arctander11 karma

Will you match PIA's annual pricing?

If connected through Oeck, will Instagram work without logins?

Peter_Dujan32 karma

Hi arctander,

We are not able to match or come close to that pricing. Due to the way our service works, we have a high cost per customer. We use all of our own hardware ( even the routers ) and each VPN node is only able to hold so many users on it at once. This is what allows us to offer the features we do.

Also, our refund policy is a lot different to other VPN services, in that it is much for friendly to the customer.

I am happy to give reddit users a discount, but it will not be anywhere near the low-budget VPN services pricing.

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

2plus2equalscats9 karma

Where’s the business incorporated?

Peter_Dujan11 karma

Hi 2plus2equalscats,

We incorporated in Hong Kong. Although at the moment HK has good privacy laws for companies, we have no doubt they will soon implement data retention laws to further take away the freedom of the Hong Kong people. We anticipate companies will need to comply with these laws within 1 - 2 years. Due to this we are preparing to move the company to Singapore. Please note we don't have any servers located in HK whatsoever.

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

Gman7772 karma

I’d like an answer to this too. The ‘about us’ doesn’t give away much. A quick ASIC & ABN look-up says the company has been registered since 2018, but its not registered for GST, and the costs quoted on the website are in US dollars?

Peter_Dujan6 karma

Hi Gman777,

The Australian company is not part of the Hong Kong company. We set it up specifically for costings related to advertising. I replied to Gman777 above with where we are incorporated.

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

thorn1157 karma

So what's the plan to recoup the investment?

Peter_Dujan26 karma

Hi thorn115,

Our plan is to provide exceptional customer service and a solid product. If others share our view it will hopefully show itself with sales. The only thing we can't recoup is the amount of time we put into this. Our families and significant others have been very supportive and this would not have been possible without them.

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

KingBenjamin977 karma

I’m surprised you didn’t get some investment interest with how popular VPN’s are at the moment. Did you turn some down to keep full project control or just not attempt to gather any?

Peter_Dujan11 karma

Hi KingBenjamin97,

We do have one friend who invested in a 10% share - but he is a silent partner and he wants to keep it that way. Without him this also would have been impossible. We owe him a lot.

Regards, Peter @ Oeck.

MethSC6 karma

Have you gotten any kind of blessing from u/thatoneprivacyguy ?

Peter_Dujan9 karma

Hi MethSC,

He seems to be MIA at the moment. His website has not been updated in a very long time. However we did have his criteria in mind when we were building this thing.

Regards, Peter @ Oeck.

Snowgoon916 karma

I just signed up and downloaded the app on my iPhone. So far it’s working well. I’m just a bit confused on the port forwarding, could you explain how it works?

Peter_Dujan10 karma

Hi Snowgoon91,

The port-forwarding is done differently to other services on the market. We have a guide to help new users how it works ( it is easier than the traditional way VPN services do it ). You can read the guide at https://www.oeck.com/manual/learn/port-forwarding/

If you run into any issues please open a support ticket and we will get you up and running with it :)

Regards, Peter @ Oeck.

DigiMagic5 karma

You have indicated earlier that smart routing feature works with youtube, could you please explain that? For example, say one video is available only in Germany, another one is available only in United Kingdom, can you really automatically unblock both of them? (It's not a crucial feature for me, just curious.)

Peter_Dujan5 karma

Hi DigiMagic,

Unfortunately Youtube is not an automatically unblocked channel. We do have a list of Automatically Unblocked Channels ( found in your device profile settings ). Not all services can be automatically unblocked. We are always working on adding more to the list.

Regards, Peter @ Oeck.

jugglervr5 karma

have you solved the main issue I always have when I try VPNs: slow as ASS?

Peter_Dujan4 karma

Hi jugglervr,

Please feel free to give it a try. It is free for 3 days and we don't require payment details during this time.

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

ErkelByte3 karma

Had the same question. On my iPhone 11 Pro I get 53Mbps down on my ATT WiFi. 22.4Mbps with PIA and 35Mbps with Oeck.

It definitely is pretty fast, but the price tag is much bigger

Peter_Dujan6 karma

Hi ErkelByte,

Please try mixing and matching between UDP/TCP and 128/256. Results vary on different devices. We have a thread on the Whirlpool forums ( Australia ) and one user was getting over 160Mbps.

If you submit a support ticket we may be able to find out why the slow speed.

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

dsengupta165 karma

Only one question. How did you manage your time?

Peter_Dujan12 karma

Hi dsengupta16,

Thank you for the question!

