Businesses and organizations use vpn servers to secure data transfer. This can be useful in countries where services or websites are blocked, or data transfers are likely monitored.

Home users can benefit from vpn connections as well. They can use it to protect their connection on a public network or to access services that they would not otherwise be able to access.

Users from outside the United States, or US citizens abroad, can use vpn servers to connect to sites such as Pandora, Hulu and many other services that are limited to users from the United States.

All they need for that is a VPN that is located in the United States. We have covered several vpn services that offer free limited accounts for users from all over the world. This includes the popular Hotspot Shield, Ultra VPN or Vypr VNP which is free for Giganews Diamond account owners.

TunnelBear is a vpn service that is offering easy to install and use clients for Windows and Macintosh PCs. Users need to register an account before they can make use of the vpn. A free account limits the monthly data transfer to 500 Megabytes, a commercial account allows unlimited transfers. Free accounts are protected with a 128-bit algorithm, while paid accounts make use of 256-bit data encryption.

New users can setup an account right in the software during installation (please note that you need to confirm the email to log in). The program will handle all the heave lifting on its own, including the installation of a new network connection that is used to connect to the VPN.

The core application interface has only two switches. One to connect to the virtual private network, and the other to select a US or UK server to connect to.

The interface displays the current connection status and the remaining bandwidth for the month.

TunnelBear offers one of the most comfortable experiences when it comes to setting up and using vpn servers. The 500 Megabyte limit should be enough for users who do not access a lot of media in a month. Those users may consider paying the reasonable price of $40 per year for unlimited data transfers. The company is currently running a Twitter promo that offers 1 Gigabyte of additional data transfer when completed.

TunnelBear can be downloaded from the developer website. The software is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system, and for systems running Apple Mac OSX 10.6 or greater.

But Giganews has not only added other services, they have also constantly improved the retention, performance and quality of their core service. The company just a few days ago reached 1200 days of retention for all binary newsgroups. This basically means that Giganews customers have access to information and files that date back almost three and a half year. That’s a big milestone, especially since all those information and files are accessible with the same performance and completion rate (that is 100%).

I honestly cannot say if the 1200 days of retention are more than any other Usenet provider offers, or if the upload and download speeds are faster. It would be very difficulty to prove, considering that you would need accounts with all comparable services on the Internet.

What I do know is that I’m a happy customer. When I download, I max my 50 Mbit connection every time, and I have the feeling that I would also max faster connections.

The most interesting account package is the Diamond package in my opinion. The reason for this is not because of the unlimited Usenet downloads or SSL connections, as other packages offer that as well. The core reason is the free VPN that you get with the package. VyprVPN has servers in several countries that you can connect to, including the United States, United Kingdom and France. If you are not sure what you can do with it, check out this article: Use VyprVPN To Access US-Only Websites or check out the core service review here. As a webmaster, the service is indispensable, for instance to check how your site is ranking in search engines.

The price is still higher than at comparable Usenet providers. If you do not need a VPN or another of the free services you may want to look at the Platinum account instead which is available for $10 less.

Are you making use of the Usenet? If so, what’s the provider and software that you are using?

Free VPN services like Hotspot Shield are very popular, even though they are usually limited in bandwidth and running on low priorities.

Comodo TrustConnect is a VPN service by Comodo that sets you back $8.99 monthly with unlimited traffic, $99.95 annually or $3.99 daily. To promote the service, Comodo is offering free accounts with a 10 Gigabyte data limit per month. 10 Gigabytes should be more than enough for day to day surfing in unsecure locations like coffee shops, hotels or other public Wi-Fi locations. The free service unfortunately has a few downsides. This includes not being able to select the location of the VPN, ads being displayed in the web browser and some blocked protocols like ftp or NNTP.

Free users need to use the TrustConnect client for their operating system. The software is available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. Installation should not pose any problems. You are asked to create a network installer on Windows during the installation though. You then need to paste the license key from the Comodo Account page into the application. This links the program to your account.

I suggest you use an IP checker to verify that you have received a new IP address.

My computer connected to a VPN in the United Kingdom during tests, and not a US location. This makes sense as it improves connectivity. I was able to connect to the BBC website and stream shows and radio using their iPlayer service. Playback was smooth most of the time after the initial connection phase.

Comodo Trustconnect works well enough for now, and the ten Gigabyte should be more than enough bandwidth for the majority of users. It remains to be seen how the service fares when user counts surge due to the free offering.

Interested users can sign up for the free VPN account at this page here. (via)

Firstly, start by going to your control panel in Windows 7. You should see an option called “Network and Internet”. Click on this and then click on “Network and Sharing Center”. You will then be at a screen where you can view all your network information, and set up connections to other networks and computers. On the left hand side, you should see a link called “Change Adapter Settings”. Click on this and you’ll see a list of network connections. There may only be one connection at the moment, the connection you are using to access your existing network.

