IronSocket VPN
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IronSocket VPN is a VPN service based in Hong Kong, where it was established in 2013. It has strong encryption protocols, the ability to unblock many streaming services, P2P support, a kill switch, and many other fascinating features. Although it's only been seven years in the VPN industry, it has built a reputation as a safe and reliable VPN. IronSocket VPN has millions of content customers, 68 servers in 36 countries.
What features do you get with IronSocket VPN?
IronSocket VPN offers a variety of features. It has the usual features as well as some top-notch features that not many VPNs offer. In the next list, you will see what features this VPN offers:
· Excellent security features
· Strong encryption protocols
· P2P allowed
· No logs policy
· Smart DNS service
· Multi-platform compatibility
· Unblocks many streaming services
· 7-day money-back guarantee
Is your privacy valued at IronSocket?
VPNs from Hong Kong have a reputation for not keeping any activity logs. This is partially true with this VPN. Although IronSocket does keep connection logs, they erase them every 72 hours, so you don’t have to worry about your privacy being invaded. They keep logs because Hong Kong has strict Internet laws. You can always use Bitcoins as your payment method, so your anonymity is completely guaranteed that way.
As for encryption protocols, you can choose the OpenVPN, PPTP, and L2TP protocols. Regardless of what protocol you select, they are all modern and strong. This VPN also offers encryption that uses the well-known 256-AES bit encryption along with 256SHA message authentification. Apart from this encryption, IronSocket also offers encryption, which uses the famous Blowfish 128-bit encryption that will provide extra protection of your data. Users have the possibility not to choose any encryption protocol so they can get faster download speeds. But beware, without any encryption, your data will be exposed to intruders. So, it is highly recommended to choose any one of the protocols which we’ve previously mentioned.
This VPN also offers a couple of proxy servers that the customers can use rather than a Virtual Private Network. The proxy servers are for the users that don’t worry that much about privacy. Instead, they want to maximize their connection speeds.
IronSocket also offers another superb security feature-DNS leak protection. The DNS leaks can happen when a Domain Name System request is routed through your network instead of the VPN network. This VPN is going to form a public DNS, which means that the DNS is going to be routed through the VPNs network and not through your network. Your presence on the Internet will practically be indetectable thanks to the DNS leak protection feature.
This VPN offers a lot of privacy features, and the kill switch is one of those features. This security will be activated automatically when your public connection is in danger. Here is an example of how this IronSocket feature works.
For instance, you’re sitting in a restaurant and drinking Coca-Cola, surfing the web, and you’re using a public Wi-fi connection. But, suddenly, the connection shuts down, and you have to turn on your phone data so you can continue being on the Internet. This is good because you're still online, but it is not good because your privacy could be endangered. Here's where the fantastic kill switch comes to your help. The kill switch will "kill" the connection from your smartphone, and you will be online again when the VPN connection is restored. Thanks to this feature, you will be safe in any building that offers a public Wi-fi connection.
Is IronSocket easy to use?
Using and setting up this VPN is pretty straightforward. On the website of IronSocket, you can find on which particular operating system you prefer to use the services of this Virtual Private Network. You must follow thee steps if you want to set up this VPN with ease:
· First, you should download the IronSocket application
· Then you should click the Next button in the Setup wizard
· Then, Accept the License agreement
· After the installation is complete, you’ll be able to set up a VPN connection
How much does IronSocket VPN cost?
IronSocket is undoubtedly one of the best VPNs in the business. For such a top-class VPN that has secure encryption protocols and safe apps, the pricing deals are budget-friendly, which means everyone could buy a subscription to use the services of this VPN. Many VPN specialists actually suggest that users should buy a pricing plan which would allow them to use the VPN for a longer period of time, because that way, the deals are much cheaper, and they will save a significant amount of their funds. Usually, the VPN experts recommend that you should buy a plan for a year or multiple years. Some VPNs happen to offer two-year plans, while some even offer three-year deals.
When you see the pricing deals of this VPN and then compare them to many other VPNs on the market, you will see that the pricing deals of this VPN are much cheaper. Nevertheless, don't think that they lack quality. Actually, the plans are first-rate. If you perhaps find the services of this VPN unsatisfactory, you can always select the 7-day- money-back guarantee option. We've mentioned already that this VPN has millions of happy users, so you can come to the conclusion that not many people have chosen that option.
