• You can either use some proxy gateways that will mask your actual IP address and use it own address. This is the most challenging solution to find as the list of proxies change so often.
• You can also use VPN servers. With such solution, you can chose the country where you want to land. Those solutions are especially very efficient for overcoming geolocation-limited services like Hulu, BBC iPlayer, …
• Then, for those who actually wants some “random/parallel” network that will hide them: ToR is one solution.
• For those who are more into browser-based solutions, you can find out addons that will allow you to achieve some kind of anonymity too

Except for ToR, most of those solutions expect you to connect you to one gateway, then this gateway will “mask” your connection before forwarding your request to any internet server that you want to see.

As I browsed the internet, I stumbled on one concept that seemed interesting (at least at first approach), it is called RiccoVPN and it is published by PrivacyProtector.

So I checked on their website and found out that they provide a privacy solution that requires you to install their proprietary client. What popped to my eyes is that it comes with a FREE solution that is called RiccoVPN FREE: while it is expected to be  a “bait” so that a potential user jumps into the paid version, the features can be of use for standard things like: connecting from a public Wi-Fi, from hotels or Airport. The caveat is that the bandwidth is limited to 512kbps and you can’t pretend to be somewhere else: though the free version isn’t a solution for bypassing geolocation-limited services.

As one would expect, most of the argument is stated in a way that you are pushed to opt for the RiccoVPN Plus solution instead of staying with the free solution. So I checked the Plus option and found out that RiccoVPN is implementing an encrypted P2P network instead of relying on a VPN gateway.

The idea is innovative, but yet has to prove how efficient it is. By leveraging on P2P network, internet connections are harder to track indeed (there’s no VPN gateway in the scheme). But since every user in the network is expected to run the RiccoVPN client, I would suspect that if I run the RiccoVPN client on my computer, then it would mean that my computer would also be used for encrypting other people’s traffic.

While this article isn’t a recommendation, I think there’s some potential in that no-gateway concept. With SOPA-like bills, there’s a tendancy to find some technical solutions that won’t allow you to be tracked from your ISP or VPN provider. From the “commercial ad”, RiccoVPN claims that “we do not need to know you“.  What do you think of that approach? Do you think it is something that you would try?

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RiccoVPN, a VPN Solution Without a Gateway

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Most of the time free VPNs require registration and offer limited service.  Some offer a limited number of MB, others a single server location, limited speed or restrictive usage.

Here, at how-to-hide-ip.info, we have listed several such services (7 Free Online VPN Services, VPN Raptor, VPN Reactor, UltraVPN, etc.), but as they are rapidly changing (some switch to paid version, other simply go away), an update is necessary.

Thus, here are the best VPN services that are available at this time:

ProXPN

ProXPN has the advantage to offering no limitation of data transfer but only one USA IP is available. You need to register and account using an email address and install the OpenVPN of ProXPN to access either the package fee (more IP addresses) or free access.

SecurityKiss

SecurityKiss offers more countries, but data transfer is limited daily.  No registration is needed. You can switch between five addresses (US – UK – DE – PL – FR) and TCP or UDP ports.  Just download the OpenVPN client, to start to enjoy free VPN (no mail, no info required).  Some protocols such as the Usenet are blocked.

ShieldExchange

The creators of famous OpenVPN offer a free VPN that is limited to 100 MB per user. The speed is very good and the one US IP is exposed. Very useful for one-time or infrequent usage.

HotSpot Shield

Hotspot Shield is still widely used all over the world. The ad-based, free VPN service provides one US IP address and does not require registration. There are no bandwidth limitation and the speed is good for general use. Downsides: the ads and the reduced number of locations and IPs. Hotspot Shield is also avaialable in paid flavor as HSS Elite.

Expat Shield

Expat Shield offers the same service as Hotspot Shield with the only difference that it assigns a UK IP address. It is also ad-based and there are no bandwidth limitations.

