Finding a fast VPN on the internet can be quite a task. Of course, every VPN service provider will tell you just how great their service is, and how their servers are always up, always fast, and may even grant you super powers! But seriously, not all VPN services live up to their advertising claims. Here are some tips to ensure you get a fast VPN service for surfing and downloading anonymously online.

Read Reviews From a Number of Sources

Reviews are great. As we move more of our lives onto the internet, so does our discussion of the products we use. Most people can now use "I'll put this on my blog!" as a threat to companies who provide less than satisfactory service. There are also professionally built websites where the website owner will review many products and rate them with a star system, or compare and contrast. Both review styles help you make a better decision about services. First of all, a personal blog style review will give you a realistic view of how the service works, from the point of a customer. Though writing styles can sometimes be a bit crude or sometimes difficult to decipher will all the "internet speak" that's being used these days, they're usually more honest than professional review sites.

However, professional review sites have their place as well. These sites are usually better designed, more professionally written, and provide a more complete review of not just one service, but many. The compare and contrast is important, and especially those sites that have a visual representation, such as comparison charts, and other screen shots/images from the site can be important to understanding what you're going to buy. However, it goes without saying that these sites make commissions, and some sites can falsify reviews, or make them sound very positive (despite never having tried the service themselves) in an effort to make a sale.

Get VPN service with multiple server locations

In an ideal world, all VPN servers would work, all the time, and they would all be fast. However, things go wrong. There may be too many users on one server, or a server might have a bug that needs to be worked out. Things change day to day, and the server that worked well last night, might not this morning. That's why having a diverse range of servers (at least three or four), can give you options. I prefer to have my servers in several locations around the world, but if you only need an IP address from one specific country, it might be useless to have servers in other places. In this case, you can find a VPN service with multiple server locations in one country. A good example would be having several city locations in The USA.

Get a Guarantee

Perhaps the best way to ensure that you get a fast VPN service, is to get it guaranteed. Money back guarantees range from a few hours to a whole month, so be sure to check. I actually have got my money back before. It was pretty easy, but not quite as easy as they made it out to be. It usually takes a few days to process the request, so waiting can be kind of annoying, but for my particular experience, this time, it was "hassle free" in that they didn't make me prove my dissatisfaction.