Protect your remote work with VPN Tracker 365
the #1 VPN client for OS X and macOS
Start now! Requires Mac OS X 10.9 or later
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Our VPN Tracker team had a really productive start in 2019. We’ve already released two VPN Tracker updates 19.0 and 19.1 to secure your privacy and are excited to share them with you.
Now it is even more comfortable to work with the exported connections (this feature is available in VPN Tracker 365 PRO and VIP editions). Locking a VPN connection is a great way to protect your colleagues from accidentally ruining the settings. However sometimes you may need to change the preferences, for example, due to employee’s moving to another office. Of course you can change the whole connection and re-share it, but often it is much easier to adjust it on one particular device.
This update fixes a few bugs, so you can reliably set an unlock password before sharing the connection to add an extra level of privacy protection. So next time you’re at someone’s desk and need to make an edit to the connection, just unlock it to make changes.
Please note that connections with locked settings exported from older VPN Tracker versions need to be re-exported with this version.
You have already set the preferences to resolve issues with overlapping networks? If you have changed your mind, there is an easy way to cancel them. Simply go to Preferences -> Networks and reset previous choices.
The updates also include tiny, but helpful UI changes. Check them out!
We also improved a login process for all VPN protocols and added a safeguard to prevent a system failure while transferring a certain kind of network traffic. So no more black screen danger!
You can also check our full official release notes here.
Stay tuned, as we are preparing something really amazing for you this spring…
The post What We Already Did For Your Data Privacy in 2019 appeared first on equinux blog.
Security is a crucial point for any VPN service. As VPN is your shield from web attacks and data leaks, a VPN service must be highly trusted and not be a danger itself. Find out what kind of threats a VPN service may have for your security.
Today almost every VPN service provider has a strong encryption, allowing to protect your traffic. It is really difficult to break a modern encryption, so you should be aware of another potential threat to your data.
Make sure that your VPN service provider doesn’t log your browsing history, data destination or data content. It may seem harmless to log encrypted data, as it is unreadable without the encryption key. However VPN providers hold such keys. For example, Facebook used to have data tracking apps, including Onavo VPN, that collected and stored users’ private information. Facebook was able to decrypt and analyze all the phone’s activity, including browsing history and private messages, even though the data had been previously encrypted.
So if your data is logged and anyone has the keys, they can easily track all your browsing history. Check the privacy policy of your VPN service provider and its country of origin. Some countries require services to log all the clients’ information.
No matter which VPN product you are using, we always strongly encrypt each piece of your information before sending it. Moreover we don’t log or store any of your traffic info, we only collect minimum necessary information to fulfil your support requests and run our cloud features. We are based in Munich, Germany, so we must comply with strict EU data protection policies.
You may not know it, but some VPN service providers can be selling their customers’ data to third parties, typically to advertisers. You may find it ridiculous, but in fact it is easily explainable. If a VPN service is free of charge, developers still need to cover their costs. Some may be showing you ads, but others prefer not to interrupt your VPN experience and make money using your data. It is relatively easy to check if your VPN service provider may be doing this.
There are numerous lists of such providers around the internet. You can also simply check its Privacy Policy. If you see something like “we may share your email address with our marketing partners” – have in mind that your privacy is in danger.
Here at equinux we don’t need to sell your data to any advertisers. Our VPN services are not free, so you can be sure – your data is under protection.
Surprisingly former team members can be even of a greater threat to your corporate security than professional web hackers. Your former colleagues can easily get an access to the sensitive corporate data, if they still have an access to your private network.
Unfortunately that can happen with any company. For example, an employee can still have a set corporate VPN connection on their personal Macbook. At the same time they may have an access to the VPN account, if there was just one for the whole team. Make sure that your VPN service has some security measures for such situations.
VPN Tracker 365 has everything to protect you from this threat. First of all, we advise all our clients to use Team Management. It is an intuitive system that allows you to manage accounts of your employees, granting and retrieving VPN Tracker licenses. You can even see, who has an access to each VPN connection and prevent unauthorised usage.
Another great thing is Remote Connection Wipe. If you are using Team Management you can remotely remove a team VPN connection from a member’s computer. So you don’t need to worry if a former employee still keeps it on their device. Please check our Whitepaper for more info.
Make considerable decisions and choose a VPN service that will actually secure your data.
Check our privacy policy page to learn more about the VPN Tracker security approach. You can also contact us if you have any other questions.
The post Is your VPN secure? Tips against potential threats appeared first on equinux blog.
NEW: VPN Tracker 18.4.1 is out! We have added support for Securepoint devices, improved stability and made some especially helpful improvements for VPN professionals.
