1. Web proxies

This is the simplest way to hide your IP from any browser you use (including Opera). A web proxy is basically a site that works as an intermediate between you and the site you want to see/access. The key point is that the site you access does not see your IP as the calling source, but the web proxy.

You can find a lot of web proxies on sites like proxy.org. What you have to do is to access such a proxy, type in your desired URL and press Go/Submit. To be sure that it does change your IP, you can first type xmyip.com and see the IP and location of the proxy.

Usually, these are used to unblock sites like YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, but they are also useful for posting on forums or other such activities.

The main disadvantage of web proxies is that they have a short life and get banned, so you have to permanently look for fresh proxies. Also, make sure read the following post: Risks of using a proxy site.

Here are some old posts that list web proxies:

• MySpace proxies
• Facebook proxies

2. Use open proxies

There are a lot of sites that list open proxies you can use to hide your IP. An open proxy is a proxy with an address xx.xx.xx.xx: port that can be used as an intermediate between you and the site you want to see (the same mechanism as for web proxies).

What you have to do is to go to a site like SamAir.ru, choose a proxy and then setup up your browser (Opera) to use that proxy. Further, here is what you have to do: Configure Opera to use a proxy.

3. OperaTor

You can try using OperaTor, a bundle that combines Opera browser, Tor and Privoxy. But, OperaTor will not only hide your IP. It will leave no tracks about your online activities (as every browser does). Also, Torfox may be an alternative.

4. Use hide IP Opera software

There are a lot of hide IP software on the market. The main advantage of such software is they make it easier. You don’t have you look for new and working (web) proxies and configure your browser. They do these tasks for you. If you are interested to try, you can take a look at our recommended list or reading others post I published on such software:

• UltraSurf – Ultra Easy To Hide Your IP
• GPass: A Free Solution To Hide Your IP
• How To Hide Your IP Using Invisible Browsing

Important! Most of these products automatically change settings for IE and Firefox. For Opera, it may be necessary to make some additional settings.

5. VPN services

The most secure way to hide IP Opera is by using a VPN service. VPNs offer a high level of encryption and superior speed. Also, premium VPN providers offer many server locations (take for example HideMyAss, ibVPN, PureVPN, ExpressVPN, PrivateInternetAccess, NordVPN).

Here are some lists of VPN providers:

• United States – List of VPN Services that Provide US IP Addresses
• Germany – List of VPN Services that Provide DE IP Addresses
• France – List of VPN Services that Provide French IP Addresses
• Asia & Australia – List of VPN Services that Provide IP Addresses from Asia and Australia
• Torrent Friendly – List of VPN Services that allow P2P/Torrent traffic

6. Hide IP Opera Add-ons

Another good option for masking your IP on Opera is by using a proxy add-on. Simply go to Opera add-ons store and type proxy. Thus, you will get several results including ibVPN, the extension that I recommend.

Extra: how to use Opera Private Browsing mode and surf privately using Opera

The Private Browsing feature allows you to surf the web privately without leaving any trace of the websites you have visited. It’s useful when you are surfing using a public computer, do online banking, surf sites that you want to hide from other people.

Opera’s private browsing support both private tabs and private windows.

Open a private tab: right-click the “+” icon on the tab bar, then select New Private Tab. The private tab got a lock like an icon on the right side of the tab icon. Any browser activity within the tab is private.

Open a private window: Click on the File menu, then select New Private Window. The private window is red-colored. Any tab opened in the private window is a private tab.

Private browsing is the feature you can find on every modern web browser nowadays. But the Private Tab in Opera, which allows opening a site privately in normal browsing mode, is not found in other browsers.

Important! Remember that private mode does not hide your IP address, it only erases your browsing history! In order to hide your IP address, you need to use a proxy or a VPN solution that works with Opera (as explained to the beginning of the article). Such services create a private tunnel between your computer and the proxy / VPN servers. Thus, your online activity is hidden. Enjoy!

There are various reasons why users all over the World opt for a VPN. Actually, there are other technologies you can use to stay anonymous online. You may use proxy servers, and or hide your IP address software programs, to name a few. However, these are not at par with VPN in terms of protection and security it affords its many users online. Learn about the best Canada VPN.

What is Canada VPN?

Simply put, only a VPN can safeguard your online data on the web as it moves on a tunnel that’s highly encrypted by utilizing a server that may perhaps be located in Canada, for instance. Any data or traffic passing through the said tunnel is encrypted from source and decrypted at the recipient’s end upon appropriate authentication. As soon as you obtained the best Canada VPN account subscription, you can rest assured that your information on the web will never be jeopardized!

