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Avast VPN Review Australia

General Overview

Avast SecureLine is often referred to as Avast VPN. As the branding suggests, the SecureLine is a VPN product by the popular security vendor we all know and love called Avast Software. That said the true belly of the beast here is HideMyAss which is owned by Avast.

Interestingly the feature set offered by Avast SecureLine isn’t anything out of the ordinary. They have an averaged size network spread across 55 locations in 34 countries, with P2P supported in 8 of those locations. The company has client software aka apps for Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android operating systems. Though the question is, does Avast SecureLine offer something more than just a basic VPN experience and if so who is it best suited for? We’ll attempt to answer these and other questions in this review.

Special Features

Geographically Diverse Set of Servers

Sure! Avast SecureLine does not have an impressive number of servers like its competition. However, the servers are cleverly spread out across six continents. So, there are 55 server locations in around 34 countries. The servers are spread across large cities in the US, Australia and other parts of the world.

Minimalistic Interface

Perhaps one of the most unique aspects of SecureLine compared to the competition is just how uncluttered and straightforward the interface is for the most part. The installation is quick and simple. The app is so light it took us just 4 seconds to download and 3 minutes to install. When you fire up the app on Windows, Mac and mobile devices, you’re greeted by a minimalistic interface that anyone can use but which is unfortunately devoid of any advanced features.

Works perfectly with Netflix (US)

Australians who want to watch American Netflix will find that Avast SecureLine’s four servers which according to them are optimized for streaming works perfectly. There is one server in the UK, three other in the US. We also found a presumably virtual server named Gotham City too.

Privacy & Anonymity

Avast supports the well encrypted and secure OpenVPN protocol which uses the AES-256-CBC putting the service amongst the best when it comes to privacy. However, users have no control over the settings of the protocol, and there aren’t any protocols supported. Plus, there is no leak protection, kill switch, and various other privacy-related features we’ve grown to love and appreciate from other services.

In our books not having all those fancy features isn’t necessary since SecureLine does cover all the basics. We tested the service, and it did prevent WebRTC and DNS leaks quite efficiently. Preventing these leaks is good since it helps keep our identity anonymous online.

Figuring out Avast’s logging policy was a whole different story. Whether or not they keep logs is part of a 20,000-word document called their Privacy Policy. Though we eventually found that Avast states that the VPN service does not record browsing history or monitor users’ activities. But they do store a time stamp as well as an IP address each time you connect and disconnect from the VPN service. Plus, the amount of data uploaded as well as downloaded during a session is tied to your IP address which is stored on the VPN server.

Arguably this isn’t necessarily alarming if you’re using the VPN to watch Netflix or YouTube clips which are only intended for a US audience. However, if you’re downloading torrent files or uploading sensitive information to a personal server all of which can be traced back to you.

Avast VPN Speed and Performance

One of the most significant issues for us with Avast SecureLine is the lack of OpenVPN configuration files. So, that means we were not able to run our usual battery of tests like in other reviews. That leads us to use the manual approach, which requires manually connecting to each server through the app and then running tests using Fast.com and SpeedTest.net.  

Even though we are not sure how many Avast SecureLine servers are based in Australia and New Zealand we did manage to connect a few times. Average speeds on our 10Mbps connection were around 7Mbps which is pretty decent all things considered. When connecting to servers in Western Europe, the speeds dipped to an average 4Mbps, and 3Mbps when connected to Eastern European VPN servers. The most problematic and slow were the servers in Poland.

Speeds, when connected to American servers, were a smooth 6Mbps on average which is unexpected considering the distance and latency issues we’ve faced with competing VPN services.

VPN Servers in Malaysia and other countries in Asia didn’t yield any better than 3Mbps on average.   

Ease of use (Desktop and Mobile)

Desktops

The one thing Avast SecureLine gets right is ease of use on Desktops. Apparently, the interface was designed for someone who had never used a VPN before. The huge arrow draws your attetion to the ‘Connect’ button. Simple buttons indicate what they do like encrypt your online connection when the VPN is turned on and your current location as it appears to others.

Mobile Devices

On mobile devices, SecureLine is a mirror image of its desktop counterpart. Connect and subsequently disconnect with a single tap. The only noteworthy addition being the auto-connect feature. The feature works by auto connecting each time you’re connected to a Wi-Fi connection that’s otherwise not on your whitelist like the home or office connection.

