If you haven’t yet, then you’ve saved yourself from some headaches Indeed, most of the smartphones available on the market don’t allow you to manually configure proxies for your browser without having to do some special tricks (rooting your Android, or jailbreaking your iPhone). If you have found some other solutions, I’m eager to know about them – and you’re highly invited to mention it in the comment section of this article – I’m sure you’ll help a lot of our readers out there.

Opera Mini – the most popular browser for smartphones

As of today, the most commonly used solution for “easily” setting a proxy on smartphones was to install Opera Mobile browser. That feature pushed Opera Mobile browser as being the most popular browser that smartphone users have adopted, mainly because it allows some geek smartphone users to get free internet on their phone.

But the battlefield is changing as other browsers are beginning to get into that “market” where users would be able to manually set proxies for their browsers. Recently, Firefox has ported the popular browser to the mobile world, and have introduced a way to sync it with the desktop firefox installation. This is actually a smart move as a lot of desktop users have adopted Mozilla firefox as their primary browser. Competition is going to be rude in this field, especially when Android powers the biggest part of Smartphone market, and that Chrome is the de facto browser for any google device.

ProxyMob – new Firefox addon

So I told you that ProxyMob, a firefox addon has been launched so as to allow users to manually configure th proxy. In fact, the guys at ToR project have developed a proxy manager for Firefox Mobile that comes very handy for us users who love using proxies from our smartphones. It is called ProxyMob and it definitely brings one missing feature to Firefox mobile. Indeed, with the implementation of Firefox on Android devices, there were no easy way to set proxies. This is one of the reasons why Opera Mobile is very popular with Smartphones.

Simply said, ProxyMob is only a GUI interface that allows to access the parameters of Firefox Mobile: it’s a pretty simple feature, and I’m just wondering how come it hasn’t been implemented earlier. Anyway, the race to finding proxies that haven’t been yet blocked by mobile operators can follow-up again.

Now, I can see you asking yourself “how come this topic can lead to having free internet access from mobile phone?“. Remember the trick that most geeky guys use with Opera Mobile for “extending” the free internet Facebook access that most mobile phone operators? Got it? … No clue? … In fact, if you search on the internet, you’ll see that those geeks use mobile opera by manually setting some proxies while they use a data plan that their mobile phone operator give them that has the feature of accessing Facebook freely. By using that trick, not only they can access legitimately Facebook freely, but via the proxy feature, they can also access some other internet resources for free.

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ProxyMob for Firefox – An Alternative to Opera Mini Mobile?

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Is it still possible to track how and where my personal information is shared/stored ?

This is a question that I asked myself lately. Indeed, this has become very obvious to me that I no more have control to how the different online accounts I have are tied together.

Let’s take a recent example: I’ve used Google Chrome for a while along with other browsers (mainly Firefox). Each time I go on Google.com, on the upper-right corner, there’s a very well-crafted invitation saying something like “not signed to Google Chrome yet, you’re missing something”. I must admit that it’s very well copywritten: it raises my curiosity, and the call-to-action is very clear: I only have to associate the Google Chrome account to my Gmail account. So after months of ignoring that message (or was it shorter than that?), I finally decided to check what’s at the other side of the fence (ahh, how, we humans, are so curious…).

So, I associated my Google Chrome to my gmail account so that I can sync every Google Chrome settings I have with different devices: it keeps tracks of the autofill, password, extensions, and so on and so forth … Well, this may be a great feature indeed, since I use Chrome on different computers (or at least from the Chrome I use on my Windows 7, and the one I use with my Ubuntu Precise 12.04). I was so “pleased” that I almost missed the point that in order for that system to work, my passwords need to be stored somewhere in the cloud.

My passwords are now stored in the Cloud. Should I be worried?

Well, heck, Google Chrome has a paragraph about passwords, where it says that they are encrypted, but truth of the matter is: I’ve just allowed Google to store my password on its servers. Should I be worried? Definitely yes. I unchecked the option to store my password so that Google Chrome can remember it, but I’m sure most users won’t even go and checkout what they’ve allowed Google to do.

