Marcus Chen

Marcus spent eight years as a network administrator for a managed-services firm before switching to writing full time. Based in Austin, Texas, he covers VPNs for us the way he once ran networks: measure first, conclude second.

His reviews are benchmark-driven. Every VPN gets a multi-day trial with speeds measured against a no-VPN baseline, DNS, IPv6, and WebRTC leak tests, kill-switch drills where he literally pulls the plug, and streaming access checks. All of it repeated, because a result you can’t reproduce isn’t a result.

At home he runs a pfSense lab, and every VPN he reviews also travels with him. His rule is simple: a privacy claim isn’t real until it has survived hotel Wi-Fi.