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.

HideIPVPN hides your IP address (using VPN technology) and exposes UK or US IP addresses instead of your real one. This allows you to unblock a lost of restricted sites and protect your online privacy.

HideIPVPN Features

HideIpVPN main features:

• No logs are kept.
• It provides high-speed internet connection
• Encrypts and compresses all traffic including Email, IRC, FTP, DNS, VOIP, instant messengers.
• Bypasses your ISP’s traffic shaping.
• Hides your tracks from internet monitoring or web filtering apps like Websense, Barracuda, etc.
• Your IP is hidden while using HideIPVPN.com.
• Works on Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac, Linux, etc.
• Easy to install and use.

Why is HideIPVPN special?

• It is, as far as I know, the only  free VPN service that offers both UK and UK IPs
• Unblocks Hulu (I just checked) and other restricted US sites
• Unblocks BBC iPlayer (also checked) and other restricted UK sites

How to start using HideIPVPN free?

In order to get your IP hidden with HideIPVPN you need to create an account. Go to the free VPN page and access the link to the account creation page.

The setup is very simple as the VPN services use PPTP protocol. To see how to do it for your operating system go to Howto/Setup page.

Premium HideIPVPN

For those that need more security, HideIpVPN offers a premium service:

• Offers complete privacy and anonymity by using OpenVPN (more secure and stable than PPTP)
• Anonymous US and UK IP addresses!

In order to maintain the quality of their service, the number of both free and premium accounts is limited. So, hurry up, to get your US/UK VPN account!

Super Premium VPN Package

HideIpVPN proposes the Super Premium Package with 20 servers located in United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and the Netherlands, all allowing PPTP, L2TP, OpenVPN and Proxy connections. It’s an excellent choice for those interested in different connection options and wants to use servers from a different location.

HideIpVPN P2P/Torrent VPN Package

Another new package is the one that allows P2P/Torrent connections with servers located in the Netherlands. This is for those looking for more anonymity downloading from torrents.

How can you benefit from a HideIPVPN German VPN?

Firstly, you may secure you Internet while traveling in Germany. Consider the case of free WiFi hotspots from airports. Surely, you don’t want to connect to such a free hotspot without the protection of a VPN. By connecting to a server located in Germany you will get acceptable Internet speed.

Secondly, you can access German restricted content. With such a VPN you can watch Das Erste, DSF, KI.KA, 3sat, ARTE, NDR (with regional options) and even Zattoo Germany with 94 Live FREE Streaming Television and Radio Channels.

Zattoo.com/de has developed a software program that allows you to watch TV on your computer. The service is legal and free of charge.

With their German version, Zattoo offers 94 live FREE streaming television and radio channels; these include Das Erste, DSF, KI.KA, 3sat, ARTE, NDR (with regional options), WDR (with regional options), MDR (with regional options), Bayerisches Fernsehen, SWR, RBB, SR, Phoenix, Das Vierte, DMAX, BR Alpha, EinsPlus, EinsExtra, EinsFestival, ZDF, TV Gusto, LUXE.TV, TIMM and many more.

Thirdly, you may protect your downloads while accessing torrents. When you connect to a VPN all your Internet traffic is encrypted and your IP address is hidden. If you are located in Germany you should consider using a German VPN while downloading torrents.

>> HideIPVPN

Hotspot Shield in a few words: “Free Anonymous Browsing – 100% Security Through a VPN“. More: “It’s FREE!”

This small software creates a VPN – virtual private network between your computer and an Internet gateway. The tunnel prevents snoopers and hackers from viewing your email, instant messages, credit card information or anything else you send over the network.

So, you can use Hotspot Shield not only to hide your IP address but for complete anonymity! It is ideal if you need to change your IP to a US one. There several reasons you might need a US IP address, such as watching videos from Pandora or Veoh, playing an online game Mabinogi, watching Netflix, Hulu, etc.

How to use Hotspot Shield

Hotspot Shield security application is free to download and is easy to install and use.

After you download the product, you have to unzip the file and launch the setup. Hotspot Shield will be installed in a matter of seconds. When the product starts, the VPN connection is initialized as you will see in the configuration page (to look at all values click Show Config):

To check your new IP address, go to XMyIP.com.

When you are done and you what to use your real IP address Disconnect from the VPN or exit Hotspot Shield.

