Before going further and talk about VPN/antivirus protection here is a useful tip: regularly backup your data! As mentioned above there is no solution that adequately protects you while connected to the Internet. That is why you should backup your private information regularly (at least once a month) and keep the backup files offline, on DVDs or external hard-drives.

Why do you need Antivirus programs/Anti-malware protection?

The question is not whether you need an antivirus software, it’s whether you can afford not have such protection software installed.

You have probably heard about the recent Wannacry attacks. The malware encrypted the data from tens of thousands of computers from all over the World. And the unlocking key was “only” $300 payable in Bitcoin. An earlier version, named WeCry asked users for 0.1 bitcoin (currently worth $259) to unlock files and programs.

According to a recent study, an individual is the target of a ransomware attack every 10 seconds. That is why you need to have an antivirus/anti-malware/anti-ransomware installed on your computer.

Why do you need a VPN?

Using a VPN (Virtual Private Network) is a must when it comes to online security. Browsing the Internet using unsecured public WiFi networks or even Wi-Fi networks other then the one from your home may be a mistake. A Wi-Fi network can be easily spied, and your sensitive data (passwords, credit card info, browsing habits, and other personal information) can be stolen while browsing the Web. Even your ISP (Internet Service Provider) is able and probably is monitoring your Internet traffic.

By using a VPN, your Internet connection is secured, and all data that is leaving your computer is encrypted. Do I need to say more?

For your protection: VPN and antivirus/anti-malware

Nowadays everyone that is connecting to the Internet should have antivirus and VPN solutions (Virtual Private Networks) installed. It is not something beautiful to have; it is a must. Hiding your IP address and keeping your data private is not an option.

ibVPN summer bundle offer

And now, here is an exciting proposition: antivirus and VPN bundle during the summer of 2017. ibVPN, one of the best VPN (in my opinion) on the market, has an extraordinary summer promotion: buy the annual plan for their UltimateVPN package and get the Bitdefender Total Security Pack 2017 for free.

Here is what you get from both products:

• ibVPN – UltimateVPN:

  • Fast VPN for all devices
  • Advanced security features: DoubleVPN, TorOverVPN, Proxy
  • Easy to use VPN software for PC, Mac, iOS, Android.
  • Advanced VPN protocols: Stealth VPN, Softether, SSTP.
  • Torrent tools: P2P servers, Socks5, Kill Switch
  • A long list of server locations.
  • ibDNS/SmartDNS

• Bitdefender – Total Security 2017:

  • Cross-platform anti-virus (mobile security included)
  • Effective anti-ransomware
  • Unbeatable malware detection
  • Privacy, anti-theft and data protection

Why do you I think this is a great offer?

Firstly, ibVPN is an excellent VPN service. I use them for more than seven years, and I am delighted with the quality of their service and the outstanding support.

Secondly, according to AV-Test, Bitdefender is one of the best antivirus solutions. It provides great Internet security with an excellent level of antivirus protection against a large variety of online threats. Plus, according to recent news, the Romanian security solution is actively fighting against CIA and other types of governmental hackers.

Thirdly, the price is right. For the regular price of the UltimateVPN package, annual plan, which is $58.06 you get the annual license of Bitdefender Total Security 2017 valued at $49.99 for free. It looks like a great summer offer!

What do you think?

How do you protect yourself while connected to the Internet? Do you regularly backup your data? Are you using VPN and antivirus solutions? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Most of the how-to-hide-ip online anonymity guide are already familiar with the VPN solutions that are available out there. Like most of us, there will come a time where your VPN provider will send you a subscription renewal reminder. Learn what you need to check before renewing your VPN subscription.

My experience with ibVPN VPN subscription

This just happened with my ibVPN subscription. They kindly remembered me that my annual subscription is about to expire and that an invoice to renew my annual subscription has been issued. Frankly speaking, it’s a great sales method: from a sales perspective, it’s easier to sell to a customer who already bought your service rather than trying to convince a new one – and I see nothing wrong with it.

But anyway, I’ve got some weird way of thinking, and maybe because I’m covering VPN solutions on this blog, I tend to reconsider every decision that I make when it comes to choosing a VPN solution. As a disclosure note, I am a fully happy ibVPN customer, and I fully endorse them. Just as a reminder, I went for the US+Canada option with ibVPN, especially because I actually needed to pretend that I am in either of those countries when browsing the internet.

