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[Oeck]

Hi everyone,

We’re two guys from Melbourne that recently launched our VPN startup - Oeck. Our story started like a lot of other Aussie businesses. We didn’t love the current services that were available. We seriously hated switching regions all the time to stream shows, so we started our own VPN…

We’ve built our service with some pretty unique features that nobody else offers. Basically, we’ve automatically unblocked some of the most popular streaming services from various countries. For example: if you live in Sydney then you’d connect to our Sydney VPN region and you will still be able to unblock streaming services based in other countries ( such as US, UK, German and many more Netflix regions). In the past, you’d need to manually change between servers in different countries and disconnect to access local content like iView. Now, just connect and we’ve sorted the rest. There are lots of channels available

We have a lot of other unique features only available with Oeck which I will be happy to explain to anyone who wants to know more about them.

Also, we genuinely care about the privacy and security of our users. We don’t use hard drives, ever. We don’t log our users data, we don’t use third party VPN servers. Basically, we manage your privacy in the same way that we want our own privacy handled (and we’re pretty particular with our requirements!). You can torrent safely, you can browse the internet with a lot more privacy, you can even bypass ISP speed traps if your ISP pulls stunts like that. We also have a very customisable blocker ( malware, ads, tracking and adult ) plus a completely custom blocker which you can make.

Oeck is a very good solution to protect your privacy online - no matter where you are!

Here are some of the features that are unique to Oeck. When we built this system we wanted to make it as easy as possible for everyone to use. All of what you see it automated.

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 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.

All of our VPN servers run without ANY hard drives at all. We have gone to great lengths to make sure our users get the best service and the most secure one. As a VPN service - forgetting the bells and whistles - it is fast and secure with fantastic privacy.

Helpful Links

Features(oeck.com)
F.A.Q(oeck.com)
Manual(oeck.com)
Privacy Policy(oeck.com)

If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask and I will do my best to respond in a timely manner.

Thanks again everyone!

Try your FREE 3 day trial! No payment details required!

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

 

[Oeck]

Hi everyone,

Just a quick update. Whoever is interested in purchasing the VPN we suggest you wait until Monday as we are going to be doing an AFF member special. This will be a limited time offer to all you flyers out there.

If anyone has had a chance to test the service, please let me know what you think. Don't forget, we unblock over 30 Netflix regions as well as other streaming services automatically. No need to switch regions ever again. We also have upgraded our Torrent region recently with more bandwidth.

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

 

[AisleSeat]

If you're an Australian company, why are your prices in USD?

 

[Oeck]

If you're an Australian company, why are your prices in USD?

Hi AisleSeat,

We ( the owners ) are both Australians in Australia. The company however is incorporated in Hong Kong as Australia has very silly data-retention laws which make a VPN almost impossible to incorporate here. Unfortunately with the events taking place in Hong Kong though we are planning to move as we believe in the next 12 - 24 months Hong Kong will also make data-retention a law for companies.

We charge in USD as that is what is somewhat the online standard for businesses who service multiple countries.

Regarding Hong Kong, please find the information taken from our FAQ on our website.

Under which jurisdiction is Oeck incorporated?

For the safety of our customers, Oeck is incorporated in Hong Kong ( currently ).
Oeck does not have any servers located in Hong Kong whatsoever.
Hong Kong has good privacy laws at the moment. However, we have no doubt that China will keep chipping away at the rights of Hong Kong citizens, so we expect a "data retention" law to be passed as soon as they can. However, it won't mean businesses need to comply on that same day. It is a very large task so we would expect 12 month period for businesses to comply with the new laws if/when they pass.

Having said that, we like to stay ahead so we are getting everything ready to relocate to Singapore. They have good privacy laws and we believe it will be a suitable country for Oeck. It is not a quick process, but this is what will be best for our users and for us.

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

 

[TheRealTMA]

Hi AisleSeat,

We ( the owners ) are both Australians in Australia. The company however is incorporated in Hong Kong as Australia has very silly data-retention laws which make a VPN almost impossible to incorporate here. Unfortunately with the events taking place in Hong Kong though we are planning to move as we believe in the next 12 - 24 months Hong Kong will also make data-retention a law for companies.

We charge in USD as that is what is somewhat the online standard for businesses who service multiple countries.

Regarding Hong Kong, please find the information taken from our FAQ on our website.



Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

Doesn’t being incorporated in HongKong then come under Chinese government mandate meaning they can demand access to data?

 

[Oeck]

Doesn’t being incorporated in HongKong then come under Chinese government mandate meaning they can demand access to data?

Hi TheRealTMA,

Great question!

There are two parts to the answer.

1. We literally don't have anything to hand over even if someone put a gun to our head ( be it China or anyone else ). Not only do our servers not log whatsoever, but as an added precaution our servers lose everything ( including the operating system ) as soon as they lose power. We built our network specifically for this purpose. All of our servers run off RAM only. So regardless of who wants data, it simply is not there.

In addition to this, we have servers performing various tasks in various undisclosed places. We refer to this as the Oeck Batcave. Since we own our own routers in the datacentres, even if someone was to plug in their own server it will not be added to the network as we have put various safeguards in place. This includes the build of the operating system.

Here is an illustration of how our network is laid out.



We don't have any servers in Hong Kong. So even if a server was to be seized not only will a warrant be needed, but as soon as the server is tampered with it will quickly render itself into a computer case with some RAM and a CPU only. They will also need to travel vast distances to do so.

You can read more about this here and here. You can also read our privacy policy to see exactly what is not logged, what is monitored and why.


2. Having said that, we agree China will try to make data-retention a law as quickly as they can. There will be a 12 - 24 month window for Hong Kong businesses to comply with the new law ( as a law like this won't just affect VPNs but other industries which use VPN technology ). As a precaution we are making arrangements to move to Singapore as they have great privacy laws.

If you have any other questions please feel free to ask and I will do my best to answer them.

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Have you tested in China? I need / use Express in China - I can usually get around the Great Fire Wall with help from China based expats but it is never perfect.

 

[Oeck]

Have you tested in China? I need / use Express in China - I can usually get around the Great Fire Wall with help from China based expats but it is never perfect.

Hi @Cruiser Elite,

It took us a while but yes, we got it working for China. The update will be available in the next round of releases for our Windows, Mac and Linux apps. One thing I can say about it, China a really going all out to spy on their users. We would rate their efforts as extreme. We had to throw a lot at it to get it to work.

However, please note that Obfuscation ( the thing needed to bypass the GFC ) makes the speed take a big hit. It will drop your speed to under 5Mbps. This is still enough to watch streaming services and access websites, but should not be used unless absolutely necessary.

But feel free to give us a test run at home. It is completely free for 3 days and we don't even require payment details. Just make sure to have Obfuscation switched off as at this moment it is not ready for release.

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

 

[moa999]

I can understand how auto-country selection works for say the BBC sites, but how does it work for Netflix?

 

[Oeck]

I can understand how auto-country selection works for say the BBC sites, but how does it work for Netflix?

Hi @moa999,

Are you asking in general terms or technically? I'll answer both.

General:

You create a device profile ( you can have up to 100 ). Set your Netflix region on it and connect to any VPN region you like. Done.

Technical:

Our system is built from the ground up and this feature is unique to Oeck ( as are all of the features listed in my post above ). It uses a complex DNS system we have built in order to perform this magic. This is utilised throughout the system as the DNS blocker, Cerberus and port-forwarding all use it. This comes in handy, for example ( in my specific case ).

I enjoy UK Netflix. My wife on the other hand prefers US Netflix. We both live in the same house which is in Melbourne. So, I create a device profile named Peter and I create another called Melissa.

When I log into the VPN ( I connect to Melbourne as it is the closest ) I get UK Netflix. When my wife connects she gets UK Netflix.

This means our internet remains nice and fast for general use as we don't need to go through USA or UK. However, whenever we hit Netflix it routes through our proxy network. This is a very efficient way of doing it.

Basically regardless of which VPN region you connect to, your internet will always follow the rules set in your device profile.

Here is an example of a device profile and what settings can be tuned within it. Please note that Netflix has 30 available regions at the time of this post.

You may need to click on the video settings and select the highest video quality available to see it properly.

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

 

[Oeck]

Hi everyone,

Just a quick update. I have seen a lot of misinformation be posted on many sites over the internet regarding VPNs and how they are an all-in-one solution for security. This is not the case and I have written a short article on AFF to inform users of what VPNs are and are not good for, and if you need to buy one. You can read about it at Do I really need a VPN?

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

 

[RooFlyer]

I use Nord VPN, mainly for geo location purposes these days, as mentioned in another thread. I'm also a student at Tas Uni who use the Microsoft suite, including OneDrive which we use for cloud storage.