Hotspot Shield – Pros and Cons

Now, I have listed several Pros and Cons regarding this solutions. Make sure you read them, especially the Cons.

Pros

• It’s free!
• It helps you hide your IP address.
• It uses OpenVPN, not web proxies.
• It uses the VPN technology to achieve free anonymous browsing.
• It is more than a hide IP software; it provides total anonymity (including email, chat, etc.).

Cons

• It has a 3GB limit usage per month (it was more for previous versions).
• You don’t have any guaranty that the traffic is not logged (this is my primary concern). My advice is to use it with care and make sure you read the terms and conditions of using Hotspot Shield.

HotspotShield malware protection

HotspotShield recently added malware protection for its users. The new HotspotShield malware protection function alerts users if they access domains that are known to contain malware. The add-on is available for Windows, Mac, and iOS and uses a database of more than 3 million sites.

Speaking about the new feature, David Gorodyansky, the founder, and CEO of AnchorFree said:

“Malware is one of the biggest threats on the Web — and it’s growing every day. People go to great lengths to avoid desktop viruses, but many of us still leave our browsing sessions unprotected and open to hacking attacks. Merging our powerful encryption and private browsing technology with malware protection now makes Hotspot Shield the world’s most comprehensive Internet security solution — available at no cost to consumers.”

How the HotspotShield malware protection works

When active HotspotShield protection module throws up a warning like the one you see in the screenshot below:

There are two options in the upper right corner of a blocked page:

• Get me out of here that redirects the users to a little-known search engine for similar results.
• Go to the real site that is not recommended for obvious reasons.

How to Watch NBC streaming video with Hotspot Shield

To get NBC’s streaming video player running on your computer, you have to:

1. Sign up for an NBC video account. Just go to and fill in your email address and then set up a password
2. Temporarily, change your system time to Arizona or Mountain time. The location is vital because Hotspot Shield servers are located there. It has to be done to trick NBC servers that you’re using a computer in the continental United States.
3. Start Hotspot Shield.
4. When you start the NBC video player again, it will ask for your location in the United States and the zip code. Important! The system pairs up that zip code with a specific service provider. To obtain a valid zip code post google “(any city) zip code” or take one from here.
5. You are done! You should be able to watch everything NBC is streaming.

How to Watch Fox.com Streaming Video using Hotspot Shield

If you are located outside the US and you are trying to watch your favorite show on Fox.com you’ll get the following message:

Thank you for your interest in FOX.
This episode is currently only available to viewers living in the United States.

Part of the solution is to change your IP with a US IP address. You can do this by using Hotspot Shield. The second part of the answer is that you have to delete your cookies before activating Hotspot Shield and changing your IP.

The explanation is that the first time you visit Fox.com, the site stores your location in a cookie on your computer. Next time to try to connect to the site, the information from the cookie will show your real location even though in the meanwhile you have changed your IP.

How to remove the Fox.com cookie

Here is how to delete your Fox.com cookie for Firefox users:

1. Go to Tool -> Options
2. Click on Privacy tab and then on Show Cookies button
3. In the list box search for Fox.com
4. Click on the item
5. Press Remove Cookies button

After that, you can turn Hotspot Shield on and reload Fox.com.

IP ok. Still not working!

The removal of the Fox.com cookie should solve the IP problem and unlock Fox.com, but you can encounter other issues as mentioned on this forum. Here is what AriXar is saying:

Some people do have trouble with the fox flash player. They passed the IP check, but the video won’t buffer, load or stream at all. It is because fox uses a particular kind of flash player. If you haven’t watched a show on Fox or ABC via their streaming sites, you will not have this addon installed.

If your IP check went fine, you would no longer get the message that you cannot watch the show if you live outside the US. Instead, you will now get a message that you have to install a new flash player addon. If you don’t get this message you can also get the addon here:

Once installed, restart your web browser, and it should work fine with Fox on demand. Now, you should be able to watch your favorite show on Fox.com. Enjoy!

Hotspot Shield connection problems? Try this!