This is just one example in fact, but the same thing applies with other platforms, including Facebook, twitter, Apple and another plethora of platforms. Remember for example whenever you want to use your Facebook account for commenting on popular (or not so popular) website, it always asks for some “permissions”: but since you so want to read that article, or access that online resource, you don’t even care about the questions, all you want to click on is the “allow” button? Isn’t it right? The same thing applies when we click on the “Agree” button on all those “End-User License Agreement” on every software that we install on our computer: raise the hand for those who actually read and took the time to evaluate those EULA…. I bet there’ll only be 1% of people out there.

Frankly speaking, I have to admit that this online identity issue has become such a spaghetti to me that I can’t tell anymore where I’ve “accepted” to store some information about me. The only thing that keeps my mind quiet is that I always take for granted that everything I publish on any place on the internet is something I won’t be ashamed of.

What about you? How do you manage your online  identity?

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Can You Track Where Your Info Is Shared on The Internet?

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Why is Console-Connect useful?

Primarily, the box allows multiple user connections and it’s ideal for those that own a Apple TV, Wii, Xbox, PS3 or other devices that are not VPN-ready.

Thus, by purchasing a single Lamnia VPN account you and your family can connect from all devices in the house. Great feature!

As you probably know, game console can easily connect to online video streaming sites like BBC iPlayer. If you are leaving outside UK, the Console-Connect is an excellent tool to unlock UK restricted sites.

The box comes pre-configured ready to plug and play. The upgrade or re-install process (if something goes wrong) is very simple. Send an email to the support team, they provide you the new settings, save save them to the USB Key (provided) and plug into the box. Console-connect will automatically install new settings and reboot ready to go.

Plans and pricing

The box is quite expensive (at least for most of us):

• Console Connect Unit Only – £139
• Console +12 Months Shared VPN – £199
• Console +12 Months Dedicated VPN – £249

Conclusion

Console-Connect looks promising and it may be the ideal solution for those in need for multiple connections from the same location (most of the VPN providers do not allow multiple connections) and also for those interested in unlocking UK restricted channels on game consoles. Enjoy!

[Console-Connect]

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VPN Console-Connect from Lamnia

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But if we look at how things are moving nowadays, there’s a high chance that the internet (or at least what most people know about the internet) will be limited to some major giants only in the near future. Considering for example how Facebook bought the 50 million user-base Instagr.am for $1 billion; and how Skype, with its hundreds of million userbase (sorry, I couldn’t find the latest exact number, but in 2010, Skype announced 560 million users), has been acquired by Microsoft for $8.5 billion – there’s a lot to worry about.

But Google isn’t to be forgotten too: it has recently merged all the policies for all Google products, and given the supremacy of Android in terms of smartphone shipment (in terms of number), the lambda user has almost no way to live “outside” of those “closed wall” internet that those giants are setting up.

Ok, Google is promoting openness, and I’m sure the others will find a way to “markt” theirs offerings so as not to be perceived as “jailing” you in their own “internet ecosystem”. But truth to be told, we, as users, are all “prisoners” of all those systems. In terms of PR, it seems like services are becoming more uniform and consistent, but at the end of the day, we are all shaping our own “internet” around those major platforms. If you think about it, how many of us are “reading the news” from our social media connections instead of going to the original source of information? If you think about it, we clearly have chosen to center our internet around those platforms.

Some curation tools as well as “discovery” tools exist everywhere if we only consider the raise of Pinterest (it won’t surprise me if one of the giants will buy Pinterest in the two years to come), or tools like Last.fm in the music industry – but again, have you noticed how those tools want to leverage on existing platforms for managing the account? How many websites have you seen lately that ask you to connect your facebook/google account to their authentication system? A lot, I bet.

Now let’s add to that the fact that more and more internet services are now only available to some countries. Ok, VPN services are there to help overcoming those limitations, but still, this just confirms the fact that this “closed wall internet” system is becoming more and more spread.

