In a previous post we mentioned XeroBank as a possible alternative to TOR.
Once you’ve figured it out, XeroBank is a great system! It’s a VPN connection to their servers which assigns you either a Dutch,
US or Canadian IP address; other nation’s IP addresses are not available. There is some confusion on their website as to whether other countries are available or not. The website merely says you can choose a country.
Once connected via the VPN, you can use all your browser and other programs to access the internet. We did not try their email service. The system is fast and you can even stream in video quite easily. Basically, it’s a great service if you have lots of time to read up on it and figure it out on your own because there is no customer support or documentation from the company; the public forums are the only place you’ll get any answers.
The sign up process and administration process are not straightforward. It is very hard to understand how to log in to the account and how to use it. Four emails to customer service over the course of 3 weeks after sign up and no answers.
They say the first month of the service is free but as you’re signing up you’re asked for your credit card and they charge you $1 for the first month; it is then very difficult to cancel your subscription, actually you can only put it on hold by going onto the website of the billing company that they use and suspend your account, but we only learned that by asking the question on their public forum where we received an answer from someone we presume to be an employee; emails to support were never answered.
Customer support is non-existent. They are more interested in the technology than their customers. (If you want to see the people who might be behind the XeroBank, please have look at the delegation they sent to the last DEFCON event.)
Richard,
Have you noticed problems with Google not allowing you to search with Xerobank? I find that a lot with TOR.
Hope all is good,
Niall.
Richard,
What email address / support method did you use when you contacted XeroBank? I’ve queried their support tickets and I don’t see anything from you.
Jeff
Jeff,
So now you respond. I especially like the anonymous comments from the guy who shilled for you. His messages came from a server in the Netherlands. Was he an employee?
Niall,
The goals of Goggle and the people who use it may not coincide.
Google is in the business of monetizing search results by returning the most popular sites and the search results are based on your web history and geographic origin. Using TOR and Xerobank will distort the results you receive.
I have an article on this scheduled for publication next month.
Richard,
Distorting my search results (as in I don’t want my own browsing history to influence) is exactly why I was asking. There are legitimate purposes for it.
Thanks!
Niall.
Of course this is only an alternative for ToR if you trust Xerobank. Even then, all you data goes over their servers and they can log traffick: We will never log user activity unless compelled by a court of law with applicable jurisdiction .
i’m kinda worried about using xerobank after read this on wilderssecurity and they spamvertise the whole forum with their service:
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=224184
One of my favorite customer service quotes is “The way to gain a good reputation, is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.” -SOCRATES
“it is then very difficult to cancel your subscription”
I can confirm that.
Their support just sucks. After I purchased their package for $35/month, I could not make it work, neither on a WinXP nor a Vista notebook, even though the Tor version had worked. I sent screenshots of all my internet/network parameters to their support. The support answered once, after several days, suggesting that I turn off any firewall and antivirus program, which I had of course already tried before contacting them. The support never replied again when I told again that I still could not use the services for which they were charging my credit card.
Then I canceled my subscription. They sent a mail asking me to use the link in their mail to confirm the cancellation, which I did. Over the next 3 months, they continued to charge my credit card and did not react to requests to desist from their rebillings. Since XeroBank happily ignores cancellations, contrary to what they claim in their terms of use, you have to stop their unauthorized credit card charges via the website of their Icelandic payment service provider DalPay.
I’m thinking of pressing charges, but it will probably not lead to anything. $105 will not be of much interest to the authorities. It is not even fully clear if the merchant which pocketed the unjustified billings is the Xerobank branch in Panama or the one in the US.
I know this topic is a few months old now, but I have just found myself in the exact same situation as posted above by “Joe”.
Last week I opened two support tickets at the support site of XeroBank, requesting they close my account as I no longer needed or wanted the service anymore. I got no reply to either email..and then my CC was charged two days ago for another month..AFTER I had asked them to cancel my account!
Yesterday I found “canceled” my account on the DalPay site, after visiting it to see if they could help in anyway with getting the recent charge refunded..and it was there I found out for the first time that my account could be “deactivated” on the DalPay site..which I did.
At the time of writing this I have still yet to hear from XeroBank..in reply to either of my original support tickets requesting account cancellation..or the message sent to them by the DalPay system. Having read Joe’s post above I am not holding my breath.
I have read elsewhere that they might find it hard to actually know you are who you say you are when you request you account to be closed / canceled..but it strikes me as strange they must have a record of your email address you used to join..and to which they sent their welcome email to in when you joined..the same one I used in each of the recent message I have sent them..still no reply!
My next step is the one I didn’t want to have to take..that being contacting my bank to cancel my CC and issue me with a new one..but I guess this is the only thing I can do now at this stage, as I can’t afford to have then taking even more funds from me..something they should not have done, given I contacted them twice BEFORE the re-bill date came up!
Anyway, just wanted to share this with those who may be interested, as I have read on other forums about how good XeroBank is..which may well be true..but they support seems to be nonexistent when it comes to closing out your account with them..and that’s not a good sign..no matter who they are or what kind of service they offer!
All the best,
Dan
HAMACHI. this use to be a free service, and it worked A1, easy to use, recommended by steve gibson (grc.com/security now) this is an excellent site for wav files of security issues/basic stuff you mite try a look @
when establishing a business, a good customer service is always necessary-.,