Any individual who invests a considerable amount of time on the cyberspace is very much aware of the hazards his or her online information is exposed to. It is thus crucial that web users have some internet client at their disposal to take care of these susceptibilities on the web. In order to ensure this protection, you ought to get the best Canada VPN services today.

Canada VPN advantages

The best Canada VPN service can shield and safeguard your data from snooping cybercriminals and persistent net marketers. This brand new technology will establish a secure tunnel between your PC and a remote server situated in Canada. All vital data traveling in this tunnel is totally protected from online threats and fraudsters.

Each and every computer on the web is identified by its IP address which aids in communicating with various other computers. Nonetheless, hackers can track these and as you leave visible tracks, they can very much retrieve your data in their logs and use it to their advantage.

To preclude this from happening, you can subscribe to a Canada VPN service provider online where you are assigned a fresh new IP address from a server situated in Canada every time, while your original IP address is left hidden for any activity online. It will surely make you anonymous as you browse the web. Even websites you frequent will no longer be tracked and they can never collect relevant data concerning you or your browsing activities for that matter.

Unblock restricted websites

Aside from the anonymity and safeguards afforded to you by the Canada VPN services, you likewise will enjoy several added perks. It can help you enjoy websites where access is expressly prohibited by virtue of the restrictions imposed upon your geographic locations. Enjoy surfing the web and freely access websites even if they are blocked by your ISP.

A VPN account, in essence, fakes your location and makes it appear that you are from Canada. So, you will be granted access to sites even if they may be prohibited where you are.

Undoubtedly, VPN is the best technology to use to bypass these restrictions. End users having Canada VPN connection can bypass local firewalls and access their favorite sites, download content, stream any online media, and yet remain anonymous and protected!

How to Watch TV Shows Online in Canada

Hulu.com, the well-known website that offers a commercial-supported streaming video of TV shows and movies from NBC, Fox, and many other networks and studios, is not available in Canada. But you may access Hulu anyway using a VPN.

Watch TV Shows Online in Canada

But there are ways to watch your favorites TV shows without workarounds like Hotspot Shield or GPass. This can be done using local tv station’s websites: CBC, Global, CityTV, and CTV. The selection is limited compared to Hulu but you can still watch shows like Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives,  House, 24, Family Guy, etc.

CBC

• The Border
• Little Mosque On The Prairie
• Sophie
• Coronation Street

CTV

• Lost
• Desperate Housewives
• ER
• Grey’s Anatomy

Global

• House
• 24

List of Best Canada VPN providers

Do you know other Canada VPN providers? Let us know in the comments below.

Update: In May 2013, Liberty Reserve was shut down by United States federal prosecutors. The Liberty Reserve founder, Arthur Budovsky, and six others were charged with money laundering and operating an unlicensed financial transaction company.

Liberty Reserve VPN – VPN services are now prevalent and payment schemes are made all the more flexible having in mind their subscribers’ preferred payment method and location.

With the influx of online wallet and digital currency, VPN services cannot help but stay abreast with recent innovations on prevailing payment methods. Additionally, a lot of techie end-users prefer to utilize cutting-edge shopping carts and secure online payment methods to ensure that their hard-earned money will not go down the drain. Liberty Reserve is one of the most sophisticated and secured payment methods you can use to pay for your VPN subscription dues.

What exactly is Liberty Reserve?

Liberty Reserve is a prevailing currency exchange platform founded by the Liberty Reserve S.A., based in Costa Rica. The Liberty Reserve comprises of two kinds of currencies, i.e. the so-called LRUSD or Liberty Reserve USD for American Dollars, and the LSEUR or the Liberty Reserve Euro for folks in Europe.  This currency mode is handy and used specifically for debiting and withdrawing funds to and from Bitcoin Exchange markets.

What are the best features of Liberty Reserve?

With the help of its quick wallet service, you are given straightforward and easy-access to your account thus ensuring you make all the necessary payments for your dues sans the luring security and hacking worries. In case you want to make instant payments with your Liberty Reserve wallet, you can do so at lightning speed and you can guarantee prompt payments every time. Furthermore, with Liberty Reserve, you can make private payments. One wherein you are not required to reveal your account number as you make payment to the receiving end, for instance using Liberty Reserve for VPN services.

Contrary to popular belief, Liberty Reserve is not solely created for making payments, yet, it likewise enables account holders the opportunity to communicate with vendors via its inbuilt messaging capability. This added feature aids registered members to send out and receive messages inside the Liberty Reserve system to reach clients, associates, and more.

