What’s good in Steganos Online Shield 365 -part 3

In part 3 of the Steganos Online Shield 365 we are going to explore if there are any quirks which we have to watch out for.  Oh yes, there are a few. BTW let us be very clear here - even though I’ve been offered an year’s free subscription of Steganos Online Shield 365 worth $79.95, my policy is to test out the (any) software in and out, and list out problems, if there are any.

The reasons are two.  One, a wishy-washy review does not do the readers any justice.  Two, it doesn’t do justice to the software too - if there are quirks, it better be sorted out sooner than later.
So here are the quirks I found with Steganos Online Shield 365.

The number 1 problem is in signing in to cloud based services.  Every cloud based service tags log in attempts from ‘alien’ IPs as suspicious.  Thus both Google and Facebook tagged my attempt to login as suspicious and put me through hoops to sign in.  In Facebook, it was sort of interesting, but irritating to identify 5 friends from their photos.  And Google, well what to say about them!



The next major problem is trying to use my Android phone with the Steganos Online Shield 365 VPN service.  Since there is no login / user-password feature with Steganos (they use a ID based handshake for connections), and I can’t figure out a way to use my Android phone with VPN.

The 3rd bit of inconvenience is while we can select the shield located by country (one of the 5 mentioned), there isn’t a feature to select specific city within that country.  Perhaps it is asking too much!

There is also one quirk, if at all, when Steganos refuses to start the shield and throws up an error.  It did for me today saying ‘VPN Starter Service’ cannot be reached and to start it.



The only problem is that ‘services.msc’ doesn’t list any ‘VPN starter service’ or ‘Steganos starter service’, named as such.  The service in question is actually named ‘Online Shield Starter Service’.

On my Windows 7 PC, though it is shown as an Automatic Start service, it sometimes fails to start and causes this problem.  Starting it manually makes the shield up and running.
:-D



My recommendation?  It is time for everyone to start using one VPN or another.  And as of now, Steganos seems to be the best bet (for users in India at least).

Disclosure:  As above (one year free subscription).

Tags: steganos,vpn,free_vpn,free_vpn_india

What’s good in Steganos Online Shield 365 -part 2

The second part of tryout with Steganos Online Shield 365 takes a look at how good is the software in practical terms.  The first part of the review is here.

Connection Speed:
Anyone who has used a VPN or TOR from India would know the frustration of slow speeds, drop/cut-off connections and timeout errors while using them.  With Steganos Online Shield, though there is a slight drop in speed , it is barely noticeable.  My 4 Mbps download line behaves better than a 2 Mbps connection of a neighbour.  Which is quite great.  But the proof of pudding is in eating and so I set out to test it.

Doing a speed test with a VPN is a little tricky.  The normal speed test sites will automatically switch you to the nearest ping server, which isn’t of use.  With shield off, I would be plugged to Colombo server, and with shield on, into a server at Missouri, USA.

The workaround was to manually select a speed test server in USA - and I chose the American Broadband Nebraska site.  Here is the speed test result with shield off which shows a download speed of 3.45 Mbps.



With the Steganos Online Shield 365 protecting my internet connection, the speed test shows a respectable 2.06 Mbps, which is quite good.



Free Download (limited):
The second best feature of Steganos Online Shield is their offer of free 500 MB downloads every month.  Without paying a single Rupee, users can enjoy the benefits of the Steganos VPN for browsing, downloads and the like for up to 500 MB - totally free, every month.  If I wasn’t so obsessed with connection speed, the ‘use-up-to-500-MB-for-free’ feature would have taken the first best feature spot.

Cheap Subscription:
Above 500 MB, you can buy subscriptions based on data usage or an unlimited annual license for about $80.  At ~Rs. 4400/- an year it might seem a little steep, but at less than 1/3rd to half of what people pay for a good internet connection, Steganos might well be worth it.

I have a feeling that if Steganos finds a good partner in India, they would tie-up the VPN-for-personal-use segment very nicely in a few months.

With such great feature set, and ease of use, users would flock to Steganos.  In the next part we will see if  there are any downsides to Steganos Online Shield 365?

Related posts:
A look at Steganos Online Shield - part 1


Disclosure:  As written in part 1 (one year free subscription).

Tags: steganos,vpn,free_vpn,free_vpn_india

What’s good in Steganos Online Shield 365 -part 1

As I wrote a couple of days back, everyone will and should start to use a good VPN service soon.  But as luck would have it, there are no good, free (cheap) Virtual Private Network (VPN) services available in India.

In this situation, when I was offered a chance to review Steganos Online Shield 365 (with a complimentary one year subscription free), I jumped at the offer - only some family health issues hindered putting out the review.  So here is how Steganos Online Shield 365 stacks up for us.  Steganos is a Germany based company founded in 1996 and their software shows both the maturity of years and straight no-nonsense German approach.

Steganos Online Shield 365 is pretty easy to download and install at ~13.5 MB.  The installation is a breeze.  With the latest version - 1.0.4 - all it needs is one click on the install button.

Switching the VPN on/off is again a simple click on the button in the pop-up flash screen.  Here is the unprotected, unencrypted connection shouting my ISP provided dynamic IP to the world.



And here is the encrypted, pry-proof connection spoofing out the IP address of the Steganos server in USA.



The VPN service can also be switched on/off by right clicking the Steganos icon on the taskbar and clicking on the Shield on/off options.  The same popup also provides a quick, easy way to switch between the Steganos servers (exit nodes) in 5 different countries -Switzerland, France, UK, USA and Germany itself.



BTW I can’t understand why the countries appear is that specific order - they are certainly not in alphabetic order, even in German language:  no way Schweiz comes before Deutschland.

