I’ve done quite a bit of writing and advertising over the years for services that allow you to browse the web anonymously. I’m by no means, a “guru”, or Know-It-All, but I am a minor export in what these services have to offer, and having tried them myself, can speak about things like customer service, browsing speed, functions, features, pros and cons from experience. I don’t really want to start from the beginning again – It’s a long and winded explanations of ‘how things work’. To tell you the truth, I think most people are bored by it. So here’s everything – in a nutshell.
There are basically two roads you can go down, proxies or virtual private networks.
Proxies – Designed specifically for browsing, they’re simple to use, require no installation, and leave no trace (providing you delete browser history/cookies). This is a great way to unblock sites, hide browsing/email/download content from your boss or teacher, and get access to other restricted places on the internet. You can save hassle and cash because one subscription can be used on any phone or computer that can browse the internet.
However, there are some limitations. They do not hide the IP address of software and apps outside of your browser. They’re also not the end-all to anonymity, ie there are some security flaws that means if a hacker knows what he’s doing, he can find you. You’d have to be into some seriously top-secret stuff to have someone like that trying to crack your data, but hey, I don’t know what you’re into.
The point is that these are great for general anonymous browsing and unblocking websites, but there are limits to their anonymity.
Virtual private networks – These are the ‘end-all’ to anonymity that I mentioned earlier. SSL encryption and VPN tunneling means that you are hidden and actively protect behind a layer of uncrackable code. Professional government services can’t hack a VPN, and they even work in China and Iran, where the government controls EVERYTHING. You’ll get past more firewalls, and thus more sites. Wherever a proxy fails, a VPN won’t let you down. Also great for streaming live sports, TV, and movies from other countries, games, as well as anonymous P2P and torrents software.
The problem is that you’ll pay more. While a great proxy service can be just five USD per month, a VPN service will surely cost more – something between $7 and $20 dollars being average, with most services being around $10 per month. They also have to be installed, which means you can’t just get it up and running ASAP like with a proxy. Theoretically, you could access the VPN site, download, install, and uninstall, but it sounds like kind of a pain to me.
All in all, they’re more secure, more reliable, and can do more, but they’ll cost more too.
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Recommended Services
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SecuriTales
I only ever recommend one proxy service. It’s called SecuriTales – not the greatest name, but there’s nothing that even compares to it as far as proxies go. There’s a FREE Trial for starters, which is awesome, and you should try it just for this reason. When you complete the free trial, they give you a 25% discount – even more awesome. After you sign up, you can try it for 30 days, and if you decide it didn’t live up to your expectations, you can get your money back. Now that is 100% confidence in your product. And it’s only $6 per month (for a year sign-up), plus the discount, makes is $4.5 dollars a month. Even if you only sign up for two months ($8 per month) the 25% discount makes it only $6 per month.
Aside from great deals, discounts, and all that stuff I mentioned above, it actually works. I even tested it in China, where most proxies are blocked. It’s anonymous, it’s fast, it unblock sites. What else could you ask for?
>>> Go To SecuriTales
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Hide My Ass
I always mention this first when talking about VPNs, because most people don’t have to look further than this service. It’s got the most VPN servers, in the most countries, for the cheapest price. You can choose servers based on speed or number of users signed into a server, which means you always get the fastest connection speed possible. They allow torrents, and respect your privacy. They support iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, and Linux, which pretty much covers everyone. All of this is only $6.55 per month – I challenge you to find a better deal.
>>> Go To Hide My Ass
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12VPN
HMA covers pretty much everyone, but there are others those that may need to turn to 12VPN. They support various types of VPN routers and Symbian devices that HMA doesn’t cover. There are also routing options, and other customization options like military grade encryption. They also have a wide variety of servers available, fast connection speeds, and their customer service is top notch. HMA is actually blocked in quite a few middle eastern and Asian countries, so 12VPN is quite popular in these regions.
>>> Go To 12VPN
>>> Alternate site for Asia/Middle East
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StrongVPN
StrongVPN has some great deals, including VPN packages starting at just $55 per year. This is a price I’ve yet to see another VPN service beat. There are some limitations to these special packages, but their standard package prices are reasonable as well. They tend to be a bit more expensive that similar packages from 12VPN or HMA, but StrongVPN offers live support, and in my experience, slightly more reliable servers. Their coolest feature is probably that you can choose a VPN package based on the region of the world you’re in.
>>> Go To StrongVPN
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