Sometimes Hotspot Shield can’t connect due to unknown reasons. Here is a small tip, proposed by Patrick Soon, that may solve the problem:

1. Install HotSpot Shield.
2. When it has finished installing it will try to open the HotSpot Shield website in your default web browser: .
3. When your web browser opens go to the Address Bar and copy and paste the address into Notepad and save.
4. If you get an error message stating that there is no connectivity then continue to step 5.
5. Go to: Start -> Control Panel -> Network Connection -> Local Area Connection -> Properties.
6. In the General Tab, you will see a short list of ticked boxes.
7. Scroll down the list, and you should find Hotspot Shield Helper Driver
8. Remove the tick from this box.
9. Close and reopen your web browser it should now connect to your default web page.
10. Remember that address you saved as a text document? Copy and past it into the address bar of your browser.
11. Press the refresh icon.
12. The Hotspot Shield Website will now open and assign you an I.P address, i.e., it will connect you.
13. It should now work usually as before.

HotspotShield doesn’t connect with Daemon Error. What can I do?

As far as I know, the Daemon Start Error is thrown if:

1. You have exceeded the 3GB / month bandwidth limit. Here is an article that might help you: Fix Hotspot Shield Pulling Options Looping and Daemon Start Error Problem.
2. The server bans your IP. It is possible that the entire class of IPs (192.xxx.xxx.xxx) is blocked because of (stupid) spammers. If this is your case, write an email to the AnchorFree support.

How to install Hotspot Shield on Windows Vista 64 Bit

The video below shows how to install Hotspot Shield on Windows Vista 64 Bit and how to use HS to access Hulu.com.

As Jono shows in his post, there is a solution to this problem. As Hotspot Shield offers a service for the iPhone which uses L2TP to create the VPN connection, you can use the same connection within Windows Vista (and any other operating system which supports L2TP) to use the same service. Jono describes how to do it:

1. 1. Create a new VPN connection (Start > Network > Network and Sharing Center > Set up a connection or network > Connect to a workplace > Use my Internet Connection (VPN)).
   2. Go to Hotspot Shield for iPhone home page
   3. Click the Get Account ID button
   4. For iPhone, the instructions are clear and straightforward. To solve the problem for Vista 64-bit, we need the following information:
      

      Server: 64.55.144.10
      Account: ureafp (You will get your own account)
      Password: ureafp (and password)
      Secret: password

   5. Enter 64.55.144.10 for the Internet Address. For Destination Name, you can enter anything you want, for example, HotspotShield. Be sure that Don’t connect now; just set it up so I can connect later is ticked.

1. Enter the username and password you got and then click Remember this password and close the window.
2. Go to Start->Connect To and right click on the connection you created and choose Properties.
3. On the Networking tab, change Type of VPN to L2TP IPsec VPN and then click IPsec Settings.
4. Choose the Use preshared key for authentication option and type in the password for the Key (this is what the iPhone calls Secret).

That’s it! For now on you will be able to connect to Hotspot Shield from your Vista 64-bit.

Update: It seems that the latest version of Hotspot Shield (1.22) solves this problem. So, download the newest version!

How to block ads when using Hotspot Shield

One of the cons of using Hotspot Shield is the annoying ads built into HSS monetization scheme. The problem is the massive box on the top of every page users surfs to as well – completely vanquishing an incredible chunk of screen real-estate. It the reason Hotspot Shield is free. By running ads, AnchorFree is paying for the servers they are using.

Here is how to solve this problem and block HotspotShields ads: run Adblock add-on.

First, you should use Firefox or at least use it when browsing using Hotspot Shield. Then download an add-on called Adblock. No need to configure the add-on, it just lodges in place and has a solid, constantly-updated subscription to ad definitions. This solution does not work every time, but it’s still effortless to turn the extension on/off via a button in the toolbar.

You can download Adblock extension from here, or you may use the AdBlock extension for Google Chrome.

Hotspot Shield milestone

On the 6th of January, 2010, AnchorFree announced that they had reached another fantastic milestone: that of surpassing more than a billion monthly page views in November. It is The Wednesday to celebrate for Anchor Free. This milestone is just a reflection of the increasing user base and popularity of the product.

Another significant change was the inclusion of a new member of AnchorFree’s advisory board. This new member is Rick Roth, marketing communications veteran and former worldwide CEO of Ogilvy Action. There is no doubt about the fact that Rick Roth’s years of experience in marketing and brand development will do great things for the corporation. This can only mean faster growth and continued global expansion.

The increasing internet censorship being employed by certain governments has to lead to even higher demand for AnchorFree’s HotSpot Shield as more and more people are anxiously trying to hold on to their right to uncensored internet surfing, yet if they have to do so anonymously under protection from VPNs. Started in 2006, HotSpot Shield has seen exponential growth in its user base and consumer quantity. The consumer base has crossed 7.5 million monthly users worldwide. Hot Spot Shield works on iPhones, as well as personal and public computers at homes, offices, airports and coffee shops around the world keeping the security, identity, and freedom of netizens safe throughout the world.

