Witopia Review: Hide Your IP Address With a VPN
I decided to try the Witopia VPN service a few months ago and I'll share my little Witopia review with you here.
If you have any interest in Internet privacy you are probably familiar with the role IP addresses play in identifying particular systems online. If not, here's a brief explanation:
A numerical, unique address is assigned to your computer or connection when you connect to the Internet. Websites can use this address to identify you and link things like Google search terms to your particular identifier.
For the sake of anonymity finding ways to hide your IP address is popular and important. Some people use free or paid proxy servers, others opt for a Virtual Private Network (VPN) service. An advantage of using a VPN is the fact that this type of service actual creates a secure, encrypted "tunnel" between your system and the VPN service provider which is helpful when using your system on an insecure network like you find at hotels and coffee shops.
The service I use is the Personal VPN PPTP service. PPTP stands for Point to Point Tunneling Protocol and is just the software technology used to make the connection. PPTP virtual private networks are usually less expensive to subscribe to than more advanced protocol VPNs like an SSL service.
I have found the Personal VPN PPTP service to be high quality overall. There are a large number of connections options around the globe so you are not likely to run out of choices in that area. The service is also quite reliable. I have had trouble on a few occasions with my connection attempts failing but as I mentioned there are many servers to choose from so if one fails you can usually connect via another server immediately.
A more troublesome problem is when you lose connectivity to the server in the middle of web browsing or downloading. I have found this to be a rare problem but it has happened on a few occasions. Considering use on a daily basis this is fairly insignificant in the overall scheme of things.
One big problem some people experience with VPNs in general is poor connection speed. I've had zero problems with this myself and rate the service very high in the speed category. I use a 1.5Mpbs DSL connection and can expect to achieve 1.4 to 1.5Mbps download speeds while using the VPN.
In summary, I've been very pleased with my experience and expect to use the service for some time to come.
I write about enhancing your privacy online and off. The latest blog post is an in-depth Witopia review with instructions on how to setup your Windows PC for a PPTP VPN service.
If you have any interest in Internet privacy you are probably familiar with the role IP addresses play in identifying particular systems online. If not, here's a brief explanation:
A numerical, unique address is assigned to your computer or connection when you connect to the Internet. Websites can use this address to identify you and link things like Google search terms to your particular identifier.
For the sake of anonymity finding ways to hide your IP address is popular and important. Some people use free or paid proxy servers, others opt for a Virtual Private Network (VPN) service. An advantage of using a VPN is the fact that this type of service actual creates a secure, encrypted "tunnel" between your system and the VPN service provider which is helpful when using your system on an insecure network like you find at hotels and coffee shops.
The service I use is the Personal VPN PPTP service. PPTP stands for Point to Point Tunneling Protocol and is just the software technology used to make the connection. PPTP virtual private networks are usually less expensive to subscribe to than more advanced protocol VPNs like an SSL service.
I have found the Personal VPN PPTP service to be high quality overall. There are a large number of connections options around the globe so you are not likely to run out of choices in that area. The service is also quite reliable. I have had trouble on a few occasions with my connection attempts failing but as I mentioned there are many servers to choose from so if one fails you can usually connect via another server immediately.
A more troublesome problem is when you lose connectivity to the server in the middle of web browsing or downloading. I have found this to be a rare problem but it has happened on a few occasions. Considering use on a daily basis this is fairly insignificant in the overall scheme of things.
One big problem some people experience with VPNs in general is poor connection speed. I've had zero problems with this myself and rate the service very high in the speed category. I use a 1.5Mpbs DSL connection and can expect to achieve 1.4 to 1.5Mbps download speeds while using the VPN.
In summary, I've been very pleased with my experience and expect to use the service for some time to come.
I write about enhancing your privacy online and off. The latest blog post is an in-depth Witopia review with instructions on how to setup your Windows PC for a PPTP VPN service.