When I first started using the VPN I had it on all the time, which was the recommended set-up. I usually had myself in the USA, as I liked the USA Netflix selection (but I've given Netflix up now!).

With the VPN on, I had big problems connecting to UTAS's OneDrive. Basically it wouldn't (although from memory I didn't try locating myself in Tas ), either using my home connection (Telstra broadband, business 45.5 MBps service) or one-site wi-fi ('Eduroam' 200+ MBps).

I contacted UTAS IT who said, in as many words, that OneDrive won't work with any VPN in place. I suspect that this meant " .... with the configuration that UTAS has in place". This is currently my most critical use of the cloud and indeed the internet (currently about 70 GB back-up of data etc of my PhD), so the daily VPN use went.

Have you come across situations of a general problem in using OneDrive with a VPN on, or an institution with a configuration which essentially made its use untenable, and if so, does Oeck get around it?

 

[Oeck]

Hi @RooFlyer,

No, I have not. I also can't comment on Nords setup nor what their capabilities are as I don't know their service. What I can suggest though is signing up with Oeck and giving it a test run. It is completely free for 3 days ( we don't require payment information at all ). If you run into any issues simply open a support ticket and we will jump on it.

I would like to add, that with Oeck you don't need to jump on the USA VPN region to access USA Netflix. Since you're located in Tasmania, simply connect to the Melbourne servers, set your Netflix to USA and you will be streaming in no time.

Most of our users have told us that they keep our VPN on 24/7, with a lot of them setting it up directly on their routers. I would suggest giving us a go and seeing what happens. If you run into issues we will do our best to help with them. Just submit a support ticket and we will take a look

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

 

[RooFlyer]

Excellent, I will give it a go.

About a year or so there was a flurry of discussion on AFF about VPNs - with many of us travelling, sometimes to tricky places, the geo location function is popular. Did you know that Morocco blocks (or used to) Google maps & Google earth? Turkmenistan does about everything Nord got some good reviews here so I and a couple of others I know joined them. @JohnM gave them up promptly when Nord didn't perform in Kazakhstan when we were there!

 

[Oeck]

Excellent, I will give it a go.

About a year or so there was a flurry of discussion on AFF about VPNs - with many of us travelling, sometimes to tricky places, the geo location function is popular. Did you know that Morocco blocks (or used to) Google maps & Google earth? Turkmenistan does about everything Nord got some good reviews here so I and a couple of others I know joined them. @JohnM gave them up promptly when Nord didn't perform in Kazakhstan when we were there!

Thanks for letting me know!

As I said in an above post, we are going to be turning on "Obfuscation" in the next app updates. We have successfully broken through the Great Firewall of China with it. I am sure Kazakhstan will also play nice with our system, as well as anything else you throw at it.

Thanks for willing to give us a go! Please feel free to post any reviews here ( good or bad ). We like to run transparently. But for any support issues, please use our ticket system. This is for your privacy and safety.

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

 

[Oeck]

Hi everyone,

For those of you who missed it, we advertised in the newsletter with a special for AFF members. If you are interested in our VPN, please read more at Australian Frequent Flyer - This includes a further 15% discount to our pricing.

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.

 

[Mattg]

Does this service work for watching iView, 10 play, SBS on Demand etc. from outside of Australia?

 

[TheRealTMA]

Does this service work for watching iView, 10 play, SBS on Demand etc. from outside of Australia?

In my experience, practically every VPN (we have used several over the recent years) works for access to Australian streaming outside Australia so I expect this one will as well.

 

[Mattg]

In my experience, practically every VPN (we have used several over the recent years) works for access to Australian streaming outside Australia so I expect this one will as well.

I've previously used NordVPN and it didn't work with some of the on-demand streaming services offered by commercial Australian TV stations (e.g. 10 play, from memory). It did work with iView though, which is the main one I use.

 

[Oeck]

Does this service work for watching iView, 10 play, SBS on Demand etc. from outside of Australia?

Hi Mattg,

Yes, it will work if you connect to an Australian VPN region. However, this week we will be adding Australian channels in the auto-channel list. This means you can connect to any VPN region and it will automatically unblock those stations

Have a play with it. We have extended the trial for 3 days so users can really put it through its paces and see what makes Oeck different.

Regards,
Peter @ Oeck.