Liberty Reserve VPN

A lot of the VPN subscribers are located in the East Asia like China, and the Middle East where they find it hard to pay for their online transactions. Popular payment modes such as PayPal require the use of credit card.

And so, they are faced with a great dilemma – being unable to pay for their VPN subscriptions! In order to ensure their VPN connections will stay active, they will need Liberty Reserve for VPN services. Hence, you can hear the sigh of relief from these folks as most of the VPN providers have begun allowing payments via Liberty Reserve for VPN services.

Here’s the list of the best Liberty Reserve VPN services:

There have been a lot of rave reviews about the newest Android devices in the marketplace lately. To date, Android remained the most preferred platform for mobile phones and other droid handheld devices. With the launching of new Android OS – Ice Cream Sandwich (Android v4.0) comes a gamut of other exciting new treats for your handhelds. Learn about Android VPN.

According to statistics, by the end of 2010, Android phones had an approximately 3.5% share of the top smart data phones in the market, and by the end of 2011, it ballooned to around 75% of the market share making it the industry leader across the globe. It was estimated that there are currently 500,000 (and still growing) Android devices that got activated each and every single day according to a survey conducted by Google.

Android platform

As the demand for portability continues to grow, the need for a VPN service subscription has likewise escalated in numbers. Together with the passage of time and the sudden surge of technological innovations, mobile phones have evolved to contain features comparable to that of a desktop computer and have provided more functionality to end user apart from the usual SMS and calling capabilities. By now you may have heard of Android phones with features like cloud computing, remote access, file sharing, and other robust computer-like qualities. Now, you can browse thru the World Wide Web anywhere, anytime, even while lying in your bed provided you have Wi-Fi connectivity.

Along with the advent of Android technology, comes unscrupulous people who have the propensity for evil, who are always ready to pray for any vulnerable victim. Over a particular wireless connection, one can without difficulty track activities of other people utilizing the same network with the aid of some cunning and wily apps or free software.

In case you are one of those people who unknowingly send crucial data over Wi-Fi connections thru emails which are not encrypted and could be easily decoded by some crafty tools, then you are at risk! Thankfully, we can do away with these vulnerabilities with the help of a reliable VPN service.

Android VPN

With a VPN or Virtual Private Network, there are infinite possibilities. You can easily have the world at your fingertips, I mean literally! You can go shopping for the newest trends in London, while you are in downtown Manhattan sitting at your favorite coffee shop. Or you can watch the newest action flick on US Netflix while you are vacationing at an exotic island somewhere in the Virgin Islands!

Finally, with a VPN service, you can securely transmit all of your files without worrying it’ll be decoded by sneaky hackers out there. Need I say more? Simply put, if you are a tech-savvy Android device user, you ought to get a VPN service so you’ll have a complete peace of mind every time!

Check out established and reputable Android VPN services:

What you need

Firstly, you need a PayPal, Bitcoin or a bank account. If you are located in a country that is not accepted by PayPal, or you can not have a Bitcoin or bank then this is not for you.

Then, you need to to find out what VPN service is more suitable for your readers:

• Are they looking for a solution that unblocks Hulu or Netflix? Then you need a VPN that offers US IP addresses.
• Are they looking for a UK service to unblock BBC iPlayer?
• How much can they afford to spend on such service?
• Do they need increased security? Then OpenVPN is a must.
• Are they mostly located in China or Iran? Then you need to make sure that the service you refer is available in those locations.

How do you find all these?

Simple! Just pay a little attention to your blog stats and comments. They should offer enough info to help you make a good choice. Anyway, in the long term, you should try different affiliate programs and see what is the most profitable for you.

Another aspect is related to the commission earned by you. Usually, the commission is between 10-20%, but sometimes, for newer services, you can get more.

Top VPN affiliate programs

Here are some affiliate programs you could join:

• HideMyAss – One of the most generous VPN affiliate program on the market. It offers 100% off the first purchase from the monthly plans and 30-40% for the semi-annual and annual plan. The commission is paid via PayPal, bank transfer, and Payoneer Card.
• StrongVPN – It’s one of the most important VPN services on the market. That is, of course, a plus, but there are also downsides: there are a lot of users that are not very pleased with the service due to the high load. By referring StrongVPN you can earn one-month cost for a package purchased – starting from $7 and up to $30 per sale.
• HideIpVPN – Quite popular these days. They offer 15% commission on all payments.
• NordVPN – Similar to HideMyAss program.
• ExpressVPN – Flat fee commissions, from $13 per monthly plan sale to $36 per annual plan sale.
• PrivateInternetAccess – Earn up to 33% in commission on new and recurring sales over the lifetime of a customer.
• PureVPN – 100% for the monthly plan and 40% for the other plans.
• ibVPN  – ibVPN is a new VPN service and offers 25%-50% commission for all payments, including the recurring ones. This is a great offer!

