HMA VPN
Despite its unusual name (Hide My Ass) and
the fact that it's a paid-for service (although there are free options available).
HMA is actually a very impressive VPN service from the UK that will allow users
to hide their IP addresses, unblock certain websites, unlock region-restricted
channels and surf anonymously through one of the company's 50,000 private and
anonymous IP addresses.
HMA's 418 VPN servers are located
throughout 57 countries and use the OpenVPN, PPTP and L2TP protocols. It's an
extremely useful and easy piece of software to use. All you need to do is sign
up for the service, either via the three available payment plans: one month at
$11, six months at $48 or one year at $75 (very reasonable, considering you'll
be completely hidden), then install the software, enter your username and
password and connect. All the hard work and configuring of the VPN is done
automatically, along with a special built-in 'Speed Guide' feature, which will
auto select the fastest VPN for you based on your current location and
connection.
For
extra security, you can frequently keep changing IP addresses
The software is available for Windows, Mac
OS X and Linux. It's available for download via the HMA Control Panel once you
sign up for a package and an account, along with a selection of help files and
tutorials.
The packaged VPN manager software includes
some rather nice features, alongside the speed guide. There are options to
choose which VPN protocol you want to use, with OpenVPN being the more popular
and possibly the faster of the protocol types, as well as options to randomly
change IP address after every certain amount of minutes, as defined by the
user. There's also a handy 'Secure IP Bind' feature, which will stop an
application from going online without the HMA VPN connection running, the load
balancing, so you'll be connected to the VPN server with the fewest number of
users and consequently more resources available for you.
If you want to try some of the free
resources available from HMA before paying for the Pro version, then there a
few that are well worth looking at. There's a free HMA web proxy browser
extension for Firefox and Chrome, which will redirect your web traffic through
its secure web proxy nodes by simply clicking the HMA icon on the browser. Then
there's the free HMA panic button, which, when clicked, will automatically hide
all your open tabs until you press the button again to restore them. Finally,
there's the HMA IP checker, which will identify your current IP address, ISP
and location.
HMA VPN is an ideal all-in-one suite of
tools for helping you to become invisible online. Its speeds are relatively
good, and the number of servers it operates means you'll generally always get a
very good connection. It's superb at hiding your digital fingerprint and gives
you the bonus of being able to watch TV content from other countries, but like
most services of this kind, it's not recommended to abuse the system by
downloading large files via BitTorrent.
In the question of anonymity, it's often
suggested that the services run by VPN providers or the Tor nodes can in fact
be used to monitor and log users' online activity. Naturally, if they are,
there's little you can do about it. However, HMA released this statement with
regards to what it logs when a user attaches to its VPN: "We only log the
time you connect and disconnect from our service; we do not monitor any traffic
and activity such as what websites you visit and who you talk to."
Spotflux
Spotflux is a free and encrypted VPN client
that, like HMA, will route your internet traffic through its secure servers,
called the Spotflux cloud (located mainly in New York).
The Spotflux cloud has been specially
designed with privacy, anonymity, ad removal, virus removal and malware removal
routines plugged directly into it. In addition, it offers open and unrestricted
access without blocking any banned content, and it also removes any tracking
cookies and other location- specific scripts before they even reach your
computer.
Spotflux is an easy and free solution, but
it suffers from being a bit too simple and doesn't quite offer the wealth of
options or the connection speed that HMA VPN offers. Unfortunately, although
Spotflux does an admirable job of keeping your digital fingerprint away from
prying eyes, it does have more than the occasional connection problem, either
logging into the Spotflux cloud or actually routing data. However, it is free
and the service is improving in leaps and bounds.
Naturally, you wouldn't use Spotflux
without an anti-virus client of some description, but it does do an excellent
job of keeping the nastiest at bay, plus it has also been reported as being slightly
quicker than the Tor network, but that remains to be properly tested and, as
with most connection services. The actual speed you get will differ to other
people using.
Spotflux
is an easy and free solution, but it suffers from being a bit too simple and
doesn't quite offer the wealth of options or the connection speed that HMA VPN
offers.
The data to and from your computer and the
Spotflux Cloud is sent via a 128-bit SSL-encrypted connection, which is more
than good enough to ensure a level of privacy when online. Interestingly, due
to the fact that it filters a huge amount of unwanted traffic, including any
malicious traffic and the stuff that is designed to track you, it cuts down on
a significant amount of bandwidth. The Spotflux servers currently report an
impressive 12.8TB of total saved bandwidth, at the time of writing, with a
reported 3,663,507,354 total malware and trackers blocked. Pretty good numbers
from a free service, by all accounts.
Spotflux has said in the past that it does
not monitor any single user's connection or their activity. However, if
asked/ordered by the authorities, it will hand over a log of a user's activity,
which makes you think it must have access to this already. That being the case,
is Spotflux as anonymous as it's supposed to be? Again, a certain level of
trust is needed in the service, especially since everything you do online will
be routed through the Spotflux cloud. As before, though, provided you don't
abuse the system and you simply want to remain anonymous and out of the prying
eyes of potential system usurpers, hackers and vandals, then Spotflux will more
than likely be ideal for your needs.
Browser Add-ons
If you're not too concerned about traffic
other than what goes through your web browser being traced, then rather than
using a VPN, consider using one of the many free browser add-ons that are
available for IE, Chrome and Firefox. These can help stop individual scripts
from running, pop-ups from appearing and tracking elements from finding out
where you are.
