How to use VPN on Google Chrome – Gadgets Now
These days India has been facing a lot of cyberattacks, according to multiple online reports. Hackers and attackers have become more innovative in planning and creating these cyberattacks. People are becoming victims of ransomware, spyware, worms and viruses which can extract information from internet users. VPN, a Virtual Private Network provides a safer mode for people to surf the web securely. It provides privacy and data security. A VPN hides the IP address of your computer and where you are located. All the websites you visit will see the VPN’s IP address instead of yours. VPN also protects your internet traffic with data encryption and does not let anyone spy on is how you can add a VPN extension to your Google Chrome browser and enable Google Chrome on the Apps icon in the bookmark on the Web for VPN in the Web on the VPN you want to download and click on add to on add extension when on the VPN on the extension bar and start the ticle by- Aaditya Surya VedantamFacebookTwitterLinkedin
The 5 Best Free Chrome VPNs to Unblock Any Website – Nira
Co-founder of Nira
Advertisers, governments, schools, and companies are watching where you go online. While advertisers just want to follow you around and sell you stuff, your school or company might block certain websites so you can’t access them.
This is often done in a heavy-handed, thoughtless way. Either by using algorithms to block entire topics or by blacklisting individual sites. The Chinese government, for example, blocks every Google domain. That includes Gmail. If you’re traveling to China and use Gmail, it’s nearly impossible to do your job while traveling.
You can also find that you’re barred from websites and content based on your location. Netflix, for example, serves completely different content based on your location. You might be halfway through an amazing series and then lose access by traveling to another country. The reverse is worse. I’ve come across amazing shows while traveling, got halfway through, and then lost access once I got home when I didn’t even realize the country access was different.
So how do we get around these restrictions?
Use a VPN (Virtual Private Network).
Strictly speaking, there’s no such thing as “Chrome VPN, ” but plenty of VPNs have a Chrome extension that lets you control the VPN through your browser. Many are completely free too. If you want easy access to the sites you want, wherever you are, they’re great choices.
First, a word of caution…
Free vs Paid VPNs
Paid VPNs are subscription services. They own servers, have employees, and incur other costs in order to provide the VPN service. Free VPNs get their revenue elsewhere. Some sell your data, some show you ads, some are freemium versions of paid VPNs.
In general, if you’re worried about privacy and security, get a paid VPN. I highly recommend going with ExpressVPN.
If you’re not worried about your private data and just want to get around site blocks without having to pay anything, consider one of the free options.
The 5 Best Free Chrome VPNs
1: CyberGhost – Best for Regular Unblocking
Free Server Locations: Germany, Netherlands, Romania, and United States
Paid Server Locations: 4, 800 servers across 58 countries
Encryption standards: 256-bit AES
Privacy: Logs connection attempts but anonymizes them. Doesn’t log traffic or IP addresses
Connection Speed: Won’t significantly slow down most users’ connection speed.
Pricing: Chrome extension is free. Subscriptions start at $12. 99 a month or $5. 99 a month billed annually.
How it works
Install from the Chrome store and fire it up from the extension bar. Choose your server location by clicking on the one that’s currently active.
Under the hood, CyberGhost’s Chrome extension is built on the Ethereum blockchain, meaning it’s one of the most private options out there.
They do warn you upfront that “this browser plugin is not secure when accessing Flash content and does not protect you from webRTC leaks. ” It’s also not good at unblocking streaming sites.
2: Browsec – Most Convenient
Browsec is faster than most free VPNs, secure, and easy to use.
Free Server Locations: Netherlands, Singapore, United Kingdom, and United States
Paid Server Locations: 12 locations
Privacy: Doesn’t collect personally identifying information but does collect meta-data. It is location in Russia so be warned.
Connection Speed: Up to 100MB/s but you’re more likely to get speeds of 10-15MB/s
Pricing: Has a freemium plan. Premium subscriptions start at $4. 99 per month or $3. 33 per month billed annually
Install the extension and then click on it. You don’t need to be signed in or have an account to use the Chrome extension. Location is reliable between websites, there are plenty of servers to choose from, and the interface is simple and intuitive.
I strongly recommend not using this service for anything sensitive. Since it’s located in Russia, I would assume anything you’re doing is being tracked.