I was pretty difficult. Our day jobs require us to be at work by 6:00am. Sometimes we need to work back late. Then coming home we spent a bit of time with the families and after that worked on Oeck until the early hours of the morning. Other nights were more quiet and we had a bit of time to relax and catch our breath. We are of the opinion that you need to hit something with all you have to give it the best chance of success.

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

He_Saves_But_He_4 karma

I was recomended Ivacy as a Good VPN to use for access to different Netflix selections, both Netflix and Amazon prime video don't work when I use the VPN though, does yours truelly work?

Peter_Dujan5 karma

Hi He_Saves_But_He_,

Yes. We have Netflix as an option to be set in 30 locations automatically ( regardless of which VPN server you connect to ). Amazon will require you to switch regions and also have an Amazon account in the region.

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

notmyfirstid3 karma

Vpn regions are very limited. Are you planning to add more regions in Asia? At least Singapore.

Peter_Dujan4 karma

Hi notmyfirstid,

At this point in time we will not be adding more VPN regions. We are always adding more Geounblocking regions. The issue with adding VPN regions is it primarily benefits the users who are located in that region. This is expensive for us to do as it means buying and shipping servers and routers, spare parts, etc. At the moment we are focusing on users from Australia, USA, UK and some Scandinavian countries who are close to our VPN nodes.

If you are looking specifically for Geounblocking regions, we have over 30 available. If we don't unblock a service you like, you can request it and will will add it on our to-do list.

Regards,Peter @ Oeck.

mordeci003 karma

Services like netflix and youtube tv block IPs of known VPNs, meaning that #1 on your list of features (and the only feature of your product that would get any interest at all) will be completely useless if your product gets even slightly popular. Did you seriously invest your life saving without realizing that?

Peter_Dujan10 karma

Hi mordeci00,

We did realise that. We use special networks for the streaming side of things. Our unblocking network ( which is specifically designed for listed services ) is not the same network as our VPN network. It also isn't on commercial IP addresses. You can read about it at https://www.oeck.com/faq/technical/

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

ILikeCatsAndBoobs2 karma

Hi, I've always been interested in getting a VPN but never "got around to it". Yours looks like it checks all of my boxes. Since I know little about them, my main concern is how easy or tiresome it is to enable/disable for different tasks. For online gaming for example, I imagine a VPN will give me higher ping. Or maybe I wouldn't want to do online banking through a VPN?

Also, though it looks like you offer something similar with your blocklists, is it troublesome to get a VPN working with a pihole without leaking info or easily being identified because of the static nature and routing through the pihole?

Peter_Dujan3 karma

Hi IlikeCatsAndBoobs,

It is as easy as a press of a button to enable/disable. Gaming can go either way, it is possible to reduce ping but also possible to increase it too. That depends on your ISP.

Blocklists are already part of our service, and if you would like another one added we will include it for you. You can build your own small lists if you like. If you want to use your own DNS you can do that too, via your device profile settings. This will allow you to use the VPN whilst using your Pi as the DNS server :) It takes around 15 seconds to set it :)

Regards, Peter @ Oeck.

exem_one2 karma

Is this VPN also working well in Europe? I dont see any regions in europe listed in the network Graph... :/ If not, are there plans to expand the service to europe and if not available for europe yet, any recommendations whats a good VPN for streaming there?

Edit: i got really excited about your service but then it seemed its not available for me yet...

Peter_Dujan2 karma

Hi exem_one,

We have London available and the "Torrent" region is Amsterdam. If you connect to either of those two regions it should be pretty quick. Be sure to test out UDP/TCP and 128/256 to see which combination works best for you.

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

zenneutral2 karma

How does your service compare with proton vpn?

Peter_Dujan3 karma

Hi zenneutral,

I have not used ProtonVPN but I hear they are very good. We offer features they don't and vice-versa. When it comes to the privacy and security aspect I would suggest we are on-par. You can try us for 3 days for free and see how we compare for yourself. We would like to know too!

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

lolzhaha64582 karma

Is your VON good for torrenting?

Peter_Dujan4 karma

Hi lolzhaha6458,

We have set up a region specifically for torrenting which so far has maxed out users available bandwidth at their homes ( based on 100Mbps ). I would say yes.

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

ramdomdoge27722 karma

How do you plan to grow in the future? Did you reach your launch target of paying customers already?

Peter_Dujan5 karma

Hi ramdomdoge2772,

We believe word of mouth will be a good avenue for growth. We will also be advertising soon, but we need to do it in such a way as to not run "fear" campaigns like so many others do. We are on target regarding the speed of growth thus far :)

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

crazymonkeyfish2 karma

how does a vpn provider avoid the issues that people use a vpn to avoid, such as illegally torrenting will prompt your ISP to say stop, why dont vpn services have this issue?