There should be a menu bar at the top of the screen. If not, press ALT on your keyboard and it should appear. Next, click on “file” and then on “New Incoming Connection”. This will start a wizard, and the first step is to decide whom you’re going to give access to. You may just want to give yourself access, but it might also be a good idea to also select the computer administrator. The next step will be to tell the computer how people will connect to the computer – there’s only one option, and that’s through the Internet. The final page concerns allowing access to different types of computers such as Unix servers and Macs. Just leave the default settings alone and click “Allow Access”.

Your computer will now spend a little time setting up the connection for you, and will tell you the name of the connection. The name could be anything, depending on the name of your computer, but remember to note it down, as you’ll need it later. You’ll then be taken back to the network connections screen, and you’ll see your new connection as an icon, called “incoming connection”.

You’ll now need to know the IP address of your computer. The easiest way to find this out if you don’t already know it, is to type “cmd” into the run box on the start menu, and then type “ipconfig” into the DOS window. This will tell you your IP address. It may be something like 192.168.0.1. Also note down the IP address of your default gateway, this is the address of your router.

The next thing you’ll need to do is add a port forwarding on your router. So log into your router by typing it’s IP address into your browser. All router consoles are different, so you may need to hunt around for a bit to find the right settings, but there should be a section called “port forwarding”. What you need to do is create a new forwarding for port 1723, which is the port VPNs use to connect. You need to point that port to the IP address of your computer, which we found out earlier. At this point, you may need to reboot your router once you’ve saved the port forwarding in order to active the new settings. Once this is done, you should have a working VPN server set up on your computer.

Testing your VPN Connection

In Part 1, you will have gone through the steps to set up a VPN server on your Windows 7 computer. The next step is to configure a client machine to connect to your newly created server to check that it’s working correctly.

In order to do this you need to go to the machine you’re going to use to test your VPN and bring up the control panel. Inside the control panel you need to click on “Network and Internet”. Once in the next screen, click on “Network and Sharing Center”. As in Part 1, you’ll be presented with a screen where you can set up new connections and edit existing ones. You’re looking for a setting near the middle of the screen called “Set Up New Connection or Network”. Click on this and you’ll start a wizard. The third option down will be the one you need next, and this is called “Connect To A Workplace”. You’ll need to click “next”, and then you’ll be asked how you want to connect to your VPN. The option to choose is via an Internet connection, and on the following screen you’ll need to enter the IP address of your VPN server.

The IP address of your VPN server is whatever IP address you found in Part 1, but in case you forgot, you can check by going back to your server and typing “cmd” into the run box on the start menu, and then “ipconfig” in the DOS box.. If your client machine is not on the same local network as the server, you’ll need to know the Internet IP address of the server. You can find this out from logging into the router again, or from the server computer you can go to http://www.ghacks.net/ip/. Armed with your server’s IP address, you can now enter this into your wizard, and click next to go onto the next screen.

This next screen will be asking you the username and password in order to connect to your VPN. You should already know these details, as you need them to log into your server locally. So enter your credentials here and click on “connect”.

Your client computer will now be talking to your server and setting up your new VPN connection. First it will verify your username and password, and after a few seconds it should connect. You have successfully set up a VPN between your two computers.

You might now want to check to see if you can access shared folders. This can be done by going to the run box on your client-computer’s start menu, and typing \\SERVER (if server is the name of your VPN server, if not substitute it for your server’s name). If all is well, you will see a list of files and folders and you’ll be all set for using your new VPN. Congratulations!

Virtual Private Networks (VPN):

There are two virtual platform versions provided in VPN, the Gateway based and Client based. These platforms can be initiated from the web browsers such as the Internet Explorer version 7 or Firefox version 3 and higher. There are a few glitches with the newest and oldest versions supporting the functions of VPN interface efficiently. A Virtual Private Network establishes a connection between the entire corporate network and the cloud network. This type of connection is useful when there is a mixed pool of public and private cloud applications. Once the connection between the networks is established it then requires mapping the network drives of the server using the inside IP address. The mapping not only assists in making file transfers at a faster rate but also assists in making the necessary changes whenever required in the file system. The most popular VPN is the Cisco AnyConnect VPN Client. It is a great platform which can easily set up the connection between the networks for safe and fast file transfer.

Remote Desktop Connection (RDC):

This establishes connection with the remote cloud servers directly from the desktop of the computer. RDC is used most often for the Windows Virtual Server and needs the connection port-3389 to be connected to the web network. Once RDC has been set up on the computer, the server desktop will be displayed on the window of your computer and this can be used as a virtual interface to manipulate and alter the commands to effectively manage the server remotely. RDC for virtual cloud networks is similar to the Remote Connection between the physical servers used for the local network connections, so interfacing with it can be easy for those who use the Windows Remote Desktop connection for establishing a connection between physical servers in their enterprise.