3: TunnelBear – Best for Infrequent Usage
TunnelBear is a real VPN with a Chrome extension. Unlike most premium VPN services, TunnelBear has a free account with a data limit instead of a time limit. If you want a real VPN’s power and control, but only occasionally, TunnelBear will work for you.
Free Server Locations: Access to all paid servers
Paid Server Locations: Servers in 20 countries
Encryption standards: 256 bit symmetric encryption
Privacy: Logs connections but not traffic or IP addresses.
Connection Speed: Fast, connections as 50MB/s even on free plans
Pricing: Free accounts are free forever, paid accounts start at $9. 99 per month or $4. 99 per month billed annually
Install the extension, click on it and you’ll be asked to create an account. All you need is your email address, and when you confirm your free account you’ll get access to the 500MB a month that comes with a free account.
Be warned, doesn’t play that well with some other Chrome extensions — when we tested it, Ghostery and OneTab crashed.
4: HotSpot Shield – Easiest and Most Reliable Unblocking
HotSpot Shield is a freemium tool built around its Chrome extension, with no data or time cap.
Free Server Locations: Germany, Russia, Canada, and Netherlands
Paid Server Locations: India, Singapore, UK, France, and the US are available
Encryption standards: 256 bit AES encryption
Privacy: Collects aggregate activity logs but not traffic or IP addresses
Connection Speed: Usually fast enough but it will slow noticeably for more distant servers
Pricing: Has permanent free accounts, paid subscriptions start at $12. 99 per month or $9. 99 per month billed annually
Install the extension and you’re guided through a five-screen onboarding flow in the extension itself before you connect. You can choose your server by clicking on the one you’re connected to.
You’ll also see options for a cookie blocker, malware blocker, RTC protection, and a tool called Sword that creates spoof traffic while you browse to confuse trackers trying to identify you.
5: Windscribe – Most Flexible Server Locations
Free Server Locations: US, Canada, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Switzerland, Hong Kong, and the UK
Paid Server Locations: Wider range of global servers as well as dedicated “Windflix” servers specifically designed to unblock Netflix
Encryption standards: 256-bit AES encryption
Privacy: Collects connection logs but not traffic or IP addresses
Connection Speed: Struggles with uptime and distant servers do display a noticeable lag.
Pricing: Freemium plans, paid subscriptions start at $9 per month or $4. 08 per month billed annually
Install and you’re prompted to sign up. Once you create your free account, you’re automatically connected.
You get 2GB of free data with WindScribe, but they do their best to help you make the most of it. The default setting is “Cruise Control, ” which doesn’t use any of your data allowance until you encounter a blocked website. When that happens, Windscribe flicks itself on automatically to get you access, choosing the appropriate server location to get you access.
The custom-tailored servers for Netflix are great too. If your primary goal is to get access to different Netflix regions, definitely consider this VPN, it makes that process super easy.
What if the website you want to view is still blocked?
Websites like YouTube and Netflix are engaged in a kind of arms race with VPN users, many VPNs are blocked by these sites. If you’re doing a lot of unblocking, or you want to unblock sites that are particularly VPN-proof, go with a paid VPN.
ExpressVPN – Best Paid VPN
Living up to its billing, this is the fastest full-featured VPN out there. It has an effective stealth mode so watchers won’t even know you’re using a VPN, solid encryption, and reliably unblocks everything on the internet.
There’s a Chrome extension but you need a subscription to use it. The desktop and mobile apps are easy to use too. It’s priced at $12. 99 a month or $9. 99 per month for a six-month subscription.
If you’re going to be using a VPN heavily, I highly recommend going with ExpressVPN.
Hotspot Shield VPN Review | PCMag
A virtual private network, or VPN, shields your web traffic from the prying eyes of your ISP, making it harder for spies and advertisers to track you online. Hotspot Shield VPN has a handsome app and an array of security services that go far beyond VPN protection. It also boasts an impressive collection of servers around the globe, giving you many options for spoofing your location. The core VPN product is expensive, however, and its privacy policies are transparent but hurt by a few tradeoffs. While other VPNs have worked to make clear and concise arguments about how they protect their customers, Hotspot Shield continues to be a complicated story.
