bit-tech Shopping: Anonymizer Anonymous Surfing

Rating: 8

Time with product: 3 Months

Strengths: Intuitive interface, does what it's supposed to do, automatic updates, Vista compatible

Weaknesses: Slows down internet speed, hangs on ocassion, some websites don't work with it

Summary: I've been using Anonymizer for a few months now. All in all, it's a nice piece of software that does what it's supposed to do: helps you mantain your privacy by hiding your real IP address (you can also choose to encrypt your connection to their servers). Mine also came with Nyms, a nice utility that allows you to create email addresses so you can email anonymously, without revealing your real email... very handy when you are concerned about spam! (you can manage these addresses very easily). It also comes with a Digital Shredder utility that basically cleans your system and browsers, allowing you to get rid of undesired temporary files, history, cookies, etc., and you have almost total control over what you discard and what to keep. Unfortunately, some websites don't play nice with Anonymizer: some banking websites, some chat plugins don't load unless you briefly disable protection. Also, sometimes Anonymizer crashes and/or starts to take almost 100% CPU time, in which case you not only need to shutdown the program, but also restart the underlying Anonymizer Management service. It doesn't happen too often to make it useless, but it would be nice if they fixed this annoying issue. Oh, I'm using it on Vista 64 & 32 systems, and it works on both! Recommended.

Rating: 4

Time with product:

Strengths: Alleged additional security, usually not that slow, free

Weaknesses: Unclear whether it works, spotty operation, sometimes very slow, subscription fees

Summary: This product advertises increased security when browsing online. However, I was unable to verify these claims. While it does allow for obfuscation of your IP address in some applications, you are compromising security by trusting the proxy servers of Allume. So with anonymity comes the very real possibility of a man-in-the-middle attack. Coupled with the subscription fees, I'll take my chances elsewhere.