If you are concerned about security and privacy, you have probably already heard quite about VPNs. They allow you to not only have anonymity and security, but they also provide you a way to access blocked content anywhere in the world. Not all VPN services are created equal. In this VPN review, you can see some of the differences that set IronSocket apart.
Anonymity
Any quality VPN service will provide a basic level of anonymity. This basic level of anonymity means that the websites you visit will not know your true location. Relative few VPN services go the extra step by not logging your usage. IronSocket is one of these. This means that no logs about the sites you visit are kept by them. Secondly, the websites you visit will not have any information as to your real location. This combined with the large and dispersed number of exit locations, you can keep your browsing activity anonymous.
Security
One of the most important reasons why regular people need a VPN is security. The VPN encrypts all of your internet traffic so that prying eyes can’t read it. Everyone likes the convenience of connecting to free Wi-Fi hotspots, but if you have ever connected to a public Wi-Fi hotspot, your traffic could have been read by hackers. Having the most secure protocols is important.
Wide Variety of Protocols
OpenVPN is one of the best VPN protocols available when it comes to security. It can use both TCP and UDP connections. It can be configured to run on just about any port so that you can avoid VPN blocks put in place by less than friendly governments. You are given the option to choose from Strong, Lite and No encryption, depending on your personal needs.
L2TP is a standard VPN protocol used in many businesses. It has built in support for many different operating systems and devices. It will work out of the box for Windows, Mac, Android, and IOS. It uses strong encryption that will keep prying eyes off of your data.
Rounding out their offerings are PPTP, HTTP and Socks 5. PPTP offers very basic security with weaker encryption but ease of use in many different environments. There are also two proxy services, a simple HTTP proxy, a DNS Proxy and a Socks 5 proxy.
Price
The service is priced very competitively with other VPN providers and with the quality and breadth of service, they are a very good value for the price. You can utilize a myriad of payment methods, including major credit cards, PayPal, Bitcoin and even gift cards.
Speed
Another important aspect of a VPN provider is its speed. The speeds during this review were quite fast and surfing speeds were comfortable. Ping times were low considering the overhead. The speeds were very usable for watching blocked content. There were no issues with page timeouts that can sometimes be found on other VPNs.
Access Blocked Content
Blocked content can happen one of two ways. In some countries, sites like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter are blocked or curtailed. The only way to access this content is to circumvent these blocks. Likewise, some services block access from people outside of their market area. For example, US versions of Hulu and Netflix are blocked if you are outside the US. The only way to watch Netflix on a beach in Thailand is to somehow circumvent these blocks. This is where a VPN shines. With a dispersed set of locations, you can access blocked content to and from much of the world.
P2P and Torrents
There is a lot of great stuff you can get through torrents and P2P networks, including legitimate downloads. ISPs like to slow down torrents and some overzealous organizations like to seek out people who download torrents. Iron Socket is one of the few VPN providers that allow torrents and P2P downloads. You can choose the location and the type of server you want and then start your downloads. No one will know what you are downloading and when you are downloading it. This is real anonymity that only a few VPN services can provide.
Conclusion
This VPN provider does well on all of the measures of performance and value, including price, speed, anonymity and security. It gives the bonus of being able to download torrents. If you need a great VPN to download torrents or P2P, IronSocket should be on your list.
This site’s customer service has a terrible reputation, and boy oh boy, is it deserved. I’ve never felt so scorned as a customer. It’s like they truly hate that they have to rely on customers for their livelihood.
I had a billing issue and asked them to resolve it. While they did resolve it, they made sure to give me as much attitude as they possibly could. If you’ve screwed up someone’s bill, I don’t think you really have the right to treat them like they’re bothering you. Maybe that’s just me.
Wouldn’t recommend. There’s over a hundred vpn sites out there now, and iron socket seems to be banking on the idea that people will be too lazy to ditch them and find a better alternative. I won’t be one of those people.