Introduction Hidemyass Skygo
Hide My Ass! (HMA!) Is a firm, with Its claim to fame has been its huge number of subscribers — it’s over 400 million now. This supplier has seen its fair share of controversy with respect to user privacy. It made upgrades to it service in the hopes of redeeming itself and winning back the loyalty of its readers. Hidemyass Skygo
We took it To get a test run to find out how much it’s improved and whether it is well worth the cost.
Click here to sign up for Hide My Ass! Today!
What’s a VPN?
It generates an encrypted tunnel to when you activate a VPN Guard your information as it passes from the computer to a host controlled by the VPN. From that point, your info exits onto the net. It is a simple concept, but one with tremendous impacts to your privacy and safety.
For starters, it prevents anybody lurking on your neighborhood Network from intercepting or observation your activity. Though the airport or coffee shop Wi-Fi system appears safe (it may even be password-protected) it is not reallysecure unless you are using a VPN. For another thing, a VPN may stop your Internet Service Provider (ISP) from collecting information about your online activities so it can sell anonymized user data to the maximum bidder.
A VPN makes it more difficult to correlate your Online activities together with your own identity. Since your visitors is exiting in the VPN firm’s server, you seem to have its own IP address, effectively concealing your true site. Additionally, it compels even the most determined attacker to test and sort through all the traffic from different users on the same VPN server to find what they are after. For all these reasons, and more, you need a VPN on your lifetime.
Note that a VPN only encrypts your visitors till it exits through the VPN server. Provided the site you are accessing uses HTTPS, your data must be secure all the way. Also, while VPNs can offer a modicum of anonymity, a tool like the Tor system is much better at concealing your identity.
VPNs have long been used by journalists and political activists To circumvent censorship in countries with repressive net policies. They’re also useful if you are looking to circumvent geographical constraints on streaming content. A VPN can spoof your existing location, providing you with access to restricted content like BBC streaming or MLB TV. Some VPNs don’t appreciate these activities (which may be in violation of terms of support or even local legislation ) and content providers such as Netflix are also cracking down on users that spoof their location and the VPN providers they utilize to do it.
There’s a Fantastic chance That you may have never laid hands on a VPN before. Don’t worry if that is true! We have got an entire feature on how best to prepare and use a VPN. Hidemyass Skygo
VPN Protocols
There are many ways to create a VPN connection. My Preferred method uses the OpenVPN protocol, which is famous for its speed and reliability. Additionally, it is open minded, and consequently has been chosen over for potential vulnerabilities by anyone with the interest to do so.
Hide My Ass utilizes OpenVPN on Windows, using an older version Of the program that supports L2TP, and PPTP, too. Additionally, there are two different versions of the macOS app which, taken collectively, support IPSec (IKEv1 and v2), L2TP, and PPTP. Be aware that these old versions of the program are being phased out from the developer. The iOS version uses just IPSec, and the Android app uses only OpenVPN.
That’s a Small hodgepodge, and I am disappointed that Hide My Ass does not provide OpenVPN on all platforms. That said, some of the matter is using the platforms. Apple requires programmers to jump through extra hoops if they want to include OpenVPN in an app, but a lot of them are starting to move in this way. I would love to view Hide My Ass do exactly the same, across the board.
Your Privacy With Hide My Ass
With any safety product, you want to be sure that the Business behind it will be operating in your best interests. This is particularly true for VPNs, which are supposed to increase privacy and safety. If a VPN company is just as nosey as your ISP, there’s not much point in using it.
While I review VPNs, I read the Organization’s privacy policy And talk with representatives to be able to better understand how your information is used and stored. In the instance of Hide My Ass, the corporation ought to be commended on its privacy policy. It states that Hide My personal logs your username, the timestamp of connection and disconnection, the amount of data transmitted, your actual IP address, and the IP address of the host you linked to. This isn’t radically different from what is provided by other providers. In fact, it’s very similar to Golden Frog VyprVPN’s policy.
What is notable is that Hide My Ass Will store this data for two to three months, while VyprVPN stores it for only 30 days. Other services hold less information, or else they dispose of it immediately. Hide My Ass states it keeps this data for this period of time so as to enhance performance, prevent fraud, and stop bad guys from using the VPN to send spam. The company, especially, also lists document sharing among the illegal actions it requires this information to stop, regardless of the firm being fine by means of BitTorrent on some servers.
It might be possible that this advice could be used To correlate a user’s identity to particular activity on the internet, but it will probably be very hard. In spite of this information, an audience would have to know which VPN host to watch and then compare this activity against Hide My Ass’s logs, and also be able to parse out the target’s traffic from everyone else using the same server.
The Hide My privacy policy also clearly states that it Does not monitor or store the actual content of your online activity. So, the service is not looking at your websites or the files that you’re downloading. That’s great, and exactly what you wish to hear from a VPN company.
