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VPN Services, which one do you use?

I am currently on the look-out for VPN services. What I would like to do, is set up a VPN network between myself and some friends of mine over the internet. We want to be able to share files securely and use shared content, such as iTunes libraries for example, without the need for too much hassle and configuration.

At the moment we are testing LogMeIn Hamachi, it's free for personal use and mostly a zero-config deal.

You install the application, create a VPN network, which basically consists of selecting a desired name and password for your network, and are ready to go.

Your friends, colleagues or family members need to install the Hamachi client and then enter the network name and password you selected in order to join your network. That's it. No firewall configurations, no router configurations.

The Hamachi server is used to locate each member of the network and then creates a direct peer-to-peer, persistent tunnel between two machines.

All traffic between the networked computers is encrypted. The Hamachi servers will only be used to tunnel encrypted traffic if a direct connection cannot be established between two computers in the network. According to the security white-papers by LogMeIn this applies to only 5% of connections.

The nice thing about Hamachi is that it supports Windows, Mac and Linux.

To be fair however, the official Mac and Linux installs are command line deals, but there are several unofficial GUI install (point and click) projects which are fairly decent, such as HamachiX for Mac and gHamachi for Linux.

As always, it is good to look for alternatives. A quick google search reveals several providers of VPN services, some paid, others free.

What are your experiences with VPN services? Which ones do you know of? Pros, cons?

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