KryptoVPN advantages

KryptoVpn allows you to:

• To ensure complete anonymity;
• Avoid that your communications may be intercepted or analyzed by Third Parties (e.g. your ISP);
• Use of P2P (BitTorrent, eMule …) without risk of being identified! (Servers in Switzerland and Sweden seem to be the best for P2P);
• Access to all websites, no filters, no blocked ports!  Skype and MSN OK!
• To have a better protection: KryptoVPN included a small firewall.

KryptoVPN offer also:

• Unlimited bandwidth;
• Unlimited traffic;
• Instant activation if you pay by credit card or Paypal;
• Unlimited Switch between Germany, Italy, UK, Sweden, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, Hong Kong and the United States!
• Attractive prices!  (4euro/month)
• NO LOGS!  The company is located in Seychelles, there are no constraints (unlike HideMyAss which is located in England and 30 days kept logs …) more if you take the server Swedish you are about not having a problem!

KryptoVPN disadvantages:

KryptoVPN also has some drawbacks:

• No account: You pay, then you receive an email with the software and the OpenVPN certificates made on the fly just for you. Other VPN services allow you to have access to your payment information, invoices, account info, etc.
• The site is not user-friendly
• No PPTP or L2TP available, only OpenVPN application.

KryptoVPN Installation:

After payment, you receive the OpenVPN application in a portable version (no installation on your PC, handy when you are going or the office where administrative rights are not necessarily given, or if you do not want to let tracks!).

You can easily find the folder “config”, and for those like me who do not like to run each time the application and prefers to install it permanently, it’s very simple: install OpenVPN and replace the default application “config” file by the OpenVPN KryptoVPN.

Conclusion

To sum up our KyptoVPN review, KryptoVPN is a good VPN service, easy to set up and run! The most important feature of KyptoVPN is that guarantees your privacy and no logs are stored in their databases. Also, KryptoVpn uses the highest level encryption available today with AES 256 bit and 2048 bit RSA. Enjoy!

What do you think about KryptoVPN? Add your KryptoVPN review in the comments below!

The principle of Split Tunneling VPN is to cut the encrypted connection for certain applications or software. You can have a browser that uses the secure VPN tunnel and another that uses your IP ISP. This is the basic principle.

What are the advantages of Split Tunneling?

• Gives great flexibility to your network.  You have two lines, one secure and one not.
• Some software such as newsreaders that allow you to access the Usenet network have not interest in using the VPN.  The Usenet network is already secured by the SSL VPN and cause you to lose the connection speed.
• Avoids having to log off to go to some sites.
• Greatly simplifies the sending of mail with a VPN!

Unfortunately, this feature is not present among most of the VPN vendors with the exception of PureVPN. PureVPN is one of the top VPN providers with more than 500 servers all over the World. They provide a lot of options and additional services like SmartDNS.

VPN Split Tunneling in PureVPN

This new feature is very new and is still in Beta.  The principle presented below remain the same in its final version.

After the Split Tunneling enabled, only applications launched from the client benefit from integrated VPN.

Firefox launched from the client will give you an IP NL in the case of a connection in the Netherlands.  The same Firefox from your desktop will give you your ISP IP address.

Warning: This feature (full of promise) is in Beta.  Before using it blindly you should check that the application launched from the client is effectively secured because eg IE does not work.

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.

Free VPN Services – The Good and the Bad

It’s not easy to offer good free VPN services … A few days ago, one of my frequent readers (Pilgrim) let me know that ItsHidden does not work as it used to do. For some time the free accounts disconnect every 20 minutes. Moreover, the policy of this service is that no support is offered for free accounts.

The message made me think a little bit about the free VPN accounts and user expectations. Here is what I think …

It’s not easy to offer good free VPN services

First of all, VPN services are not cheap to be built and to be maintained. Powerful dedicated servers have to be purchased, qualified admins have to keep an eye on them, clean IP addresses are needed, etc.

An important challenge for every VPN service provider is the level of support. For a large number of users, it can be overwhelming. That is why some of the services that provide free VPN are not able to offer support.

Most of the time free accounts are offered in order to promote paid services. After the initial phase of promotion, some of the services may stop offering free accounts or limit them, as it is the case of ItsHidden. Some others, like HideIpVPN, offer a limited number of free accounts per week.

Some other free VPNs are ad-based, for example, Hotspot Shield and TheFreeVPN [No longer available]. These show ads for every page that you visit. Sometimes it can be very annoying.

What can you expect from a free VPN service?

• Low/medium speed
• Little or no support
• Advertising
• Service interruption

My conclusion is that free VPN accounts have to be taken as they are, with the good and the bad. The users always have to keep in mind that they are … FREE.

