How to set up a VPN without much knowledge and use it for $ 5 per month on mobile and PC

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

I had a desire to start using the Internet only through a secure VPN channel with traffic encryption and, preferably, to make sure that all sorts of Internet filters in various countries I visit do not spoil my mood. I started looking for a VPN service from our list, as well as services like vpn.sh. They do their job perfectly - they provide sufficient speed, even for streaming HD video, encrypt the channel, provide complete anonymity (one of the services accepts payment only with gift cards of various retail chains, which does not give out your identity at registration), but there is one problem - to set up this connection on a PC, mobile and tablet, you need to have endurance, read long instructions and just be an extremely motivated person. I only had enough for a PC, and my hands did not reach the mobile settings. And I started looking for a solution that:

• encrypts my channel;
• it costs no more than $ 5 per month (for some reason I don’t want to pay more);
• easy to customize;
• provides a secure channel for computer, mobile and tablet out of the box;
• Allows you to geographically change the point of inclusion in the VPN host.

As a result, I chose TunnelBear, which we wrote about earlier, but which seriously revised its pricing policy, became friends with mobile phones and simply fulfilled all the conditions that I came up with for this project.

Solution

Today TunnelBear is a shareware VPN service that requires account registration to function and helps to set up a "tunnel" using applications for Windows, OS X, iOS and Android.

It's very easy to start working with it on a PC - install the client, log in, select the switch point (USA, UK, Canada, Germany, Japan, Australia or France) and turn on tunneling. Now work with the Internet will take place through the selected foreign host, bypassing all the bans of the country in which you are located. Your traffic will be encrypted with the AES 128-bit algorithm. For public sites, you will become a foreign visitor, and in the territory of your country of residence, you jump through an encrypted channel directly to the country selected for the connection.

Mobile solution (smartphone + tablet)

Mobile is a little more complicated, but don't worry - setting up iPhone and then iPad took 90 seconds. Download TunnelBear client for your platform …

… and install.

Then you launch the application, log in to it, install certificates - nothing complicated, just click on the only possible buttons and get the configured device. If we talk about iOS, then the result looks like this:

Is the bear digging a tunnel? So everything works;)

Choose any connection location in the world

Everything is very serious!

However, there is a problem with iOS, and it is that, in order to reduce battery drain, this OS disconnects the VPN connection. You will have to raise it again in the settings every time to securely surf the Internet. Android does not have this problem.

Internet speed "before" and "after"

It is also obvious that when traffic goes through a host remote from you, and even encrypted, the Internet speed drops. For example, on my 50M Internet, the speed to the English host was 10M. This is the price to pay for security.

But it is possible to slightly reduce the effects of tunneling - you can register sites in the TunnelBear settings for which traffic will go directly. For example, I have a serial site soap4.me, which lacks the speed of the tunneled Internet.

Additionally, TunnelBear may start filtering your data that you leave on sites on the Internet - not giving social personalized buttons and not uploading data to systems like Google Analytics (there is no constant upload of your personal data to social networks and services for collecting statistics and lead generation).

Issue price

You can use TunnelBear for free only within the limit of 500 MB per month. By tweeting the good news about the service, you will get another 1 GB of traffic. If you need an unlimited traffic solution for one personal computer and two mobile devices, then choose a tariff of $ 5 / month or $ 50 / year.

Output

Perhaps TunnelBear is not the safest solution (for example, because you identify yourself at the stage of payment by credit card or PayPal), but it allows you to secure personal data transmitted over the Internet, and makes it almost impossible to intercept data in public places, and also makes you a ghost for unscrupulous web resources. We recommend starting with it to develop the habit of working with the global trash heap and staying with clean hands.

TunnelBear