The internet used to be pretty open but unfortunately there are now a huge amount of filters and blocks applied from every level. This has led obviously to a huge amount of tools and software designed to bypass these filters primarily based on a core of proxy and VPN servers. But they can get expensive if you want any flexibility purely because you often need more in different countries. Think of my friend who is from Krakow originally but now lives in the UK – he often likes to connect back to websites in his home land for obvious reasons. But increasingly he will get blocked because of his location. What he needs is a Polish proxy in order to access these sites – for instance the Polish media channels.
But my friend also likes to watch some strange American series which is only available in the US, plus he likes a show on Canadian pilots on Canadian TV. So to watch all these he’d need a Polish, US and Canadian proxy or VPN service. You’ll notice that many of the proxy providers will sell you access to specific servers but they usually charge extra for each location. But there are a couple who just charge a single subscription and give you access to their entire network.
Here’s how one of my favorites works – first I connect to Google with my normal address.
But unfortunately this means I am tied into a UK location, which is fine if you just want to access UK related sites but what if you want to access sites that are restricted to Poland, Russia, USA or anywhere else on the planet? I need to be able to fool these sites that I am located somewhere else which I can do through using either a proxy or VPN server. For this demonstration I am going to use a Poland based proxy from a company called Overplay.
Here’s what I do – just connect up to my Overplay software and scroll down their list of available proxies. From the screenshot you can see I have a polish proxy server available so I just connect through that. It takes about 10 seconds to connect and to extablish the connection after you put in your username and password.
Then you’re connected – at this point you have a VPN tunnel connected between you and the Overplay server in Krakow, Poland. In plain English this means that you will now appear to every web site you visit to be from Poland. For instance here’s what you see if you visit Google whilst using the Poland proxy. The geo location checks your IP address and delivers the Polish version of the search engine.
Of course this isn’t particularly useful if you aren’t actually in Poland. However if you are getting blocked from a specific site because of your location it can be an incredibly useful tool. It means all Polish content is available to you whilst connected, any look ups will reveal your location to be Krakow because that’s where the server is located.
To be honest the more I think of this subject, the more I keep filling in the cons category and see little for the Pros. For instance you may have read recently a survey commissioned by Google about the value of the internet economy to different countries. To the UK economy the internet was estimated to be worth over 100 billion dollars – a staggering amount of money I’m sure you’ll agree.
It is potentially one of the biggest benefits that the internet can give to the economies of the world, the chance to open up world markets to people, companies and countries across the world. Some investment in infrastructure could give people the chance to set up online businesses and engage with economies across the planet. Imagine the potential opportunities that are available in less developed countries, the chance to access these market irrespective of your location.
So what has this got to do with online anonymity? After all doing business online is partly about trust and being anonymous from your customers hardly helps this. Of course this is a perfectly fair opinion and a very valid point. Indeed if the internet was a huge global digital marketplace where we where all treated completely equal then there would be little reason to hide your identity online. Unfortunately it isn’t and there are many barriers of entry to even the simplest online business from many countries. Payment processors, geo targeting restrictions and
Considering the Online Anonymity Pros and Cons
This is one of the reasons why being anonymous is good, it gives you the chance to detach your online business persona from your personal one. If you live in a country where it’s difficult to operate online for whatever reason, then you can detach from this and operate virtually from another country. For instance I know loads of people who now make their living entirely online, from web designers, marketers, programmers you name it. An amazing chance to perhaps equalize the life chances of people across the planet.
Why are lots of people at a disadvantage? Well there’s a variety of reasons, from access to payment processors to simply credibility issues. The internet should really be a level playing field where we can all have exactly the same access irrespective of who we are and where we are located.
In reality of course this isn’t happening, the same backward, despotic governments that have created third world countries have spotted the internet and seen it as a threat rather than an opportunity. But of course they’re probably right it is certainly a threat to them, alas the opportunities for their people will be denied. I strongly believe there is no real argument, there is no internet censorship pros and cons discussion to be had.
You will see investment in internet technology, Saudi Arabia have spent a fortune in hardware to spy on their citizens, Syria force Cyber Cafe owners to monitor their customers – whilst they filter at a packet level every single web request from their country. Of course we know about China and Iran who live in fear of every web site that allows people to communicate and talk to each other.
There is no real ‘pro’ to internet censorship and blocking only excuses. Despite what people may argue regarding the ethics of online anonymity. The reality is that even if it was decided that online anonymity is bad and should be prevented then only ‘law abiding’ people would follow these restrictions. It is possible to be pretty much invisible online if you have some knowledge and the ability to fund a solution. So anyone who is involved in criminal acts is likely to take these options, the poor and innocent would be blocked from these solutions.