Finally, Sergey Brin’s point isn’t that paranoid at all (even though his company is also playing the game of “who attracts the more users” game). So this leaves me wondering about how we scour the internet nowadays. I’d b eager to read from how-to-hide-ip users about how you discover new and interesting stuff on the internet nowadays. Do you do it the way most people do now (which is: clicking on a shared link from a social media platform, or finding it via search engines). Feel free to share.

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Are We Moving Toward a Closed-wall Internet?

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First of all,

• this would give a great indicator for knowing how serious are internet users with regard to the safety of  the data they are transferring over the internet.
• But this will also is a great indicator for knowing  which countries are most sensitive to using VPN services. Having these figures would give us an indication of the usage people do on the internet
• finally, it will give an idea on how accessible VPN services can be

Well, those are only few reasons, but depending on your standpoint, there may be other reasons for finding out those figures. If you are a VPN provider, this will give you a good grasp of the market. If you are a simple internet user, this will give you an idea of the number of people who have opted for a VPN service for securing some of their internet transaction- this will surely leave you wondering why they have to do so.

So what do we know so far?

What we’ve noticed is that there’s a lot of offerings in the VPN area. While VPN has mainly be a professional service geared toward big companies with different branches, more specific uses have raised for the SOHO office as well as the simple internet user. Here, on how-to-hide-ip, we tend to focus on the latter category since our users want to chose themselves their VPN solution for their own needs, not for the whole company’s IT system (this is a very different industry).

As I went on the internet searching for figures (I must also admit that I didn’t spend hours searching for it), the most precise figure I could find out was the 700 000 VPN users that Sweden has. This figure was mentioned by a study made by a group called Cybernorms, from Lund University. According to that study, that’s 40% more compared to the 500 000 users they have identified two years ago. That same study mentions that 200 000 of these users are aged between 15 to 25 years old. That’s a pretty awesome figure, and very precise: Sweden being the home to thepiratebay file-sharing platform, one can understand why there’s such a high number of young people using VPN services to anonymize their connections.

Crowdsourcing the figures

When I tried to look for similar figures for other countries, my quick-search didn’t really reveal a lot of things. Then, I just said to myself, we’re in the internet age, instead of trying to figure out where to find those figures by myself, why not ask the readers- they may have some figures too already available; or they may have already found some useful resources that deal with that topic. So, I’m reaching out to how-to-hide-ip readers and ask you to refer us to any online ressource (or actual figures- please mention the source) that can give us an idea of the number of VPN users in this world (or in a particular country, city). So, off to you readers. Let’s share numbers so that we can make this unscientific study a reference in the VPN world

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Do You Know How Many VPN Users Are In The World?

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What ToR is?

Instead of trying to rephrase it, let’s just put the definition of what ToR actually is, that I took from ToR project’s website:

Tor is a network of virtual tunnels that allows people and groups to improve their privacy and security on the Internet. It also enables software developers to create new communication tools with built-in privacy features. Tor provides the foundation for a range of applications that allow organizations and individuals to share information over public networks without compromising their privacy.

OrBot: The Android ToR approved solution

OrBot, an application available in the Android Market, allows Android smartphone users to users to access the web, instant messaging and email without being monitored or blocked by their mobile internet service provider.

OrBot is a ToR solution that has been approved to be fully compliant with ToR, this actually means that it has gone through some checks from the guys who implement the ToR system: this is quite important to mention since, although ToR is an open source project, it’s always good to have an entity that “validates” its implementation when it comes to porting it to some platform like Android.

In fact, depending on your Android configuration, you may have to root, or not, your Android device so as to get full protection of OrBot on your smartphone. The OrBot website shows you different options that you can implement, some that don’t need rooting.

 Covert Browser: the iTunes approved Tor solution for iPad and iPhone 

The approval of a ToR solution in the itunes market, hence for iPad and iPhone users, has taken more time to be adopted than in the Android market. At the time of writing, Covert Browser is still the only app that we know of that implements access to ToR network from iPad and iPhones.

