Tunnelbear – Free VPN To Access Popular Blocked Websites Around The World
I really hate that obnoxious text line which reads something like “this website cannot be accessed from your current location”. Okay, no worries, we can use a VPN to gain access. There are many paid services which provide VPN and proxy services to access restricted websites like Hulu, Pandora, Spotify, etc., from anywhere. However, seldom do we come across free applications which have the potential of bypassing restrictions imposed by location restricted websites. TunnelBear is a VPN application which gives US and UK based IPs to allow direct access to popular location restricted websites, without causing any streaming hiccups. When you use TunnelBear, your network traffic is routed through the Tunnel Bear VPN to disguise your actual location. Using TunnelBear, we were easily able to access location restricted websites like Hulu, Spotify and Pandora. Another noteworthy aspect of TunnelBear is that it is not an ad-supported application like other applications of its kind, such as, HotSpot Shield.
To use this application, you will require logging in with a TunnelBear account. In case you do not have one, you can select the “I don’t have a TunnedBear account” option and sign up.
Once done, login with your account and move the left hand side knob to turn TunnelBear VPN service ON. The free version of TunnelBear has a 500MB bandwidth limit, so make sure you activate VPN service only when needed to save bandwidth. However, if you click on the 1GB option at the bottom of the interface, you can tweet requesting a 1 GB bandwidth boost to get an additional 1 gigabyte free bandwidth for the month. During testing we were able to obtain an extra Gigabyte by following the process. The options include both US and UK based network credentials to allow users to bypass those websites which are only for US, UK or European users; you can move the knob to US or UK to acquire a IP from these respective countries.
Once you have turned the connection On and selected a country, you can start accessing location restricted websites.
If you really like TunnelBear, you can also acquire the paid version for $4.99 a month with unlimited bandwidth. Or you can simply use the free version with the monthly data cap. The free version provides 128-bit data encryption, whereas, the paid version provides 256-bit data encryption, both of which ensure a secure connection.
During our testing, the blocked websites were accessed successfully from Asia without experiencing any streaming lag. TunnelBear is cross-platform application and works with both Windows and Mac.
[via freewaregenius]
19 Comments
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does it free
Works very good! Installed basic version for testing and instantly gave access to BBC TV from America. One must have sufficient bandwidth for the TunnelBear VPN to function correctly, I use 10MbpsDown/1MbpsUp. I found the service so easy to use and trouble free I upgraded to one year of service 🙂 Thank you TunnelBear!
Terrible. Sooooooo Slowwwww it’s impossible to use, and I paid for the subscription. A waste of money. AVOID!
I would have to ask what is your bandwidth? What is your CPU/GPU in your PC? How much RAM in your PC? This VPN service, like most VPNs take sufficient bandwidth coupled with moderate CPU and GPU processing. I use Internet connection speed of 10MbpsDown/1MbpsUp with a dual-core CPU operating under Windows-7 with 4GB-RAM and video output to my 41-Inch Widescreen TV. Pretty easy to use with no problems at all. Very nice to have BBC in America 🙂
It never let me create an account so I uninstalled. Very disappointing.
I paid for the premium accont as it does exactly what I wanted but had a technical support question as it isn’t very compatible with Windows Vista and they have completely ignored me. There is no way that I am renewing my account as I think their service is shoddy.
android 可以用吗？
Is Android can use?
In Ecuador doesn’t works, the app stills in “Configuring” then nothing happens, anybody knows why?
Is there a similar service for Australia? I am in the US for a while & can’t get to ABC iView etc. Thanks.
Yeah, tunnelbear works in Australia… at least for US Fox network websites.
Helpful.
its works fine
thks
Great idea..ya right we in europe do get annoyed!!!
but 500MB not so much if ya wanna stream golf
It is very difficult to find a free VPN without ads. Thanks for this post Farshad. I really wanted to use Hulu and this is just the right tool to do it. 🙂