Avast VPN Servers and Locations in Australia

Avast SecureLine does not have a specific number of Australian servers stated in its app, website or user manual. Though in our estimation it is around 4-5 servers across Sydney and Melbourne.

Customer Support

Apart from a couple of articles, an online forum, the only way to contact support is by filling in their online form. The company states that they take around two business days to respond.

Value for money

Not the best VPN service for the price. So, to us, it does not offer good value for money.

Our Verdict

Avast VPN is only a worthy consideration for those who want something that’s very easy to use and don’t mind the lack of features, support, and a complicated pricing system. Though everyone else should stay away from it.

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PIA VPN Review Australia

General Overview

PIA, short for Private Internet Access, is a United States based VPN service that offers a range of features, including an ad blocker, at an extremely cheap price. In fact, it’s one of the cheapest VPN services on the market. However, the biggest drawback it has to contend with is that it falls within the “5 Eyes” jurisdiction known for their violation of online privacy.

PIA VPN Special Features

  • PIA MACE: This is one of PIA’s best features. This feature can automatically block all malware, trackers, advertisements, etc. As such, you can browse the internet without interruptions and without worrying about accidentally clicking on malware files.
  • Kill Switch: This feature is extremely useful if you’re accessing sites that are forbidden by the government. Sometimes, due to connectivity errors, the VPN connection is lost. In those cases, this feature will automatically disable your internet so your activities are not discovered.
  • Netflix Unblocking: Bypassing Netflix’s geographical restrictions is considered the gold standard in terms of IP concealment. PIA does allow users to bypass Netflix’s restrictions and access content from other countries, but only via a limited number of servers.

Privacy & Anonymity

PIA is owned by an American company called London Trust Media, Inc. There’s little no information available on that company, which, in itself, is a pretty big red flag. That instantly means this company isn’t very transparent, and, consequently, not trustworthy.

Furthermore, the United States is a part of the “5 Eyes”, i.e., one of the 5 worst countries in terms of online privacy. This is true for the following reasons:

  • They conduct mass government surveillance via NSA.
  • Companies like Google, Facebook, Verizon, etc, conduct mass corporate surveillance to derive user information.
  • The Digital Millennium Copyright Act has troubling connotations for online security and user privacy.
  • Many large technology companies work with the government and provide user information when called upon to do so, without informing their users.

For all of the aforementioned reasons, we’d say that PIA VPN doesn’t offer a lot of privacy and anonymity.

They do claim they follow a No Logging policy on paper. However, we have no way to know how far that policy is enforced. Furthermore, they also limit the user’s subscriptions to 5 connections. The only way for them to impose this limitation is to keep some logs of user activities. As such, being in the US, we simply cannot trust their No Logging policy.

In terms of encryption, they are set up with a 128-bit AES encryption by default. However, you can go to the settings and change that to 256-AES encryption as well. The authentication can also be secured using SHA-1 or SHA-256 encryption. Furthermore, the client devices are also set up with RSA-2048 public-key encryption that can be upgraded to RSA-4096. As such, we have no complaints about the level of customization offered in terms of encryption.

PIA VPN Speed and Performance

PIA is not equipped with a server status page. This is yet another one of its transparency issues. As such, you cannot check the real-time bandwidth during connections. Connecting through different servers gets you different results and at different times of the day. As such, it’s pretty unreliable, and just okay at best.

Ease of Use (Desktop and Mobile)

PIA is extremely easy to use both in Desktop and Mobile. The app is user-friendly and intuitive. There’s a small icon that suggests privacy. You simply have to click on it and you get connected.

To select the server, you have to click on Region Selection in the main dashboard. This will give you access to the flags of all the different countries with server locations. You simply have to select the server you want to connect through and that’s it!


PIA VPN Servers and Locations Across Australia

PIA offers 3193 VPN and proxy servers located in 52 cities across 33 countries. Out of that, they have 185 servers distributed between two Australian cities — Sydney with 103 servers and Melbourne with 82 servers. This isn’t as impressive as various other VPN services that have servers in 3 or 4 Australian cities, but it’s still not bad.

Customer Support

PIA arguably has the worst support amongst all legit VPN services. If you go to online PIA forums, you’ll find hundreds of users complaining about lack of response from the support team. Comments like “Is PIA busy” littered the forum, showing a general lack of accountability.

In defense, PIA has stated that they are updating their systems and this is a temporary issue. We’ll have to see if this issue persists.