VPN Tracker 365 now supports Securepoint Firewalls. These robust devices are easy to configure and are a great all-in-one security option. They not only establish secure VPN connections, but also have additional tools to help ensure the security of your whole network. The firewall protect against network attacks with Deep Packet Inspection, can scan and filter content to secure your internet surfing, and even guard your communication channels.
We are constantly working on advancing security and protection of VPN Tracker 365. Now you can choose between AES-128, AES-256 and AES-192 encryption when using SonicWALL Simple Client Provisioning. Additionally VPN Tracker 365 now supports all SHA2 hashing algorithms for SonicWALL Simple Client provisioning and Watchguard profiles.
We’ve made some improvements to the reliability of OpenVPN connections. We’ve fixed some issues when importing OpenVPN connections and keys, so now VPN Tracker supports even more OpenVPN setups and devices. Also incorrect DNS settings can no longer fail establishing OpenVPN connections.
Good news also for those who are working with L2TP/PPTP connections: Thanks to reliability improvements such connections attempts are now 3x more robust.
We’ve also made several small fixes & improvements that will be especially helpful for the admins of huge networks and VPN professionals.
Other improvements include:
You can find our full official release notes here.
The post VPN Tracker 365 Update: Help for VPN Professionals appeared first on equinux blog.
Unreliable wifi? Spotty reception? Weird internet cafe network? If you’re a frequent traveler, you have probably run into connection problems on the road. There can be numerous reasons why connection failed. These issues can cause your VPN connection to drop or may prevent you from connecting at all.
Although we cannot fix all the possible reasons on our side, in VPN Tracker 365 18.4, we have tackled some of the most common connection issues faced while travelling.
In 18.4 we are introducing a new VPN Tracker Engine, that automatically detects and adjusts for unstable connections. This means it will automatically keep trying to connect to the server, even if there are any connection problems. So your connection will come up, even in scenarios where before you may only have been able to sporadically connect. And you will not need to manually check and reconnect to the VPN if your connection failed.
You occasionally run into hotel networks that are configured too broadly. The admin has set them up with a really large address range, causing a conflict with your VPN networks.
In the past, this type of networking conflict would prevent you from connecting, unless you manually adjusted your connection.
We have added Automatic Network-Conflict Resolution to solve this issue. Now VPN Tracker 365 will automatically detect and adjust the connection for you, for just this location. In scenarios where the network addresses seem identical, VPN Tracker 365 will check with you and then prioritize VPN traffic based on your decision.
All in all, our latest VPN Tracker 365 update lets you connect to your VPN more reliably, in more places.
You can find our full official release notes here.
Start now! Requires Mac OS X 10.9 or later
The post VPN Connection Failed? Problem Solved! appeared first on equinux blog.
If you are using a VPN service to protect your browsing on a public wifi network, you may have noticed you occasionally need to complete a Captcha before doing a Google search. It can be annoying and slows you down…
So why are you seeing them in the first place? We cover why they are shown and what you can do to avoid it.
‘Captcha’ stands for ‘Completely Automated Public Turing Test’. It is a test that a human can easily pass, but is difficult for a computer. Google uses Captchas to identify and prevent computer programs from performing automated requests. Many other websites use them to prevent hacks and other security issues. The idea is to increase security without blocking regular users from browsing.
Some kinds of Captchas ask you to enter words or numbers:
Since computer vision algorithms have become so advanced, Google now asks you to identify sections of pictures:
Or if you are lucky, you might get a NoCaptcha reCaptcha. There you just need to tick a box and Google tries to figure out if you’re a robot based on your usage patterns on the page.
When you’re using the VPN Tracker World Connect VPN service (as opposed to using VPN Tracker 365 with your company VPN connection), you are browsing through a VPN service. That means you are using our servers to access the internet, along with lots of other VPN users.
So to Google, it looks like a lot of people are accessing Google Search from the same IP address at the same time, sending an inhumanly high number of search requests. Google then thinks you might be a bot or script and asks you to fill in a Captcha to make sure that you are a human and not a computer program.
No, don’t worry! Captchas just help Google to identify you as a human. You are still using a strongly encrpyted VPN and you are still anonymous (provided you aren’t signed in).
You will see an increase in Google Captcha requests with every VPN service. With VPN Tracker World Connect, we take measures to prevent it from happening too often, however on our most popular server locations, it’s possible you will still see the prompt from time to time.
To stop getting Captcha requests, you can try using a different browser or a different search engine while on VPN. Firefox Focus is a great browser for quick, anonymous searches and DuckDuckGo is worth checking out as a privacy-focused alternative to Google.
