Earlier this month I cancelled my UK Proxy Server contract after three years as in recent months their service level has decreased massively, VPN speeds had dropped off so much it became almost impossible to watch a 30 minute show without buffering every few minutes even at 0.5Mbps quality. After several hours of research I signed up with Hide My Ass Pro VPN because I kept seeing their service topping lists of VPN services on several websites; after using it I can not work out why; speeds are well below par for streaming media, most UK servers transfer data at less than 1Mbps.
The best aspect of Hide My Ass Pro VPN is the software which allows for connection to over 300 servers in 52 countries offering over 35,000 IP address, which if true, comes out as 115 IP addresses per server, which isn’t good assuming that 10 people connect to each IP address; that’s 1,150 connections per server, which would explain the poor speed, HQ standard definition streaming uses 1.8 – 2.3Mbps and HD 720p requires approximately 5Mbps, which Hide My Ass falls well short of!
The last Speed Test I performed on UK VPN servers using HMA’s own software claims 541KB per second which equates to 4.3Mbps, yet when running a speedtest on speedtest.net using HMA’s fastest claimed server, this is the result I got; for those of you that don’t want to click the link, it comes back as 1.07Mbps, quite a big discrepancy between what is claimed and actual performance!
If you just want to hide your identity through a VPN then these speeds will be fine for general internet usage but for streaming video, forget it. It’s not just that it’s slow for streaming it’s inconsistent; sometimes it streams Sky Go at 2.3Mbps before dropping to 0.5Mbps with buffering every few seconds. Clearly the speed is there at times but more often than not it is not, which makes it useless for streaming media! Suffice to say that I will be cancelling before the next billing cycle!
I have now signed up with OpenVPN’s Private Tunnel service which costs $12 for 50GB of data transfer, which does not expire, no monthly billing, it’s a true pay as you go VPN, 50GB should last me approximately 6 to 8 weeks. Speeds are excellent, using the free trial, I ran a speedtest via speedtest.net twice, on both occasions it came back as over 7Mbps. Today I have streamed Free Practice 1 of the US Grand Prix at 2.3Mbps on Sky Go and streamed Holby City in HD on the BBC iPlayer without buffering! Hopefully it will remain this fast over time. Ironically I got the tip about OpenVPN from @helpmyass, Hide My Ass’ official Twitter help channel after I complained about Hide My Ass on Twitter. That seems like an odd business strategy, telling people to shop elsewhere!
Speed Test
this is the result I got
Any reviews for StreamVia? We have HMA and are having the exact same problem you described here…they should change the name to Pain In My Ass, because that’s all it has been!!
I haven’t reviewed Streamvia on the blog but I can say that they are a million times better than Hide My Ass; Speeds are fairly consistent; a choice of four UK servers, all fast, even at peak times; I haven’t had any downtime, infact my HTPC was connected for four days without any dropout. For the money, I haven’t found any better, and I have tested a lot of VPN solutions, hope this helps you make your decision!
Hide my ass is a good VPN, but it’s paid. Why to use a paid vpn when there is a free one available. I am using Hotspot Shield.
Check HSS here: http://www.hotspotshield.com
Mark, I don’t agree with you about HMA, obviously, but if a free “ad supported” VPN works for you, then great but in my experience, free services tend to be slow, which maybe fine for checking your email and some simple web surfing but when you need to stream media or download large files, this is where free services tend to fall short!
PS: I have left the link to Hotspot Shield intact so my readers can check it out if they like!
Why using a VPN when you can use a DNS service like UnoTelly? The DNS option is much faster and easier to use.
Paulo, I just looked at UnoTelly and it is still a VPN, backed up by their own DNS servers to increase reliability of streaming, something that StreamVia also provides. A DNS service is simply a lookup (domain -> IP address) service, it will not hide/mask your personal IP address, you need either a VPN or proxy service for that.
I bought one month subscription of HMA and I am quite disappointed,neither openvpn nor L2TP worked for me. Fortunately, I have another VPN service Hide My IP its a better deal than HMA, $2.95/mo includes VPN + Smart DNS to unblock any streaming site, up to 5 devices allowed per account.