The one billion landmark was no doubt a result of two significant advances made by Anchor Free in HotSpot Shield. The first was the new release of HotSpot Shield for Windows and Macintosh. The latter allows users throughout the world to view this tool in seven different languages.

Anchor Free and Webroot

Together these two giants announced the release of a better, Ad-free version of HotSpot Shield, which was to be paid for but would allow the user the same security offered by the older Hot Spot Shield which was powered by advertising. It is good news indeed as this means the integration of the Webroot antivirus and antispyware protection with Anchor Free’s superb encryption technology.

Founder and CEO of AnchorFree, David Gorodyansky, was optimistic about the company’s plan to expand the reach of HotSpot Shield to an even broader consumer base.

The most important role played by HotSpot Shield is the ‘democratization’ of the internet space, allowing people over the world access to various websites which may or may not be ‘prohibited’ by law in their respective countries.

Conclusion

To sum up, Hotspot Shield is an excellent free anonymous browsing tool to hide your IP and get a US IP address, but, as with other good things in life, do not abuse it.

Happy Surfing!

If Hotspot Shield does not work for you or it is blocked in your country, you should try some alternative VPN services.

Sites blocked? Use a VPN!

These websites are still blocked, and the Chinese are now scrambling to get a piece of their favorite websites by bypassing the restrictions with the help of free China VPN, short for Virtual Private Networks. It is obvious that while the censoring authorities want the citizens to stay away from the ‘corrupting’ influence of these commercial sites, the average Chinese internet user cannot do without these sites, and is looking at various alternative methods to get a daily dose of the same.

This is essentially a struggle between the close-minded authoritarian Censorship and the open-minded Netizens who are essentially global citizens thanks to the internet. The freedom of the average Chinese Netizen has been compromised by the aptly named Great Firewall of the un-trusting censors.

Are you looking for a free China VPN?

Therefore, looking for free VPNs seems to be a good alternative to preserve this freedom of choice. However, there are certainly some roadblocks on the free VPN highway. These include:

1. The Government authorities can easily block free VPNs, including their main website, the site that is providing the free VPN service in the first place.

This was the case with several sites like Hotspot Shield and Alonweb, two very popular sites that provided VPN connectivity.

2. There are technical obstructions after the installation phase.

After installing OpenVPN or other such application systems, the next step is to find the essential files required for further processing, like client.ovpn, which can be tricky with VPN. However, this is only true for free VPN, while paid VPN does not have this setback. Also, the connectivity of free VPNs in China can be frustratingly unreliable at times.

3. The technical support for free VPNs is essentially missing, and therefore one has to source help from unreliable and often not very helpful sources, like online forums and free advice on the web, which can be useless and mundane, apart from posing the additional language barrier and communication block problems.

This is especially true in the Chinese context, as most Chinese Netizens are not very comfortable with Non-Chinese languages. Using only Chinese language forums greatly depletes the potential information available online.

4. For speed and efficiency, most US servers on the West Coast are considered the best for the East Asian countries.

These are also the most commonly and widely used servers for this geographical region, at least until they were blocked by the censoring authorities. Now, the Chinese Netizens are left with useless VPNs that will not function unless they are altered to connect with other servers that are still available, but which might not be as fast as the previous servers like HotSpot Shield.

Chinese Internet users are now left with several free VPNs, which are:

• AlonWeb (Update 2/7/2010:  It’s not available anymore!)
• The Free VPN (Update 5/16/2010: No longer working)
• HotSpot Shield
• ItsHidden
• HideIpVPN (currently not offering free accounts)

There is, of course, still left the option of paid VPNs like (NordVPN, HideMyAss, ibVPN or ExpressVPN), but as these require PayPal or MasterCard or at least Visa credit cards, it is still an impossibility for a large number of Chinese netizens who do not own any of the aforementioned payment tools.

Are you a Chinese Netizen? What are the free China VPN that you can access?

A new free OpenVPN service is now available: AirVPN.org. The VPN service offers OpenVPN on ports 80 TCP / UDP, 443 TCP / UDP, and 53 TCP / UDP. This means that your ISP and your government will see only TCP or UDP traffic (as you prefer) on a unique port.