Other VPN providers

But as I went through my research when trying to find something else interesting to write for How-to-hide-ip readers, other VPN providers also have interesting offers, especially HideMyAss. With ibVPN, they are great VPN solutions and what I want to highlight in this article is the fact that, depending on your needs, one provider may provide a much more interesting “package” than the other.

Things you need to check …

So back to the title of this article, the thing is to have a great understanding of what you want to achieve. As for my case, a year ago, when I needed to decide on the VPN solution, I knew I needed US and Canadian IP addresses for overcoming some geo-location limitations; I also knew that I didn’t need torrent support with my VPN package and finally, I wanted to be able to pay via Paypal (without exposing my credit card information). One year later, I am tempted to go for a VPN package that also includes UK IPs so that I can watch BBC iPlayer (they recently broadcasted great documentaries about my country

As of today, for example, with the introduction of OverPlay’s SmartDNS feature, this may be interesting to bypass geolocation with a simple trick at the DNS side of things. HideMyAss offers a free web proxy that may be interesting for some use (while I think it’s limited for serious people who want something that is more adapted to their actual needs). And with % 43OFF, HideMyAss is doing a lot of seducing to get my money to their accounts.

Now, if I look at StrongVPN, I kind of like the fact that they have packages that are tailored to my current situation. They have a feature on their website allowing you to chose the best VPN package for you based on your current locations. And for once they have a different pricing depending if you want to use PPTP only (which is cheaper), or if you want to use PPTP and OpenVPN (I’m not aware some other providers does this).

Conclusion

At the end of the day, I may end up choosing ibVPN again (or not). But chances are that I would opt for a different package than the one I chose one year earlier. The public offer for VPN services is changing a lot in a one year space. Why would I not consider those new (and usually more interesting) packages when it comes to renewing my VPN subscription?

What is your VPN provider and how many times have you renewed your VPN subscription? Let us know in the comments below.

My experience

Let’s consider for example ibVPN (the solution that I am using), I am using the USA & Canada package. I mainly chose this package since I am servicing customers based in these countries and I want to make sure to replicate what my customer experience would be.

They just recently offered a $2 promotion for adding UK and Ireland based presence to their customer’s packages. So I can’t help but wonder if it’s worth it. At this stage, the question isn’t really about the price. Well, I suppose you’ve got some serious business that can fund it, or you are already willing to use some part of your daily meal to fund that VPN solution. In fact, the main question that I am asking myself is the following: why would I need the UK or Ireland-based IP addresses?

Why would you want thousands of IPs?

Now let’s take another example of one of the most-widely-known VPN providers for end-users: they are claiming to be able to give 13500 IP Addresses in 32 countries, with 168 VPN Servers- that’s a huge collection of endpoints and IP addresses, especially when considering how scarce IPv4 IP addresses are nowadays. As a customer, why would I want to get 13500 IP Addresses?

Are you a spammer?

Although the following may not be the typical profile of this kind of services, I think spammers would love such VPN country list solutions. Why is that? It is widely known that by doing their activities, spammers will need to use different IP addresses, though pretending that the same message does not originate from the same computer.

So let’s consider a forum poster spammer, for example, he can post one message to a forum post, switch to another IP address and use another profile, then repost another message on the same post, and so on and so on. As you can see, having thousands of IP addresses available can come handy for this type of profile.

What does it mean for you, as a regular, non-spammer, user?

Do not forget that you’ll also be using the same IP addresses that those spammers would have used, so long as you are using the same provider. That remains true since there are no special packages offered to special customers. If you want to verify it, just send an e-mail request to the sales support of any VPN provider that you are likely to work with.

So at some point in time, you may end up using one IP address that may have been blacklisted because one spammer user has been flagged while using it. At this stage, it’s really up to the VPN provider to whitelist that IP address, there’s not much you can do from your end for this case. The only available option is to flag it to your VPN provider and get them sort it out.

In the meantime, you can disconnect your VPN service, flush all of your browser cache and cookies, and reconnect again with the same VPN provider, hoping that you’ll be assigned a new IP address that hasn’t been blacklisted.

Do you use the servers in the VPN country list? Are you using the extra IPs? What for? Let us know in the comments below.