Secured Shell (SSH):

Secured Shell functions similar to the RDC but it only uses the Linux based Virtual Server. It also requires a few console based commands which are used to start the database or web servers or setting up new file shares. This method requires that the appropriate ports to be connected to the cloud server.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP):

This is the best method for bulk and easy file transfer for activities like loading the data base or developing a new website. For this method it is required to connect the ports 20 and 21 appropriately so that it points to the outside IP address of the server. Once the connection is correctly established, a FTP virtual platform can be installed on the desktop or the FTP command can be easily run directly from the server. This platform will enable efficient bulk file transfer from the file resource to the cloud server.
Using a cloud server can make your life much easier, especially with the knowledge above.

The Gadmin tools are a set of GUI administration tools that allow for easy administration of various services, systems, and applications that would otherwise be challenging for the average user. One of those tools that is exceptionally helpful to have is the VPN Server tool. Let’s install it and set up an VPN server with this GUI.

Installation

The installation of Gamin-VPN-Server is simple, thanks to the fact that the tool exists in the standard repositories of most distributions. Because of that, the installation is as easy as following these steps:

1. Open up the Add/Remove Software utility.
2. Search for “gadmin” (No Quotes).
3. Mark Gadmin VPN Server for installation.
4. Accept any dependencies necessary.
5. Click Apply to install.
6. Close the Add/remove Software utility when finished.

The Gadmin VPN Server tool can now be started from within the System Tools folder from the Applications menu.

Configuring the VPN server

Figure 1

Now for the real work. Open up the Gadmin tool to view the main window. This is where all of the configurations are done.

To set up a VPN server the following will need to be configured.

Server Settings:

External Address: This is the WAN side address of the network – the address the external users can reach. If this VPN server is on an internal network, it will be critical to make sure VPN traffic is routed to the server hosting the VPN server.

LAN interface address: The internal address used by the VPN Server.

LAN Subnet mask: The subnet used by the internal address on the VPN server.

Client Address range: The valid addresses the clients will be assigned when they log onto the VPN server.

Encryption Type: The encryption type to be used on the VPN.

After the server configurations have been entered, click the Apply button in the tool bar to save the settings. Now, scroll down to the…

Certificate Settings:

These settings are near the bottom of the Server settings tab. A pre-existing certificate need not be installed as Gadmin-VPN-Server has the ability to generate the necessary certificate. Just fill in the necessary information and then click the Apply button underneath the Certificate Settings to generate the necessary certificate.

Users

After the server has been set up, valid user accounts must be added. If the user already has an account on the server, a new account will not have to be created. If the user does not have an account on the server, create one in the User Accounts tab.

Starting the server

After everything is complete, click the Activate button and your VPN server will be ready to accept incoming connections. Users now only need set up their clients to connect to the correct address, using their credentials that reside on the VPN server, and they will be good to go.

I currently pay $29.99 for my monthly Diamond account. This payment includes unlimited access to the VPN which is very handy for me, as I need access to a VPN anyway. I use it for instance to watch videos on Hulu or listen to Pandora music. It basically allows me to use services in the United States that are only open to US-users.

I have received an email today from Giganews that states they have added to security options, or modules, to their VPN service. Both cost an extra $5 per month but may be very well worth it. The VPN in its core state can be configured to use L2TP/IPsec or PPTP connections.

The first module adds Open VPN support to the mix. The main benefits of the standard according to Giganews are:

• SSL/TLS encryption standard – the same standard used by secure e-commerce sites
• 256-bit encryption – same strength used by financial institutions
• Consistent speeds over long-distance networks between countries and continents.
• Extremely stable and fast over wireless networks, including Wi-Fi, cellular and wireless ISPs.
• More easily passes through NAT configurations (e.g. wireless routers) and corporate firewalls (traversing)
• Less CPU usage resulting in faster speeds and less latency.

Open VPN promises faster speeds, better latency and a more reliable connection.

The second option is a NAT Firewall which can be added for $5 as well. This is basically a packet filter that blocks inbound connections before they are able to access the PC. The core benefits are that it does not use PC resources (like a software firewall would) and that it blocks attempts to scan or attack the PC and other connected devices.

The two new security modules improve the VyprVPN service further. Open VPN can be an interesting option for users who want to improve the speed and reliability of their VPN connection, the NAT Firewall for users who want to add another virtual security layer.

VyprVPN customers who order both packages get a 20% discount so that they only pay $8 per month for both services.

Giganews is currently running a promotion for their Diamond accounts (which include VyprVPN free of charge). Users who sign up for a free trial pay $14.99 in the first month and a locked $29.99 afterwards. Customers who sign up after March 31 will have to pay $34.99 for the account per month.