Disclosure:  As above (one year free subscription).
Related posts:

Tags: steganos,vpn,free_vpn,free_vpn_india

Why everyone should use a VPN

The internet is an evolving environment and the most obvious proof is to look at the new tools, techniques (and ‘apps’) we use today when compared to a few years back.  Another way to understand the evolving nature is to overview the protective security measures we’ve to adopt.

Ten (or even 8) years back, a simple anti-virus was considered enough to secure our life online.  Today, anyone venturing online (or even staying off the net) without a decent Security Suite would be considered careless - to be polite.

Within a couple of years, I expect that anyone not using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) would be considered the equivalent of the village idiot.
:-(

To be frank the tech savvy among us are already on the bandwagon - the smartest already connect to the internet through one VPN or another.  BTW, I am not as smart as I put out to be - still don’t login through a VPN on regular basis.
:-D

One of the reasons I do not use a VPN (or TOR) on a regular basis is the connectivity problem.  The connection speed slows down so drastically it feels like one is back in the old days with a dial-up connection.  Such a drastic slow connection speed is not because of the VPN technology alone - it is compounded by the fact that most VPN servers or endpoints are located elsewhere - not in India.

Then there are the login problems - again for an Indian user.  While using any of the Google services, trying to log in with an IP from Germany or USA flags the attempt as suspicious and generates an alert.  It is an irritating but a nice security measure - if there is an actual hacking attempt, we get to know of it in real time.  But if we repeatedly log in with different IPs from different countries (using a VPN), this security feature in effect is neutralized.  Mind you, VPNs assign a random IP from their available pool, just like the regular ISP.

On the other hand, VPN provides the best security against man-in-the-middle attacks by encrypting the connection.  There is no (easy) way anyone in the middle can hack an encrypted connection (in real time).

Also to be kept in mind is a VPN does not provide anonymity, but privacy.  The difference between privacy and anonymity may seem subtle, but is quite significant.  And this article is about VPN and safeguarding privacy, the anonymity issues will be dealt later, if at all.

So for privacy, there is nothing to beat a VPN.  But as I have written above, the trick is to find a VPN who/which affords us (in India) good speeds with expected protection.



(image courtesy rustedreality.com)

Tags: vpn,privacy,digital_security,steganos

Why TC 01B ‘MAHASEN’ skipped Chennai

It is a scary and sad thought that the developing Tropical Cyclone 01B, named ‘MAHASEN’, is forecast not to approach Chennai.  The models suggest that TC 01B MAHASEN would veer off North-Northwest after making a CPA of about 650 km from Chennai, thus avoiding the TN and Indian coast altogether.

But this skipping of Tamil Nadu by the TC 01B MAHASEN should gladden the hearts of some people in the state.  You know, the so called Tamil activists (actually chauvinists) who have adopted the short sighted policy of hating and banning anyone and anything connected with Sri Lanka. 

Even the intelligent and smartest Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu ever, Jayalalithaa fell for the cheap propaganda by those misguided souls and stormed into (no pun intended) banning Sri Lankan players from IPL.

TC 01B has been christened MAHASEN by Sri Lanka whose turn it is to suggest a name for the cyclone in the North Indian Ocean.  Presumably these so called Tamil chauvinists may not like TC 01B MAHASEN to touch the sacred Tamil shores, as it has been contaminated by the adoption of name suggested by Sri Lanka.
:-P

Jokes apart, it is really a pity.  Apart from the absurdity of the thought, TC 01B ‘MAHASEN’ would have brought much needed rains to the parched Northern Tamil Nadu and Chennai.

Again to be fair to the Tamil chauvinists, every TC named by Sri Lanka (since the naming convention was adopted in 2004) has run away from the Indian coast, just like TC 01B ‘MAHASEN’ is doing now.  First it was TC ‘MALA’ in 2006 followed by TC ‘RASHMI’ in 2008, and the TC ‘BANDU’ in the Arabian Sea in 2010.



(image courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

Tags: cyclone,mahasen,tc_01b

TC 01B ‘MAHASEN’ will skip Chennai

Almost 6 months to the day, there is another Deep Depression in the Bay of Bengal (BoB), which has actually intensified and been officially christened ‘MAHASEN’.  In November of 2012 there was a Deep Depression 03B which acted as though it was interested in lashing Chennai.  Sadly, it thrilled only to deceive and dissipated without intensifying into a Tropical Cyclone.

After 6 months, the only other Deep Depression to intensify into a Tropical Cyclone named MAHASEN, sadly seem to be in a similar mood to skip Chennai.
:-(

The city is parched, to put it mildly.  The well in my apartment complex, which has never failed to sustain us for the last 12 years, even when Chennai faced a drought during the last Jayalalithaa administration (2003), is drying out.  Quite disconcerting.

As per the latest forecast, Tropical Cyclone 01B ‘MAHASEN’ is expected to intensify into a very severe cyclonic storm in the early hours of 13th and make its closest approach to Chennai around noon on the same day (13th, 0700 UTC).  The only problem is the Closest Point of Approach (CPA) is at a distance of some 360 NM (~660 km).

Here is the TC warning (#05) graphic from the JTWC.



At 660 km distance, there is little chance of a deluge at Chennai from TC 01B MAHASEN.  What we might well experience is an occasional cloudburst which will be the proverbial drop in the desert.

I am even more worried about the aftermath.  TC 01B MAHASEN might well suck all the moisture along with it to dump it on Chittagong coast and leave the southern Indian coast, especially Chennai absolutely dry till the monsoon.  Scary thought!

Tags: TC_01B,mahasen,cyclone,chennai