Anyway, I did a tour on the offerings for the hardware-based routers, and although I didn’t actually test them, here are my list of promising routers that are worth considering if you want to buy one.

Cisco/Linksys VPN Routers

By acquiring Linksys, Cisco has a very wide variety of routers for the SOHO segment. So I wanted to check one that can act as a WiFi access point while being able to connect via ADSL. I then ended up with this model:

• Cisco-Linksys WRVS4400N Wireless-N Gigabit Security Router – VPN v2.0: this can be a too-powerful router for a SOHO but I kind of liked it. Not only does it provide Wireless N feature, but it also comes with a gigabit Ethernet. This is mainly geared toward small businesses if they want to allow their remote employees to connect via an IPSec tunnel,
• Wireless-n Vpn Firewall This router also provides Wireless N support. But what I liked most about it is that it allows you to set up a Wireless Guest access so that you don’t have to share your Wireless credentials to people visiting your home office. Moreover, it supports PPTP and IPSec.

Netgear VPN Routers

• NetGear WNR3500L Rangemax Wireless-N Gigabit Router with DD-WRT VPN firmware This is a great router and it comes with DD-WRT support. Moreover, it provides Wireless N feature. On the VPN side, it implements OpenVPN and PPTN which are the usual VPN protocols. DD-WRT implementation is definitely a plus user since my co-bloggers have already shown how to implement DD-WRT with some VPN providers.

DLink VPN Routers

• D-Link Dir-330 Wireless G Vpn Router IEEE 802.11b/G 2.40 GHz 6.75 Mbps Transmission Speed While it only supports Wireless G (not wireless N), this router has a great combination of features that will surely please demanding VPN users. Moreover, it can directly be connected to a cable or DSL modem making it a perfect choice for being your internet/VPN gateway. On the VPN side, it supports IPSec, PPTP, and L2TP. A great list of features for a nice price.

Zyxel

• ZyXEL ZyWALL USG20 Internet Security Firewall with 4 Gigabit LAN/DMZ Ports, 2 IPSec VPN, SSL VPN, and 3G WAN Support While they are a bit lazy doing detailed description of the product, I kind of liked the different connection that this router provides (especially the 3G network that can come handy as a backup solution in case the main one fails)

Well, as usual when it comes to choosing a device, marketing has it that you’ve got a lot of options. And it becomes a bit hard to get almost all of the features you want into only one device. Anyway, I’ve made some selections here based on varying criteria, and more because those are brands who are known to be serious enough in the router industry.

I’m sure I’ve missed some brands or models in this list, but why don’t you add your own list in the comment section?

But before digging into the details, let’s see how most VPN providers are managing their IP.

IPv4 and IPv6

As you surely know, IPv4 addresses are now scarce resources and the internet doesn’t seem to be ready yet to fully deploy IPv6. In fact, from the beginning of the internet, no one was ambitious enough to think that IP addresses would come to exhaustion. Simply put, IPv4 addresses are set the following way: a.b.c.d: a, b, c or d can take values from 0 to 255. I know that’s oversimplifying, but if you want more technical details, feel free to check the very good explanation here. So, at the very beginning, big players went on reserving big classes of IPv4 addresses. Ans it was only later on that ISP came into the game and requested IP addresses to be distributed to their client’s computers.

But once the public internet usage exploded, each ISP had a big issue: they couldn’t have enough IP addresses to distribute to their customers anymore. Some alternative solutions came then into play, like Network Address Translation- but they have some limitations. So, they found one way to deal with it: since most customers are not permanently connected to the internet, they decided to share the same IP address to multiple clients, so long as those same clients don’t connect simultaneously- hence the concept of “dynamic IP address”. This kind of solution is mainly used for dial-up internet connections, including xDSL and mobile phone connections.

Pros and cons of dynamic IP addresses

There are good and bads with dynamic IP addresses. If the client’s intent is only for surfing the web- they work great. They can even provide some additional layer of “online anonymity” since the same IP address can be used by multiple users as we move along the timeline. Remember, IP addresses are unique, apart from the private ones; so if some websites need to identify who’s the person behind one IP address , not only does this website owner get in touch with the ISP who owns the IP address, but that same IP has to go through his log so as to identify which computer has used that same IP at that specific time period.

