Worried that Web sites are snooping on you as you surf? Concerned that when you’re at a public hotspot, such as at a café, a hacker can intercept everything you send and receive–including passwords and other personal information? Then you should give CyberGhost VPN Free a try. It creates a virtual private network (VPN) connection when you’re on the Internet, so that you can be safe when you go online.
Behind the scenes, CyberGhost VPN Free replaces your normal IP address with a CyberGhost IP address shared with many users. In addition, you’re connected to anonymization servers for further protection. Once you connect, you’re anonymous online. Just use the Internet as you would normally. It’s that simple.
That’s not to say the app is free of issues. First, this free version of CyberGhost VPN will work for only 6 hours at a time or 1GB of downloads at a time, whichever comes first. You get disconnected after that, though you can then relaunch it at once. If you want more uninterrupted time and a larger download amount, you’ll have to subscribe to a premium version that costs between 4 euros and 10 euros per month, depending on the download limit you want. The free version is best suited for individual Internet sessions, such as when you take your laptop to a hotspot, rather than for all-day use.
In addition, you’ll be connected using a foreign IP address, so you may notice some oddities. For example, my home page is Google.com, but when I clicked the home button on my browser, I was sent to the German version of Google. And when I tried to go to Google manually, by typing in google.com into my browser, I was returned to the German version of Google.
If you’re willing to put up with a few quirks, you’ll find CyberGhost VPN a great, free program for keeping you save online. And you can always pay if you want more time and bandwidth.