Here, at how-to-hide-ip, we have listed several such services, but as they are rapidly changing (some switch to a paid version, others simply go away), an update is necessary.

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

ProXPN

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

ProXPN creates a secure, highly encrypted connection between your computer and the Internet. This protects your identity and activity online. No records of your activity are kept (unlike a normal internet connection). Learn about ProXPN free VPN service.

ProXPN main features

Here are the main features of proXPN:

• upgrades your internet connection with VPN encryption
• secures all types of connections from DSL and cable to 3G
• gives you 100% private access to the internet
• allows you to access content restricted to the United States
• your private information stays private
• email cannot be viewed in transit through the proXPN network
• instant messaging chats cannot be intercepted via the proXPN network
• internet activity (web browsing, online applications, etc) cannot be tracked by your ISP

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.

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 is no bandwidth limitation and the speed is good for general use. Downsides: the ads and the reduced number of locations and IPs.

Is a Free VPN Safe?

So let’s consider a VPN service. How does it actually work? Let’s just take a simplified vision:

– You chose a VPN provider – let’s say xxVPN.com.

– You are then usually given credentials and software for connecting through the VPN. On a basic package, your operating systems already come with a VPN client software – you only have to configure it properly provided that you have all the needed information (the protocols used, the encryption supported, …). I’m not going to get into the details of the protocols for encrypting whether it is for the header or for the body of the IP packet.

– On some more elaborate VPN packages, the provider will give you additional software that eases the installation and configuration process. This usually is proprietary software.

– Then you use your credentials to set up the VPN connection. This VPN  actually is a kind of tunnel where all your traffic goes through before reaching the internet/intranet. At the same time, it “impersonates” you by giving you a temporary IP address that will be visible by the whole internet – through “hiding” your actual IP address.

– All your internet traffic then goes through this one single tunnel.

The safety perspective

Now let’s see this whole process from a safety point of view and bring some elements of answers to the question raised on the title of this article. I’m going to ask you to answer the following questions first:

– To what degree would you trust a third-party provider that you barely know who promises you some kind of security by asking you to route all your traffic through their unknown tunnel?

– How do you actually check if all your traffic is actually encrypted?

– How do you ensure that your traffic is actually strongly encrypted so that no man-in-the-middle would be able to sniff it and decrypt it easily?

– Would you conduct a private transaction (let’s say bank-related transaction for example) by going through a third-party provider that you haven’t done any business before and that still needs to earn your trust?

Your two cents – Is free VPN safe?

Check your answers, and if you are hesitating for any of those questions, then I’d recommend you not use those services (for example, I do not recommend Betternet) for any privacy-concern-related activities you’d do on the Internet.

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 most suitable for you.

It is important to understand that free VPN services cannot fully replace paid, premium, VPNs like HideMyAss, ibVPN, ExpressVPN, NordVPN, PrivateInternetAccess. A premium VPN service offers unlimited speed and traffic, various server locations, many IP addresses, good support.

Installing VpnTunnel OpenVPN Tomato

Step 1. On your router address, 192.198.1.1  go to VPN tunneling and then to Client.

Step 2. On Basic tab of Client1

• Start with WAN: Unchecked
• Interface Type: Tun
• Protocol: UDP
• Server Address / Port: You put the address of the vpntunnel.se : melissa.vpntunnel.se 1194
• Firewall: Automatic
• Authorization mode: TLS
• tls-auth: Disabled
• Create Nat on tunnel: Checked

Step 3. On Advanced tab:

• Redirect Internet Traffic: Checked
• Accept Configuration DNS: Disabled
• Encryption cipher BF-CBC
• Compression: Enabled
• TLS Renegotiation Time: -1
• Connection Retry: 30
• Custom Configuration:

float
client
dev tap
proto udp
script-security 3
ns-cert-type server
cipher BF-CBC # Blowfish
auth-user-pass / tmp / openvpn-auth.conf
; VPN Server
remote-random
remote melissa.vpntunnel.se 1194
persist-key
persist-tun
; Loggingcomp-lzo
verb 1

Next, click Save to update the configuration.

Step 4. Download the ca.crt file that contains all the necessary configuration data.

Step 5. On  Keys tab, copy the file content and paste it in the textbox

Click Save to update the configuration.

Step 6. Then you go in the Administration (right) and select Script.  In the Init tab, you copy this file:

echo <<username
password >> > / tmp / openvpn-auth.conf

The Username is your username and password in your VPN  password.

Click Save to update the configuration.

Step 7. In Administration->Firewall:

To create NAT rules to open ports on your router copy this:

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

Click Save to update the configuration and click reboot the router to reconfigure.

Step 8. In order to start the VPN, click Start Now. You are done with VpnTunnel OpenVPN Tomato.

Enjoy!