I have never used any VPN in the past and never thought I would need one. To me the setup and use of VPN seem too complicated. I intentionally avoid using any VPN until I discovered Hide My Ass VPN aka HMA VPN. To my surprise, installing HMA VPN is as easy as installing any other Windows or Mac applications and there is no delay or waiting while watching Hulu movies in UK or China.
HMA VPN Rocks
Recently, I have been travelling a lot and I frequently need to connect to public Wi-Fi hotspots in hotels, airports, airline clubs etc. Besides the privacy issues, I like the ability to access my favorite websites without the restrictions imposed by some overly protective network admins. Obviously this also applies to nosy bosses or parents, governments, RIAA or the occasional wannabe geek trying out FireSheep just because he (or she) can.
Then I discovered Hide My Ass VPN, also known as HMA VPN – which can encrypt the internet traffic and stop hackers and eavesdroppers from intercepting the internet traffic when I am browsing online.
By using a VPN like HMA VPN, I don’t have to worry being monitored when I am connected to the Internet through a Wi-Fi hotspot. This is because VPNs use cryptographic tunneling protocols to provide confidentiality by blocking intercepts and packet sniffing. VPNs can block identity spoofing, and provide message integrity by preventing the message you send being altered. HMA VPN allows you to randomly change your IP addresses at given intervals (eg: changing IP every hour, every 30 minutes). As known to many Internet users, website like hulu restricts their content to people that have IP addresses within U.S.
With HMA VPN, you can easy choose IPs from 22’500+ IP addresses located in 36 countries. I noticed this feature during a quick trip across the boarder to Canada. Finally a way to enjoy country specific content from abroad.
One quick note about one other solution we tested, Tunnelblick. I configured it with a free Amazon Web Service (AWS) Micro instance. While HMA VPN is by no means expensive and their service is awesome, AWS with Tunnelblick is obviously cheaper. It works, but requires a lot of tinkering I am not really in the mood for when traveling for business. I prefer simple solutions that work.
One Thing Makes HMA VPN the Winner
One thing makes HideMyAss VPN standout from others is their client software – HMA! Pro VPN. It is a Java program so it virtually runs on almost any operating system. With HMA VPN client software, you can randomly change your IP address, find the fastest VPN servers that are close to you by doing a speed test. You can switch between OpenVPN or PPTP easily. You can even double the security by specifying a proxy on top of your VPN connection.
If you want to protect your privacy and enjoy high-speed Internet you should check out HMA VPN. HMA VPN works on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Linux, Android and of course Windows.
Comments
used HMA for awhile. You want a VPN service that doesn’t keep ANY logs. Just be logging when I was on and off one day, Comcast contacted HMA and enquired about me downloading Iron Man2. Which HMA told me was illegal and they didn’t approve of it. I asked them if they told Comcast anything, they said Did you download Iron Man 2? Which I replied, It’s not on my computer. This circular debate ended with me simply uninstalling HMA
Keith – I am a little confused about your comment. If you are using a VPN (like HMA or any other for that matter) your Internet Service Provider (in your case Comcast) would not be able to see what you are doing while online, hence would not be able to contact HMA to ask about a specific movie (Iron Man 2) you allegedly downloaded. Just curious…
Magnus… it’s a very complicated process, but Anti-piracy companies automatically monitor public bit-torrent trackers usually for US IP addresses that are involved in illegally sharing copyrighted material. These companies then send a file sharing complaint to the underlying ISP behind the IP address, and this ISP then forwards the complaint on to the vpn provider. They are legally required to forward on the complaint to the suspected customer. Though they do not keep logs of your activity, they are aware of the ip address and who it was assigned to at at the time. But, this method is not perfect, so just deny and remove any suspected data from the public folders. They don’t see on your computer, but the get the info from the swarm, which is not 100% fool-proof. Hope that helps uncerstand the process. :O)
I always use Hotspot Shield – reliable, fast and 99% secure for my mac system. http://www.freevpnformac.com
Hi,
my name is Pete from the HMA-Team.