One such option is Hamachi. Hamachi is a zero-configuration virtual private network tool that allows you to set up a VPN between machines without having to go through the complex setup of the server itself. Instead Hamachi relies on the Logmein Hamachi servers to aid with the Peer to Peer connection. As for the user…all they need to do is install the tool and create their network. Let’s see how this is done.

Installation

I am going to show how this is done on a Ubuntu 10.10 desktop. Hamachi can be downloaded installed on other distributions, but let’s stick with one here for simplicity.

The first step is download the proper file. You will find a .deb file for this tool here. Download that file to your ~/Downloads directory and get ready to install.

In order to install follow these steps:

1. Open up your file manager (most likely Nautilus.)
2. Navigate to the ~/Downloads directory.
3. Locate the hamachi-gui-XXX.aaa.deb (Where XXX is the release number and aaa is the architecture.)
4. Double click on the .deb file.
5. When prompted, enter your sudo password to allow the installation to continue.
6. Let the installation complete.
7. Delete the .deb (optional) and close Nautilus.

Usage

Figure 1

To start the Hamachi GUI click Applications > Internet > hamachi-gui. This will open up the tools main window (see Figure 1). If you already know the VPN you need to join all you have to do is click the “triangle” button at the bottom of the main window. This will open up a new window that allows you to either create or join a VPN network. Let’s create a VPN network.

Click the “triangle” button and, in the resulting window, click the Create Network button. In this new window (see Figure 2) there are only two pieces of information you need to add:

Figure 2

Name: name of your VPN

Password: Password to protect your VPN from unwanted users.

After you enter that information, click the Create button. The network will be instantly created and your machine will be automatically joined.

If you want to join a different network (or one you’ve previously created), you simply click the same triangle button you clicked to create the network, only you click the Join Network button next. When you click that button it will prompt you enter the credentials for the VPN. Upon successful authentication your machine will be a part of that VPN.

You can have as many VPN networks listed on your Hamachi client as you want. You want to pay close attention to which networks you are joined to. If a particular network has a green dot to the left of its name – you are connected to that network. To leave or join a network you simply need to right-click that network and select Change Status.

The advantages of using a VPN are manifold, among them that it sits like a proxy between the computer of the user and all Internet activities. It does not matter if the user browses the web, plays a game on Steam, downloads files via P2P or watches streaming movies. The VPN will always act as the proxy, something that web proxies cannot do.

Another advantage is the fact that it makes the Internet connection more secure. VPN connections are encrypted by design, which means that users in the same network, say a public network at school, dorm or work, will not be able to eavesdrop on the traffic. Firesheep? Not a problem for VPN users.

Invisible Browsing VPN (IBVPN) offers free and paid accounts. The company gives away 30 free accounts per week, offers a 2-hour trial account and several paid options which range from $4.95 to $7.95 per month. The paid accounts differ only in the countries the user can connect to. The two $4.95 accounts offer either VPN access in the United States and Canada, or the United Kingdom and Ireland. The premium VPN service contains the four and in addition network access in Germany, France and the Netherlands.

So what can the average web surfer do with a VPN?

• Access country-limited contents on the web, e.g. Hulu or Pandora in the United States, BBC in the UK or Zattoo in Germany. Using the VPN you can use those country-specific services providing you connect to one of the country VPN servers. This is also handy for users who go on holidays oversea but do not want to miss their favorite show. Lastly, ex-pats come to mind who can now connect to services and websites from their country that would otherwise be restricted to them.
• Hide your IP. This can be beneficial in many cases. Maybe for employees who want to comment on their company, webmasters who want to check search engine rankings or contents on their websites, users who have medical questions and a lot more. A vpn will also hide the tracks from your ISP and network.
• Bypass Internet censorship. There is likely no country in the world that does not censor the Internet in one way or the other. Censor may not be the right word in some cases, but the fact remains that it is likely that you stumble upon blocked websites if you search long enough. China for instance is a prime example, or Iran, but the problem is not limited there. A VPN can bypass censorship which other services might not.

Now that we have established what you can do with a VPN, we should take a closer look at how it is setup. IBVPN offers easy configuration guides on their website for Windows, Linux and Mac users. Windows users can even download a small client which is dead easy to use.

Just start the portable application and enter your username, password and a server that you want to connect to. A list of servers is provided in the welcome email and in the account section over at the Invisible Browsing VPN site. A click on Connect establishes the connection to the selected VPN which is visualized by the Connected status message in the program application. A click on disconnect breaks the connection again.

Advanced users, and users with Linux or Mac, can follow the guides on the website to configure the VPN manually.

Those three are just examples of the services that limit their contents to users from specific countries, and that you can watch by using the VPN from outside those allowed countries.