Conclusion

There are also other free VPN services that can be easily found on forums and different sites, but the ones listed above seem more trustworthy than others. If you are looking for a free VPN, try them all and find out what is the most suitable for you.

It is important to understand that free VPN services can not fully replace paid, premium, VPNs like HideMyAss, HideIpVPN, StrongVPN, ibVPN or IAPS Security Services. A premium VPN service offers unlimited speed and traffic, various server locations, many IP addresses, good support.

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List of Free VPN Services – Updated

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For their second year birthday, IbVPN has made an incredible offer and I think How-to-hide-IP readers should jump at it: this is an offer you don’t want to miss. Can you imagine it? 50% OFF, that’s a huge discount you don’t want to miss.

And as if it weren’t enough, IbVPN is also launching the Ultimate VPN Account: gives you 35 extra IPs, remote assistance, a dedicated account manager. Considering that the usual price for that new package is only $10.95/month, this is already a bargain – but now, if you apply the 50%, then it’s more than  a treat. Hurry up guys, the offer is only available on Saturday 28th 2012, you don’t want to miss it.

Why do I recommend IbVPN?

How-To-Hide-Ip readers know that I’m a long-time IbVPN happy customer. So I definitely have no issue recommending it to other people. If you recall it, I once wrote about IbVPN package that allows P2P/torrent traffic. But even before that article about Torrent support, I’ve already reported some IbVPN use to you.  If you browse through the archives of How-to-hide-ip for articles I wrote dealing with accessing sites like Hulu, BBC iPlayer, Spotify- you know that the VPN solution I used for doing those case studies were IbVPN.

So, I know this article looks like a blatant promotion (which it is), but I can fully back my recommendation with at least one year of regular use of IbVPN services. This isn’t one of those fake reviews articles promoting only affiliate links without any actual case study. While the links in this article are affiliate links (full disclosure), I would have done this recommendation even without this feature.

But what is IbVPN anyway?

IbVPN is my recommended solution for pretending that I am based somewhere else than in Madagascar. So, if, for example, I want to overcome geolocated services (Hulu, Spotify or others) that are only limited to US-based users, I fire my IbVPN client, chose a US server to connect to, then check if the new IP address I received is actually seen as an IP address in the US. I do this extra step for the purpose of being sure that everything went fine.

Once you know that IbVPN is the secret tool allowing you to access sites that are only limited to the “power-users” countries (US, Canada, UK or other big countries), then the internet is yours: want to use netflix? No problem, launch ibVPN and you’re set. Want to check BBC iPlayer? Worry no more. You know what to launch first

So here are the instructions for ordering

So, wait no more, order your IbVPN package this Saturday, the 28th of January, 2012

At checkout time, enter the following promotion code: 2YEARS50 

This is definitely a treat, guys and gals. Use this link to order and you’ll get that 50% OFF. You won’t regret it, and best of all, we’ll be using the same tools so that it will be easier for you to troubleshoot if there’s any problem happening to you when you try to replicate what I’ll be recommending in my VPN articles

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50% OFF on IbVPN for Their Year Two Birthday. This Saturday Only

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When compared with conventional phone services, VoIP utilizes the net to make calls hence, it is deemed practical for longer calls abroad. Although a lot of VoIP calls may be easily tracked to the telco’s together with your contact number, there are a variety of ways that you can do, in order to make calls anonymously today. That is via VPN.

VPN or Virtual Private Networks can be utilized to make your VoIP calls. Most businesses that rely heavily on VoIP for financial consideration opted to employ VPNs to ensure that the transfers are secure and or to get around firewalls or router issues brought about by VoIP communications. The practice draws in more corporate end-users as opposed to private clients.

Companies turn to Virtual Private Networks or VPN’s for varied reasons, but among the best reasons could be due to –

Security

Trade secrets are paramount and should be kept confidential at all times. With VPN, you are assured that encryption occurs when sound and transfers are made by way of the VPN line. A standard VPN encryption with the aid of Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) is utilized to safely encode any data transmitted. And so, all of your VoIP business calls are kept safe and secure at all times.

