After our big giveaway of CyberGhost and Sticky Password with the purchase of Emsisoft these past few week, we know a lot of you have CyberGhost and don’t have a clue what to do with it. (If you still don’t have it and you’re reading this prior to 9/17/2013 – you can get it free with our Weekend Sale offer.)
CyberGhost is a VPN client — that is a Virtual Private Network client. A VPN is one of the only ways you can browse the Web in complete anonymity — assuming your VPN client doesn’t keep log files or records. CyberGhost is one of those who doesn’t keep records or logs so if you want to browse the Web anonymously, CyberGhost is for you. And if you use your browser’s Private Browsing mode and a good clean-up program too, you can minimize the traces your browser leaves behind on your computer.Why you’d want to browse the Web anonymously is up to you — but it does keep Web sites and anyone watching your online activity from knowing your actual location and your actual IP address – or even the name of your ISP. You can think of your own reasons to use CyberGhost — the world is your oyster.
1. After you start CyberGhost and login via the program, you’ll see the screen above. You’ll see at the top that you are not anonymous on the Web at this time. The IP address of your computer matches the IP address showing on the Web. Time to change that. It’s time to select a VPN server through which you’ll connect to the Internet. If you have any browsers open – close them before you click Connect to VPN. If you forget CyberGhost will remind you. HINT: You should also close your email program at this time too.
2. Click on Connect to VPN (see above).
3. Click Show choice of Premium servers
4. Choose a server (see below). I chose Zurich (Switzerland) SO3-I02.
5. Click “Connect to ——– ” (whatever server you chose).
6. “You are anonymous”. You can see above where your computer’s real IP address (shown on the left above) does not match the IP address of your computer on the Web. This is good, if you want to be anonymous on the Web. Your ISP will show you connecting to a server in Zurich, Switzerland but will not know or log where you go from there. As far as your ISP knows, you’re just connected to a server in Switzerland.
Google’s search page before using CyberGhost. It’s the normal Google search page we all see here in the U.S.A. Look below to see what happens after starting CyberGhost and connecting to a VPN server in Zurich:
The Google search page is in German — it’s the page that the good folks in Switzerland see when they open Google. Google thinks you’re from Switzerland or at least connecting to the Internet from there.
Don’t use CyberGhost if you’re going to sign into your bank account, PayPal, Gmail, or any other site you have accounts with — if you do you may not be able to sign in because it may look to the server like someone other than you is trying to sign in. And you may get warning messages from your account host warning you that someone has been trying to hack your account. It’s only you — but the Web server doesn’t know that. Many secure servers now use location detection to try to cut down on fraud and hacking. If you normally log in from the USA, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, etc. and all of a sudden you’re trying to log-in from Switzerland it might raise red flags. So be sure you use CyberGhost wisely – for general browsing and downloading and other things you do on the Web – it is great. It really does make you anonymous. And if you use your browser’s private browsing mode, that will keep your browsing history, cookies, etc. from being saved on your computer.
That’s it. Now you know how and when to use CyberGhost. Using a VPN is one of the only ways you can really be anonymous on the Web.
I just lost my comment and I think it was because of CyberGhost.
I’d written that I have the program thanks to you two. I love it and like feeling anonymous, now I’m out of Cyber Ghost and we’ll see if this posts.
I foolishly, without thinking went to my bank’s online account, and got a phone call from the fraud department about my sign in location. They had me signing in from Texas which is what raised the red flags. I went to the bank, got a new log on name and new password. I was telling the person helping me what had happened and he was able to determine that they had me signing in from Los Angeles which IS one of the places that Cyber Ghost uses.
I now know I have to log off from Cyber Ghose when I want to do my online banking. All was OK, the account had not been gotten into, it was only me that signed in from Los Angeles which looked strange to the fraud department.
I think it is wise to use Cyberghost VPN when accessing your online banking and other financial accounts because Cyberghost gives you added security of military grade encryption. This keeps hackers from seeing your passwords and then gaining access to your accounts.
You will have some issues with location. However, if you keep your VPN server fairly local then your bank’s security software most likely will not question it. For instance, if you live in Boston then select a New York server rather than say a server in Switzerland. Again, I think it’s important to encrypt your data by using a VPN when accessing your bank accounts. If issues do arise, you can most likely resolve them with customer service at your bank. If you can’t resolve the issue then and only then would I not use Cyberghost VPN when doing online banking.
There are better VPNs out there that are easier to use than Cyberghost. Otherwise I agree with you and your location advice.