Normaly, I like to connect to the Norton Hotspot Privacy UK Servers, and about a month a half ago I noticed very low speeds using these servers, so I decided to investigate the cause and here are my findings :
This is normally my real IP address, obviously I "censored" the real thing for obvious reasons. The website I used is : http://ipaddress.com/
And my aproximate location in the same page...
Now I connect to the "UK" servers using Norton Hotspot Privacy
And the first surprise is that I am really connecting to : Organization: AnchorFree
And the worst is that, a little down below the page it says : Proxy: Transparent Proxy (Real IP: 75.65.***.***)
Plus that "Real IP" sometimes leads to my IP Address !!! So much for my "privacy". And it clearly says "Transparent Proxy", so that means that "Norton Hotspot Privacy" is not a VPN but a simple and bad proxy.
This is really dangerous for us, since we are exposed.
Now I decide to do a Speed Test and as I said before, the download speeds leave a lot to be desired, we simply cannot work with this this is practically dial-up speed.
Ah! And now I discovered that according to SYMANTEC, Louisiana is in the UK.
To re-check everything, now I connect to "ANY"
And here is the "New IP" I get. Also please notice the "Transparent Proxy".
However, when I do the speednet test, guess what ? There I am ! Once again somebody is able to find me without problems !!
Conveniently the speeds this time are OK, I guess this time I was connected all the time to my ISP, and as you can assume without any privacy.
Well, all this means that SYMANTEC subcontracted "AnchorFree" http://www.anchorfree.com/ or other cheap providers for the "Norton Hotspot Privacy" service, and is reselling us their most cheap and basic servers/connections putting all of us at risk. Plus with unworkable low speeds.
When I started with the "Norton Hotspot Privacy" service it was a REAL VPN service and none of the aforementioned results appeared a that time, so why it was decided to downgrade the service to make it a low quality proxy, when out there there are real VPN services and they cost the same if not less ?
Well in case somebody cares, I went to one of my relatives who has a real VPN service, and check how a real VPN behaves.We tried a connection to the UK, just like the one Norton Hostpot Privacy used to offer and we used the same testing sites ipaddress.com and speedtest.net :
And first, we got a nice connection to the REAL UK :
Also, please notice this time where it says : Proxy : No Proxy Detected
Now, to test the speed :
I get a nice map of the UK, something we can't get anymore with Norton Hostpot Privacy and the final speed is fair for an European VPN.
With his service, American servers are much better ;
Now this kind of service is the one we used to have with Norton Hostpot Privacy but not anymore.
Again, WHY ?
Could you please restore it ? I would hate to take other measures.
The primary function of Norton Hotspot Privacy is to protect your traffic when using public Wi-Fi so that your online activities are secure.
Norton Hotspot Privacy protects data by providing a secure and private connection between you and your server while using a public Wi-Fi service. When the Norton Hotspot Privacy solution first launched, there was a period of time IP addresses were anonymous. Over time, infrastructure and implementation changes have been made and we chose to continue focusing on encrypting traffic and delivering against our primary job, which is to secure communications while using a public Wi-Fi service. We would like to ensure our Norton Hotspot Privacy customers that their online interactions have always been, and will continue to remain, encrypted and secure.
As we are always looking for ways to improve the features of our solutions and to enhance the user experience, we always welcome input and appreciate your feedback as a customer.
Thank you for telling us that Norton Hotspot Privacy is now useless if we have a desktop, then again, it is still useless if we use an Android device since there hasn't even been hints of the development of an app for Android.
Now, I really regret spending my hard earned money in this "software". But at the end, I learned a lot about how a real VPN solution should be, and now I have a better service from people who really take our privacy seriously.
Normaly, I like to connect to the Norton Hotspot Privacy UK Servers, and about a month a half ago I noticed very low speeds using these servers, so I decided to investigate the cause and here are my findings :
This is normally my real IP address, obviously I "censored" the real thing for obvious reasons. The website I used is : http://ipaddress.com/
And my aproximate location in the same page...
Now I connect to the "UK" servers using Norton Hotspot Privacy
And the first surprise is that I am really connecting to : Organization: AnchorFree
And the worst is that, a little down below the page it says : Proxy: Transparent Proxy (Real IP: 75.65.***.***)
Plus that "Real IP" sometimes leads to my IP Address !!! So much for my "privacy". And it clearly says "Transparent Proxy", so that means that "Norton Hotspot Privacy" is not a VPN but a simple and bad proxy.
This is really dangerous for us, since we are exposed.
Now I decide to do a Speed Test and as I said before, the download speeds leave a lot to be desired, we simply cannot work with this this is practically dial-up speed.
Ah! And now I discovered that according to SYMANTEC, Louisiana is in the UK.
To re-check everything, now I connect to "ANY"
And here is the "New IP" I get. Also please notice the "Transparent Proxy".
However, when I do the speednet test, guess what ? There I am ! Once again somebody is able to find me without problems !!
Conveniently the speeds this time are OK, I guess this time I was connected all the time to my ISP, and as you can assume without any privacy.
Well, all this means that SYMANTEC subcontracted "AnchorFree" http://www.anchorfree.com/ or other cheap providers for the "Norton Hotspot Privacy" service, and is reselling us their most cheap and basic servers/connections putting all of us at risk. Plus with unworkable low speeds.
When I started with the "Norton Hotspot Privacy" service it was a REAL VPN service and none of the aforementioned results appeared a that time, so why it was decided to downgrade the service to make it a low quality proxy, when out there there are real VPN services and they cost the same if not less ?
