This is helpful.

For my purposes, not sure it's worth the risk of handing them an easy lay-up to use the "color of law" against me for whatever reason. Never know, could always say or utter something something that sticks in the craw of some CCP bureaucrat triggering a process crime charge.

Depending on what you do with the connection, I suspect the results will vary. If they decide to seize your laptop and search, I think they're more concerned about information that they would rather not get into China than if you're watching the american edition of Netflix. Anything they perceive as subversive. But anything for a bargaining chip these days.

After quite a bit of research and reviews I selected NordVPN. So far so good and wish I had done this a while ago as I've had info swiped on hotel connections. That said I've had a occasions where website don't correctly until I disconnect from VPN. Is this common?

That's normal. Mostly with sites that deal with copyright issues (most commonly streaming websites). VPNs allow for people to use things they might not be able to normally (for example, me, in Canada, streaming Netflix US.... I don't but useful as an example). There's also geoblocking that can be bypassed (eg, Mainland chinese watching Youtube).

Some sites are just inexplicable (eg, VPNs and FlyerTalk) but it's up to them to decide and explain (or not).

Have been using NordVPN for the past 5 or 6 years? Had used ExpressVPN prior to them, but found the NVPN deals too good to pass up. In the end, price is always a main consideration for me. But, yeah, having to disconnect and reconnect is pretty normal and I've gotten used to it when using it when traveling.

PS - May have asked this before, but is there any purpose on using a VPN when on one's phones LTE?

The only purpose of a VPN is to

1. obscure your location so you seem to be somewhere you're not
2. hide some/all of the information on which websites or other services you are visiting
3. as a corollary to #2, to enable you to access resources that are blocked on your local network
4. if you are connecting to your own VPN server at home/work, to access local network resources on your home/business network

That's really about it. VPNs are not some magic Super Private Browsing hack. You are just trusting the VPN provider with the same info that your local network provider would ordinarily get.

Depends on what you're doing. Just make sure you're actually connected to your phone (if using as a wireless hotspot) and you don't really care if your cell provider sees what you're doing (this could be a touchy point). Not sure what will happen if you try to "double-VPN" something (set up a VPN on your phone on top of your laptop requiring a VPN) but you will take a performance hit if you do something like that.

My work phone is partitioned into personal and work with the work side requiring a VPN to access network data as if I were using my laptop.

For my personal phone, I use a VPN when accessing public WiFi access such as hotels and short term rentals.

Interesting piece in BusinessWeek/Bloomberg this week focusing on VPNs and Specifically NordVPN. I will update with a link.

Similar setup - if you have a Raspberry Pi, Zimaboard, or some other SBC or old computer, you can setup Tail Scale which is an open source mesh VPN network, and set up the machine at your home to serve as an exit note, which will all you to route your laptop or mobile traffic through it while traveling. This also provides the added benefit of being able to access machines/files on your home network while away. This is way more functional and cost-effective (in the long-term) than paying for a VPN-as-a-service.

I have friends from Scandinavia who use their friends/parents' (superior) Internet connection to host little VPN boxes (routers or RPis). By your handle I assume you're "from" there, so maybe you could get a friend or family member there to host an OpenVPN/Wireguard server router for you? That way there's no blocking (as it looks just like a residential SE/... internet connection).

Nord always seems to have deals, but I have never used them. I've been using Exp for years. I wish there was a way to see which VPN is more secure. Security and lack of logging are very important to me.

This is what we ended up doing to bypass the content restrictions for tv in Canada. Put a tiny OpenVPN box on our ATT modem in California and the box on mom’s Rogers modem in Canada and her Roku stick connects to that box.

Wireguard performance was terrible but when we switched to Open VPN it worked perfectly including HD content

Ask and you shall receive. :)

https://torrentfreak.com/best-vpn-anonymous-no-logging/

NOTE: This is what their stated policies are, not what they actually do. That said, Torrentfreak occasionally posts related stories of interest (I think recently, only PIA was tested). there are other sites that claim to do these VPN reviews, but I find they're nothing other than affiliate clickbait. TF doesn't say which one is best, but it posts responses to its questions and lets you decide.

Is TF a reliable news source?