Review of 4 VPN Services for Watching Region Blocked Videos
** UPDATE - THIS IS AN OLD POST ** I am not currently using any of the below services. Here's an updated post.
As an ex-pat USian, I get angry when I'm not able to access sites like Hulu from my home here in Australia. Through a natural evolution in product choice, I've had the chance to evaluate 3 VPN services that make my internet connection appear as if it originates in the US.
A VPN encrypts your connection and actually downloads all content to an intermediate server as it's sending it to your cloaked connection. There are bandwidth costs associated with the service and most VPNs charge.
I've tested these VPNs over the past few months on Macs with both Tiger and Leopard. In all cases there are both Windows and Mac versions available. I'm on a cable connection that averages around 400-500kbps for downloads.
Anchor Free's Hotspot Shield
The name is misleading as it has has nothing to do with wi-fi hotspots - though they promote the encryption of the connection as being useful for mobile connections. Hotspot Shield is the only one of the three which is actually free. The service is paid for by a banner ad inserted at the top of all web pages. The banner can be closed but it appears every time you load a new page.
On a Mac, the connection is accessed from an icon on the right side of the menu bar. The little shield turns green when it's working.
When I first tried Hotsport Shield about 8 months ago, I found that most blocked content would load smoothly with no buffering. The word is out now though- and Hotsport Shield is a victim of its popularity. Hulu is choppy and buffers heavily. Pandora is hit and miss, sometimes the songs will play smoothly and other times there will be large drops where the service goes silent for over a minute.
It's not a bad solution for standard embedded Youtube clips. There's quite a lot of buffering involved but it's somehow more acceptable when you're not trying to emulate a TV watching experience. One final thing to consider- Hotspot Shield has a download limit of 10gb per month, which we found out early on - watching Lost in Space episodes on Hulu.
Ratings out of 10 for Anchor Free Hotspot Shield:
Hulu 3
Pandora 5
Youtube 7
value 9
Overall 6
Witopia's Personal VPN
After HotSport Shield got popular I decided to bite the bullet on a pay VPN service. Witopia's Personal VPN is $39.99 for an annual subscription. I was expecting a big improvement as it's pay the riff-raff would be kept out- keeping the connection speedy. In actuality I was disappointed because there wasn't much difference between Witopia's pay product and the free Hotspot Shield. There was a small improvement on Pandora and Hulu, but both were buffering fairly regularly - enough to make a smooth watching/listening session impossible. The Personal VPN client for the Mac works similarly to Hotspot Shield - an open source client called TunelBlick sits on the menu bar. It's Gray until you activate it, then the tunnel icon turns white.
Ratings out of 10 for Witopia's Personal VPN:
Hulu 4
Pandora 6
Youtube 7
value 8
Overall 6.25
Strong VPN Regular
Many of you know there is no TV in the Dag household - but about a month ago we splashed out for the new 24" iMac. It's a thing of beauty - but that's another post. As this quickly became the home media centre - I still wanted to be able to easily watch (legal) shows online. This time we shelled out for Strong VPN's standard VPN service. It was a price jump at $15 a month - but we learned that you do get what you pay for. Hulu plays for me without stutters or buffering (though not on the 480p high setting) and I haven't had a drop out yet in Pandora. A nice option is that I can choose my VPN server and can make it local in the UK, for BBC content.
Unlike the other services, Strong VPN does not have a separate software client - just a tutorial on how to enter credentials into Apple's own VPN management tool.
Setup was straight forward and now I forget that it's on. I'm usually reminded when I visit a site (like VideoSift) and notice that the contextual ads are for the USA.
Ratings out of 10 for Strong VPN Regular:
Hulu 9
Pandora 9
Youtube 9
value 5
Overall 8
-- UPDATE 09/10/2008 --
Road Warrior VPN
I've moved on from Strong VPN. Perhaps they are a victim of their own success, but for the last couple of months they have been variable- with some stuttering stop on Comedy Central, Hulu and other region blocked sites.
I'm currently trialing Road Warrior VPN. They appear to be a smaller provider, which may be a good thing, as I'm getting a very good connection at the moment, with no pauses or delays in video. It actually appears to be just as fast with/or without the service turned on. It's an OpenVPN client. I had some initial config problem on the Mac, but the technical support people were very responsive and helpful. This is my current choice for VPN. It's $20 a month which is $5 more than Strong VPN, but if the connection stays this fast and frustration free - it's worth it to me.
Hulu 10
Pandora 9
Youtube 9
value 4
Overall 8
Finally I can catch up on all of those Lou Grant episodes on Hulu.
24 Comments
dagComment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)
I'm hoping this might be a useful post for the wider net community - if you have a moment, please help me promote it on delicious.
deputydogthe past few weeks i've been close to tears trying to watch hulu from the uk. hotspot shield is a joke. think i might give strongVPN a go.
dagComment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)
It's definitely working well for me. I don't even notice it's on.
blankfistUnrelated to VPN but related to your new iMac purchase, Apple's screens are looker better and better every new release. That picture with your dirty, hairy ankles in it doesn't do that monitor justice. Those are a thing of beauty. Not your ankles, but the large iMac screens.