Also, AirVPN allows you to do remote port forwarding. Without port forwarding, the performance of some applications, for example, BitTorrent and eMule clients, would be severely impaired and the services on your computer would not be reachable from the Internet.

The service is free with a bandwidth limit of 512kbit/s. AirVPN also offers paid accounts with more benefits:

At this time AirVPN offers 1 server for the free account and 1 server for premium/paid accounts, both located in France. If you are interested in the free VPN service you should register an account. Then you have 2 options to get started: use the AirVPN client or use the standard OpenVPN client. Detailed instructions you can find here: Windows, Linux, Mac, Android.

Important! The service is new and you should be careful. My advice is to not use any private info while connected.

[AirVPN.org]

Other VPN services reviews:

• HideIpVPN
• StrongVPN
• InvisibleBrowsingVPN
• HideMyAss

What is a Torrent VPN?

A torrent VPN is a VPN (Virtual Private Network) service that you may use for downloading torrents. The main reason for using torrent VPN is anonymizing your online identity and hiding your public IP address. Another reason is to avoid bandwidth throttling and use the full capacity of your regular Internet connection.

It is important to underline that not all VPN providers allow P2P/torrent traffic. Only top providers are willing to spend lots of money on powerful VPN servers capable of handling torrent traffic and providing large bandwidth. Also, torrent VPN providers have to manage DMCA complaints, copyright violations, copyrighted material reports, abuse reports from different organizations (copyright holders) that are monitoring the P2P file downloads. Some of the VPN providers are simply not willing to.

Torrent VPN main features

To be able to use it for downloading torrents, a VPN service has to fulfill several vital requirements.

Downloading speed

Probably the main criteria when it comes to VPNs for torrents is speed. It has to be as high as possible to have decent download/uploads rates.

Unlimited bandwidth

When it comes to torrent downloading, the unlimited bandwidth is vital. Metered VPN services are of no use for P2P file sharing.

Servers nearby

The server locations are important. The closer the VPN server, the higher the speed. At least in theory. Anyway, a good (free) torrent VPN provider should have P2P servers on all continents to provide fast speed VPN connections to torrent users all over the World.

KillSwitch

The VPN Kill Switch mechanism prevents the exposure of your real IP address in case of unwanted VPN disconnects. Thus, when the VPN drops the Internet connection is disabled, or the torrent application is closed preventing any undesired leaks. The Internet Kill Switch is a must for all heavy downloaders. Other useful features are the VPN auto-reconnect, NAT firewall, DNS leak protection.

Shared IPs

By using shared IP VPN servers, you are more protected as you are exposing the same public IPs as other tens or hundreds of VPN users.

Examples of torrent VPN providers

In a previous post, I have listed several premium torrent VPN services, provided more details on each of them and explained why there are good for P2P filesharing. From that list, I strongly recommend NordVPN, ibVPN, and Private Internet Access VPN. Another plus for these premium VPN providers is that they are also offering access to SOCKS5 proxies. Moreover, you may benefit from their money-back guarantees, try the services and, if you are not happy, as for a refund.

Is a free VPN for torrenting safe?

Let’s take another look at the Torrent VPN main features I have listed above: speed, servers all over the World and Kill Switch. Can a free VPN provider achieve this? Is there such a thing as a free VPN for torrent?

In my opinion, it is unlikely. Even if ads monetize the P2P VPN service, the revenue will not cover the server costs and bandwidth. A heavy torrent user would merely set up the downloads and let the computer running for hours, even days. How many times would such a user click on ads?

Another scenario is the one when a VPN provider is launching its services and offers free accounts to build a name and reputation. Unfortunately, I have not heard of such services for a while.

Instead, I encountered some time ago a free VPN service that was saying loud and clear that was selling the user data to ad (to be read “spam”) agencies. Would you use such a service as your free torrent VPN provider?

Do you know any free torrent VPN providers?

This question is for you: do you know any free VPN for torrenting anonymously?  If you do, please share their names in the comments below and let our readers know about them.

Update: AlwaysVPN is no longer available. You should check other VPN services.

AlwaysVPN, seen as an alternative to Hotspot Shield, it’s not free anymore. Always VPN was launched as a free VPN service but now it switched to pre-paid service. Here is the announcement made on AlwaysVPN forum:

As of now we are offering a new pre-pay vpn service! AlwaysVPN 2.0

Most of you have probably come to know AlwaysVPN as a free advertising supported vpn. Unfortunately for various reasons we are not able to continue the expansion of this free service for the time being.