How Much Does Hotspot Shield Cost? Hotspot Shield is one of the few VPN services that offers a free subscription tier. That comes with limitations, however. The free Basic subscription of Hotspot Shield restricts you to only US VPN servers, one simultaneous connection, and 500MB of bandwidth per day. That’s generous, compared to TunnelBear’s free version, which limits users to 500MB per month. Editors’ Choice winner ProtonVPN, meanwhile, places no limit on the amount of data free users can generosity ends there, though. Hotspot Shield takes the unusual measure of throttling free accounts to just 2Mbps. That’s extremely slow, even for mobile devices. Hotspot Shield also monetizes its free version on Android. See below for more on the privacy implications of this practice.
The Premium subscription offers five simultaneous connections, provides full access to Hotspot Shield’s servers, and has no data limit. It costs $12. 99 per month and is the tier we used in testing. The highest tier, called Premium Family, increases the number of simultaneous connections to 25 across five member accounts and costs $19. 99 per month.
At $12. 99 per month, Hotspot Shield is significantly more expensive than the $10. 05 per month average from among VPNs we have tested. You can also opt for a one-year subscription. The Premium subscription costs $95. 88 per year and the Premium Family subscription costs $143. 88 per year. Again, that’s pretty hefty compared to an average of about $71. 93 among the services we’ve tested. We advise readers to avoid long-term subscriptions—at least at first. You won’t know whether a VPN will work for you until after you try it. So, grab the short-term deal or free version and then upgrade if the service works well for standalone VPNs come in significantly less costly than Hotspot Shield. Mullvad, an Editors’ Choice winner, costs a mere €5 ($5. 55 USD at the time of writing) per month, and a limited ProtonVPN account can be had for just $5 per month. You can pay for a Hotspot Shield subscription by using a major credit card or PayPal. Other services offer more privacy-friendly options. ProtonVPN, Mullvad, and Editors’ Choice winner IVPN accept cash mailed to their corporate HQs. Cryptocurrency support is also fairly common among VPNs, but it’s not an option with Hotspot with nearly every VPN service we’ve reviewed, Hotspot Shield lets you use P2P file sharing and BitTorrent on its network. It also includes a split-tunneling feature, which lets you designate what traffic flows through the tunnel and what can travel in the clear—handy for streaming video or using a bank that frequently blocks VPN traffic.
As noted, a Premium subscription with Hotspot Shield lets you use five devices simultaneously, which is average for the VPNs we’ve tested. That seems to be changing, however. Several competitors now offer more, and some have ditched this limitation altogether. Avira Phantom VPN, VPN, Ghostery Midnight, Surfshark VPN, and Windscribe VPN all place no limit on the number of simultaneous connections. (Editors’ Note: is owned by J2 Global, the parent company of Ziff Davis, the publisher of)Hotspot Shield doesn’t provide access to the Tor anonymization network. That’s okay, since you don’t need a VPN to access this free anonymization network. Hotspot Shield also doesn’t include multihop connections, which route your traffic through a second server for enhanced security. Both Editors’ Choice winner NordVPN and ProtonVPN offer these rare—if also rarely needed—’s important to know what a VPN can and can’t do, however. To really disguise yourself online, you should route your traffic through the labyrinthine Tor network. You should also protect your machine with standalone antivirus, protect your accounts by activating two-factor authentication wherever it’s available, and use a password manager to create unique, complex passwords for every site and Allure of AuraWith a paid Hotspot Shield VPN subscription, you get free subscriptions for 1Password password manager, Robo Shield call blocker, and Identity Guard identity theft protection service. Recently, Hotspot Shield’s parent company also launched an antivirus product as an optional add-on purchase for $5. 99 per month or $39. 99 per year. These additional services are offered by Aura, which absorbed Hotspot Shield in July 2020. While the previous branding, called Pango, has disappeared, the services appear to remain the same. A representative assured me that customers will not be charged extra for these services, and that they will remain available for as long customers maintain a Hotspot Shield account.
