BTGuard VPN Review

Harald Schendera - I review BTGuard VPN. I answer the question BTGuard proxy or VPN …

BTGuard VPN protects my privacy by sending and receiving data across the internet as if I was in a private network. It gives me all the protection and security that I expect from a private network. The product consists of settings. I am using BTGuard VPN for torrenting and browsing at the same time. It is easy to setup. It works fine. A drawback is the transmission speed. It is too slow for watching online videos.

How BTGuard VPN Works

I join BTGuard. For a three-month subscription, they give you five percent discount, for six months, you get 15 percent. I pay with PayPal. I can cancel anytime. My account is immediately activated. I login to the customer area. BTGuard offers two installation variants: PPTP and OpenVPN.

PPTP and OpenVPN are different methods of becoming anonymous. PPTP is available for Windows, Mac OS, and iOS. OpenVPN is available for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. I choose PPTP for Windows and follow the instructions. Three minutes later, my VPN is running.

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I check my IP address by pasting it into Google. It appears to be located in Amsterdam, when I live in Germany. I can now watch videos on YouTube that are not allowed in my legislation. The VPN circumvents IP blocking. BTGuard does not store records of usage.

Download graph in uTorrent while using BTGuard VPN — BTGuard VPN speed: Average download rate of around 300 kilobyte per second using uTorrent

The anonymous mode can be toggled by changing the internet connection in the Windows control panel. A widget to switch the connection would be better. Or at least an icon in the taskbar, indicating whether the VPN is running or not.

How about transmission speed? On YouTube, I watch a Madonna video (Frozen). It does not freeze … And it does not load as fast as it used to on my unsecured DSL connection neither. Dropouts every few seconds …

How about browsing speed? Email, FTP, and anonymous web browsing are fast enough for everyday use. Browsing feels slightly slower than in unsecured mode. Nothing serious, though.

Using uTorrent, I download an ISO image. The download rate peaks at 464 kilobyte per second (kB/s) in VPN mode. A good rate for a DSL 6000 connection with 767,75 kB/s downstream capacity. It is slower than BTGuard BitTorrent Proxy unencrypted.

Conclusion

BTGuard VPN anonymizes various types of internet services. The speed for surfing and BitTorrent is good. The speed for watching online videos is too slow. People that need an anonymous internet connection in addition to anonymous BitTorrent can buy it. I do not recommend it for people that need anonymous streaming of online videos. People that only need anonymous BitTorrent can buy BTGuard BitTorrent Proxy, it is faster and cheaper. Goto BTGuard

Features
Benefits

PPTP and OpenVPN
256-bit AES encryption
For browsing, downloads, BitTorrent, email, FTP, etc.
No records of usage stored

Anonymity in the internet
Access to content otherwise blocked

BTGuard VPN review on YouTube. More

BTGuard VPN Review

BTGuard website — I use BTGuard VPN as anonymous internet connection. For torrenting, I prefer the proxy over VPN. Check it out

Questions
Does it work?	Yes
Is it safe?	Yes
Is it fast?	No

Video dropouts - Review by Harald Schendera, 12 April 2013.

2.5 of 5 stars.

It is safe. A bit too slow for online videos.