Until further notice existing users will still be able to access our free network, however we will not be distributing new client software.

Always VPN is a hosted VPN service that can be useful for non-U.S. users to get access to U.S.-only sites, or for anyone who’s in the States and is looking for a way to keep network eavesdroppers from keeping tabs on your Internet connection.

The service provides a VPN client for Windows XP and Vista, Mac OS X and Linux. When you connect to the AlwaysVPN network, you create a secure tunnel through which your Internet traffic is sent. The service is great for surfing the Web in places where you may be concerned about security, but because AlwaysVPN is based in the United States, it’s also useful for obtaining an American IP address to access U.S.-only Web services.

AlwaysVPN main features

Here are the main features of Always VPN:

• Prevents local eavesdroppers from listening in on your web communication.
• Bypasses restrictive firewalls.
• Accesses US-only web content.
  (Hulu, ABC, and other video networks are blocking our IP addresses.)
• Bypasses Government web content filtering.

AlwaysVPN server locations

All of the AlwaysVPN servers are currently located in the United States. In the future, they may also offer non-US VPN servers.

AlwaysVPN is a prepay bandwidth service

Unlike other VPN services that charge you on a monthly basis, in order to use Always VPN you purchase an amount of VPN bandwidth. After your purchase is completed you are able to use the VPN network until your available bandwidth is used up. If you need more bandwidth, you simply have to log into your account and purchase more!

Here’s a list of currently available Bandwidth options:

• 5GB – USD 8.50
• 10GB – USD 15.00
• 20GB – USD 26.00
• 40GB – USD 33.00
• 80GB – USD 47.00

AlwaysVPN can be used to:

• Unblock sites like MySpace, YouTube, Orkut, etc
• Unblock Twitch.
• Access the US-only web content.
• Prevent local eavesdroppers from listening in on your web communication.
• Bypass Government web content filtering.

Pros

• It is very similar to Hotspot Shield.
• More likely to bypass firewalls and filters as it is not as well known as HotSpot Shield (HS is currently being blocked by several sites that share video content).
• Works on any Internet connection that allows you to browse websites.

Cons

• It’s not free anymore.
• Only allows web traffic on port 80, 443, 110, 143, 587 and 8080.

Recommended reading: Is there such a thing as a free torrent VPN?

CyberGhost is a free VPN service with servers located in Germany. It’s a commercial VPN service that also has a free version. If you want to surf online anonymously, the free version is enough. The free version, called Basic, it’s limited 10GB a month broadband usage. If you’re going to get more, you need to pay 9.99 Euro a month, and you will get 40GB and 2GB online storage space.

How to get started with CyberGhost free VPN

First, you need to download the setup, unzip it and install it. The setup will also install the .NET Framework 3.0 if you don’t have it already.

The next step is to create a CyberGhost VPN account (Click on Create new account button). You will receive a confirmation code on your email that you should use and activate the account.

Next, login to your account. You will get the following screen.

If you want to use the free version, click “Connect basic.” Wait a moment; it will connect to service. Finally, you get a German IP address. Check it by visiting xmyip.com.

To close the VPN service click “Close basic” button.

More features

CyberGhost not only anonymizes your connection but also offers traffic statistics regarding your online activity (yearly and monthly). Another nice feature is that you can exclude some URLs from being anonymized (Exceptions tab). This way you can use the VPN for only sensitive sites, not for all of them.

CyberGhost VPN: Fixing Network Cable Unplugged Error

One of the readers of this blog, Tran, has complained that he was could run CyberGhost VPN:

After reading your article, I tried to install CyberGhost. The installation process is smooth. After completing to install the software, I restarted the computer. But there was a problem: when I double clicked CyberGhost VPN network icon in MY NETWORK PLACE to connect, a noticed “A NETWORK CABLE IS UNPLUGGED” error, while my PC still connected to the internet.

I was not able to reproduce the error, but I found a comment on warezscene.org from Jetman that offers several possible solutions. I reproduce below Jetman’s comment.