Circumventing Firewalls

A lot of VoIP plans come bundled with SIP or Session Initiation Protocol to launch connections to the web. SIP for some reasons do not mesh well with standard firewalls and routers. This is mainly due to the fact that the protocols do not adhere to an established port; however it randomly picks a port towards a destination pc. With the aid of VPN, these firewalls may be configured to permit incoming traffic flow towards a particular port. This in turn stabilizes a port where VoIP traffic can reckon with, which SIPs are incapable of doing.

The employment of Internet Protocol Security for encrypting vital data entails much of the data packets overhead thereby slowing down the velocity of data transfer of applications. Furthermore, SSL or Secure Socket layer has been applied for safer transactions online, for instance obtaining credit card information. The process allows VoIP VPN to lower down traffic transmission overhead of typical encryptions.

Yet another feature that lures a lot of corporate honchos to invest on VoIP VPN  is because of the cost effective factor. For just a few bucks you are assured that your data and communications are kept 100% confidential at all times. These and more entices small to medium-range business owners to subscribe to such a service.

If you are making use of VoIP on a recurring basis for business, then utilizing VPN for your VoIP calls is a necessity. Check out established and reputable Virtual Private Networks on the web to get started today:

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Why Use VPN For Your VoIP Calls

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But on the other hand, I always pride on trying to consider both sides of the fence, so although this blog is about showcasing different VPN and proxy solution to override geolocation limited services, or to hide your traces when you are surfing the internet, it’s always good to consider things that VPN and proxies can’t solve: and SOPA is one of them.

SOPA isn’t yet another technical jargon or protocol that the internet uses. It is an act that is being fiercly discussed at the U.S senate so as to allow a U.S attorney general to request the help of internet companies to identify and sue some pirates (you know, any internet user in the world who is doing illegal downloads and file sharing). I’ve written more details about this SOPA thing here.

So why did I put such a provocative title? Maybe because that’s the whole truth. Or maybe there’s some gray area there that won’t put you in a safe place if you are sued.

In fact, the whole point is simple: let’s suppose that someone does some file-sharing over the internet. Let’s not discuss if it’s a legitimate or not file-sharing. Let’s suppose that this file-sharer was smart enough to use a VPN or proxy for doing so.  For whatever reason, let’s suppose that the case comes under the SOPA act, so an attorney wants to know who the guy who did that file-sharing is. From the logs of the file-sharing server, there will be an IP address showing the computer that did the download/upload. So by going-up the line, the attorney would find that that IP address belongs to the VPN or Proxy service provider. He will then ask who that IP address belong to. SOPA allows him to do so.

At this stage, there may be some hot discussions about privacy and all those long political/legal debate so as to identify if the VPN provider would provide the information  or not. Should the SOPA become enacted, then there’s a legal argument that the VPN provider can’t deny, so he’ll be obliged to reveal the IP address corresponding to that specific connection.

Wait, wait, wait …

Aren’t VPN providers supposed not to log those kinds of things? Well, let’s just consider that if it isn’t clearly written on the contract that they don’t log your IP address, or anything private, then just assume they’re doing it – so I strongly advise you re-read your contract with the VPN or Proxy provider. From here, they have your actual IP address. Guess what, the SOPA enables the attorney to ask the ISP to reveal who used that IP at that time – guess what: the ISP would have to give the information he has about you on their files (or at least the data that are associated to the internet contract).

What’s your view? Am I being paranoid?

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When VPN and Proxies Won’t Protect You from SOPA

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On the other hand, the once called “The Pirate Bay” polled its users about their use of a hide-ip service, and it showed up that 70% of the users are using a VPN or a proxy service(or are planning to do so). The interesting thing is that out of this 70%, 51% are still in the planning phase to use a VPN or proxy service while 4.8% are already using a paid service. From that same study that the Pirate Bay has done, 12% have reported that they aren’t even aware of those concepts of hiding IP, VPN or proxies.