Every plan offers special features, but there are features that all pricing plans have:
· Unlimited bandwidth
· 24/7 support
· Public Wi-fi protection
Here are the current pricing plans of IronSocket VPN:
· One-month plan- if you want to choose this plan, you would have to pay $6.99.
· One-year plan- if you want to choose this pricing plan, you would have to pay $49.99. You will be paying $4.16 per month. This plan is also on a 40% discount, so you should better hurry, and buy it. Also, this deal is the bestseller among all deals that this VPN offers.
· 6-month plan- if you prefer to choose this pricing plan, you would have to pay $35.95. You will have to pay $5.99 each month. This pricing plan is currently on a 14% discount.
This VPN offers a vast array of payment methods. If you want to choose to pay with credit cards, you can choose to make payments with Visa, MasterCard, and American Express. This is quite a modern VPN because it also offers an alternative payment method- Bitcoin.
IronSocket VPN for torrenting and streaming services
IronSocket VPN is fantastic for torrenting and unblocking streaming services. It unblocks many famous streaming platforms such as Netflix, Hulu, BBC iPlayer, and many others.
This VPN offers a DNS proxy service called SmartDNS. With this proxy service, you can unblock websites, and you can also bypass censorship filters. This service will ensure you have access to somewhere around 160 media websites. You can access these websites without the Virtual Private Network connection from basically any location across the world.
We've mentioned before that IronSocket unblocks the famous streaming service- Netflix. When you look at all the streaming platforms, the most famous is surely Netflix. In the last couple of years, Netflix has become the superstar of its niche. Mainly, the popularity has skyrocketed because the customers like to binge-watch their TV series. What is binge-watching? It means that you watch one season of a certain TV show in only one day. So, there are many people that would like to have access to all Netflix content, but they can't because they can only have limited access. Here’s where IronSocket VPN comes to help. This VPN service allows its users to the entire Netflix content by unblocking geo-restricted regions. For example, if you live in Italy, you can choose the US server to get full access to all Netflix movies and shows. Follow the next steps so you can watch your preferred Netflix content from your country.
· Your first step is to create an account on the website of IronSocket VPN and install the application on a device of your choice
· Then you should connect to a server in a region of your liking. Probably the best server for getting access to Netflix is the US server
· Insert your password and email and then log into your account
· Sit back and watch your favorite Netflix content
What devices can you use IronSocket VPN on?
IronSocket VPN supports a vast array of platforms and devices as well. This VPN is available on a number of operating systems. Customers will have the chance to use this VPN on Windows, Android, Linux, Mac OS X, and many other operating systems. On the webpage of this VPN, you can download the software for any operating system of your choice.
IronSocket VPN can be used on a plethora of devices. You can use the services of this VPN on a tablet, PC, tablet, and smartphone. You can also use it on gaming consoles such as PS4 and Xbox One. In addition, no matter what pricing plan you choose to buy, you will be able to use up to three devices at the same time. It is important for you to remember that, if you want to use three devices simultaneously, all of those devices must have the same operating system. To add, you can use three devices at the same time, but only if those devices aren’t connected to the same server. The great thing about using multiple devices at the same time is that you can secure all of them with only one IronSocket account.
When you're installing the application for this VPN, you have to remember one more thing. When you install the application, you are able to connect to an unlimited number of devices simultaneously to this VPN service. That is because the router is the very same device that is connected to the application of IronSocket VPN. When you install this VPN service on the router in your home, all devices connected to Wi-fi will be protected.
Using IronSocket VPN on Windows
Getting started with IronSocket is simple, buy a subscription, download the Windows app, and log in with your credentials.
The application follows a light design scheme, and the interface is simple. The application window can’t be resized, and right-clicking on the tray icon will only give you two options: quit the app, and show the interface.
Selecting a new location isn’t the easiest, the server list is sorted alphabetically and there is no search bar.
Connecting to servers is pretty slow, and the network speeds are nothing to brag about, the fastest server we found topped out at 66 Mbps but the average speed is around 30 Mbps.