Before, some VPN companies monetized users by Injecting ads in their web traffic. Hide My Ass says that it does not do that, and goes even farther. A company representative explained to me that the firm doesn’t profit from consumer data at all.
The actual place of a VPN company also issues, as it Can inform what protections are afforded to clients. Hide My Ass operates under the jurisdiction of England and Wales, also gets its own company headquarters in London. The UK at large does have compulsory data retention laws. That is not perfect. Many VPN services function in countries without data retention legislation, or in ones that have positive privacy protections for consumers. Hidemyass Skygo
I don’t believe It’s likely to make a determination About a company’s advantages based on its own location. But, it is important to understand the laws and policies on the job in a business with such intimate access to your information. I encourage visitors to think about this advice, and pick a VPN service with which they may feel comfortable.
Servers and Server Places
A key differentiator between VPN providers is the number of Available servers and their geographical distribution. Lots of servers means you’re more likely to find. For its own part, Hide My Ass has a commendable 876 servers in its disposal. That said, Personal online accessibility NordVPN, and TorGuard VPN have well over 3,000 servers. These are my benchmarks for robustness in the VPN server class.
Geographic distribution of those servers can be quite important. Lots of places means more to choose from for purposes, but also ensures that no matter where you travel there will be a server for your very best performance. Hide My Ass has an extremely impressive 286 server places across some 220 countries. It is easily the list one of the VPN providers I’ve reviewed.
The list of server places that were available Provided by Hide My Ass is particularly noteworthy since places often ignored by other VPN companies are covered by it. It’s, as an instance, server places that are numerous throughout the continent of Africa–a rarity among VPN businesses. It also maintains servers in China, Russia, and Turkey, which have repressive net policies.
Some consumers might be concerned about a VPN company’s Use of servers. All these are servers which make a single server operate as several servers. Virtual servers may also be configured to behave as though they are in 1 state when they are in another, which is a problem if you’re concerned about where your data is traveling.
I was told by A company representative this a full 225 of the 286 server places are virtual servers. Only 61 of the server locations are hardware, and 450 of Hide My Ass’s 876 servers are all virtual. That’s far beyond providers. NordVPN TunnelBear, IPVanish, and TorGuard use physical infrastructure.
A business representative explained to me that majority of the Company’s physical server infrastructure is located in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London, Miami, New York, Prague, Seattle, and Singapore. This doesn’t quite jibe with what Hide My Ass lists on its own site. I’d like to see future versions of Hide My Ass be clearer about when you are linked to a virtual host.
Installation and interface
Getting Began with Hide My Ass! Is super simple and the updated apps are very user-friendly. You’ll be given a license key, As soon as you register for your own account. You can use this or your credentials (password and username ) to log into any app. For the purpose of this review, we have tested the Windows client and the iOS app. Hidemyass Skygo
Desktop
Once you’ve Logged in and launched the client, you’ll be greeted with the Success! screen. Click Got It! To access the main screen of the app. Here you have Freedom Mode: Instant Mode, Location Mode, and three choices for modes.
In Immediate Mode, you can click on the arrow And you’ll be connected to the server for your current location.
In Location manner, you can choose which Server you connect to. Click on Change Location to see your options. There is. We all will show you an alphabetized state list. Clicking on the arrow to the left of each country name will show you specific locations within that country.
Speedy Access shows you a list Recently linked to, in addition to some recommended options. Streaming will give you a selection of two servers suitable for unblocking popular streaming services like Netflix, one in the united states and one in the united kingdom.
Peer to Peer shows You permit P2P filesharing. Finally, there’s the Favorites option; to indicate a server as a favorite, you can click the heart .
Going back To the main screen, the one other option here’s Freedom Mode, that is aimed at users who want to bypass censorship. This mode will connect you to a server in the nearest country that’s regarded as free from censorship.
You can Access the Settings by clicking on the menu icon in the top left corner of the main display and selecting Preferences. Here, you will see three tabs: General, Network Security, and Kill Change. In the Generalscreen, you can change your startup options, such as starting when the program starts or when you turn on your pc.
You also Possess. If you want to conceal your history, you can uncheck the box.
Next, We’ve got the Network Security screen in which you can select settings for wifi protection that is automatic. You can also turn on the IP shuffle feature making it harder for someone to detect where you are by periodically changing your IP address. One option in this display lets you utilize TCP using OpenVPN. This is only recommended if UDP is blocked or throttled. TCP is more secure, but UDP is generally faster.
The Final tab is the Switch tab, so that it works for all programs, where you can toggle on this feature. You can also add applications and decide whether or not to apply it.
This Is a program and it’s definitely both visually pleasing and searchable.
Mobile
Many Suppliers will have a mobile app that is unrecognizable compared to the desktop version. But, HMA! Has streamlined its product, and also the iOS app looks almost like the Windows version.