This review focuses on Hotspot Shield as a standalone product, but it’s impossible to ignore this sizable bundle. It’s certainly a lot for your dollar, and nearly puts Hotspot Shield in the same category as a security suite that includes a VPN, or a more privacy-focused tool like Ghostery Midnight. Some other VPNs offer additional services. ProtonVPN is the sibling of ProtonMail and a host of privacy-focused tools. Editors’ Choice winner TunnelBear offers a password manager, as does NordVPN, which also throws in an encrypted file locker. The difference is that most of these add cost to the VPN subscription, while everything you get with Hotspot Shield is spot Shield’s VPN Protocols For years, we considered OpenVPN the best option for creating an encrypted VPN connection. A new player, WireGuard, uses newer encryption technology and seems to offer better speeds. It hasn’t seen widespread adoption yet, and Hotspot Shield supports it only on Linux. That’s alright for now, but WireGuard is poised to become an industry spot Shield created its own protocol, called Catapult Hydra, and, until recently, used it exclusively to power Hotspot Shield. To be clear, the company didn’t create a new encryption protocol. A new encryption protocol would require an enormous amount of scrutiny since an undiscovered flaw could be used to break it. A company representative explained that Catapult Hydra uses the Open SSL library to encrypt the data and that the new protocol is simply “an enhancement of the transport protocol. ” The company had also previously told me that Hydra creates multiple channels for data to travel to increase speed and reliability.
IKEv2, a secure and modern option, is available on Windows and iOS. OpenVPN, the open-source protocol which we prefer, is available only on routers. Notably, Hotspot Shield took the title of fastest VPN in 2020, and while it didn’t manage a repeat performance in 2021 (see below) it held its own against other services equipped with rvers and Server LocationsHotspot Shield says it provides servers in “80+” countries. That’s a strong selection, and not far behind the 94 countries served by ExpressVPN. Servers in more places gives you more options for spoofing your location, and it means there’s likely to be a server near your pecially notable is the variety of locations served by Hotspot Shield. It has servers in four African countries and servers across South America, two regions frequently ignored by VPN companies. Hotspot Shield also provides servers in regions with repressive internet policies, such as China, Russia, Turkey, and Vietnam. Hotspot Shield has a respectable 1, 800-some servers available. CyberGhost has the biggest fleet we’ve seen, with over 6, 800. Having more servers doesn’t necessarily mean better service, but it does generally mean you have more options to find something that works.
Many VPN services use virtual servers, which are software-defined servers. A single machine could play host to several virtual servers. Similarly, a virtual location is a server that’s configured to appear somewhere other than where it physically resides. Neither is inherently problematic, but we prefer that companies be clear about their infrastructure and where it is located. If your data passes through a given country, you might be subject to that country’s laws or surveillance regimes. Hotspot Shield tells me that it relies only on hardware servers. That said, it was vaguer on virtual locations, saying only that 90% of its fleet was physically located where it appeared to be. The company needs to be more transparent about these practices, especially in its app. In contrast, Mullvad VPN lets you know exactly where the server is, whether it’s owned or rented, and what company physically possesses the Aura representative confirmed for me that Hotspot Shield shares server infrastructure with five other VPN companies owned by Aura. They are: Betternet, Hexatech, TouchVPN, VPN360, and VPN in Touch. Hotspot Shield VPN has been white-labeled in the past, so it’s not surprising to see that it’s sharing space with sibling company takes measures to secure its infrastructure but does not own all its servers, which is not unusual. Some VPN companies, such as ExpressVPN, have migrated to RAM-only servers to prevent tampering. Hotspot Shield says it has other security mitigations in Privacy With Hotspot ShieldIf it were malicious, a VPN could see everything you do online. That’s why it’s important to understand what efforts a company makes to protect your privacy. Remember that security is built on trust. If you do not feel that you can personally trust a VPN company, you should switch to one you do. There are plenty to choose spot Shield VPN is owned and operated by Pango Inc. dba Aura, which is incorporated in the US state of Delaware. The company says it has a “distributed workforce” in the US and Ukraine. The parent company for Aura is WC SACD Holdings Inc. Some companies tout their offshore HQs as a check against requests for information