Start now! Available for Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
The post Why do I see Captcha when using a VPN (and how to avoid it)? appeared first on equinux blog.
We’ve updated VPN Tracker World Connect for iPhone and iPad. The new version 1.1 is now available on the App Store! It is packed with nice improvements and we’re really excited for you to try it.
Siri Shortcuts integration is a key feature of this update. Shortcuts make it easy to automate everyday tasks with iPhone or iPad – from launching a music app to ordering a taxi. So now you can connect to VPN just by tapping a shortcut icon, or even easier – by asking Siri!
It is also possible to combine multiple shortcuts into the one workflow. For example, you can open a website before starting your VPN Tracker connection, then connect to VPN and open that same page – all with one tap. To build your own Shortcuts, just go to the Shortcuts app and search for “VPN”. To add a custom Siri voice command for your preferred VPN destination, go to the Connection view and tap the “Add to Siri” button.
Our global network of secure servers is always expanding. This time we’ve added more international destinations – welcome Italy, Hong Kong and Philippines! You can already check out the connection and test the speed – they’re really fast, aren’t they?
Finally, we’ve improved stability and performance of the app to make sure you have a smooth VPN experience.
Start now! Requires iOS 9.3 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
The post That’s What You’ve Been Waiting For – Siri Shortcuts in VPN Tracker World Connect 1.1 appeared first on equinux blog.
So you are on your business trip and everything seems to be perfect. You’ve checked-in online, saved your hotel reservation details on your iPhone and ordered a taxi to wait for you on arrival. As any business traveller today, you also have your MacBook with you to access your schedule or work on your projects in flight. You even have a VPN client installed, so you can connect to your office network (if not, check out VPN Tracker 365).
But – it always pays to prepare for the unexpected: Imagine opening your bag and not finding your laptop there. It could be lost or stolen, or you could simply have forgotten it back home – disaster! Do you have to cancel your entire business trip?
First thing you figure out is a replacement laptop. But then, how will you connect to your office network? You don’t have your VPN client and your definitely can’t remember all those settings… Even your software support specialist cannot send a ready-made connection to you, as your office mail is behind the VPN-firewall.
Another major concern is a privacy of your information. What will happen if your laptop is not just lost, but was stolen on purpose? Just imagine potential financial and reputational losses of your company, if someone get access to the info through your MacBook.
Even with a worst-case scenario like a stolen or broken MacBook, you can prepare in advance to minimize the impact.
Always follow Mac security best practises:
But for the worst case, it’s important to prepare your recovery plan: Assume your MacBook is gone – how do you get the apps and data you need? What does your recovery solution look like?
For most users, the first hurdle is their VPN client: It’s the first thing you need to get working, in order to be able to get back to work.
That’s where VPN Tracker 365 Connection Safe comes into play: Connection Safe securely backs-up your connections, so you can instantly get them on your new laptop. Sign in with your account and secure password and you can instantly download and use them.
Unlike other storage systems that rely on simple passwords and leave files unprotected, Connection Safe encrypts all your connections on your MacBook with highly-secure key (Argon3 + PKTNY) that only you know. No unencrypted data will ever leave your laptop. VPN Tracker 365 uploads the connections to a secure cloud storage, which only you can access with your user credentials and key. Even our servers know nothing about your data, as they only store encrypted data chunks. Have a look at our Whitepaper to go deeper into technical details.
We’ve designed this system to make working through VPN easier for every user, at home or during the business trip. Still we understand that data protection standards may vary significantly depending on the company.
In our latest update we’ve introduced a new feature for companies with especially strict data protection policies. From now on, VPN administrators can decide, whether to grant the particular user a possibility to store the connection in the Connection Safe.
There are different plan options for VPN Tracker 365 and you can even try it for free. Connection Safe feature is available with any plan. If you’re ready for the ultimate VPN productivity, take a look at our PRO and VIP plans.
Safe travels!
Your VPN Tracker Team
The post Business Trip 101: Recovering from a Lost Laptop appeared first on equinux blog.
VPN Tracker 365 18.3 is now available! In this version our focus was on macOS Mojave compatibility, further enterprise options for Connection Safe and OpenVPN improvements.
As you may have heard, Apple introduced a new Dark Mode in macOS Mojave. With this update, VPN Tracker 365 now also supports this sleek new UI option. Take care of your eyes, stay better focused on your work and simply enjoy a darker interface – VPN Tracker now looks gorgeous in Dark Mode.
To feel all the advantages of Dark Mode activate it under System Preferences > General > Appearance.
We’ve also made some UI improvements and even added alternative device vendor logos to work smoothly with macOS Mojave and it’s Dark Mode. And more good news for Mojave users – we’ve also updated VPN Shortcuts and automatically opening at login to work with Mojave’s new security requirements, so they will now work as expected.