Peter_Dujan7 karma

Hi crazymonkeyfish,

I would firstly like to say that we don't allow the use of our service to be for illegal purposes. Having said that, we don't know who is doing what. When we get a notice we do the only thing we possibly can do and that is to block a single port for a limited amount of time on a specific server IP address. We can't do anymore than that as our system is automated and we don't know which user was naughty.

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

cents022 karma

Doesn't the free to choose port forwarding cause issues? What if two users request the same port?

Also do you guys have a cli client or not yet?

Peter_Dujan2 karma

Hi cents02,

The way we implemented the issuing of ports and the way the rest of the system works, it is highly unlikely that any two users will end up with the same port on the same server IP. If this does happen ( which is extremely unlikely ) the user who was the first in line will get the port forwarding. It will simply just fail for the other user.

You can use the OpenVPN via a terminal. Just use the official OpenVPN client. I am assuming you want it for Linux?

Regards, Peter @ Oeck.

ZBD19492 karma

Why nothing for Chromebooks and Chrome OS?

Peter_Dujan3 karma

Hi ZBD1949,

You can load the config file straight into it - https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/1282338?hl=en

You can find our config files for it at https://www.oeck.com/downloads/ovpn/#cat-android

Our 'smarts' are done on the back-end, so they don't rely on the apps.

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

exegesis482 karma

We live in the US and my wife uses ExpressVPN to watch BBC iPlayer. It’s not very reliable though. Will your VPN be any better? If so, why?

Peter_Dujan3 karma

Hi exegesis48,

BBC is a bit of a bastard to work with. We don't have it listed on our website for that reason. Having said that, it is currently working as long as you are connected to the London region - however this may change at any point in time. It also requires other settings to be changed depending on the show being watched.

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

jarmo_p2 karma

I am an expat living in China. How consistently can you keep up with a government that doesn't want people using you?

Peter_Dujan3 karma

Hi jarmo_p,

In all honesty we have not tested this extensively and I can not give you an honest answer. I can allow you to test it out ( you will need to open a support ticket as it is not released on our apps yet ) and see for yourself. It was a bastard to get around the GFC and I don't think they will be slowing down anytime soon. We will obviously keep trying to get around their efforts, but our VPN is not really made specifically for Chinese users.

But please feel free to give it a shot. We are using Obfs4 to get around their firewall.

Regards, Peter @ Oeck.

godlessnihilist2 karma

How many hoops and backflips needed to use it on Linux?

Peter_Dujan2 karma

Hi godlessnihilist,

Not really. I am assuming you are using Ubuntu? Just download our app from https://www.oeck.com/downloads/linux/

Then open up a terminal window.

Go to the directory you downloaded it to in terminal and type the following;

chmod +x oeck-ubuntu20

Then press enter. After that run it to install;

./oeck-ubuntu20

Once done, to launch the app, type in;

cd /opt/oeck

Then press enter.

Then type

./launcher.sh

Then press enter.

Regards, Peter @ Oeck.

dyuhas1 karma

From what I've read, VPNs are basically worthless. True?

Peter_Dujan1 karma

Hi dyuhas,

No, they are not worthless. It all depends what you need out of the VPN. I see VPNs always pushing the "security" aspect and that is not true. However, for added privacy, geounblocking and other uses, they are good. www.privacytools.io is a good resource to see what a VPN is useful for.

Having said that, ours works much different to anything else available on the market, so there are other uses for Oeck.

Regards
Peter @ Oeck.

[deleted]1 karma

[removed]

Peter_Dujan4 karma

Hi!

Sorry about that. I have added more proof to the page :)

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

CrassostreaVirginica2 karma

Thanks, post is back up.

Peter_Dujan2 karma

Great! Thank you very much :)

coryrenton1 karma

What's the difficulty in developing a usable P2P VPN, and would any P2P tech help alleviate your costs?

Peter_Dujan3 karma

Hi coryrenton,

I am not sure I understand your question - sorry! Do you mean how difficult it was to create our VPN service, or do you mean if you can use it for P2P?

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

Torbe-7 karma

You can have your own VPN in seconds, just run a quick Github script to setup WireGuard and pay for a VM on a cloud provider. VPN services are quite trivial and that is why there are a million of them (all will tell you that they are unique).

I have no idea how this pure advertisement AMA can even exist on Reddit. There is no point to this guy's post other than to sell you this copy-paste formula of a business.