So that’s about dynamic IP addresses. But why would you need a static IP address? and especially a VPN with a static IP address?

Why do you need a static IP VPN?

In fact, if you are dealing with some remote sites that provide some “private resources”, chances are that the administrator of that remote site would require that you only connect from a specific computer. That same administrator would request to set up his firewall thereby only allowing specific IP addresses to get in while others would be kicked out.

With a static-IP VPN, you can get that same IP address no matter where you connect from: hotels, public Wi-Fi, at home or wherever elsewhere an internet connection exists. And that’s the beauty of having a static IP VPN solution.

Static IP VPN providers

Most of the VPN providers have servers with static IPs. It is more cost effective to have a server with only one IP that is used by all connecting users, that having an entire class of IPs allocated to a server. Nowadays, the IPv4 IPs are scarce and quite expensive.

So, if you are looking for VPNs with static IPs you may take a look at the followings: ibVPN, PrivateInternetAccess or HideIPVPN. Enjoy!

Hide My IP 5.0 is the most user-friendly edition of the Hide My IP series ever produced, as announced by My Privacy Tools team.

Let’s take a look at the main features of the new version and see how you, the readers of How-to-hide-ip.info, can get a $5.00 discount.

Hide My IP 5.0 main features

• Protects your online identity more effective than previous versions
• Major interface changes and improvements to make the program easier to use and understand and reduce problem occurrences.
• Major fixes and bug eradication causing an entirely new, streamlined performance for the software and your system
• More available IP’s
• 128-Bit SSL connection encryption
• Improved location selection
• IP Randomization with SmartSwitch
• Supports all web browsers
• Select IP country and city (with Premium Service)
• Increased performance and compatibility

How to use Hide My IP 5.0

With Hide My IP 5.0, installation is simple and once installed. First, you have to go to Hide My IP site and then download the product. If you are using an anti-virus solution it is possible to get a warning message after installation.

When Hide My IP starts, click the Hide My IP button on the face of the software and you’re good-to-go!

– No need to change browser settings
– And, no need to alter any of your system settings
– More, no need to change router or WiFi settings
– Lastly, no need to modify any other programs already installed on your computer

Hide My IP 5.0 discount for How-To-Hide-IP.net Readers

My Privacy Tools team offers a $5.00 discount off the purchase price of Hide My IP 5.0 for the How-to-hide-ip.net readers. The coupon will only be good for 72 hours (3 days) from today, 27th of January.

Here is how you can get the discount:

1. Go to the order page.
2. Check on Hide My IP 5.0 and proceed with the order.
3. In the next screen click on Have a coupon code?

4. Enter the HowToHideIP coupon.

5. Proceed with the following steps.

To sum up, the new Hide My IP is what we have expected from My Privacy Tools team: better usability, higher speed, more IPs. Excellent release!

>> Hide My IP 5.0

The overall results are quite amazing:

• 245 licenses were given away valued at $8,638.
• 2,542 comments were posted.
• The giveaway posts were visited 16,142 times.
• There were 229 winners.

Taking these figures into account I’d say that the giveaway was a real success. Below you can find more detailed hide IP statistics. I hope you will find them interesting.

Products Stats

In the period December 1^st, 2009 – December 22^nd, 2009 there were given away 245 licenses for 22 products in total value of $8,638. As it can be seen in the plot below Anonymity Network gave away the highest number of licenses (30) followed by Hide My Ass (20) and Smart Hide (20).

As far as the giveaway value is concerned the first place is taken by Cryptocloud ($1,668) and Torrent freedom ($1,688) followed by HideIpVPN ($990) and Anonymity Network ($774).

Further, users were more interested in HideIpVPN (290 comments, 1,335 views), Cryptocloud (221 comments, 980 views), Torrent Freedom (123 comments, 1,071 views) and 12VPN (132 comments, 1,151 views).

Users Stats

The users who commented to win were almost from everywhere. Here are two charts, with commentator’s distribution per region and per country. These charts are of course affected by those users who changed their IP addresses.

Winners Stats

Next, here is the distribution of winners per region and per country. In comparison with the previous charts, the distribution is a little bit changed because the duplicates were removed before designating the winners.

Thanks to the providers

Finally, I want to thank all hide IP and VPN providers that were part of this action. It was a great experience working closely with them and I hope we will work together more giveaways and great offers.