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Transcript

Please excuse any grammatical errors. I used a tool to generate the transcript and haven’t had a chance to read through it yet.

Today’s video is going to be on Mullvad VPN. It’s the VPN I’ve been using for over a decade at this point. The title of this video implies that you should also use Mullvad VPN, but in all honesty, use whatever works well for you. Do your own research, draw your own conclusions, and make decisions based on that.

Before we start, I do want to mention that this video is not sponsored. You can even check Mullvad’s website—they do not have affiliates and do not pay influencers. A lot of VPN videos out there are sponsored. I’ve received emails in the past from companies like NordVPN, and they do pay quite well, so I understand why people do it. But this video is not sponsored—these are just my opinions.

As I mentioned, I’ve been using Mullvad for over a decade. I started using it back in college. I think back then they had a three or six-hour trial, so I tried them out, liked it, and have been paying for it ever since.

One of the main things I like about Mullvad is the sign-up process. When you get to their website, if you’re not using Mullvad VPN, the banner will show red. Since I’m connected, it shows green. But to create an account, you simply click “create new account.” There’s no username, no password, and no email address—just a randomly generated account number, which you can see here in Step One. This is your account number, and it’s important to keep it secret and safe.

If someone gets hold of this number, they could access your account. Mullvad mentions this on their website—don’t lose it. You can copy it or download it for safekeeping. Once you generate an account number, you can then add time to your account. They support privacy-friendly options like cash and vouchers, which can be purchased on Amazon or other sites.

I’ve personally used the cash option in the past. You simply send cash in an envelope to Sweden, following their instructions. It takes about two weeks for it to arrive and appear in your account. Nowadays, I use cryptocurrency, specifically Monero, which works well and is faster. You also get a 10% discount when using crypto.

Besides cash and crypto, Mullvad supports credit cards, PayPal, and bank wire transfers. I haven’t used these options, but they are available.

Now, a lot of the features I’ll mention aren’t unique to Mullvad, but they are the ones I use. For example, you can have up to five active connections at a time. That means I can connect my laptop, phone, router, and two more devices—all under the same account.

In my setup, I have the client installed on my MacBook, as well as on two different user profiles on my GrapheneOS device. I also have it installed on my OpenSense router at home. Mullvad provides great guides on setting up a VPN on a router, and once it’s configured, any device connected to my home network automatically uses the Mullvad VPN tunnel. This setup is handy because even devices that don’t support the Mullvad client can still have their traffic routed through the VPN.

Now, let’s dive into some of the settings and features the Mullvad app offers. You can see the green icon indicating that Mullvad is connected. In the app, you’ll find the account section, where each device on your account is listed by a unique name. You can view your account number and see how long your account is paid up until.

On the main screen, there’s a map showing the country you’re connected to. You can easily switch locations by clicking “switch location” and choosing a different country from the list. Now, let’s look at the settings.

First, the user interface settings:

Notifications: This alerts you when you connect or disconnect. I leave this enabled. Monochromatic tray icon: If you enable this, the icon turns black. I prefer the green/red color indication, so I keep it disabled. Language and animate map: I leave these at their defaults. Next, in VPN settings:

Launch on Startup and Auto-connect: I make sure both are enabled. Local network sharing: This is useful if you run services on your home network, like a shared drive. If you have local services, you’ll likely need to enable this. DNS content blockers: Mullvad offers a list of DNS-based content blockers for categories like ads, malware, and trackers. I keep them enabled as they help reduce unwanted content. Enable IPv6: I leave this disabled, as recommended by Mullvad unless you know you need it. Kill switch: This is enabled by default and blocks your traffic if your VPN connection fails. It’s an important feature to prevent data leaks. Lockdown mode: This takes the kill switch a step further by blocking all traffic unless you’re connected to Mullvad. If you enable it and forget, your internet won’t work until you reconnect to the VPN. WireGuard protocol: I manually select WireGuard instead of OpenVPN for better performance. The Obfuscation and UDP over TCP settings are left to automatic, and Mullvad has a new feature called Dafugu, which defends against AI-guided traffic analysis by making all network packets the same size. It increases bandwidth usage, though, so I don’t use it often.

Lastly, there’s Quantum-resistant tunnel and Multihop, which increases anonymity by routing traffic through two servers. I keep Multihop disabled, as it increases latency, but it can be useful for certain threat models.

As for MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit), most people don’t need to worry about this, but if you use T-Mobile Home Internet, you may need to adjust this.

On Android, the Mullvad app is similar but with fewer settings. One feature I forgot to mention earlier is split tunneling, which allows you to exclude certain apps from the VPN connection. I don’t use this personally, but it’s available if you need it.

To wrap up, Mullvad VPN works well for me. In a market full of VPN companies like NordVPN and Surfshark—which sponsor just about every tech YouTube channel—Mullvad stands out for its commitment to privacy and transparency.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them down below, and I’ll see you next time!