Had to choose between a VPN and just not visiting certain sites anymore

After Turkey blocked access to Wikipedia back in 2017 I was stuck trying to do research for a blog post about Ottoman tile patterns. I could either pay for a decent VPN service at around $40 a year or just give up on that whole topic. Went with the VPN and honestly it was the best $40 I ever spent, still using it now for other blocked stuff in different countries. Has anyone else run into a situation where you had to decide between paying up or just losing access to info?

2 comments

2 Comments

gavin_kim39d ago

$40 a year is nothing for what you get. Back in 2017 when my country banned a bunch of torrent sites I had the same choice. I was trying to download Linux distros for a school project and the official mirrors were throttled to hell. Paid $35 for a year of Mullvad and it fixed everything. Still use it today for streaming stuff that's geo-locked when I travel. Never looked back.

charles_coleman9d ago

Man my first attempt at a free VPN was like trying to sneak into a library through the bathroom window, I got in but everything looked weird and slow. Ended up paying $45 for a year of PIA after my free one kept disconnecting mid research, I was trying to look up old recipes from a food blog that got banned in my country for some reason. Now I pay for the VPN and still end up watching cat videos instead of doing actual research, so really I just paid to procrastinate more efficiently.