TunnelBear 3.0 VPN ships with Trusted Networks feature

Martin Brinkmann
Sep 23, 2016
Internet
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TunnelBear 3.0 is the latest version of the VPN client for Windows and Mac OS X that ships with a new Trusted Network feature and performance improvements.

We have talked about TunnelBear before here on this site, so just a quick recap of what it is all about if you never heard of the service.

TunnelBear is a VPN service that you may sign up for. It offers a free tier that is limited to monthly transfers of 500 Megabyte, and a paid tier that does away with the bandwidth restriction.

It is also available as a browser extension for Chrome or Opera that uses the service for data transfers in those browsers.

TunnelBear 3.0

TunnelBear 3.0 is available for the service's desktop programs. According to the company, one of the main new features of the new version is that connections happen up to 60% faster than in old versions of the program.

If you have tried previous versions of TunnelBear, you may have experienced slow connection attempts, and an improvement in this regard is certainly a welcome additional.

Probably even more useful than that is the new Trusted Networks feature. Basically, what it does is allow you to add certain networks to a trusted list. You then turn on auto-connect, and TunnelBear will automatically connect to one of its servers whenever the device you are using is not connected to a trusted network.

So, add your home and work network to the list of trusted networks, and get automatic VPN connections anywhere else including the coffee shop next door, at the airport, the hotel lobby or room, or your friend's house.

While you could perform these operations -- that is connecting to TunnelBear when connected to untrusted networks -- manually, the main advantage is that it is automated with Trusted Networks enabled.

This means that you won't forget to do so, and that it may happen earlier than if you would do so manually.

The company behind the product has integrated another useful feature to its application. It checks the security of the wireless network connection, and will warn you if issues are observed. For instance, if the connection uses WEP, you will be notified about it.

Last but not least, TunnelBear 3.0 protects you if the device's connection to the TunnelBear server drops for whatever purpose. This feature is similar to kill switches that companies like Private Internet Access have implemented in their clients.

It prevents data from being transferred over insecure connections if the VPN connection drops.

Closing Words

The introduced features make sense and improve the security of the connection. While that is good, the 500 Megabyte that you get for free is nowhere near enough for doing anything serious on the Internet.

Watch a handful of videos and you reach the limit. Even if you only do web surfing, you will reach the limit quickly with modern web pages often exceeding the 1 Megabyte mark easily.

Now You: Do you use a VPN?

Summary
TunnelBear 3.0 VPN ships with Trusted Networks feature
Article Name
TunnelBear 3.0 VPN ships with Trusted Networks feature
Description
TunnelBear 3.0 is the latest version of the VPN client for Windows and Mac OS X that ships with a new Trusted Network feature and performance improvements.
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Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. Mark said on September 24, 2016 at 9:17 am
    Reply

    I use IVPN, and came to that service by a artikel on this site. It was about a guy that did check all the privacy check on all vpn-vendors. The side from that guy is: https://thatoneprivacysite.net/ .

    If you take the time to read what he’s showing you, you’ll find the right vpn service for you. IMHO, that would not be Tunnelbear.

    1. Jason said on September 24, 2016 at 9:20 pm
      Reply

      That guy is doing god’s work. :) His big data table – while not 100% accurate – is probably the best resource for choosing a VPN right now. Just don’t use it as your “only” resource. It’s a good idea to do a general web search of the VPN provider you’re interested in, to see if any horror stories come up. There are useful discussions on Ghacks, Reddit, TorrentFreak, and other places.

  2. ilev said on September 24, 2016 at 6:33 am
    Reply

    TunnelBear in a Canadian company which is part of the “5 eyes” group (US, UK, Canada, New Zealand, Australia) , so forget privacy, security….

    ..The 5 eyes countries are the foundation of this network. They are derived from the UKUSA Agreement, which is essentially an agreement to collect, analyze, and share intelligence between these five countries. And though they have agreed not to spy on each other as enemies, they often spy on each other so that a particular country is not caught red-handed. For example, if it is against the law for the U.S government to spy on its own citizens, they might ask the U.K government to do that for them…

  3. BlackBox said on September 23, 2016 at 9:00 pm
    Reply

    Well said! Just use it, accordingly to its features, without trusting the advertising without a proper auditing.

  4. CHEF-KOCH said on September 23, 2016 at 6:28 pm
    Reply

    Sorry I not trust any product which includes ‘trusted’, ‘no ip log’, ‘secure’ and such keywords. They all log because they must log + in the backend you can’t remove logging, it’s implemented in each forum and each software which frequently manage ‘users’ in any aspect (e.g. everything which requires an login to identify users). If something not logs then this requires to re-write the software backend. I only know one board (in earlier times 90’s and beginning on 2000) which never logged something because I asked the admin, it was the old gulli board, he said it’s huge effort to remove all logging stuff and still manage to ban/block users based on an unique ID. I only can image which effort it might is for and DNS/ISP provider to do this since you must really deep in the subject matter to do this, which requires time, coding skills and coffee.

    Maybe such services are to catch emails and log your behavior to sell your data to marketing stuff like google analytics and and and (it would make sense because how a free service like this manage server costs? I doubt that a lot of people using such services with premium since you can simply add 100 fake addresses to get unlimited data plans) – I don’t know I not want to say everything is bad but after all the leaks and all the stuff I know about security I not recommend any addon for VPN/proxy. Zenmate had the ip leakage as well as other services too. I no expect a perfect service but I or others choosing this to be more secure and not to find out months later that this not added anything for their security.

    I think you better spend some money and use a ‘real’ VPN instead of using a Proxy (which this is basically (same likes Opera’s ‘VPN’). Sometimes I think they want to fool people and writing nice words like ‘no ip logging’ without anything to show/proof to find naive people which really thinking they not log anything. It’s also not mentioned what encryption such services use – I mean in detail so that it’s impossible without deep-package inspection to proof that. This is an huge problem because encryption is not always encryption. If they use weak chipers and stuff you better avoid such services.

    Problem is also that there exist not many people I mean really security experts which review such services, because mostly they have better things to do or want money for an audit (because time and effort).

    Conclusion:
    * Always wait for an review/audit (if possible) if it comes to your private data
    * Never use services which are new, because most of them making mistakes on the beginning, which is ‘normal’ and a learning progress
    * Use a real VPN or seedbox instead .. depending, for torrent only a seedbox is maybe better as an traditional VPN.
    * I not say everything i bad but I not recommed any of such browser addons. Especially if you sue other services like steam and and and on your PC because you also want to protect them.
    * Think before you choose such an service and ask yourself why you’re unhappy with your ISP or contact them to make a deal. Because why do you trust another ‘unknown’ service more as your ISP? (he already has your data)
    * 200/300 MB limits in 2016? ….

    1. err said on September 23, 2016 at 11:25 pm
      Reply

      Please read and understand that when they use the word TRUSTED NETWORKS for this product, it is a useful feature where we set what networks we trust, such as our house wi-fi. For example, if we used our laptop outside of our house, it autoconnects to their vpn, when we reach home and connect to our house wifi, it disconnects which saves our data usage for the service. It is referring to a useful feature that has nothing to do with their integrity as a privacy/security company.

      Your concerns are valid, but please don’t just start firing away on your keyboard all because you see your “keywords” without reading the article to the end, or their website for further clarification. And please don’t give the excuse that your english is bad because it is good enough to understand how the internet works.If it isn’t, stop commenting, and go back to school.

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