Once you’re Logged in, you’ll get to the main screen, which is basically exactly like the screen in the background program. Here you can Pick from Instant Mode, Location Mode, or Freedom Mode.
Click here to sign up for Hide My Ass! Today!
The Only real difference is that if you pick Location Mode, your choices are presented in another manner. You’ve got three tabs: Countries, Cities, and Favorites, but missing are speedy Access, and the options found from the such as Streaming, Peer to Peer.
To Access the streaming servers from the program, you’ll need to go to the Cities list and find the Liberty Island server beneath US, New York. The UK Town server may also be located to BBC iPlayer and UK Netflix.
Moving on, The settings to the program can be retrieved by clicking the menu icon and selecting Settings. There you have two options: privacy and Connection Rules.
In The Connection Rules section, it is possible to adjust wifi security settings and choose whether to auto reconnect when wifi or mobile connections are disrupted.
The Personal solitude department only has 1 alternative: Share utilization data with third parties for analytics, which will be your consent to”allow app and device use data to be shared with third parties for analytics.” Bear in mind this is permitted by default so that it may be among the first things that you want to turn off.
Overall, This is a slick and intuitive program, but many users may be missing additional features like a kill switch and the option to change protocols.
Servers and performance
The Hide My Ass! Network includes more than 850 servers. Some of them are virtual servers, but a consumer service representative was unable to inform us just how many. Hidemyass Skygo
As we Discussed previously, HMA presents many options for selecting the right server, including distinct modes and the ability to mark servers as favorites. Servers that allow P2P are marked with a P2P symbol.
We analyzed Servers for performance in also the UK and the usa in terms of surfing browsing, and downloading. Overall, when browsing, there were no issues, besides there being a noticeable slowdown in page load times when connected to a UK server. This isn’t uncommon for geographically distant servers (the evaluations were completed in Toronto, Canada), but might be frustrating, especially for users who have slow net rates.
We didn’t See any lag or streaming whilst streaming 1080p with any of the test servers and were able to play online games without any issues.
HideMyAss! and Netflix
Hide My Ass! unblocks Netflix! But don’t expect to link to some Server and proceed. We had no chance whatsoever, when we tested random servers using US Netflix using the client. But if you select the Streaming choice in the dropdown within Location Mode, you’ll see two options: a US host (USA, New York, Liberty Island) and a UK server (UK, Donkey Town). Note that in the app, you’ll have to obtain these inside the Cities list in Location Mode.
Connecting To the US server gave us access without issue to Netflix. Linking to the UK one enabled access to UK Netflix in Addition to BBC iPlayer. Many suppliers just concentrate on providing US Netflix access, so it’s refreshing to see one that strives to provide entry to the UK library also. What is more, BBC iPlayer is breaking down on VPN use, so the capability to unblock this service is a wonderful perk.
If you are You may need to go elsewhere. HMA! Is having trouble unblocking this support at a customer care representative and this time advised us that there isn’t any estimated time for when it may be functioning again.
HideMyAss! in China?
Hide My Ass! Doesn’t operate in China. It used to, but HMA! Responses in support forums have suggested that the service will no longer work for a few users. You could try your luck, but should you want a trusted China VPN, you’d best look elsewhere.
HideMyAss! Speed test performance
For any VPN That is compatible with our test methods, we run. We use a evaluation server to connect to VPN servers in Australia, the United Kingdom, the Usa, Hong Kong, and Germany. For each and every place, we download an evaluation file (50MB in size) from a US server. This is done four times every day. The average download speed for each test is recorded and the aggregate data is displayed.
You can see From the Simple chart below how HMA! Compares to another VPN services we’ve been analyzing. While it doesn’t have the fastest rates, it is close to the front of the pack in regards to download speeds.
You can see that the spread in outcomes is not as tight as a number of the additional evaluation VPNs by clicking the comprehensive tab. This means that you might observe some inconsistency when it comes to speeds.
It is Important to be aware that these tests are not definitive and may only function as an overall indication of the functionality you might see. The internet’s volatility adds a factor of randomness. What’s more, you’ll probably see longer wait times with a slow connection, and perhaps smaller or disagreements. Hidemyass Skygo
Customer service
For those who Want Any aid whilst establishing or using the support, HMA! Has a couple of options for you to select from. Clicking the Help tab on the Site, you’ll find also a Knowledge Base along with a Getting Started section. These each home articles associated with setting up queries. So before seeking other options that you might want to explore both there is a crossover.
Additionally, You’ll locate a Community button which leads to a discussion section. This is segregated into different topics; while some are active some appear to be out of date. Under that, there are a number of FAQs.