It’s many years since I used Hide My Ass proxy service for my online security. It was one of the first VPN/proxy services available but unfortunately it became very popular and got overloaded years ago. There’s no doubt that they were one of the first VPN provider companies to bring a decent VPN service to the ordinary internet surfer, however now there are so many other options. It’s just a matter of choosing the best hidemyass alternatives that are simply better value all round. The interface has improved but I still find it rather hard to navigate, yet the real issue for many of us is that they are automatically blocked by many of the biggest websites which use geo restrictions. They also no longer allow access to a free VPN but do have an unsecured free proxy, it’s easy to use but very slow though, particular when using the popular endpoints in the UK and USA.
So what are the options ? What’s the best hidemyass alternative out there? Well as mentioned there’s no shortage of other VPN providers in todays market. What used to be something of a niche requirement is now commonplace. In fact millions of internet users, will depend on their VPN service for all sorts of reasons. Whether it’s the security of bit encryption or simply a way of hiding their IP addresses there’s no doubt it’s one of the most useful internet tools available today.
Yet which of these products you should choose, depends largely on what’s your main focus. For example a large proportion of VPN users have little concern for the virtual private network component, instead they just use it to unlock sites and content normally blocked by geo restrictions. This means that the number of servers, their location and speed is arguably more important than the encryption level and the log management policies. After all if you’re using your VPN to mainly watch the BBC or stream movies from Hulu then speed is vital.
Obviously cost is an issue too for most us, which can be an issue as the cheaper prices are normally associated with slower connections. This is because most VPN services will lower their prices by loading more users on their VPN servers. This enables them to lower their costs (and prices) but the speeds will plummet too as there is more internet traffic being routed through each VPN server. There’s not much you can do about this, as the more simultaneous connections you route through each server the slower it will become.
The trick is to get the balance right, and unless you’re willing to pay more for a premium product then maximizing speed usually involves an efficient, large scale proxy network like NordVPN.
Which VPN Can Hide My Ass ?
Hide My Ass proxy was originally a FREE proxy server for surfing anonymously, it could hide your IP Address and country with a simple web Page. You can still access this free proxy setup on their site, although truth be told it’s of very limited use. Most of the more popular connections through US and UK servers tend to be rather slow in my experience. Also so many sites can now detect and block internet traffic routed though basic proxies. Without the encryption protocol and DNS leak protection it’s fairly simple to spot this traffic. For a few sites it may still work and you can route through some other countries though, if hiding your location is not important.
It’s definitely a slicker product now, and millions use to protect their connections on the Internet. As it’s a mature product that’s been around many years then you should have limited problems using it in diverse network environments. You’ll have issues though with locked down environments as with the majority of these products. It does have some specialist settings to route though routers and Firewalls, although there are better alternatives to Hidemyass in this situation (e.g. Identity Cloaker). There are of course lots of reasons why you would use a Proxy Server so it’s still a worthwhile application to invest in.
Unfortunately this isn’t free anymore and to be frank it’s a long time since HMA was anything like a leader in this industry. For those looking for privacy and a way to bypass the geoblocks on the internet’s best sites may I make a suggestion?
For the geo-blocks on popular specific sites like the BBC iPlayer they constantly monitor specific servers. This involves rotating IP addresses and checking data transfer rates against specific sites which obviously requires large customer support teams. There’s no doubt that they’ve become s more focused on bypassing filters and watching TV stations although they still take security very seriously. So it probably depends on what your main concern is.
Hide My Ass Proxy for example is probably more concerned with genuine privacy but unfortunately is often rather slow which makes streaming video across the connection a tedious experience.
There is a Better HideMyAss Alternative
If security is your primary concern, then there are certainly more serious VPN programs available than HMA proxy. One such example is a program which is nearly as old as HMA – it’s called Identity Cloaker. Not only does the VPN have adjustable security levels so that you can upgrade or downgrade the encryption depending on what you’re doing. Hint – you don’t need high encryption if you’re just streaming Match of the Day on BBC iPlayer.
It also allows you switch ports and piggy back other proxies. These functions are probably of no use to the ordinary user, but are essential if you want to encrypt from a corporate network or bypassing some firewall restrictions.
The market for these services are split to some extent, the simple hide my IP programs are becoming fairly pointless as they are easily detected. Many of the larger websites will actively block or filter traffic directly from proxy servers if detected. Indeed the best proxy server is probably more likely to be one of the VPN services which perform the same function but add a layer of encryption and are difficult to detect too.
One thing that is for sure, the usefulness of those free proxy servers has long gone Many of them are used by cyber criminals to steal personal data and accounts. The legitimate commercial ones finance their free service by turning you into the product, mainly by using your bandwidth and cpu while you’re connected. If you don’t want some complete stranger routing their web traffic through your internet connection, then stay away from the free VPNs like Hola.
The right service might depend on your primary objective, if you just want to watch American TV online then you’re going to need something with a fast US proxy to use. I am still using Identity Cloaker almost 12 years from my first subscription primarily because it’s has the most UK servers for the BBC and UK TV. It also is one of the best proxy sites for YouTube as there’s very limited contention.