But we have to be cautious yet in the iOS field as the ToR guys, by way of  Andrew Lewman, executive director of the non-profit Tor project haven’t yet validated the compliance of Covert Browser to ToR’s requirements. Well, this may seem a bit awkward from the user’s point of view, especiallyknowing that ToR is an open source solution and given that fact, we may think that the developers of Covert Browser would have developed their browser as a branch from the initial ToR codes. But if we look back, it makes sense that ToR guys need to validate any system that want to be part of the ToR network- after all, we’re talking about anonymity here, and the ToR network can’t afford introducing an new player in town that may eventually jeopardize the whole system- though the validation process that Covert Browser still have to go through.

Smartphones are getting adopted widely and it makes sense to get more tools that provide some anonymity to users. Indeed, smartphones are the most privacy-exposed devices that has ever been invented so far IMHO: not only do they have great internet connection, but they come with all those social apps and most importantly, most of them have GPS features that allow third-parties to track each and every movement of the user (or at least the phone). Would you use ToR on your smartphone? Feel free to share your view in he comment section.

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Two Tools for Getting ToR on Your Android or iOS Smartphone

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On the survey itself, we’ve added a question about your location: indeed, we are dealing with VPN as a solution for overcoming geolimitation, and this question just makes sense since it will tell us how spread VPN solutions can be.

Please note that, on the question about your preferred VPN solution, we’ve added a “comment” section so that you can tell us why you prefer one solution compared to one another.

Feel free to answer the survey so that we have a better understanding of what you are actually using. You would notice that some questions are mandatory, we’ve also taken into consideration the fact that some of you may not want to share personal informations (name and e-mail for example), so we’ve left those “questions” as optional. Don’t worry, you don’t have to answer those two questions (even though we’d love to know you more

So here is the survey, feel free to have other people take it- the more answer we get, the better

View Survey

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What Is Your Favorite VPN Solution Provider?

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But things were meant to change, especially once cloud computing have seen a wide adoption: slowly, but surely, some pieces of the in-house IT infrastructure have moved to the cloud, thereby introducing a third-party player into the equation: IT managers are “losing control” over some part of the infrastructure that they are using.

But this radical change isn’t limited to the in-house side of IT, it also affected the end-user side: applications and storage are also moving from their desktop to the cloud.

So as to give some overview of the cloud computing and VPN dance, let’s consider if from two point of views.

1- Cloud computing for end-user customer

At this stage, most of cloud computing services (e-mail, file sharing, music listening and other online applications) are using SSL connections. However, for some specific uses (public WI-FI, for example), end-users are opting for third-party VPN solution providers to secure their connection. This is a best practice that has been advised to users for years. Robust and proven solutions come from HideMyAss, StrongVPN, ibVPN for that purpose.

Another increasingly popular use of VPN is to override geolocation-limited online services. Sites like hulu, spotify, BBC iPlayer or others only allow viewers from specific countries to access their services: VPN service is mainly used here for “borrowing” an IP address from authorized countries. The same principles are also used so as to overcome internet censorship that some countries are applying.

2- Cloud computing and corporate/enterprise services

On the corporate-side, the major use of VPN remains in-house mainly for branching remote offices or for giving a solution to teleworkers and travelers. As users are becoming more mobile and devices are becoming more diverse (laptops with different OS, smartphones, tablets …), some applications are brought to the cloud (example: salesforce, e-mail access or even file storage): they are usually accessed publicly via cloud provider specific API or via SSL.

For deeper cloud computing integration, different options are brought to the market to extend the enterprise network infrastructure to the cloud. Three major options can be identified here:

• extend in-house network infrastructure to the cloud. Cloud services in this category include: Amazon EC2, GoGrid, IBM Smartcloud, VMWare/Terremark vCloudExpress. They usually have their own API or system for accessing or managing their services,
• build a virtual network on the cloud: the idea here is to build a virtual network on top of the cloud provider’s infrastructure. CohesiveFT VPN-Cubed illustrates perfectly this solution. Connections from outside of the cloud or between clouds are made via IPsec and SSL,
• build a direct private pipe between the enterprise network and the cloud: Amazon Direct Connect illustrates this scenario. Direct connection to EC2 can be made through this private pipe, but it is expected that enterprises would want an additional encryption layer.