IBVNP Verdict

Setup is really easy on Windows, especially if the vpn client is being used. Everyone can do that without having to create a new connection manually. That’s a big plus for the service as most of the VPN services do not provide access to a client software. The connection speed is good, both Hulu and Pandora streamed without interruptions, BBC was a bit slow in the beginning but it ran fine after a bit of buffering. Speeds are excellent and tests at speedtest.net have shown connections speeds of 5+ Mbit down and 1.5 Mbit up.

Invisible Browisng VPN Giveaway

We have 20 IBVNP premium accounts that are valid for 3 months for you. Premium meaning that you get the whole package and can connect to a VPN in all supported countries. For this we are asking you to let us know what you would do with the service or use the service for.

But services in other countries are sometimes restricted as well. For the UK it is for instance most contents offered by the BBC iPlayer which is only accessible if the user connecting to the service has a British IP address. This does block expats and Brits on holiday from accessing the contents online. While it is possible to get access to TV and radio contents by connecting to a virtual private network (vpn) that assigns UK IP addresses, it is usually considered to be complicated to setup and not free as well.

Expat Shield is a free service by the makers of HotSpot Shield that simplifies the process greatly. In its core, the software creates a vpn connection that assigns a UK IP to the computer system, thus allowing the user to access UK-only TV and Radio contents from all over the world.

It works with all UK based services, including BBC iPlayer TV (offering access to BBC One to Four) and Radio, ITV Player, Channel 4 and others. And since it is a VPN connection it means that access is available through all programs, including web browsers but also standalone applications.

Expat Shield Download and Installation

Expat Shield is offered as a free download at the official website. The program is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. Actually, the program is not downloaded directly from the website. A download manager is downloaded first, that then downloads the application to the local computer system. The application includes a custom toolbar that does not need to be installed, so make sure you disable it if you do not want it to be installed.

The program places an icon in the system tray that offers controls to start and stop the service. Starting it actually means that the following window is shown in Internet Explorer that initiates the connection. It is probably possible to copy the url into another browser as well to initiate the VPN connection.

From that moment on the system tray icon shows that the computer is connected to the VPN.

BBC iPlayer

Just visit the BBC iPlayer website and start watching the tv shows that you’d like to watch.

ITV Player

Visit the ITV homepage to watch all available tv shows online from any location in the world. Available are ITV1, ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4 for online viewing.

Expat Shield offers all the additional benefits of running a VPN connection, including protection from network snooping, encryption and a new IP address for increased privacy.

The quality of the VPN solution has been excellent during testing. All tv shows that we watched in the time streamed without interruptions or buffering issues. All in all, an excellent free solution to access British TV and Radio contents as well as other UK-only services and sites. (via, thanks Maik for the tip)

What’s the solution? Easy. You make the location checker script on the website believe that you are from the US. How is that done? There are a few options available, but the most reliable so far is by using Virtual Private Networks. This sounds intimidating at first, and complicated to setup, when in fact it is not.

Setup basically revolves around setting up another Internet connection, which is done in less than a minute on Windows. Not a big deal.

The biggest hurdle is to find a suitable VPN for this task. There are free ones out there, but those limit the bandwidth and it is usually not a pleasure to watch anything with them. Commercial vpns are the solution. Prices ranges from a few bucks to $20-30 for the most part. Usually, what you get is what you pay for. If you except to be able to watch streaming media 24/7 by paying $2.99 you are definitely wrong. But you can get a decent setup for around $10 a month, and that includes all the other benefits that vpns offer.

VyprVPN is a solution that sets you back about $14.99 per month. That is, unless you are a Giganews user who has a Diamond account subscription. If that is the case, you get VyprVPN free of charge as a bonus.

Lets take a look at how easy VyprVPN can be configured:

• Open Network and Sharing Center in the Control Panel
• Go to the Windows Menu, then Control Panel, Click on Network and Internet, Click on Network and Sharing Center
• Click Setup a new connection or network
• Choose Connect to a workplace then Next
• Click Use my Internet Connection (VPN)
• Enter one of the following names in the Internet address: field:
  us1.vpn.goldenfrog.com for Los Angeles, CA
  us2.vpn.goldenfrog.com for Washington, DC
  eu1.vpn.goldenfrog.com for Amsterdam
  hk1.vpn.goldenfrog.com for Hong Kong
• Type VyprVPN in the Destination name: field
• Check Don’t connect now then Next
• Type in your Golden Frog Login (e-mail address) and Password in their respective fields; leave Domain blank
• Check Remember this password
• Click Create and then Close

Connecting to VyprVPN

• In the Windows Taskbar, click on the Network icon
• Click on VyprVPN, then click on the Connect button
• Type in your Golden Frog Login (e-mail address) and Password in their respective fields
• Click Connect

As you can see, it is an easy to follow process.

