We always use a VPN while traveling and connecting to the internet over a public Wi-Fi network. It keeps our private information, well, it keeps it private. It also allows you to fool your server into thinking you’re somewhere else so we can watch TV shows from the UK and people from outside the U.S. can read the Orlando Sentinel, for example. We’ve been using WiTopia for several years but we recently had to look for a new provider.
See, when we started writing the blog, we needed to look for an inexpensive laptop that would allow us to write articles while on the road. Our MacBook Air was showing its age and we didn’t want to spend that much on a computer we didn’t need to use that often. We decided to get an HP Chromebook. It did everything we wanted, cost a fraction of a comparable Mac product and had much longer battery life.
After buying the Chromebook, I tried to install the personalVPN from WiTopia. Major fail. I checked the help page of the WiTopia website and found this disclaimer:
Google continually makes changes to their operating system and so the following instructions may break at anytime. We continue to review and try and update or work around issues that Google creates in ChromeOS. Currently ChromeOS vpn is having issues version 50+.
So they’re blaming Google for making changes to ChromeOS and that’s why their VPN service doesn’t work on Chromebooks. OK, then. But I have a Chromebook and need a VPN that works all the time, much like the author of this article. 99% of the things we’ll do on the Chromebook will be through the Chrome browser so we decided to download the TunnelBear extension.
I’m always a sucker for snarky advertising and TunnelBear has that down. We downloaded the Chrome extension and finished the set up within minutes. From there we were up and running.
Eventually, we ended up purchasing a yearly membership during a Black Friday sale and I’m glad we did. TunnelBear connects automatically whenever we go online and allows us to privately go around the internet without the fear of opening our online lives up to hackers who are trying to steal our identity.
A year of unlimited VPN with TunnelBear runs $59.88 or three years for $120.00 and they accept Visa, MasterCard, AMEX, Bitcoin and Jars of Honey (I told you they were snarky). If you decide to sign up, we’d really appreciate it if you use our link. We do get a kickback from TunnelBear, which helps us keep the blog running, and it doesn’t cost you any more.
While I was happy with WiTopia, if I’m unable to connect with one of our computers it makes their service useless to us. I’m happy with our switch to TunnelBear for now. While we switched because TunnelBear works seamlessly with ChromeOS, they also provide programs to use with MacOS, Windows, Android, iPhones and iPads.
Does anyone else use TunnelBear or other VPN’s to protect themselves while online? We want to know what your experiences are. Let us know in the comments or on our Facebook Page.
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
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