The last step is to start promoting the service. It’s important not just to link to the service or show a banner. You should first try it and write an honest review with pros and cons.

How much could you earn?

This depends on many factors like the number of readers for your blog, the trust they have in what you recommend, the way you present the service, etc. I would say that for an average blog promoting 1-2 services $50-100/month is a possible goal.

What VPN service do you promote? What do you think is the best VPN affiliate program?

So you’ve made up your mind to choose a VPN solution for your needs. Then you’ve browsed the web so as to find the best solution but all the technical specifications got you a bit confused (you may even wonder if VPN is the way to go as it appears to be too complicated). Learn about choosing your VPN provider.

All the materials that you read online refer to acronyms that you don’t understand (or don’t want to care about). And the most frustrating part, from a user’s point of view, is that all the solutions seem to be written for techie people, not for a regular user who just wants an easy-to-understand solution. Those articles all deal with concepts evolving around SSL, IPSec, PPTP, 3DES, … What? Do the solution providers expect a regular user to be able to understand those concepts before choosing a solution? Can’t they just provide a solution tailored to a specific need?

For this case study, let’s just pretend that you have decided to go for a VPN solution as you think it can solve the following problem: you are a remote worker from another country that needs to access some resources  that are geographically restricted to some country; unfortunately, the country you are based isn’t included in the “allowed” list (for example Hulu, Pandora, Veoh, ABC player, …)

Here are criteria for this specific situation that you can refer to for choosing your VPN provider:

Criteria 1: Choose a VPN solution provider that has a “landing” point in the “allowed” country

This is the most obvious part. Ask your VPN provider to give you a list of available “landing” point in the country you want to target. This usually means that, if you want to access a service that is restricted to US-users, for example, then you need to go for a VPN package that will give you a US-based IP address.

As more and more services on the internet are now targeting local customers, it is expected that some web services will be limited to some states or cities – when such conditions arise, then you’ll need to ask for the VPN provider for an IP address that will be geo-located to that city, then check it at IP-address locator to find out the city/state where this IP belongs to according to the whole internet

Criteria 2: Is encryption a must?

For this case study, all you need is a landing point in the country/state that you are targeting. This actually means that you don’t necessarily have to bother about all those encryption techniques that the VPN solution provider is competing against each other – whether it is PPTP, IPSec, or whatever else. All you need is a package that is able to “mask” you behind an IP address that is located in your target country/state – all VPN solution provides you with that feature.

Criteria 3: Are there any limitations?

Be careful with the fine line in the contract that is handed to you. You’ve got to be aware of a few limitations that may come bundled with any package. As an example, most of the time VPN providers will not allow peer-to-peer traffic to go through their VPN implementation. This is mainly because IP addresses are limited resources on the internet and they can’t afford to have their IP address blacklisted due to some fraudulent peer-to-peer connections as it will have an impact on all of their customers.

Moreover, be careful about bandwidth limitations as some VPN providers may set some limits. As a rule of thumb, if you are planning to watch videos or download big files from your VPN connection (Are there free torrent VPN providers?), then you’d better stay away from VPN packages that have bandwidth limitations set.

Criteria 4: What are the reviews about this VPN provider?

This is just another attitude that every customer should have. Google for “xxxVPN review”  (where xxxVPN is the VPN solution provider you are considering) and make up your mind from third-party reviews. Eventually, ask for questions on places like Yahoo Answers to get more reviews.

Criteria 5: Test their support system. How quick and efficient are they?

Ask questions about their support system and see how reactive and professional they are. While this may not be a good benchmarking for their technical support once you’ve joined their program, this just gives you a rough idea of their quality of service. Don’t forget to check their opening hours too (be careful with the time zone difference). Moreover, check if they support a language that you are familiar with – this is really helpful when trouble-time come and you need to communicate. Finally, check the available channels where their support is available: is it through e-mail, phone, chat, Skype, forum, …

Criteria 6: Check your operating system compatibility

Is their VPN client compatible with your operating system? The best way to check it is to ask their support (though verifying “criteria #5”). Please be sure to be the most precise possible when sending your current operating system (for example Windows 7 premium, Service Pack 1, Ubuntu 11.04, …)

Criteria 7: How easy is the installation process?