Lets take a look at other benefits of using a vpn connection:

• A VPN connection replaces the local computer’s IP with an IP of the VPN server. Websites and users do not see the local IP address.
• All Internet traffic gets encrypted, reducing eavesdropping possibilities in local networks and ISP.
• Protection from data snooping on public and wireless networks.

With the VPN connection setup and connected, it is now possible to access all US sites as if you were in the United States. VyprVPN offers two different locations in the US, one in Amsterdam, Europe and one in Hong Kong, Asia.

The addition of VyprVPN free of charge to Giganews Diamond account owners was a pleasant surprise, and something that you do not see very often these days. This basically allows me to access US-only contents whenever I want, free of additional charges. This allowed me to cancel the subscription to my previous VPN service to consolidate services and save $15 per month in the process.

Something to think about for users who work both with a VPN and a Usenet account. Non-Giganews customers can get more information about VyprVPN at the GoldenFrog website.

VyprVPN is now officially out of beta and the good news is that it remains free for those Giganews users. We have reviewed VyprVPN in the past, let me fill you in on the details if you have not read that review.

VyprVPN is a virtual private network that users can connect to. Giganews offers servers in the United States and in the United Kingdom. It is usually better to log into the VPN servers nearer to the physical location unless specific contents need to be accessed that have a country restriction.

This is for instance the case when a user tries to access Hulu or Pandora Radio in the United States or iPlayer content in the UK.

VyprVPN has been improved since we last reviewed it. Speeds and reliability has increased and it is now possible to view HD content without connection interruptions or slow loading times. But VPNs offer more than just the ability to access content on the Internet that is restricted to a country or region: Virtual Private Networks use encryption to secure the Internet connection between the user’s home computer and the target server.

Users who do not want a Giganews Diamond account can purchase a VyprVPN account directly at the Golden Frog website for the price of $14.99 per month. The offer is not online yet but will be soon.

Giganews users can visit the VyprVPN website at Giganews for instructions on how to configure the VPN on their computer system.

What you need

To make this connection happen you are going to need a few bits of information:

Unique Firewall Identifier: This is on the VPN Settings of your Sonicwall router. If you do not have access to the router itself, you might have to nicely ask your IT department.

Shared secret key: This also is taken from your Sonicwall router.

NOTE: In order for this to work the Sonicwal must be set to IDE Using Preshared Secret. Either set it as such or ask your IT department if it is (and, if not, if it can be). The Sonicwall also has to have the Proposals set as such:

• Phase 1: Group5, 3DES, SHA1, 28800
• Phase 2: ESP, 3DES, SHA1
• Enable Perfect Forward Secrecy, Set DH Group to Group 5, and Lifetime to  28800

It might be a lot to ask your IT department, but if you want to make that connection using Linux, it’s a must.

On your Linux client you will need to install OpenSwan. You can do this from the Synaptic Package Manager by following these steps:

1. Open up Synaptic.
2. Search for “openswan” (no quotes).
3. Mark OpenSwan for installation.
4. Click Apply to install.

Configuring OpenSwan

There are two files you have to configure. The first file is /etc/ipsec.conf. The configuration needs to look like:

conn sonicwall
type=tunnel
left=YOUR_IP_ADDRESS
leftid=@home
leftxauthclient=yes
right=IP_ADDRESS_OF_SONICWALL
rightsubnet=LAN_GATEWAY_ADDRESS
rightxauthserver=yes
rightid=@SONICWALL_UNIQUE_IDENTIFIER
keyingtries=0
pfs=yes
aggrmode=yes
auto=add
auth=esp
esp=3DES-SHA1
ike=3DES-SHA1
authby=secret

Where all fields in ALL CAPS are unique to your setup.

Now you need to add one line to /etc/ipsec.secrets. This line looks like:

@home @SONICWALL_UNIQUE_IDENTIFIER : PSK “SHARED_SECRET_KEY”

Now you are ready to test out your connection.

Bringing it up and taking it down

There are three commands you need to bring up your tunnel:

sudo ipsec setup ––start
sudo ipsec auto ––add sonicwall
sudo ipsec whack ––name sonicwall ––initiate

Once you’ve initiated that final command you should be able to open up Places > Network (That’s in GNOME of course) and find your VPN machines. If not, wait a moment and re-open Places > Network.

Once you are done, you can bring down your connection with two commands:

sudo ipsec whack ––name sonicwall ––terminate
sudo ipsec setup ––stop

Of course, instead of having to run those same commands all the time I would create two scripts, one for starting and one for stopping. Move those scripts to /usr/bin, give them executable permission, and create a menu entry and then starting and stopping your VPN connection is simple.

