Newshosting VPN (PrivadoVPN)
Newshosting is a Usenet service that offers access to over 110,000 newsgroups with high retention. It also offers a VPN service with its subscription plans, in some cases for free.
This solution is called PrivadoVPN and it aims to provide Newshosting users with anonymity and privacy. PrivadoVPN isn’t yet available for consumers, but businesses offer it as an additional service with their solutions.
Price
Newshosting offers three subscription options: Lite, Unlimited, and XL Powerpack. The cheapest is the Lite option, which is charged on a month-to-month basis and with a VPN costs $14.99/month.
Regardless of the chosen option and subscription, Newshosting offers its new customers a 14-day free trial for its services (VPN included) - so long as you don't use up more than 30GB.
Make sure to cancel your account in the client dashboard if you don’t want to proceed with the paying service after your trial ends as there’s no mention of a refund anywhere.
PrivadoVPN supports up to 5 simultaneous VPN connections at any time.
Alternatives
Newshosting’s VPN service isn’t as good as the one you’d get if you opted for the likes of ExpressVPN, NordVPN, Surfshark, or CyberGhost. It can’t unblock Netflix and BBC iPlayer, its apps are overly basic with a slightly frustrating interface, and it doesn’t have as many VPN servers as they do.
However, considering the fact that its purpose is rather narrow and that it comes for free with Newshosting’s top package, PrivadoVPN is a good complementary solution to such a service.
Streaming
Even though many VPN providers can give their users access to localized libraries on streaming services like BBC iPlayer and Netflix that are often unavailable in certain regions, Newshosting’s PrivadoVPN can’t do that. It may have to do with the fact that its focus is more on providing you privacy than unblocking popular streaming content.
About the company
Newshosting is a US company, but PrivadoVPN is run by a Switzerland-based VPN vendor called Privado Networks that gives you access to 206 VPN servers in 45 locations and countries around the world, including in Serbia, Thailand, Mexico, Iceland, Poland, South Africa, Turkey, Brazil, and others.
Privacy and encryption
This VPN provider uses the IKEv2 and OpenVPN (UDP and TCP) connection protocols, as well as an optional kill switch - a mechanism that shuts down your internet access if the VPN connection is terminated.
Torrenting is allowed and there are no limitations or speed throttling whatsoever.
PrivadoVPN’s Privacy Policy says this VPN doesn’t store “any information about what any specific user browsed or accessed” through its connection. It adds that the VPN is unable to “connect activity originating from an IP address from our VPN servers to activity conducted by an individual user”.
It further says that the provider encrypts all data over its VPN connections, and doesn’t “inspect or record the contents of what you’re viewing, browsing or doing through the PrivadoVPN connections”. Finally, it ends by stating that it never logs “browsing history, traffic destination, data content, IP addresses, or DNS queries.”
The document does, however, state that the provider collects mobile identifiers provided by iOS and Android devices, but that these identifiers “do not contain your email address or name”.
This is all rather detailed, but we’d also like to see independent confirmation of these claims from an outside auditor.
Support
PrivadoVPN has apps for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS. You can also use its VPN configuration, SOCKS5 proxy credentials, and manual guides to install the service on additional devices such as routers.
At the moment of writing, the iOS app has an excellent score - 5 stars (out of 5) - although it has only been rated by 5 people and it's yet to be updated at that time. Its Android counterpart has a lower score of 3.7 stars, as rated by 33 people. It was last updated over three months ago.
Should you require assistance with the Newshosting service, you can find it on the provider’s support site and learning center, or you can create a ticket. Newshosting also has profiles on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, but these haven’t been updated in a long time.
For your issues related to the VPN, you can try to get help from Newshosting’s team, contact PrivadoVPN’s support directly via email, or you can visit its support site and blog where you’ll find knowledge guides, news, how-to guides, service updates, and news. We tried the email route and got a response fairly quickly - within 30 minutes.
Speed and experience
The Windows app is rather simplistic so it was easy to get around. It would connect almost in an instant and we got notifications each time we connected and disconnected. That said, the interface was slightly frustrating because the locations weren’t listed alphabetically so we had trouble finding the desired location.
We tested the provider’s download speeds on a 73Mbps testing connection and a location in Southeast Europe. The first server we were interested in was in the Netherlands and it got us a very good 24.20Mbps.
Then, we wanted to see how a server in the UK would fare, so we picked London. The result was lower than for the previous server but was still solid: 16.45Mbps. After this test, we hopped over on the other side of the Atlantic ocean, to New York. The speeds across the pond were expectedly lower, but not by much and we got a very good 14.90Mbps.
Finally, it was time to check out a server in India. We connected to a VPN server in Mumbai, which delivered a much lower 7.91Mbps.
Verdict
PrivadoVPN isn’t a complex VPN solution like ExpressVPN. The latter is faster, has more options and features, and much more extensive server infrastructure.
However, Privado is a very good bonus alongside the Newshosting Usenet service, considering you still get solid download speeds, support for torrenting, strong security, helpful customer support and a two-week free trial - all for free with the provider's premium package.
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