The application settings are quite extensive, you can change the language, change the startup setting, enable advanced server selection, and many more. You can select between three protocols: OpenVPN, L2TP, and PPTP. It would be nice to see a short description for every protocol, that would make the decision which one to use easier.
IronSocket has a kill switch feature, which aims to block all network traffic if the VPN connection drops, or becomes unstable. The security features don’t stop here, there is also an application kill switch which closes the selected apps if the connection gets interrupted. We tested both of these features, and it worked every time and reliably protected our privacy.
When it comes down to OpenVPN settings there is quite a wide range for them. You can select between UDP and TCP, you can change the encryption level, and logging policy. Users can set custom DNS servers and HTTP Proxies. For L2TP and PPTP you can customize the MTU size.
There is no “contact support” button in the app, but you can check the current version in the about tab.
At the end of the day, IronSocket is secure, but not a very fast service. There are many features that would make the service more likable, for example, ad blocking, split tunneling, and load/latency indicators in the server list. During the testing we didn’t run into any bugs or glitches, there were no IP or DNS leaks.
Smartphone applications of IronSocket VPN
IronSocket has no dedicated Android/Ios application instead, they provide OpenVPN configuration files that users can use with the OpenVPN app.
We ran security tests on the connection, and it was secure. IronSocket can’t compete with the competition on the mobile platforms if they don’t make a dedicated app.
How to use IronSocket VPN on your router?
We tested IronSocket on a router running AsusWRT firmware but the service claims to support any router compatible with OpenVPN, L2TP, and PPTP IronSocket also provides guides for Airport Extreme, Linksys, D-link, Netgear, Belkin, DD-WRT, Tomato, TP-Link, and Pfsense routers.
There is also a section called “General Router Help” we clicked on this page, as there was no guide for our router, but instead of finding a download page of configuration files, or a generalized guide on how to set up a VPN connection, we got told to contact support. There is really no need to get help if you know what you are doing, a download page of all the configuration files would be much more appreciated.
The configuration files can be found in other setup guides, here download one of your liking.
Setting up a VPN connection on a router running AsusWRT is simple. First, navigate to the VPN panel on your router’s configuration page, select add profile, give the connection a name of your liking, enter your username and password (these are automatically generated when you purchase the service). Next, upload the .ovpn file that you downloaded, and click “ok”.
Setting up IronSocket was not particularly hard but it would be much easier if the .ovpn files were easier to find on the website. We didn’t run into any problems or noticed any bugs while testing the service. IronSocket passed all of our security tests.
Network speeds while using IronSocket VPN
There are a lot of factors to which you have to keep attention before you make a choice of what VPN service you will use. Speed and performance are among the factors that are definitely some of the factors that you have to take into consideration. So, we have decided to make a couple of speed tests from a couple of servers in the world. Here are the results of those tests that we've made to test the performance of this VPN.
Before we conducted any tests, the average download speed was 29 Mbps. Meanwhile, the average upload speed was 8 Mbps. Then we’ve connected to a server in the United States. The average download speed was 15 Mbps. Meanwhile, the average upload speed was 5 Mbps.
Then, we've done a test on a server located in the United Kingdom. The average download speed was 10 Mbps, while the average upload speed was 8 Mpbs. We've also tested a server in China. The average download speed was 14 Mbps, while the average upload speed was somewhere around 4.5 Mbps. When we compare the tests, the US server is better in the download department, while the UK server is better in the upload department.
The customer experience at IronSocket VPN
Customer support is very important for your overall impression of the VPN. Security, device compatibility, and speed are all important factors that make a great VPN, but customer support is extremely important. Because, if the staff isn't kind or doesn't respond quickly, newcomers won't like that. But don't worry, because the customer support team of this VPN is simply fantastic. You can get in touch with the customer support staff 24/7, 365 days a year. You can fill in the online ticket system to get answers to your questions about this VPN. Usually, you will get a response from the customer support team in a couple of hours. That is pretty fast, considering the fact that other VPNs usually respond in 24 hours.
IronSocket VPN also has an FAQ section. In this section, you can find an answer to the most frequent questions asked by users. Usually, they are questions of the technical matter about the free trial, privacy, and refund policy. This VPN has set up guides that will help you to get this VPN up and running on any operating system.