Value for Money

PIA is undoubtedly the cheapest VPN service on the market. If you get their service for 24 months, you can get it for as low as $2.91/month. They don’t offer any free trials but they do offer a 7-day window for a complete refund.

While PIA might be the cheapest VPN on the market, it’s also bogged down by various privacy concerns. If that is not an issue for you, this VPN will be highly valuable for you. However, if privacy is a major concern when using VPNs, even this cheap price wouldn’t be worth it.

Our Verdict

PIA is one of the cheapest VPN services on the market with a wide range of features and it’s extremely easy to use. However, it has terrible customer support and their location within a “5 Eyes” jurisdiction is a matter of grave privacy concern.

Visit https://www.privateinternetaccess.com

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Opera VPN Review Australia

General Overview

Most people who are new to VPNs and would like to dip their toes into the technology will be tempted to test out Opera VPN. It is Opera browser’s built-in VPN service that does not require installing any additional software, creating an account or even being eligible for a credit card! Users get unlimited data, and it seems to do well with streaming Netflix too. So, what’s the catch? Our review actually stumbles across quite a few catches that users should be aware of before they start using Opera VPN.

Opera VPN Special Features

No Additional Software Installation Required: Using Opera VPN does not require you download and install any additional software. All you need is to Opera Browser, and then just turn on the VPN feature. However, turning off the VPN feature does not in any way hinder the otherwise brilliant browser’s performance.  

No Bandwidth limitation: Opera VPN does not have a cap on how much bandwidth you can use unlike other free and trial services. So, regardless of if you want to stream HD content, or browse through geo-locked websites, there is no fear of being locked out as soon as the data cap is reached.  

Privacy & Anonymity

Now for starters calling Opera VPN, a VPN service would be technically incorrect. It is technically a secure proxy service which means that even though it does encrypt the browser’s traffic to and from websites, it isn’t moved through a tunnel server the way it is with VPNs. VPNs encrypt every piece of information as opposed to Opera’s HTTPS/SSL encryption which is only for websites accessed through the browser.

While Opera VPN will not reveal your real IP address to websites making it possible to visit geo-blocked content or geo-specific content, it isn’t all that anonymous. Opera VPN’s Privacy Policy tends to be pretty clear about how they store and log information. According to the company, they administer a unique ID to each user which tracks how the VPN service is used, how often it is used, the environment in which it is used and the session activity. However, they claim that the ID isn’t linked to your device or personal account, but we’d need to take their word for it. Opera VPN also logs other information like app crashes, platform, memory data, operating system, etc. all of which they claim is used to improve product experience.

Opera VPN Speed and Performance

We tested Opera VPN’s speed and performance across a multitude of countries, i.e. within Australia, the US, Europe, and Asia. Each time we disconnected and reconnected to a new country’s proxy server. We used Speedtest.net to test the speed, and averaging out the results of three tests per country. To ensure that we know how much speed we are losing when connected to Opera VPN we took baseline tests which were at 10Mbps.

When connecting to proxy servers within Australia we received an average of 5Mbps, in the US, it was around 4Mbps, European servers gave us 3Mbps with Asia being the worst at hardly 1Mbps. The overall drop in speed was between 70% to 90% for the most part.

So how bad is the speed that Opera VPN offers? Well pretty bad. To put things into context the slowest VPN service we’ve tested capped our download speeds at 30% lower than baseline. Opera VPN slowed it down by 70% at least. Now for us that does not mean a lot since we are on Australia’s most expensive broadband connection but for the average Australian using 4G or 3G or even a 5Mbps home network WIFI connection, the speed will be frustratingly slow.

Ease of use (Desktop and Mobile)

Opera VPN’s service is limited to laptops and desktop computers only. The mobile version of the feature was shuttered in April 2018, after Symantec purchased SurfEasy.

Getting online using Opera VPN is pretty simple. Just click on the browser’s logo, on the top left of your screen, choose settings and go to Privacy & Security, then click on Enable VPN. A few seconds later the Opera browser’s logo will turn blue indicating that you’re now using their VPN. Also, the interface will show your current IP address and how much data is being transferred.

Opera VPN Servers and Locations across Australia

Unfortunately, since Opera VPN isn’t technically a VPN, there is no way of knowing how many servers they have. After all, it is a proxy service which means that they could just be using one server to run the entire service.

Customer Support

No customer support beyond just a few FAQs and troubleshooting guides.

Value for money

It’s free, so the only value it has is of your time. If your time is valuable, then don’t waste it on Opera VPN’s sluggish performance.