by governments and law enforcement, but Aura does not. Many VPN companies release third-party audits of their products to establish security and privacy bona fides. Hotspot Shield VPN has yet to release the results of an audit. TunnelBear, on the other hand, has delivered annual audits for several spot Shield company issued a lengthy and detailed transparency report for 2016 through 2018, which indicates it has never released user information despite numerous requests. However, this report is not easy to find—here’s a PDF link to it—and the company should commit to releasing updated reports documents cover your privacy with Hotspot Shield. The first is a broader policy related more to Aura’s overall operation. The second is focused solely on VPN products. We looked at both documents. There’s been some effort to bridge the gaps between the two, with the former calling out specific differences with the latter. To its credit, the company is transparent in all of its documents. We absolutely understand what the company says it’s doing and why, even if we don’t always agree with it. The company says that it does not store any information on users’ browsing activity. The company does gather your IP address to match you to the best VPN server, but that information is encrypted during use and deleted at the end of your VPN session. The company says it does not have the ability to connect activity at a given server with a specific person using that server. This is a better practice than some other company does log session duration and the amount of data used, to enforce its policies. It also stores device hashes (that is, theoretically anonymous identifiers), but the company says these are not linked to user activity. The company says that it must collect this information because it does not require users to create an account to use the product. Other companies can provide services without these mpany representatives explained to me that Hotspot Shield also logs the domains—but not complete URLs—of sites accessed by each VPN server, with a timestamp. This is also outlined in the privacy documentation. The company tells me there is no way to connect this information to individual users, and that this is done to improve service. Some competitors have similar practices, but I’d like to see Hotspot Shield find creative ways to further protect user data. A Thorny Question of Free PrivacyIt’s always difficult to ascertain whether a VPN is acting in its customers’ best interests, but even more so with Hotspot Shield, because it chooses to monetize its free subscription in a way that other companies we’ve reviewed simply do not. Hotspot Shield deserves credit for its efforts at transparency, but the consequences of the company’s decision to profit from its free users mean that its efforts toward privacy will always come with an asterisk. In all of our conversations with the company over many years, representatives have stressed that they feel a moral obligation to provide a free VPN product to help people living under oppressive regimes. But they also insist that they must pay for it with ads on the Android version of its app. This is done with ad network SDKs and Google Ads, both of which gather user information to target advertisements. We should stress that this is only an issue for the free Android version of the app; these privacy concerns do not apply if you purchase a subscription or use the free subscription on a different could argue that targeted advertising in the free Hotspot Shield Android app is no worse than any other ad-supported app, or even browsing most websites, and that the cost in privacy is weighed fairly against free VPN protection for everyone. Yet ProtonVPN and TunnelBear both also offer free subscription tiers but do not monetize their users. A VPN is intended to improve your privacy, and we believe it must be held to a higher standard than the average mobile game. The company has gone to great lengths to minimize the privacy concerns that stem from monetizing its free version, but a far simpler solution would be to simply not serve On With Hotspot Shield for WindowsHotspot Shield provides apps for Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows. Several streaming devices, including Android TV and Amazon Fire Stick, also support Hotspot Shield apps. There’s also a command line app for Linux, and the company provides instructions on how to configure your router to use Hotspot Shield. In our testing, we used an Intel NUC Kit NUC8i7BEH (Bean Canyon) desktop running the latest version of Windows Hotspot Shield client looks much more at home on Windows 10 than other VPN apps. It’s a simple, dark blue window with snazzy cyan highlights. It looks and feels solid and modern. Opening the app for the first time, we were greeted by a large button labeled Connect to VPN. A menu in the lower right corner displayed which server would be used. We really like this approach, since it gave us an obvious action to take and made clear what would happen.
