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