The main thing to consider here is: are you comfortable with the provided installation tools. The easiest solution will give you an installation package and a short “installation guide”. Check that an installer is available for your operating system. Most of the time, VPN solutions that only gives documentation  (without an installer) are difficult to implement for a user with a profile who “just needs a solution that works”

I’ve purposely written this article from a user’s point of view, without getting too much into technical details. I hope this list helped you choose your VPN provider.

Now, tell us in the comment section why you need a VPN solution and we can come up with another “7 criteria” type of article for your own case.

For once, let’s talk about the telecommuter case when dealing with accessing his company’s IT resources while he is telecommuting. In fact, telecommuting goes far beyond the “working from home” scheme where an employee has a pre-configured home computer that has all the applications for accessing some of his company’s IT resources. Indeed, with the advent of diverse mobile devices, I name smartphones and tablets, employees are becoming more demanding. Learn about the cloud computing threat to VPN services.

Most of the time the employee (or telecommuter) decides to buy a smartphone (Android, iOS, Windows Phone, …) then he comes to his IT guy asking how could he access his e-mail (or whatever other IT application) right from his mobile device. Then his IT guy would usually answer him that those devices aren’t compatible with the current IT installation that the company has set up. So the employee would have to consider his newly bought mobile device as a tool for his personal use only.

How VPN come to the rescue to the telecommuter?

To the “problem” mentioned above, the company may even have “given” him a different mobile device that is “compatible” with an in-house IT environment. Most of the time, it’s a mobile device (a laptop, or a smartphone) that has come VPN-feature enabled. Here, the user has no choice but use the company-chosen VPN solution. Most of the time, the user had to fire up his VPN client, then access some company-restricted resources, and that’s all.

How is cloud computing “solving” this issue?

As opposed to the VPN-only approach where the IT department had to set up some secure channel for accessing in-house resources, cloud computing has become an interesting alternative, especially when bandwidth has increased so much and is available in most big cities; combine to that the fact that employees are becoming more vocal on their need to use only one mobile device (and preferably the one they chose, not the one the company’s IT department has imposed). IT department has then to work on bringing some in-house applications to the cloud thereby allowing easier access to them via those mobile devices.

Are VPN services going to die?

That’s an interesting question since most people easily consider that the use of cloud-computing would remove the need for VPN services. That’s not how things actually work. In fact, most of the service providers, from OEM manufacturers to phone manufacturers are now leveraging cloud computing so as to add some value to their offerings.

This usually means that they offer some subscription-based services along with your purchase of a new phone – this subscription is a bonus to the data/phone subscription you would already buy. But the fact is: most users would use different devices and they would also need to access different non-proprietary online cloud services. In fact, if every manufacturer of a mobile device that each owner would impose their proprietary solution, the user would end up installing a lot of applications on each of his devices- this is just not the way to go.

Where a VPN solution can still play a big role

And while some services like Google Play would allow the use of multiple devices, I would expect some services that won’t fall into the Google play playground that would still request the installation of additional software. From my point of view, this is where a VPN solution can still play a big role.

In fact, you would have noticed that, even if most VPN providers give you a specific VPN client, most of them are based on standards, but each provider is only adding some “nice features” so as to ease the end-user experience. My guess would be then that VPN itself won’t be dead, but there would be better integrations with cloud-based solutions from VPN standards.

Do you think my guess about cloud computing threat can stand, or do you have another perspective? Feel free to share it in the comment section.

This post presents RiccoVPN, an interesting concept and a different approach to VPN. It is implementing an encrypted P2P network instead of relying on a VPN gateway. Keep reading for more details.

Secure your Internet connection – different options

Before talking about RiccoVPN let’s see the options you have when it comes to anonymizing and securing your Internet connection. Depending on what you want to achieve, you can go for one solution or another. But let’s first summarize the options:

• You can either use some proxy gateways that will mask your actual IP address and use its 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 a solution, you can choose the country where you want to land. Those solutions are especially very efficient for overcoming geolocation-limited services like Hulu, unblock BBC iPlayer, …
• Then, for those who want 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 add-ons 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.

RiccoVPN by PrivacyProtector

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 512 kbps and you can’t pretend to be somewhere else: though the free version isn’t a solution for bypassing geolocation-limited services.

RiccoVPN features

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 effective 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.

Conclusion

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 tendency 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?