Once you connect your device to a server, the main page shows upload and download speeds, latency, the load on the server you’re using, and your apparent IP address. A map in the upper left shows a stylized view of the world. You can select a new location from the menu above. There are also panels showing your daily data usage and what network connection is active. Easy to miss is a Stop button at the very bottom of the app. This disconnects your device from the VPN you go to select a new location, you see a grid of available server locations with the flag of that region. A search bar at the top makes short work of the numerous server locations. If there is more than one location within a region, you can choose where you’d like to connect—usually nothing more fine-grained than a city. This is pretty good, but we prefer services that let you choose specific servers and display information on the usage load of a server or region. The Settings section is fairly light but has useful tools. You can choose your preferred VPN protocol from the Protocols section or let the default setting make that choice for you. There’s a Kill Switch, which cuts off all internet traffic should your VPN become disconnected. Perhaps the most powerful tool is the Smart VPN (aka split-tunneling), which lets you designate which apps or URL domains must use a VPN connection or must bypass the VPN. If you have an app or service that’s frequently blocked when using a VPN, this could help. The problem is that the app confusingly uses “Bypass” and “Pause” as the possible actions for apps and URLs, instead of something more you use a VPN, you expect that your IP address and DNS information are not leaked. To confirm that’s the case, we use the DNS Leak Test tool. Our tests showed that our IP public address was changed and that our DNS information was secure. Keep in mind that we only tested one server. Other servers may be incorrectly configured. Using a VPN often prevents you from accessing Netflix, even if you’re connected to a VPN server within the US. Unfortunately, when we tried streaming video from Netflix while connected to a US-based server we were only able to access Netflix Originals content. This might not always be the case. Services that work one day are frequently blocked the next, so keep that in mind when looking to purchase a VPN.
Speed and PerformanceVPNs usually have a negative effect on your internet speeds. To get a feel for the impact of using a VPN, we perform a series of tests using the Ookla SpeedTest website, and find a percent change between test results with and without the VPN. You can read more about our testing, including its limitations, in the aptly named article How We Test VPNs. Note that Ookla is owned by PCMag’s publisher, Ziff 2020, we determined that Hotspot Shield was the fastest VPN available. That’s no longer the case, but it is remarkable how well it held up against services using WireGuard. Our testing showed that Hotspot Shield VPN reduced download and upload speed test results by 31. 3% and 60%, respectively. It increased latency by previous years, we conducted all VPN speed tests back-to-back for a bird’s-eye view. This year, we’re using a rolling system that will bring you fresher data. This new approach is also necessary because of COVID-19 restrictions that limit our access to the PCMag Labs test network. The most recent results are below.
In general, we don’t believe that speed is the most important factor when choosing a VPN. Price, privacy, and trustworthiness are far more valuable than a quick download. It’s also worth noting that our tests can’t be viewed as the final word on speed. Our tests are just a snapshot, and your experience will almost certainly differ. Hands On With Hotspot Shield for MacOSTo test Hotspot Shield’s macOS VPN, we used a MacBook Air (M1, 2020) running OS Big Sur version 11. 2. The app is available to users who sign up for the free or premium service on the vendor’s website, or you can download it from the Apple Appstore. Hotspot Shield VPN’s MacOS app looks very similar to the iOS app, in that it’s modern and dark. To connect to a VPN, you choose from a list of countries or cities at the bottom of the screen, and then click on the name of the location. You can also click the giant blue button in the middle of the screen to connect.
We checked that Hotspot Shield VPN wasn’t leaking data by visiting the DNS Leak Test site and performing an extended test. Happily, only the VPN server’s information came up during the test—our personal data was shielded. We only tested one server, so there could be leaks on others. Hotspot Shield VPN works fine for most video services on MacOS. Using Hotspot Shield on a Mac, we found that YouTube took a second or two longer to load than usual, but videos played fine without any stuttering or lagging. We ventured over to Twitch and that’s where the limitations of the VPN came through. The video froze, lagged, and eventually played—when we turned the video quality settings on the player down to their lowest levels.