Our Verdict

Sure, the Opera VPN is free to use with unlimited data and pretty decent video streaming via a series of proxies, but its awful network performance makes it difficult to recommend. When compared to similar services like those of ProtonVPN which is slowed down on purpose for free account holders, it is still faster than Opera VPN. So, unless you like sitting around waiting for websites to refresh and videos to load, it being free does not matter.

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Tor vs. VPN for Australians

The two most popular and powerful tools for maintaining online privacy and anonymity are Tor and VPN.

Both Tor and VPN, however, are vastly different tools and come with a unique set of advantages and disadvantages.

In this article, we’ll give you an overview of both Tor and VPN and decide which is superior once and for all.

Tor

With Tor, information is exchanged from your computer via the Tor network rather than connecting directly to the internet destination. This makes sure that you remain anonymous and no third-party has access to any of your information.

Advantages

  1. Tor is completely decentralized with hundreds of scattered networks around the world. As such, there’s no headquarters or a single entity that can be attacked for information. This makes it impossible to shut down Tor. Furthermore, due to its decentralized nature, there’s no single institution that the government can coerce into providing information about you.
  2. Tor is one of the most anonymous means of surfing the internet.

Disadvantages

  1. To ensure anonymity, messages in the Tor network go through over three servers and get encrypted and decrypted repeatedly. This makes it extremely slow, and you could potentially be waiting minutes or even hours to simply stream visual content.
  2. Tor is run entirely by volunteers and there’s no central source to finance it or keep it running. As such, several of the servers are old and have terrible networks. This further slows down the network.
  3. There’s the likelihood that one of the volunteers working on Tor might not be entirely trustworthy. There’s no central authority you can hold accountable for any data breach or violation of trust.
  4. Tor cannot be used on Apple devices like iPhones and iPads.

VPN

A VPN, or Virtual Private Network, essentially routes your connection through an external private server. VPNs consist of a network of servers distributed across various countries. Upon using the VPN service, your information is transmitted to that network and then proceeds to its actual destination. This hides your current IP address, encrypts your online data, and makes sure that your activities are private.

Advantages

  1. All your messages are completely encrypted. As such, no one — not your ISP, not the government, and not even the VPN service itself — can intercept the data. This is a useful tool for countries with a high degree of government censorship.
  2. Your internet speed is slowed down, but only by a negligible degree, especially if you use a powerful and reliable paid VPN service. In most cases, you shouldn’t even experience any inconvenience.
  3. VPNs can be installed and accessed within a few short moments. Anyone can access it.
  4. You get to choose which external server you’d like to connect to. As such, you can bypass geographical restrictions and pretend to be in another location than the one you’re in.
  5. VPNs are compatible with all browsers and devices — iPhones, iPads, Android phones, Linux OS, Windows, Mac, all of them.

Disadvantages

  1. Sometimes, the VPN software in your computer can fail. This can temporarily expose your activities. To prevent this from happening, you should use a paid VPN service with a kill switch feature. That will immediately shut down your browser the moment the VPN disconnects. As such, your internet activities will never be exposed.
  2. Some VPN services keep logs of your activities. As such, government bodies could potentially enforce them to give up your private information. To avoid this, you should only use trustworthy VPN services like ExpressVPN with a strict NO LOGGING policy.
  3. In order to ensure that the connection between your computer and the VPN server is strong, the encryption used needs to be strong. However, some of the VPN services use weaker encryption methods that can be broken. When looking for VPN services, make sure they use the industry-grade 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard.

Tor vs. VPN: The Verdict

When you compare Tor and VPN, it’s clear that VPN is far superior.

For one, Tor is incredibly slow and it will make you want to smash your computer in frustration. And yes, VPN also comes with disadvantages, however, all of those drawbacks can easily be overcome. If you get a reliable paid VPN service that provides a Kill Switch feature, has a No Logging policy, and uses 256-bit AES encryption, you won’t experience any of the stated problems.

All things considered, I believe a reliable VPN will always trump over the antiquated Tor server.

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Hola VPN Review Australia

General Overview

When most people subscribe to a VPN service, the assumption is that they will be connecting to highly secure, well-managed servers which are tightly integrated to ensure optimum security. All of which means that access to their traffic, for the most part, will be near impossible. However, that’s not how HolaVPN works.