How-to-hide-ip readers, please do us a favor, help those people a bit, redirect them to the multitude of articles that we’ve already written here, and if they are looking for a solution, you’ve got a lot of options that we have already covered here.

Why those figures?

Well, it may be too obvious, but peer-to-peer file-sharing has always been considered as piracy. The concept of legal peer-to-peer is yet in its infancy age. On the other hand, there’s a lot of pressure and legal threats on those kind of services nowadays that leads to users being more conscious about anonymizing themselves when surfing, and especially when launching any peer-to-peer services.

If we consider the US especially, with that SOPA bill, and other threats over internet users, people want to free themselves from the threat of being sued. As the discussion has moved to the legal matters, it all boils down to definitions: and without getting into the details, there will always be a risk that some legitimate use of the internet would be assimilated to piracy.

A growing market for VPN and proxy demand

I can see you thinking that this is great news for VPN and proxy vendors. Well, this ain’t false. The more the threat of being sued will be, the greater the demand for such services. The good thing, though, is that, here, at how-to-hide-ip.info, we’ve reviewed both paid and free solutions thereby leaving to you the decision to opt for one solution or another. Yes, the demand for anonymizing end-user’s internet connection will always grow – especially with all those legal threat to “control” the internet. There will always people who will be rebel enough, or who just don’t want to get into troubles.

As a closing note, let’s be clear once and for all, here, at how-to-hide-ip.info, we aren’t here to promote piracy, we’re here to talk about solutions that already exist for anonymizing your internet connection.  As we started with figures, let’s end this article with another promising stat:  the report published by “the American Assembly” from Columbia University mentioned that “of the 30% of Americans who have “pirated” digital music files, 46% indicated they now do so less because of the emergence of low-cost legal streaming services. Among TV/movies pirates: 40%”.

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70% of Users Are Using a VPN or a Proxy Service (or are Planning to Do So)

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As always the installation of DD-WRT firmware is required.  Regularly, site DD-WRT release new versions but I prefer stable releases.

Installing the OpenVPN on DD-WRT

From your 192.168.1.1 interface you access your router and its configuration.

1 – In the Services tab => VPN

You enable OpenVPN Daemon and check Start OpenVPN Daemon and WAN Up .

In the case that you have CA Cert in the box, you copy your file ca.cert witch you will find in the VpnTunnel.Se user account .

In the Private Client Key box you put on two lines your Username and your Password .

In the box OpenVPN config file you copy your OpenConfig.

This file OpenVPN gives this script:

float
client
dev tap
proto udp
nobind
; Cert
ca / etc / openvpn / keys / ca.crt
ns-cert-type server
cipher BF-CBC # Blowfish
; VPN Server
remote-random
remote melissa.vpntunnel.se 1194
remote melissa.vpntunnel.se 10010
remote melissa.vpntunnel.se 10020
; Auth
auth-user-pass # passwd
persist-key
persist-tun
; Logging
comp-lzo
verb 1

Two lines must change:


ca / etc / openvpn / keys / ca.crt by AC / tmp / openvpn / ca.crt

auth-user-pass # passwd auth-user-pass / tmp / openvpn / key.pem

Then click on Save settings and Apply.

2 – In the Administration tab => commands

Copy this script and confirm with Save Firewall

iptables-I FORWARD-i br0-o tap0-j ACCEPT
iptables-I FORWARD-i tap0-o br0-j ACCEPT
iptables-I INPUT-i tap0-j REJECT
iptables-t nat-A POSTROUTING-o tap0-j MASQUERADE

3 – Reboot the router

Administration tab => Management and Reboot button to validate this router config

To check your new IP: WhatIsMyIPAddress.com.

Changing DNS

In case of connection problems: untimely cuts / slow speed/ no change of IP, the DNS change to stabilize your computer  and solve these problems.