Final thoughts

It’s not as simple as connecting to a Microsoft VPN but at least there is a way to connect to your Sonicwall VPN. Good luck!

In this article I am going to show you one way to connect to a VPN, via an easy to use GUI. In another article I will outline a second method that will use command line only. Will either method work for you? You can only try and find out.

The GUI

Figure 1

The GUI that I will be demonstrating a PPTP connection with is an extension of the Network Manager applet. This applet resides in your desktop panel (see Figure 1 – far left icon). I will be demonstrating within the GNOME environment. If you do not already have this applet installed (and you should if you are using a  modern GNOME installation) you will need to install it as well. If the Network Manager applet is there, you only need install a single package.

If you do not have the Network Manager installed you will install this (and the required package) with the command:

sudo apt-get install network-manager-gnome network-manager-pptp

If you already have the Network Manager installed remove network-manager-gnome from the above command.

Now issue the command:

sudo NetworkManager restart

Figure 2

If you left click the applet you will now see a VPN menu. Within that VPN menu select Configure to open up the VPN tab of the Network Connections window (see Figure 2).

To set up a new connection click the Add button which will bring up yet another new window. This new window will ask you the connection type. Sine we have only installed PPTP support for Network-Manager you will only have one option from the drop down. You can also install support for:

• OpenConnect: Cisco VPNs
• OpenVPN: OpenVPN support.
• VPNC: Support for vpnc package.
• Strongswan: IDEv2 IPSec VPNs.

Search Synaptic for any of the above that you might need.

Figure 3

After clicking Add the next window (see Figure 3) is where you set up all of your options. Most of the configuration should be easy to follow (Gateway, User name, Password, NT Domain) But you do need to click the Advanced tab and do the following:

Uncheck PAP

Check: CHAP, MSCHAP, MSCHAPv2

Check “Use Point-to-Point encryption (MPPE)”

Select 128 bit from the security drop-down.

Check “Allow stateful encryption”.

Check “Send PPP echo packagets”

Click OK.

Once you have made all of your configurations, click Apply and you’re ready to connect. Go back and right-click the Network Manager applet and then click the VPN entry which will open up a sub-menu. Select the connection you just created and the connection will attempt to establish. Upon a successful connection you can then attempt to navigate within your VPN. To do so try the Network entry in the Places menu. Your VPN should show up. If it does not hit reload a few times and it should.

Final thoughts

Oddly enough, connecting to a Microsoft VPN is often the easiest to connect to from a Linux client. They only get harder from here on out.

A virtual private network on the other hand replaces the user’s IP with its own so that the servers and users that the user connects to only see that IP and not the real one. This is also beneficial for services that only allow access to their service from specific countries. If the vpn is offering servers in the country then the service can be used. That’s great for services like Hulu, Pandora, BBC and many other streaming video or audio related services.

VyprVPN is a virtual private network service by the company that is providing the world’s best Usenet service Giganews. The service is currently in beta and all Giganews Diamond customers have been invited to test it free of charge. The vpn service will remain free at least until June of this year.

* Private web browsing, e-mail, instant messaging, newsgroup reading, and more — totally secure from ISP, wireless or neighborhood eavesdropping
* The ability to choose a US or European online identity
* Protection from data snooping and identity theft on public Wi-Fi hotspots, iPhones, PDAs, and cable Internet
* The same access to all of your favorite applications you enjoy today

The connection to the vpn service needs to be created manually by the user. A detailed explanation is provided for various operating systems including Windows XP, Windows 7 and Mac OSX. Two different server clusters are currently provided that the VyprVPN user can connect to: Los Angeles in the United States and Amsterdam in Europe. It would be nice if additional locations would be provided including the United Kingdom, Germany and Canada.

The selection of the vpn server is relevant in several ways. First, it is the server’s IP that is used to connect to the servers worldwide. Users who want to access a US only service like Hulu or Pandora need to select the Los Angeles connection to do so. But the distance between the user’s location and the server’s location is also relevant for the user’s connection. Everything that the user does is first routed to the vpn server and then to the destination.

Virtual private networks should be able to deliver sufficient speeds so that the usual Internet activities experience no lag or interrupted connections. The streaming video and audio connections that we tried worked fine and without interruptions most of the time. Sometimes lags were noticed and we had to wait a few seconds before the streaming media would continue to play. This is something that the developer’s should work on but since VyprVPN is currently in beta it is likely that this will be taken care of.

The only users who can currently test VyprVPN are Giganews Diamond customers who can use it for free until June 30, 2010. It is likely that the service will go released to the public in the next month. We will keep you updated once this happens and see how the service has been changed and improved in that time.

Astrill is a new virtual private network provider. Servers provided by Astrill are located in the United States and the United Kingdom and it is up to the user to decide which to use. This can be important from a performance perspective but also to access contents that make use of country locks to only allow specific countries access to the contents.