Unfortunately, for him I am pretty sure the VPN easy-money train has long passed, as it has been every other youtube Ad for the past 5 years.

Peter_Dujan15 karma

Hi Torbe,

"You can have your own VPN in seconds, just run a quick Github script to setup WireGuard and pay for a VM on a cloud provider."

Not really. I mean, technically you can obviously do that, but you are then left with a single server that you're paying for, which can easily be traced back to you. Privacy aside, you miss out on all of the other features the VPN service can offer you - such as more than a single location.

"VPN services are quite trivial and that is why there are a million of them (all will tell you that they are unique)."

I would not say all are quite trivial. There is a lot of work for even the most basic. Feel free to try ours out and see if it is not unique as our website states.

"I have no idea how this pure advertisement AMA can even exist on Reddit. There is no point to this guy's post other than to sell you this copy-paste formula of a business."

Ask us anything. You don't need to just ask about the VPN.

"Unfortunately, for him I am pretty sure the VPN easy-money train has long passed, as it has been every other youtube Ad for the past 5 years."

Outside of our normal jobs we were still doing 8+ hours per night and weekends for the last two years. I would hardly say it is easy-money.

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

greeninmypocket1 karma

With all the different types of VPN sponsorships popping up all over YouTube, how are you going to compete with them?

Peter_Dujan1 karma

Hi greeninmypocket,

We can't compete with them on the advertising front - they are simply too rich. However, we are not really competing with them on the VPN front either. Our service is unique enough ( I hope ) to gain its own customer base that is also unique. Look at Mullvad for example, they offer a very, very good VPN service and they don't spend millions in ads.

Regards, Peter @ Oeck.

greeninmypocket1 karma

Good luck to you!

Peter_Dujan1 karma

Hi greeninmypocket,

Thank you very much! We appreciate it :)

Regards, Peter @ Oeck.

w2dv1 karma

I am interested in this service but would much prefer a lifetime license.

Is that something to be expected?

Peter_Dujan1 karma

Hi w2dv,

It is awesome that you are interested! Thank you!

Unfortunately a lifetime license is not possible. Due to the way our system is set up and functions, the cost per user is quite high. This leaves us less room to budge with pricing. A lifetime license is not viable for us to do - neither is $1.50 per month when paying for 255 years up front. We simply don't play that game that other VPN services do. Sorry.

Regards, Peter @ Oeck.

w2dv1 karma

Let me get this straight; you wouldn't sell a lifetime license for $4,590? ;)

No worries, thanks for your response and congratulations on what looks like a great service. Might give it a try anyway.

Peter_Dujan1 karma

Hi w2dv,

I mean, if you want to hand over $4,590 please feel free to do so :p

Thanks for the nice wishes! We hope you do test it out and we hope you enjoy it :)

Regards, Peter @ Oeck.

Vexnew1 karma

How can you state zero logging when you provide device profiles?

Peter_Dujan2 karma

Hi Vexnew,

We don't log any VPN traffic. We must store your preferences in order for the service to work - but that still does not involve logging your traffic. You can read about it in our privacy policy found at www.oeck.com/privacy-policy/

Regards, Peter @ Oeck.

ElDueno-4 karma

Spent 2 years working 16 hour days and literally didn’t say a single unique thing about your VPN in the description and just linked to your features page? Seems kinda lazy.

Peter_Dujan2 karma

Hi ElDueno,

We are more than happy to put our features in the description, it just seems that generally reddit does not like a wall of text. If it will be beneficial to the reddit users to post that information in the description we will be more than happy to do so.

Regards, Peter @ Oeck.

Joshua-Shea-27 karma

Why would I want a VPN unless I’m doing something illegal?

Peter_Dujan7 karma

Hi Joshua-Shea,

A VPN is primarily there to add privacy to your online activities. For example, you may not want your ISP knowing which sites you visit, when you visit them, etc. In addition to that it also allows you to do things like port-forwarding, geounblocking, home network filtration, etc.

A really good resource to have a read of is www.privacytools.io - It goes into detail about the benefits of a VPN.

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

Joshua-Shea-24 karma

Does it bother you that your VPN will be used for things like human trafficking and child pornography?

Peter_Dujan6 karma

Hi Joshua-Shea,

The problem with your question is that we don't know what users will use it for. The technology is there for people to use as they see fit. Obviously we don't want anybody using our service for things like that.

It would be the same thing as asking HP, Apple, Dell and other manufacturers of devices that have access to the internet how they would feel about it.

You are always free to not use a VPN. You're also free to not use devices to get online.

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.