We have already reviewed IPVanish, so this time let's talk about another good service from VPN: hidester. This relatively young service, born in 2007, immediately stood out for its attention to the development of solutions to circumvent censorship. Particularly interesting and safe is its patented security protocol, CamoWeb, which we will discuss in detail in the following paragraphs.
Hackers often recommend Hidester VPN, so we decided to review it to check its speed and security.
Each VPN service works in a conceptually simple way, in fact you have a client that routes the user's traffic in a tunnel connection that carries the (encrypted) data to the server. The server, in turn, is connected to the Internet and performs network traffic for the user.
VPN services are generally recommended for:
- hide your IP address and thus remain anonymous on the network;
- mislead sites and services about your position in order to bypass territorial blocks;
- increase your privacy by encrypting your connections, especially useful if you use public, corporate or institutional networks;
- avoid the anti P2P filters of some operators that limit the connection speed and make the transmission uncomfortable;
- access any site, even on networks that block them (such as corporate and university networks).
Hidester VPN offers its speed
This service has good servers on all continents, Choose one of the fast servers to have great performance and low ping. Performance is better over the proprietary CamoVPN protocol.
Carrying out the tests through fiber, you can practically navigate completely online. As with other similar services, only with at least one FTTC connection will you notice the limits. Generally, HidesterVPN offers excellent performance.
If you want to use streaming services, especially if you want to avoid territory blocks, we recommend that you use the protocol Camo Web that with a lower degree of security offers even better performance.
Hidester VPN has no dummy servers
Unlike some competitors who claim to offer a thousand servers in a hundred countries but often have many fake servers, Hidester offers fewer but real servers and in March.
If you connect to a server in a country you can check that its IP address matches the local one. I have personally checked the Spanish server and those of other countries (USA, Great Britain and France).
Hidester VPN is very secure
The service only supports two protocols openvpn and CamoVPN. Compared to other services it is a low number of protocols, and this could mistakenly lead to a low degree of security. In reality, the situation is very different.
openvpn it is the most secure security protocol available on the market at the moment, and together with a good encryption algorithm it completely secures our communications. OpenVPN is the only protocol that Snowden says has not been compromised by the NSA.
Camo VPN is Hidester's proprietary solution to bypass censorship. The protocol is based on OpenVPN with obfuscation. Thanks to CamoVPN you can bypass firewalls.
In addition, all data exchanged is encrypted with the secure 256-bit AES-2048-CBC TLS algorithm. AES 256 encryption is considered secure and is also used by governments and the military.
camoweb actually it is not a VPN protocol, but is actually a attorney. It does not guarantee a high level of security, as it is designed to transmit and bypass territorial blockades (how to use Netflix USA outside the United States or Spanish services abroad).
Both security protocols offered (OpenVPN and CamoVPN) are state of the art when it comes to protecting user privacy. However, some advanced clients may like more options.
Hidester VPN works completely without logs
Servers often log data about who connects and what resources are requested; These data are called “logs” and if exploited they can allow the network activity of an IP address and therefore of a person to be reconstructed.
For this reason, those who create a VPN service generally choose countries where the legislation does not require them to maintain and retain user session data. So, to protect privacy, Hidester has chosen Hong Kong (which has no privacy legislation) and has a very strict policy on user registrations. Not only does it not record any user's browsing data on its servers, but also in administration it tries to keep as little data as possible.
Employees of the Hidester team are very sensitive to the issue of censorship and strive to provide a service that also guarantees anonymity to political dissidents.
Hidester VPN is a great solution for sharing and streaming files
This is a great solution for those who frequently download and stream movies due to its high security and good performance. Our tests showed that the service works well to bypass judicial and geo-blocking and filter operators against P2P. We have tested the service for a long time with satisfaction both with torrent and Acestream.
Even with the free iptv lists (with free channels) we did not notice any problems and slowdowns.
Our tests showed that using the service there are no DNS leaks, IP leaks, WebRTC leaks or Torrent IP leaks. So in fact the original IP address is never in danger of being exposed.
This service, like most competitors, does not offer port forwarding, so in eMule you will get low ID. Fortunately, nowadays this method of sharing is not very popular so the queues are short and you can download without problems.
Offers a simple and efficient client
Hidester's client is one of the simplest I've tried and makes the service really accessible to everyone. A couple of clicks are enough to choose a server and connect. finding the best server is simple: you can leave the task to the client (by clicking Best location) or choose yourself based on the estimated speed.
In general, we recommend using the advanced version of the service client so that you can easily choose the security protocol and server. To access the advanced options just click on Advanced. The client also allows you to switch servers without disconnecting and enable the option to kill switch that allows you to prevent your IP address from being exposed in the event of a loss of connection to the service.
Given its simplicity, the app may not satisfy more advanced users who want more control over their VPN connection.
The Hidester client is available for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and Linux.
Dedicated support
Hidester VPN support is not the best on the market. The operators are prepared, they respond quickly enough, but unfortunately no live chat available.
Other than that, the staff is very friendly and knowledgeable, but the support, like most other VPN services, only works in English.
Hidester VPN is very competitively priced
The rates of this VPN are really affordable for a service of this level. The rate for a month is the lowest I have found, $8 (about €6,80).
The monthly fee drops further with the semi-annual subscription at $36 ($6 per month) and with the annual subscription $60 ($5 per month).
If you want to test the service, you have the right to full refund within 3 days for monthly and semi-annual subscriptions, and within 7 days for annual subscriptions.
The service is very convenient because unlike some rival solutions, which allow the simultaneous use of 5 different devices (or people), but only with different protocols, Hidester allows 5 people to use the service at the same time with the same protocol (and therefore with maximum security). This makes this VPN one of the best to share with friends.
Conclusions
Things I liked:
- attention to security, the proprietary protocol CamoVPN is really interesting;
- the good number of servers available;
- the strict no-logs policy;
- the absence of limits and limitations for P2P;
- the possibility of having 5 devices connected simultaneously with the same protocol;
- good transmission performance;
- the low monthly cost.
I didn't particularly like:
- the absence of multiple security protocols;
- the absence of multiple options in the client for more advanced users;
- support only in English and no live chat.