Hands On With Hotspot Shield for iPhoneHotspot Shield’s iPhone VPN has a modern black interface with bright blue highlights. It’s extremely obvious when you’re connected; there’s a bright blue button in the middle of the home screen that toggles on and off with your connection and don’t need to sign in to start using the VPN. Just press the large blue outline of a button in the middle of the screen, agree to let the app create a VPN connection on your phone, and the app will connect you to a server. The Basic VPN server is slow, and its location and information are not divulged. We streamed a couple of YouTube videos, and they took a few seconds longer to load than they normally do. You are also prompted to upgrade to a Premium account pretty often, which gets old quickly. Once we signed in with our Premium account credentials, we could choose from a host of VPN server options. There’s also an Auto option to connect you immediately. You can also choose the city where your server is located if it’s in a country that has multiple Hotspot Shield VPN with the Windows test, it appears HotSpot Shield VPN’s iPhone app is not prone to DNS leaks. We performed tests on both a “Streaming Server” located in Atlanta, Georgia, and a regular server located in Copenhagen, Denmark, and neither showed leaks. As always, it’s a good idea to perform your own test by visiting app doesn’t have much in the way of VPN special features like multi-hop or P2P connections, but it does offer some tools that come with a Premium On With Hotspot Shield for AndroidHotspot Shield’s Android VPN has a dark, sleek appearance, with a large round connection button in the middle of the screen. When connected to a VPN server, the app shows you various server information, like the IP address, the server load and the server latency. We used a Samsung A71 5G running Android 10 to test the app. Note that you can’t choose the individual server you want, only the city where the server is located. Furthermore, the app does offers neither a Kill Switch nor malware protection, as many of its competitors do. HotSpot Shield’s Android app is just for making VPN connections.
One confusing thing about the app is that it has dedicated profiles for different VPN usage, like browsing, streaming or gaming. We clicked on the streaming profile to connect to one of Hotspot Shield’s fastest US-based servers and, according to the graph on the app, our ability to stream was Limited, browsing was Excellent, and gaming was Average. Over the course of testing we connected to four different VPN servers (two in the United States, one in Australia, and one in Argentina) and none of them had a good rating for streaming or gaming. We only received an Excellent rating for streaming when connected to a server in Argentina. The opaqueness of this feature outweighs its potential checked to see if the app was leaking DNS information while using a VPN server in Argentina using We found that Hotspot Shield did not expose our DNS requests or our IP address, but other servers may not be correctly still connected to the server in Buenos Aires, we noticed that loading YouTube videos took longer than any other app we’ve tested, but once loaded they played without issue. We then visited ’s mobile site and while the live streams loaded slowly, they eventually played out without noticeable lag or pixelation. A Shield for Your Hotspot? All products have tradeoffs, but Hotspot Shield has more than average. It boasts strong speed test scores but doesn’t offer WireGuard on the most popular platforms. It’s expensive but offers a free option. That free subscription option is fairly generous, but it throttles data and pushes ads to free users on Android. It has an excellent collection of servers, but you can’t select individual servers. It offers access to a range of other privacy and security services, but that may not be valuable to you. Its privacy policy is quite transparent, but what’s in there isn’t always hurts Hotspot Shield the most, and why its score has dipped slightly, is that other companies offer VPN protection without all those caveats. Some competitors have even decided to forgo customer data and monetization in the name of better privacy. Hotspot Shield is still a compelling product, but its competitors are simply able to make clearer arguments for their value and security. PCMag has several Editors’ Choice winners to recommend. ProtonVPN offers the best free subscription option, which may appeal to Hotspot Shield users. IVPN and Mullvad VPN both offer outstanding privacy protections for far less than Hotspot Shield. TunnelBear VPN has an interface that could not be friendlier, or easier to use. Lastly, NordVPN has a similar price to Hotspot Shield, but has a large server network and just about every tool you could want in a VPN.
Pros
Numerous server locations
Slick, approachable client
Split-tunneling by domain
Hefty services bundle
View More
Cons
Expensive
Free version throttled, supported by targeted ads on Android
Gathers significant, but anonymous, data
No third-party infrastructure audit
Dated transparency report
Limited WireGuard support
The Bottom Line
Hotspot Shield VPN looks great and has an excellent network of servers to match, but its promise of privacy is complicated by the way it monetizes its free subscription tier on mobile.
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Frequently Asked Questions about vpn eklenti
How to use VPN on Google ChromeOpen Google Chrome browser.Click on the Apps icon in the bookmark bar.Click on the Web Store.Search for VPN in the Web Store.Click on the VPN you want to download and click on add to chrome.Click on add extension when prompted.Click on the VPN on the extension bar and start the VPN.Jul 30, 2021
Strictly speaking, there’s no such thing as “Chrome VPN,” but plenty of VPNs have a Chrome extension that lets you control the VPN through your browser. Many are completely free too. If you want easy access to the sites you want, wherever you are, they’re great choices.
VPN Plus chrome extension offers unlimited Free VPN proxy to unblock any websites.