![]() ![]() There are two "quick access" servers in the U.S., one optimized for streaming and the other for gaming. Daily data usage while connected is also displayed at the bottom. Clicking on the server brings up a list of servers by country and city for easy selection. Primary Controls: In addition to the connect button, the server you will connect to appears at the bottom of the dashboard. I thought it was attractive and uncluttered. Look and Feel: Hotspot Shield's dashboard is clean and easy to read, with a large blue connect button over a black background. All of the apps installed correctly within minutes and were ready to use after I entered my previously selected username and password. I downloaded and installed Hotspot Shield's apps for Windows, MacOS, Android, and iOS quickly and without incident. That said, I understand many people want software, including VPN software, that “just works” without a lot of settings to adjust. I tested each VPN’s apps for Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS.īecause I’m an experienced VPN user and tech-savvy in general, I often prefer software that has multiple settings to tinker with. My evaluations considered ease of use, features, and other criteria important to the overall experience. I evaluated our top 10 VPNs, as well as an additional five VPNs that previously made our ratings. Be sure to follow me on Twitter at on Facebook at /DavidGewirtz, on Instagram at /DavidGewirtz, and on YouTube at /DavidGewirtzTV.VPN Expert: Jeff Kinney, Senior Editor, 360 Reviews You can follow my day-to-day project updates on social media. Neither the author nor ZDNet were compensated by the vendor for this independent, unbiased review. I never expected to say this walking into the review process, but what's not to like?ĭisclosure: ZDNet may earn a commission on services featured on this page. On top of all that, the company offers a generous 45-day return policy. And, for those of you surfing across the planet, it actually may defy physics and increase your connection speed. It's simple to set up because it has very few options. Hotspot Shield appears to be the real deal. The folks at Hotspot Shield tell me their software also contains built-in malware, phishing, and spam protection. I'm not entirely sure how these tests know that I am, in fact, a mad genius, but that's a discussion for another day!Īll told, none of the connections I made showed my local DNS or any local information about me, including that I was connecting from the United States. If you're planning on using Hotspot Shield (or any VPN service) to hide your identity for life and death reasons, be sure to do far more extensive testing.Īt first glance, it appeared Hotspot Shield failed the DNS leak test: These tests are basic security tests and not much more. While I was connected, I also ran DNS and WebRTC leak tests (to make sure that DNS and IP are secure) using, , and. ![]() Some vendors I've tested didn't offer a Russian VPN destination, but Hotspot Shield does. Secure connection testingīeyond the US, I tested connections to Sweden, Taiwan, Russia, Australia, and India. I did repeated tests and over and over again, the connection across the globe was faster inside the VPN than making a straight, VPN-less connection. If that cross-world connection is super-fast, then when you leave their network in India to connect to a server in, say, Hyderabad, you're only moving a short distance on the unoptimized Internet. That entire trip across the world is done through their network and using their Catapult Hydra protocol. So when you connect to Hotspot Shield's network, you're making a connection through the app running on your device to their network location in, say, India. VPNs do sometimes remove some of the hops a normal connection would take. It is important to note that our proprietary protocol is focused only on the performance of the VPN data transport, while using standard encryption with perfect forward secrecy. Many carriers such as Telefonica and KDDI also use Catapult Hydra to provide VPN services and Wi-Fi security to their customers, due to Hydra's superior performance and reliability. How is this possible?įor a few of the connections, ping speed improved along with download speed while using Hotspot Shield. If you're sending a packet across the planet, it will take longer to hear back than if you're sending a packet across town. The lag limitations here are due to actual physics. ![]() Ping speed is an indication of how quickly a response gets back after a network request is sent from your computer. Are they high enough to do the work you need to do? The real numbers you should look at are the download speed and the ping speed. After all, you're running all your packets through an entirely artificial infrastructure designed to hide your path. When you use a VPN service, it's natural for performance to drop. Baseline download speed without VPN (higher is better)ĭownload speed with VPN (higher is better)
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