@Frederico: As admin posted, we do not log any websites, passwords, email content etc.
We only log time of connect, time of disconnect, IP.
Nothing more 🙂
@john: Our servers in the Asia/Pacific region are not the fastes ones, that is true.
We recommend trying all available protocols, or connect to other servers.
Do the speed guide option of our VPN client to find the fastest server for your location.
Regarding the fact that you did not qualify for a refund, this is clearly stated in our refund policy
@ http://vpn.hidemyass.com/vpncontrol/refund-cancellation-policy.html
“You are entitled to a full refund on a new order if all of the following apply:
[..] you have not previously claimed a refund from us under this policy.”
We are offering the refund policy for people that want to try our service first, and if they’re not satisfied, they can apply for a refund.
The refund policy is not for getting free VPN access by creating new accounts and requesting refund each time.
@Devani: Speed problems on Android? Have you yet tried all protocols – PPTP, L2TP and OpenVPN?
When connecting via OpenVPN-UDP you should get the best speeds, but how to connect exactly depends
on your Android version. Please see http://wiki.hidemyass.com/Android
for instructions.
———–
We are constanly trying to improve our service, support and VPN server quality+quantity.
Also, we are grateful for any feedback we receive. Contact us if you have any problems,
and also feel free to just tell us your opinion, feedback and how you think we could make things better.
Have a nice day,
Pete
HMA-Team
I’ve gotten conflicting answers, and I’m just curious: Does HMA VPN keep a list/record of websites I visit, or passwords I enter (other than on HMA’s own site), or email content or anything like that?
From Hidemyass.com
What logs do you keep? Do you monitor my activity?
We only log the times you connect and disconnect from our service. We do not log what activity you get up to behind our VPN service, such as what websites you visit and who you talk to. For more information go to our privacy policy.
I used this provider just over a year ago for their UK VPN service. I really didn’t have any complaints other than being a little slow at times.
I recently signed up with them for their Australian VPN servers in Brisbane. I wanted to watch some of the excellent SBS Giro d’Italia coverage. Unfortunately the servers were so slow it wasn’t worth even downloading the coverage. 3 hours to download 100Mb!! Appalling. Support suggested trying their OpenVPN client but that was worse. It wouldn’t allow me to download at all! I dug around on their forums and found the speed of their Brisbane has been an issue for at least 6 months. They’ve done nothing about it. I’ve heard their Singapore servers are similarly slow.
I thought I hadn’t lost anything since they have a 30-day money back guarantee. HAHAHA … yeah right!! They said I’d been a previous subscriber and wasn’t eligible! I asked them to explain (several times) but have heard nothing back. No refund, no explanation.
Appalling support! I will never sign up with them again or recommend them to anyone.
For the most part everything worked great. However, the PPTP on my mbile phone (HTC Sense,Android,Sprint) was extremely slow. It wasn’t worth using for me. As soon as I turn off the VPN it speeds right up, then when I try it again it’s really slow again. And sometimes the pages don’t look right when it finally finishes loading. Just text, no graphics.
this is the second time i subscribe to hma vpn and i like it so much.
Last time I was in China I used http://www.highspeedvpn.com/, worked pretty well.
HMA seems better though because they have more servers to choose from. Will definitely give them a try next time I need a VPN.
I use hideMyAss on my iPhone and on my Mac. It’s really easy to use and the software is great. The only problem I have is with the speed. I can’t watch videos or other stuff in real time in 480p quality.. yeah.. it’s not 720p Quality.. 480p quality..
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Dave, how did you configure it to work with Amazon AWS? I just set up an instance and when I turn on HMA, it blocks IE which makes it useless to me. I cannot figure out how to make it work. Any thoughts? Thanks!
The page list all the VPN servers worldwide :
I agree with you Dave. I have been using HMA for two weeks. Hide my ass is certainly the best VPN I have used. The good thing is it allows two con-current connections. So I can actually use it with my partner in Mexico at the same time.
HMA is probably one of the best VPN I ever used.