Based in Israel HolaVPN is described by the company behind it as being so-called community powered, i.e., Peer-to-Peer. The software allows users to choose a country through which their traffic can be routed. Currently, there are 33 countries from which to choose. However, unlike a conventional VPN, your traffic is routed through other people’s computers and not Hola’s network. So, the billion-dollar question is how well does it all work? That’s precisely what we’ll attempt to answer in this review.

HolaVPN Special Features

Free Browser Extensions

One of the best features of Hola is that the browser extension is free for home users or non-commercial users. There are no data caps or speed caps. However, because it uses a P2P architecture, you’re using as much bandwidth of other nodes as they are using yours. Though Hola claims that the average daily traffic to any one particular node is equivalent to just a 20-send YouTube clip.

Does not use nodes running on battery

Hola says that the software only uses nodes or computers as peers if they are completely idle. Also, if they are not running on battery power. So, there isn’t going to be any noticeable difference in operation.

Low Price

Compared to other VPN service providers Hola is a lot cheaper. One reason for that is perhaps the service does not need to pay for an extensive network of VPN servers, and so the savings are passed down to the end user.

Privacy & Anonymity

Hola’s comparatively low price shouldn’t distract you from the numerous privacy and security issues that it poses.

People who are using the free browser extension should be concerned with the fact that if their computer becomes the exit node for someone who is hacking, spamming or engaging in some other illegal activity, it is their IP address that’s recorded. However, those who are uncomfortable with that happening can upgrade to Hola VPN Plus.

Interestingly Hola Plus isn’t going to solve all your problems. The company keeps quite about the encryption algorithm it uses and states that depending on what users choose only some of the traffic may be encrypted.

We browsed through the Hola VPN’s pages and found the Windows 10 manual in which the company states that they recommend connecting using a PPTP protocol. The PPTP protocol is outdated and known to be insecure which is why many premium VPN services don’t support it.

Hola VPN isn’t shy to state that they do monitor user activity on the network and possibly even log it. Not to mention that they collect a great deal of information about users’ activities. So in an industry where no-logging policies are taken for granted by those worried about their privacy and security, Hola VPN does exactly the opposite.

Now for someone who wants to access geo-blocked websites and YouTube videos all of this shouldn’t be very alarming. However, if you value anonymity, then Hola VPN isn’t the right choice.

Hola VPN Speed and Performance

The fact that Hola routes traffic from users’ computers means that you’re bound to run into all kinds of issues with speed and performance. However, contrary to what we went in believing the speed isn’t always slow. We used SpeedTest and Fast.com to check speeds when we connected to nodes in Australia and New Zealand. In some cases, the speeds were much better than other commercial VPN services. Using a 10Mbps connection we were getting a stable 7Mbps when connected to Australian Nodes. That said one reason for the excellent speed is that the service isn’t applying a layer of encryption over the traffic like other VPN services.

When connected to European and American nodes the results weren’t consistent. On average we got around 4Mbps. Yes! You won’t be able to stream HD video uninterrupted but if that’s a concern you shouldn’t be on a slow connection anyway.

Ease of use (Desktop and Mobile)

Desktop

Windows and Mac users will mainly be greeted by a Chromium-based app which fires up with a location picker. You can choose to connect to the UK, US, Australia in addition to 33 other countries. However, you don’t get any information regarding node availability, city information, ping times, etc.

The app does not send a desktop notification telling you if the VPN has disconnected. However, the app’s icon in the system tray does show the current location’s flag and if you click on it the IP address.

Mobile Devices

The iOS and Android versions of the service do not have many features either. The app works as a sort of launcher for other apps on your mobile device, and you can specify a location associated with them. For instance, you can launch the Chrome browser with a US location and the Firefox browser with a UK location. You also get the option to change your GPS location to match that info. 

Hola VPN Servers and Locations in Australia

Apart from mentioning that they have servers in 33 countries, the app nor the website specifies the number of servers in each country. That could be because the figures vary. So, there is no way of knowing how many local Australian servers users will have access to except that you can connect to servers in Australia.

Customer Support

Support is virtually non-existent. Apart from being able to email and glance through the repository of information on the official website.

Value for money

We would say that despite being comparatively cheap, it offers the worst value for money compared to competing services.

Our Verdict

Hola VPN is free and ideally suited for people who want to unblock otherwise geo-locked websites. While people would expect better encryption and more security from the paid version of the service it is unfortunately non-existent. Plus, throw lots of logging into the mix, and this is a service we can’t recommend.