1 – In XP – Vista

Open the Windows Control Panel => Open “Local Area Connection” => Right-click on the icon of your network connection => select “Properties” => Select “Internet Protocol (TCP / IP)” => Click Properties => Check “Use the following DNS server addresses” and then in the Preferred DNS server and Alternate DNS server, type addresses 80.67.0.2 and 91.213.246.2

Click OK and restart your computer.

2 – In Windows 7

Windows Control Panel => “Network and Internet” => “Network and Sharing Center” => “Change adapter settings” => Right-click on “Local Area Connection” => Click Properties.  => “Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)” => “Properties” => First click on the button “Use the following DNS server addresses” and enter your preferred DNS server and auxiliary.  Type the address 80.67.0.2 and 91.213.246.2

Click OK and restart your computer.

Conclusion

To sum up, VpnTunnel.Se works great on DD-WRT and it’s a great choice if you want to install in on your router.

This tutorial is largely inspired by the one of Skalp.

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How To Setup VpnTunnel.Se with OpenVPN on DD-WRT Firmware

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• Despite having the right credentials, your VPN software can’t establish a connection. This usually translates into your VPN client reporting connection issues, or showing frequent disruptions.
• Pages sometimes doesn’t load even though your VPN reports that it has correctly connected,

Now let’s see the reasons that may lead to such issues.

Bandwidth limitation at the VPN provider

Some providers actually apply some QoS (bandwidth limitations) to each VPN tunnel that is setup. There’s no way for you to circumvent this but use another VPN provider.

Port blocking at the ISP side

This is the most frequent issue. A VPN uses some IP ports so as to be able to connect. Some ISP (or your router) may have those ports blocked, though the connection can’t be established. Some VPN providers try to emulate a VPN connection via the port 443 (usually used by HTTPS protocol), but most of the times, you have to deal with whoever deals with firewall at the ISP side, or at your network side so as to allow it to connect.

Charge on the VPN server

Each VPN server can only handle a limited number of VPN tunnels. It may happen that due to popularity, some servers are too overloaded (because there’s too much VPN client simultaneously connecting to it).

Recent VPN providers have setup a smart rerouting system that will redirect your connection to another VPN server if the first one on the list is becoming too overloaded. You have to check, though, that the VPN solution that you have chosen actually implements such rerouting solution.

Otherwise, if a VPN provider proposes multiple VPN servers for the same country, a simple trick would be to chose the last VPN server on the list since most of the times, people will chose the first one on the list thereby charging it more than the others.

Network latency

Depending on the internet connection that you have, it may happen that some implementation (a VSAT international connection for example) has a too big network latency (around 600ms) that it becomes really hard for the VPN connection to work steadily. If you have the choice, use an internet connection that relies to you with the internet that do not go through satellite connections,

The distance between your computer and the VPN server (network hops)

This also plays a big role in the quality of the VPN connection that you have. If it takes too much hops (routers) to get to the closest VPN router, then it has an impact into the quality of the VPN connection. This usually can be verified by doing a “traceroute” from your computer to the VPN server you are trying to connect to

While this list isn’t exhaustive, it gives you an idea of the things to check so as to optimize your VPN connection. Have more to share with us? Feel free to add them to the comment section.

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The good thing about this app is that it’s conceived in such a way that you only set it once, then you can forget about it: this can definitely be a good thing especially when you are working regularly from public WI-FI. Anyway, not everybody would want to enable HotspotShield on a permanent mode on his iPhone. But the app can be stopped anytime.

What’s interesting with this IOS app is that it also helps optimize your data connection. It does this by manipulating unnecessary pictures and ads, thereby decreasing your data traffic. This can be a major advantage since at the end of the day; you’ll have less to pay on your mobile phone data consumption. Not only does it compress your data consumption, but you can even chose between three level of compression, depending if you want to prioritize bandwidth consumption, or quality of the images that are displayed on your iPhone.

