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-   -   Hide my IP - VPN Providers (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/gadgets-computers-software/160595-hide-my-ip-vpn-providers.html)

Hello,

With the growing usage of online shopping / banking / Downloads (need I say the legal kind ;)) etc.. wanted to know how many of you use IP masking / VPN software ?

Looking for some inputs on the following, any pointers from past experience would be much appreciated

1.Do you use any software that hides your IP address ?
2.What are the Free options and Paid options available ?
3.Does it affect your broadband speed ?

Besides the security masking , are there other benefits you leverage from IP masking ?

Thanks
Fillmore

I use two services that hide my location. They are more like private DNS providers than true VPNs, so don't affect connection speed. I use them to consume otherwise "geofenced" content via Netflix, ABC, Pandora etc. Both are paid (around $5 per month each but they have long-term discounts etc.) I've also tried HideMyA$$ - a paid VPN service briefly but it degraded my connection speed too much.

To answer your questions:

1. Nope. Do not use anything to hide my IP Address.
2. Only option that I know of, which is brilliant, is Tor. More details here: https://www.torproject.org/
3. Have no need for hiding IP Address. So speed is never compromised.

I guess there are many benefits to leverage from IP Masking, provided one is looking for such leverages.
I, however, am not so paranoid. So I've turned every single thing on, on my phone, laptop, tablet, even on my browser.

Each and every browser tab I open is synced with Google & Firefox, upto & including usernames, passwords, and...wait for it...browsing history as well!:uncontrol

Worst case scenario, I resort to using the incognito tab. That's all.

hidemya$$ is one. I was aware of several others which I came across at an ethical hacking workshop but forgot now.

Basically it will be useful to access websites which are otherwise blocked in India. www.vpnbook.com is another good option for setting up a VPN connection.

-Bhargav

We used it because our internal file sharing software (Box and Sugar Sync) did not work with our client proxies (I'm a consultant).

Among friends and colleagues we have used the following:
a. bolehvpn. Excellent speeds. Mind you this was in Kuala Lumpur (this is Malaysian company). YMMV outside Malaysia. Its software is very well designed and works nicely with proxies OUT of the box. Was $10/mo.
b. proxy.sh. Ideal VFM for those on a cheap budget. $5/month ($40/year) gets you decent speeds. Its painful across proxies. Best VFM.
c. https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/ WORST EVER. Cheap and downright nasty. The only thing that works on it is Hulu free (didnt have Netflix yet).
d. I tried out astrill for a while - they were quite acceptable but a bit costlier ($8 or so AFAIK). Don't remember how they were with proxies. Torrents were okay.
e. Witopia has decent speeds but doesn't allow torrents, which some folks may need.
f. If you don't want to spend any money and have the very occasional usage (few hundred megabytes a day) and don't mind some annoying popups trying to upsell you, cyberghost does the job as well. Mediocre speeds but hey, its free.

The above is my experience across various locations in NCR, Mumbai and KL.

I would strongly recommend against the DNS solutions since they don't *always* work (e.g ordering Nexus 4 from US play store didnt work but netflix did etc). VPN solutions are better IMHO for around $2-3/mo extra.
[info is ~1-1.5 year old so YMMV on the latest costs]

Cyberghost is a free option and it is available for the phone too.

For mobile, I use tunnelbear to access the geo fenced app - Zedge. Found it pretty good.

--Anoop

DNS solutions tend not to work with Google because Google has other ways of figuring out where you are (e.g. using the tower location that your registered android phone is talking to) so they don't rely on DNS. You can access the play store via a browser (rather than the play store app) to download geo-restricted apps (like Quickpic - great app by the way, amazing replacement for stock gallery apps esp. Samsung gallery). Never tried it for hardware though.

For entertainment apps like Netflix etc. these are great solutions. I've been using them for over 18 months more or less continuously and never faced an issue.

Thank you everyone for your inputs.
Will try out the options suggested :-)

I use VPNBook.com to access Spotify mostly. Its free and has virually no lag. And which one are you talking about?

I use unlocator.com and unblock-us.com. They both work really well. I started with unlocator when it was in beta, then added the other one later because of an unlocator outage. They're not expensive so I keep both now for redundancy. I use them for maybe 2-3 hours on weekdays (mostly with netflix or abc) and all day long on weekends for pandora. Both of these have VPN options as well by the way. I'll check out VPNBook as well.

I have recently bought a paid subscription using Stack Social Website. Cost me 39 USD for a lifetime subcription. Works really neat.

Only drawback that I felt was it does not give you DNS address - something that can be used on a router itself.

I use a tunnelbear account. Helps to VPN between my laptop, ipad, iphone, etc. And it is reasonably cheap as well.

I have set up my own Open VPN server on a small VPS (3.5$ PA) for myself and few of my friends. It works flawlessly and i can configure it to my needs.

I am trying out ExpressVPN, with intention of reaching US sites for some classic movies ( in HD, and uncut versions). Is there anything I need to do with the setup / ipconfig on the laptop to get better search results ? DNS ?

broadband connection is ACT fibrenet.