We’ve already heard lots of positive reviews on our secure Connection Safe feature, and in this version we’ve added new controls for admins. 365 18.3 improves the enterprise controls for VPN admins, with additional control over exported connections.
Choose a preferred permission for user’s Connection Safe when preparing a connection for export. There are 3 options now. You can either require a connection to be stored in Connection Safe automatically, prevent it from being added or simply let the user decide.
To have a look at this new feature go to Configure – Export settings in your administered connection.
With this update, we’re introducing a support for routers running the popular source firmware DD-WRT with OpenVPN support. This means that we now support a whole range of new devices, provided you’re running DD-WRT.
We’ve also prepared a detailed Configuration Guide to help you get started.
Trying to set-up another device? Check out our Device Support and Configuration guides page for assistance.
With 365 18.3 we are introducing some improvements that will make it even easier to get started with an OpenVPN connection.
Here’s what we’ve done:
As more and more organizations are moving their infrastructure to Amazon’s AWS cloud, we are offering a full support of AWS VPC. You can find more info on the set-up in our earlier blogpost.
With previous VPN Tracker versions some AWS users may have experienced an issue when multiple users were sharing a single public IP address. Now our improved AWS setup correctly supports such a use case.
Need some further assistance with your AWS VPC connection? Please, check out our detailed Configuration Guide or send us a message.
You can find a full overview of our official release notes here.
The post NEW: Dark Mode Support and More in VPN Tracker 365 appeared first on equinux blog.
Remote working is becoming more and more common. Even large companies are allowing their employees to work from home for a part of the week. Still for some people it can be tough to adjust to such freedom and keep working effectively. Here are some tips for a stress-free switch.
The biggest danger of working remotely is staying isolated. So make sure you have enough time and opportunities to interact with your colleagues. Set up weekly video calls, engage when you need any advice, or simply say hello in your corporate messenger – all these are the ways to feel a part of the team.
It’s also so easy to slip into complete physical isolation while working from home. Push yourself to get out, meet with a friend for a lunch or make some exercise in the park. Staying home for the whole day can make you crazy in a week, even if you are a complete introvert.
Comfortable working conditions can significantly increase your productivity. First of all, plan, where you would like to spend your day. Find a quiet place where you can leave your belongings and work without any distractions.
However remote working doesn’t mean you have to stay home all the time. Perhaps a nice cafe or library can motivate you for an effective day. Still it’s important to make sure your work through public Wi-Fi connection is secured. Use VPN Tracker World Connect in order to protect all your sensitive data from any hacking attempts. Our VPN Tracker World Connect instantly encrypts your internet activity to secure your work through any public Wi-Fi network.
Another trick here is to invest into your working space. Companies are providing their employees with comfortable places to work, full of refreshments, newest tools and tech accessories. You can also prepare for your day to go smoothly. A pair of good headphones will keep you away from loud noises and comfortable chair will help your back to stay healthy.
Take advantage of you remote work and find the most comfortable working clothes. You can stick with an old pair of jeans or choose a fancy dress if it helps you to stay motivated. No one will judge your for over- or underdressing, at least until you are not on the video call. However stay away of your pajamas – separate working clothes will signalise your brain that it’s time to work.
Make sure you have access to your employer’s network. Nowadays most companies restrict availability of their inner sources for data protection. So don’t forget to choose a reliable VPN provider to connect to your company’s files. Download VPN Tracker 365 and set it up in a few easy steps with the help of our detailed configuration guides. Alternatively you can just get in touch with our support team if you’re stuck.
Many people think that remote working lets them have much more time for themselves. However they’re wrong. It’s just so easy to overwork when your laptop is always nearby and you can easily check mail or begin another small task. Give your day a fixed structure and plan not only its’ beginning and ending, but also breaks. No one can work productively without taking small breaks for a bit of stretching or a cups of coffee.
Making a shared schedule will also let your colleagues know when you are available or busy and shouldn’t be interrupted. Thus you can plan to work in your peak hours when your productivity is on top.
Remote work can seems challenging in the beginning, but with time you’ll find out the best way for you to stay on track. Try our easy tips for the first steps to the effective work from home.
Protect your remote work with VPN Tracker 365 – the #1 VPN client for OS X and macOS:
Start now! Requires Mac OS X 10.9 or later
The post 3 Easy Tips for Effective Remote Working appeared first on equinux blog.
A VPN needs to be trustworthyThe post Facebook’s Onavo Protect “VPN” app was pulled – now what? appeared first on equinux blog.
