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The track pins mentioned near the bottom of this page: http://electricstuff.co.uk/pcbs.htmlare at least better/faster than bits of wire, but still have the inconvenience of leaving the hole plugged. On balance I prefer them over the hassle of DIY through-plating.
I am pretty happy with the speed of using wire - you strip a length of solid core wire and thread it through all the vias. Then solder both sides of each via and clip off the excess wire. quick and easy. not to mention cheap and oneless thing to stock up on. You can also use the excess wire to do a continuity test easily.