As you would see, I’ve dealt with the relation between cloud computing and VPN for the last couple of days, do you think there’s going to be a major change that will arise from the integration of those two concepts? If so, what would thy be?

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VPN Solutions Finding Their Ways Into Cloud Computing

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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 setup. 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 in-house IT environment. Most of the times, 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 ressources, and that’s all.

How cloud computing is “solving” this issue?

As opposed to the VPN-only approach where the IT department had to setup some secure channel for accessing in-house ressources, 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, more an more 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 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. 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 an 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’s 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 can stand, or do you have another perspective? Feel free to share in the comment section.

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Is Cloud Computing a Threat to VPN Services?

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Now, we shall be analyzing several tips that will increase the security of your Virtual Private Network.

What if your VPN connection fails?

At long last you have purchased for yourself a VPN subscription, configured the connection, and now you are enjoying your unrestricted freedom and privacy when surfing online. Later on, disaster comes. Unexpectedly, while you are not on your computer, your VPN disconnects and by now cyber punks have in plain view your real IP address. What is your solution?

Your remedy is simple, in case of VPN disconnection or failure, disable the internet access completely such that no traffic goes unecrypted. You can do this by using several firewall rules in Ubuntu.

Nonetheless, there still could be some problems if this is not done correctly. Thankfully, TorrentFreak reveals these two awesome software tools that can do the work easily.

These are –

• VPNetMon

This tool efficiently keeps an eye on the IPs of your computer. Once the IP of the VPN server is no longer detected, VPNetMon will shutdown specified programs immediately. The client works instantaneously that it quickly terminates the old connection and shows a new IP address without revealing your original IP.

You may obtain a download here.

• VPNCheck

Like VPNetMon, VPNCheck can be used when the VPN connection drops. VPNCheck shuts down the network connection of applications of your preference and shows you a notification message. It will constantly keep watch of the VPN adapter. You may connect to L2TP or PPTP with this tool.

A copy of the app can be obtained here.

Avoid DNS leaks right on its tracks

Every time you use a VPN, you might be thinking that all the web traffic goes through a privacy network, however on some occasions a occurrence called as ‘DNS Leakage’ may transpire. This simply denotes that instead of using the name servers (DNS) offered by the VPN service, it is more likely that the user’s default name servers (DNS) will be utilized instead.

There is a tool intended for checking leaks which you can easily find at DNSLeakTest.com.

Increase the security of your computer for important data transfers

In case you do not trust the VPN provider all the way, you are free to make use of two VPNs.  By doing this, you are tunneling the already encrypted connection by way of another tunnel.

Using Windows, you can easily accomplish this. First of all, simply configure at least 2 VPN accounts as you’d typically do. After which, connect to the first VPN, and once completed connect to the other one without disconnecting from the first one. In essence, you now have a tunnel traversing through a tunnel.

It is even possible to VPN using TOR, however do not use it for file-sharing as it will not work properly. VPN over TOR affords you security advantages. You can learn more on how to use VPN and TOR here.

The remedy for the PPTP and IPv6 security loophole

Sometime ago it was revealed that PPTP VPN and IPv6 are susceptible to a security flaw. This means that all Ubuntu and Windows  users could possibly leak their true IP addresses. You can nonetheless remedy the flaw with the following.

For Windows Vista and above:
Open cmd window and type:
netsh interface teredo set state disabled.

For Ubuntu 10+:
echo “#disable ipv6? | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
echo “net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6 = 1? | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
echo “net.ipv6.conf.default.disable_ipv6 = 1? | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
echo “net.ipv6.conf.lo.disable_ipv6 = 1? | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf

Purchase VPN using untrackable payment method

For you to accomplish this, you can get started by signing up for an (more or less) anonymous emailing address making use of Tor and utilize a Bitcoin Mixer to send Bitcoins to your freshly generated address within the local wallet.

Subscribe only to trusted VPN service providers

As we have mentioned before, VPN services that massively log are practical only if you are concerned about safeguarding your communications on the web through open public Wi-Fi hotspots, but not for other purposes.

For a complete list of our recommended trusted VPN service providers, please refer to this site.

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Ways To Secure Your Privacy If VPN Fails

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