If you do not Discover what you’re looking for, or you just want a response, you can click on the live chat button in the bottom right-hand corner of this display. The service is prompt and educated, and agents were able to quickly resolve. At one point, there was a representative unable to answer some security questions and advised he would escalate the issue because an email request. This has been responded to in under two weeks which is very quick for an email reply.
Security and privacy
Hide My Ass! Is based. The UK can be a Five Eyes (and Fourteen Eyes) country, which means it is part of an alliance which allows tracking by outside authorities. Plus, it’s home to the Charter which imposes regulations of the Snooper.
For many Data retention legislation in their home country aren’t really an issue. This is because they operate using a real policy whereby no connection or visitors logs are kept by them. If they do keep connection logs, they can not be tied to a single user.
Regrettably, HMA! Isn’t among these VPNs and has a privacy policy which users will discover off-putting. For one, when you can anticipate your IP address will be logged, together with timestamps and the number of information used. This is a for VPNs generally. The truth is that information can and has been used to trace the activity of individuals, although an IP address is considered to be information. IP addresses have been used to help find and convict criminals. We are pro-privacy while we certainly don’t condone activities that are criminal, and this coverage does not cut it. Hidemyass Skygo
Additionally, Hide My Ass! Telephones the VPN IP address Attached to a session. Here is the IP address that a site operator can see and document when you visit it. It would technically be possible to piece together all of an individual’s online activity since the actual and VPN IP addresses are logged, between the finish and VPN site logs. You may have seen news of a 2011 FBI situation involving HMA! In which it passed over logs which were utilized to track down a hacker that is LulzSec. This can be a marker for solitude.
One way to Make this less of an issue and to perhaps confuse things a little is to take advantage of this IP address shuffle feature. When enabled in the Network Security screen of the program, this switches your IP address out to get another one. It would not make you untraceable but could add a layer of obfuscation.
Privacy Issues on the safety front, Hide My Ass! Fares fairly well. It uses. This perfect forward secrecy and is in combination with 4096-bit RSA keys. It employs exactly the protocol over UDP by default, but you can change to TCP inside the client. PPTP, L2TP, IPSec are also available, depending on what app you’re using.
The versions boast a built-in kill button which can be tailored To work for programs. The online connection will be killed by A kill switch should the VPN link drop for a certain reason. This feature isn’t available in the mobile programs
A live chat Customer service representative informed us that there’s not any DNS leak protection. But a different firm representative promised us that there is in fact DNS and IPv6 leak protection, but no WebRTC leak protection. Indeed, when we analyzed the service we didn’t observe any DNS leak issues other than leaks that are WebRTC. HMA! Does use public DNS servers whereas ones will be preferable from a privacy standpoint.
One handy Feature that Hide My Ass! Provides is wifi security, which is customized in the from the Network Security part of the or the mobile app’s Connection Rules tab settings.
Characteristics and pricing
Hide My Ass! Provides one product with prices varying depending on the length of term you sign up for. It is definitely not one of the providers available, which might be an immediate turnoff for some users. A 12-month planwill set you back $6.99 a month, which can be greater than the normal cost for a similar term. What is more, a great deal of VPN providers will offer an extended plan; for instance, a two- or – term with discounts. Hidemyass Skygo
If You are not prepared to sign up just yet, HMA! Does provide a turn-key program for $7.99 a month or you could pay on a monthly basis for $11.99 per month. These rates are a little above average when you compare to competitors.
Payment Options include PayPal major credit cards, and UnionPay. For much more privacy-conscious users, other along with bitcoin cryptocurrencies are not viable payment procedures. There’s a money-back guarantee, so if you are not fully satisfied with the support, you can have your payment deducted.
So what do You get for the money? Hide My Ass! Has a network of over 850 servers in over 180 countries. Some are devoted to accessing streaming websites and certain servers permit P2P filesharing (read: torrenting). All plans come with unlimited bandwidth and you can join up to five devices concurrently. Apps are available for Windows, MacOS, iOS, and Android. The VPN can be manually configured with some routers and Linux. Routers are available as an alternate.
From a Security standpoint, HMA! Offers perfect forward secrecy, strong encryption wifi security, and the desktop apps come with a kill switch. However, the policy issues which plagued the service remain, so privacy is a problem.
Wrap-up
For the most part, HMA! Provides a support that is great. It has unlimited bandwidth, fast speeds, and an adequate community of servers. It is able to unblock popular streaming services like Netflix US, Netflix UK, and BBC iPlayer. Plus, it gives intuitive apps, strong protection, and excellent customer care.
On the Surface, it feels like HMA! Would be a good alternative for torrenters, with no data Caps and some servers. The problems with the privacy Policy are a concern as well as any other privacy-conscious users. Indeed, this is the major turn-off for this Provider, but it is a large one. Other issues include the inability to work Reliably in also the price tag along with China. Hidemyass Skygo
Click here to sign up for Hide My Ass! Today!