// About the Author

Nolan Voss
Former Penetration Tester. Home Lab Builder.

12 years in enterprise IT security. Based in Austin, Texas. Every review on this site starts with a real test in a real lab.

// LAB SPECS

HypervisorProxmox VE 3-node cluster
FirewallpfSense Plus on Protectli FW4B
DNSPi-hole + Unbound resolver
TrafficWireshark + Zeek + Grafana
IDSSuricata on pfSense
VPN TestDedicated isolated VLAN
ISP1Gbps symmetric fiber, Austin TX
Hardware KeyYubiKey 5 NFC

Who I Am

My name is Nolan Voss. I spent 12 years in enterprise IT security — the last four as a penetration tester at a fintech firm in Austin, Texas. I tested production networks for a living, which means I spent those years finding the gaps between what vendors claim and what their products actually do under real conditions.

In 2022 I went independent. I now work as a security consultant for small and mid-size businesses, and I run this site as a side project. The home lab I built for client work became the testing environment for SpywareInfoForum. Every product I review gets tested on the same hardware I use for paid engagements.

I built SpywareInfoForum because I was tired of VPN reviews that consist of a speed test on a single Windows laptop and a summary of the privacy policy. My reviews are different. I run VPNs through a pfSense firewall with Suricata IDS enabled. I capture traffic in Wireshark and check for unexpected connections. I verify kill switch behavior by physically severing the WAN uplink. I run DNS leak tests 500 times, not once.

The result is reviews that reflect real-world lab conditions rather than vendor marketing. I do not accept payment for coverage. I do not rank products based on affiliate commission rates. When something fails in my lab I publish the failure with specifics — the exact error, the exact setting, the exact fix.

nolan@proxmox-lab:~$ cat career_summary.txt
2012-2018: Network security engineer, enterprise environments
2018-2022: Penetration tester, fintech firm, Austin TX
2022-present: Independent security consultant
Tools: Proxmox, pfSense, Wireshark, Kali Linux, Metasploit, Burp Suite
Specialties: Network segmentation, VPN architecture, endpoint hardening
Reviews published: spywareinfoforum.com/reviews

My Testing Methodology

  • VPN latency measured in milliseconds from Austin TX to nearest exit node
  • Throughput tested with iperf3 on dedicated 1Gbps test VLAN
  • DNS leak test run 500 times on dnsleak.com and dnsleaktest.com
  • Kill switch verified by physically severing WAN uplink on pfSense
  • IPv6 and WebRTC leak checks on every product tested
  • Traffic captured in Wireshark and analyzed for unexpected connections
  • Password managers tested with YubiKey 5 NFC hardware key integration
  • Hardware devices benchmarked under sustained load — never idle conditions
  • Every product tested for minimum 7 days before review is published
  • Every review includes a WHO SHOULD NOT BUY section — no exceptions

Questions about methodology, corrections, or press inquiries:

Contact Nolan