The thing that we should point out though is the app will cost you $.99/month to use, or $9.99/year. The good thing, though, is that by paying for one app, you can use it on your multiple devices (iPad or iPhone, or iPod).

Not convinced that this would be a good fit for you, you can even try it for free for seven days. From my point of view, it’s always good to see software editors who are confident enough with their product that they don’t mind.

As with any App, you can get the application from the Apple store.

By checking for some feedbacks on the internet (at least on the app store page of the application), people report that it even reconnects after iPhone has been in sleep mode. This is definitely a plus since you don’t want to reconnect manually everytime your phone goes on sleep mode so as to spare some energy.

So how does it fit to our “hide IP” goal on this blog? In fact, since this is a VPN solution, it will use a temporary IP address while you are using the app. So if you are in a public WI-FI, then the public IP that will be seen by the Internet would be HotspotShield’ IP.  Moreover, the fact that it automatically reconnects and works on a “set and forget” mode will help those of us who tend to forget to relaunch our VPN software.

Now I’d be interested in your feedback on this solution from HotspotShield. Would you pay that price so as to be able such features? Do you think it’s an app you’d use on your iPhone/iPod/iPad? If not, tell us in the comments the VPN solution that you are using on those devices, and why you prefer them?

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In fact, initially, I wanted to try HMA with my Android phone (still a 2.1). After checking the documentations, I found out that I needed to use the PPTP version (which, by the way, has a different credential than the one you’ve been given when buying HMA). After configuring my Android phone, as per the HMA provided documentation, I had hard times connecting, my phone kept on reporting “Attention: Server hung up. The username or password you entered could be incorrect. Do you want to try again?“.

After going back-and-forth between the documentation and my phone, I couldn’t find anything wrong. I even tried to change the PPTP credentials from HMA’s backoffice with no success. I finally decided to contact HMA support with my issue, and, to my surprise, I received an answer almost 10 minutes after I sent my e-mail that advised me to use L2TP instead of PPTP. So I reconfigured my Android phone on L2TP by using the PPTP credentials, and heck I could at least connect via VPN. Frankly speaking, I found it hectic to get my Android phone connected with HMA, so I decided to test it on my Windows laptop (If you want me to review it a bit further on my Android phone, feel free to ask it in the comment section).

So as to give a good background on this test, it’s worth mentioning the platform I am using: I am using an updated Windows 7 laptop with the latest and current HideMyAss software (version 2.6.9) that has been installed through their windows installation package (you know me, I’m always using the simplest solution that is provided to me so as to help those who don’t really want to care about the technical stuffs).

First thing I noticed, it takes a few seconds before the HideMyAss dashboard gives you the hand for entering your credentials (username and password)- mainly because there seems to be some initializations that are made in the background. Well, it’s not realy a big deal, but for the impatient people out there, it may be disturbing.

What I found really interesting with HMA is that it has a LoadBalancing feature that is enabled by default. This means that if you want to connect to a country that has multiple servers, you can specify, for example, that once one server reaches 30% (the default settings), HMA will switch to another server. In my opinion, this can come handy so as to enjoy a great VPN service, provided that the online service you’re reaching do not penalize you from changing your IP services too often.

Anyway, I’ve run HMA, by chosing the OpenVPN protocol (which is my preferred protocol), entered my credentials, then ended up with the following error message

Ok, so I accepted to use PPTP (although a bit skeptical since I already had a PPTP issue with Android), but anyway, I’m here for testing. Unfortunately, the result was the same: I couldn’t establish a VPN connection either.

After reading the documentation, I’ve been advised to run the diagnostic  which is located on the “connection log (large view” tab). This is a 11 steps check that creates a very technically detailed report. So I run it, then generated the report, and now I’m off to sending it to HMA support again. Let’s see how it ends up.

Stay tuned for the issue of this review

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VPN Services: HideMyAss Review – Part 2

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