Question: Cyberghost VPN Fixing Network Cable Unplugged Error in Windows

Free proxy from CyberGhost

The guys from CyberGhost told us they have a new free Proxy and that we should check them out- which we did. So here are our impressions:

CyberGhost free proxy is a web-based proxy. It means that as an internet user, I don’t expect to install any software on my computer to be able to use it. But with the word free service, I always expect a lot of advertisements (they should be paid in one way or another, aren’t they?)

Accessing iPlayer using the proxy

So, I pointed my browser to the proxy server, then, along with the field for entering the URL of the website I want to reach (I chose BBC iPlayer – we all know that BBC UK iPlayer isn’t available in my country). But something just got me wondering: some options can be ticked on or off as you can see from the screenshot below

I didn’t want to have a headache wondering why I would need to un-tick those checkboxes, so I left them ticked (my view is simple: most regular users wouldn’t even care about these options unless they want to go the “advanced mode” way).

Back to BBC iPlayer: the issue was simple: the list of proxy servers does not contain UK country: we have Germany, Netherlands, Russia, and Ukraine.  I chose the Ukraine-based proxy and inserted BBC iPlayer into the Cyberghost Free Proxy. The good thing is that at least, I didn’t see a lot of pop-up showing-up here and then.

But the advertisement takes 1/3 top of the browsing window, so you have to scroll down to see the actual website you are trying to see. And guess what?  As expected, I couldn’t watch the BBC iPlayer. But anyway, I guess it would work for any country-based limited online service that falls into the list of countries aforementioned. Not sure yet. If anyone has a service that would fit into this criterion, feel free to mention it so that I can test.

Checking the IP address

But for the heck of testing, I browsed xmyip.com from the free proxy, and it reports me with a Ukraine-based IP address. So, at least, I know that the IP address sent to web-servers that I reach through this Proxy server isn’t my actual IP address.  I played a bit changing the country of the proxy, and xmyip.com reported the right country. Moreover, by using the “Audit My PC anonymous surfing,” the primary results I received when using the free proxy is satisfying: it doesn’t show my actual GPS location, nor my real country and IP address.

From what I’ve seen, this Free proxy works for changing my IP address, and it is not so cluttered as do other free proxies. However, the limited list of countries where they provide Proxy is a shortcoming so far.

Conclusion

CyberGhost is a lovely VPN service, and the most important thing is that it offers an excellent FREE version. European users will benefit from the proximity to the CyberGhost server as opposed to the one in Colorado provided by Hotspot Shield.

The advantage of such an account is that the servers used are not overcrowded and it is more likely to get decent speed and quality. Moreover, most of the free VPN that have US IPs (including Hotspot Shield) is blocked by Hulu. So, it’s possible to get free accounts that can be used to unblock all kinds of restricted websites, including Hulu.

I have performed a research and found 2 VPN providers that offer free accounts in exchange for some promotion for their service: HideIpVPN and AceVPN.

Free accounts from HideIpVPN

HideIpVPN is a new VPN service that offers US and UK accounts. If you are a blogger, a webmaster, you have a Twitter account with many followers or you are a recognized member of some online forum you can get free UK/US VPN account from them. All you have to do is to write a review of the service on your website, blog or forum and here you are.

Here are the requirements:

• The review must be written by you and not copied from other websites.
• The blog must have at least PageRank 2
• The review must contain a link (dofollow) to hideipvpn.com.
• The length of review content should be between 150-400 words.
• The review can be in any language

If you are interested or have other promotion ideas you can contact them at contact [at] hideipvpn.com. Before you write the review they can offer you a trial account.

More details you can find here.

Free accounts from AceVPN

AceVPN is a VPN service that offers US (Colorado, Illinois, California) and Europe (UK, France) VPN accounts. In order to get free VPN accounts, you need to meet conditions similar those of HideIPVPN.

If you are a webmaster, blogger or a recognized member of some online forum, you can write about AceVPN on your website, blog or forum to get an invite to Ace VPN service for FREE.

Requirements:

• The content must be written by you and not copied from somewhere else
• You can put the review on the index page or any other secondary page. The write up should remain on the site as long you are using the FREE VPN service
• The review must have a direct link (dofollow) to any page on acevpn.com
• The write up must be at least 150 words
• The write up can be in any language

More details you can find here.

Have you been able to get free VPN accounts? Are they useful? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Important! Both services have restrictions related to the P2P/torrent traffic. So, if you are interested in this it is not used to write a review.

Update: ibVPN also offers free VPN accounts for bloggers and newsletter subscribers.