Related to the VPN, great article. If I had a power point, I'd probably quality this or something. But, since I do not, I will continue to be lame.
dagComment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)
Yeah the iMac is so lovely - the screen is fantastic. The only thing missing is a Blu-Ray, but it does shine on the HD content from Youtube and Vimeo.
RedSkyYeah, I made a topic about Hotspot Shield a while ago. I mean I'm sure the other two are great but I can't quite imagine many people justifying to pay for that especially when much of this content is eh *cough* available on torrent *cough*
I'm guessing if you have a dynamic IP you could get around the 10GB/month limit with Hotspot Shield too.
blankfist^Bit Torrent is good for those things you cannot get, but, in my experience, it simply takes too long to download when everyone would rather leech than seed. Speaking of which, when are you getting a charter membership, RedSky? [inquisitive stare]
Hulu is pretty much instantaneous. That, and their site is about as perfect a media distribution service I've ever seen.
dagComment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)
Yeah, for me it's the depth of their library that is intriguing. There's no way I'm going to download torrents of season 3 of Simon & Simon - but it gives me a kick to know that I can watch it instantly if I want to.
Also, as this is kind of a TV replacement for the family - $15 a month doesn't seem too high - considering a cable package would start at around $60. (and would suck)
campionidelmondoNice post. I'm using HotspotShield for Pandora, but it's pretty much useless for Hulu. Not gonna pay $15 a month for a VPN. If I were you dag I'd rather put that money into an usenet account.
dagComment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)
>> ^RedSky:
Yeah, I made a topic about Hotspot Shield a while ago. I mean I'm sure the other two are great but I can't quite imagine many people justifying to pay for that especially when much of this content is eh cough available on torrent cough
I'm guessing if you have a dynamic IP you could get around the 10GB/month limit with Hotspot Shield too.
I don't think a dynamic IP address would help - you would need to change your MAC address - not difficult but more than a lay person would want to deal with.
RedSkyAh I see, fair enough.
>> ^blankfist:
^Bit Torrent is good for those things you cannot get, but, in my experience, it simply takes too long to download when everyone would rather leech than seed. Speaking of which, when are you getting a charter membership, RedSky? [inquisitive stare]
Hulu is pretty much instantaneous. That, and their site is about as perfect a media distribution service I've ever seen.
... but, but I'm poor, really poor. I mean surely my hypothetical profligate flouting of copyright is indicative of that
For speeds, private trackers is where it's at! But yeah, if you just wanna watch something quickly with no hassles Hulu's pretty handy.
K0MMIEBLARGH! Ugly feet alert!
I've been using a combo of Netflix and Netflix Stream on X-Box 360 for our entertainment. I'm considering ditching the stupid cable tv now.
joedirtDag,
For reference 420p stutters from good cable modem connection in the states. I think some of it is CPU usage, and the other part is some older movies aren't cached or something if they aren't popular.
I also think the browser can make a difference because of the flash player.
(also, can't Lucky hook you up with some type of SSH tunnel or socks proxy from a server in the states? I would think the encryption overhead is killing you for just web traffic)
maatc*quality rewiew, thanks!
I too noticed Anchor Free getting slower and slower here in Germany.
Might give the others a try.
siftbotAwarding dag with one star point for this contribution to Sift Talk - declared quality by maatc.
antDoes anyone in US have broadband to give out US proxies for foreign VSers? [grin]
Ugh, the feet. DID YOU HAVE TO SHOW THEM? [grin]
I also submitted this review to Digg: http://digg.com/software/Review_of_3_VPN_Services_for_Watching_Region_Blocked_Videos ...
14054Hi,
I'am using USA VPN account from VPN Privacy to watch ABC channel from Ukraine. They (i mean VPN Privacy) have not any setup fee like StrongVPN and very stable service.
He he... it's not advertising. Only my opinion
geo321Thanks a lot for this sift channel. I really appreciate it. I'm trying out Hotspot Shield from Canada and haven't had any problems yet. It's nice to finally see what Hulu is about. No buffering lags so far. I recommend it to any other Canadiens...there are so many US media outlets region blocking stuff to Canada.
marlevoiI have been using Blacklogic VPN, really unreliable. I am based in UAE and was hoping to access content from BBC UK and Hulu in US over my 2Mbs ADSL. Sometimes don't even get a video to start on BBC, and Hulu hangs all the time. Need to move away to another VPN provider ASAP. Thanks for your review dag.
aberstan[redacted]
jilawatan[redacted]
spaceleemaybe you can have a try of fbvpn...it's a new vpn service provider and can have a free trial...
and you can watch hulu using it...
the cost is cheap anywhere which is 5 dollars per month...
and if you want more free trial, you can invite your friends...another 7 days free trial per friend
deathcow>> ^K0MMIE:
BLARGH! Ugly feet alert!
I've been using a combo of Netflix and Netflix Stream on X-Box 360 for our entertainment. I'm considering ditching the stupid cable tv now.
You try shoving your feet into tiny pumps day after day and see what it does to your feet.
adele_samantha[author flagged as a spammer - redacted]
Discuss...
Enable JavaScript to submit a comment.