The biggest benefit of Astrill over comparable vpn providers is that the service does not require any connection configuration. Most vpn providers ask the user to create a new vpn connection. Astrill comes with a software that will handle all the connection settings. All the user needs to do to login is to provide the login credentials that have been selected during setup of the account.

Starting Astrill afterwards will display a small program window with Off and On buttons, a country selector and links to settings and help.

The same window displays the download and upload speed of the service. The homepage of Astrill displays additional interesting information in a server stats menu including the current network utilization.

More important than those raw figures is if performance demanding applications run fine when using Astrill. A problem of many vpn providers, especially the free ones, is that they do not provide the infrastructure to make activities such as video and audio streaming enjoyable. Astrill manages to provide the speeds needed to watch videos at sites like Hulu or Youtube HD videos without buffering issues.

Astrill works without lags with many popular services such as Hulu or Pandora.

The software is currently offered as a version for the Windows operating system. A Mac, Linux and mobile version is following shortly according to the developers.

Beta Invites:

We were able to get 1000 Beta invites for Ghacks visitors. All you need to do is to signup at the Astrill signup page and enter the code ASTRILL-GHACKS-32140-MMTGK in the Private BETA Invitation code field. These codes are provided on a first come first serve basis so hurry up if you want to enjoy a lag free vpn service. The service is free in the beta period.

The paid plans that are offered at Astrill are astonishingly moderate when compared to other vpn providers. A one month plan is offered for $10.95, a yearly plan for $59.95. All plans include unlimited traffic usage.

One of the best ways of accessing these services from outside the supported countries is to use a VPN, a virtual private network. This is helpful for citizens on holidays who want to access the services abroad but also – obviously – for users from other countries who want to access the services.

UltraVPN was discovered by Nakodari from Addictive Tips and we have to say that it is one of the easiest solutions right now. It works great currently and gives access to Hulu, Pandora and all the other US-only websites and services out there. The streaming quality is excellent unlike that of other free competitors (like Hotspot Shield). Our guess however is that it is only a matter of time – thanks to popularity – before the performance of UltraVPN will get a dent or two as well.

Installation is a breeze. All the user needs is to create an account at the UltraVPN website (only username and password required). The VPN setup is available for Windows and Mac OS. The username and password have to be supplied on startup. The vpn service will notify the user that the computer has been connected to it. What’s left is to access the websites and services to test the speed and quality of the service.

Head over to the Ultra VPN website to download the client, create an account and access additional information about the virtual private network. The vpn service has been successfully tested with Hulu, ABC and Pandora.

Privacy advocates have already expressed great concern as proxy servers are not only in use by individuals who want to protect their privacy but also by companies and even Internet Service Providers, sometimes without the knowledge of the end user. VPN (Virtual Private Network) would for example be classified as proxy servers under the new legislation. As is the popular Tor client that has been created specifically to counter censorship in the world. Several web browsers like Opera Mini or Opera 10 are also making use of proxy servers to compress data to decrease the time it takes to load websites.

The United States Sentencing Commission will vote on the new legislation on April 15. It is set to take effect on November 1 if is is passing the voting process. You can read up on the EFFs stance here

Only a handful of additional information are known about the service at this time. It is expected to cost about $5 per month which is a more than acceptable price considering the bandwidth requirements to run such a networking service. They state that they do not log traffic data of any kind which would make it impossible to identify the connections made by a user of the service in case of a server seizure.

It is very likely that the new service will come under heavy traffic the minute it becomes public. Similar services such as Relakks were not able to cope with the massive signups after they have gone public.

Interested users can enter their email address to be informed when the anonymous virtual private networking service goes public.

Restrictions on the other hand are usually implemented by an Internet service to prevent access to the service from users that do not live in the target area. Some prominent examples are the Internet Radio Pandora and the streaming video services Hulu and ABC.

Gpass is a free software that provides an encrypted connection to bypass Internet censorship and restrictions. It makes use of encrypted socks tunnels to launch applications and can use Skype and Tor as backup tunnels.

Every application that connects to the Internet can be used with Gpass. Most run out of the box without having to enter details into the application. Some require that the proxy server (localhost:8000) is set in the application itself.

Gpass provides links to a few applications like Firefox, Internet Explorer and the default email client in it’s program interface. The user can drag and drop additional applications in the interface so that they can be launched to bypass restrictions as well.

Gpass works with Hulu, ABC and Pandora but the connection is rather slow and the viewing experience therefor limited. The main use of Gpass is therefor to access information on the Internet without difficulties and reprisals.

Users can check if Gpass is running properly by looking in the title frame of the application that they started. It should state [via Gpass] which is the indicator that the service is working. The IPs of the service are located in the United States.