CyberGhost VPN

CNET Editors' review

by: CNET staff on July 18, 2011

CyberGhost VPN is a personal VPN client and online service that lets users browse the Internet anonymously by acting as a firewall and server between your PC and your ISP. It lets you surf the Web normally while hiding your IP address and displaying a dead-end address. It's available in free and premium versions; the free version can only be installed on one PC and only one account can be activated on each computer, whereas the premium account offers more options and features.

CyberGhost installs and sets up easily, including creating a username and password, though we had to reboot our system to finish the process. The program's main screen resembles many antivirus and firewall programs, with a left-hand list of the program's functions, a toolbar, and bar graphs indicating both free and premium traffic while logged on to the VPN. A prominent message warned us that we were not anonymous online and also displayed our current IP address. We clicked Connect to VPN, and a pop-up gave us several options: Connect to Free service, Create Premium connection, and Create Premium Connection with a specified server on a drop-down list. We could also display a list of available Premium servers. We tried both the Free and Premium services, which are similar. We quickly logged on to the CyberGhost VPN service and reopened our browser, which functioned normally, with the exception that our Google search page was now Google.de instead of Google.com, a small matter we quickly rectified. Every site we visited loaded normally.

While CyberGhost boasts that its compression technology loads some sites up to 30 percent faster, our broadband connection seemed slightly slower, and bandwidth tests confirmed our suspicions. However, the delay wasn't dramatic, and CyberGhost offers many server choices to help users maximize their bandwidth, though the Premium service offers more choices than the free one. The program gives copious assistance. We also found the extra features easy to set up and use. The online Data Safe offers both password and key file protection, and an extensive anti-spy tool can block many different processes. Whether you opt for the free basic service or premium features, CyberGhost VPN is well worth trying; you have nothing to lose but online snoops!

Editors' note:This is a review of the full version of CyberGhost VPN 4.7.16. The trial version has limited features and functionality.

Publisher's Description

From CyberGhost:

Internet and anonymity don't fit anymore. Not nowadays. Once online, every step you make and every website you visit will fill your most personal own sphere full of information about your interests, your relationships, and even you intimate matters, ready to be analyzed and feeded into huge data bases. Thanks to a unique IP address, that's given to you as soon as you log-in, you can clearly be identified at every corner on the Internet and even be blocked from certain content, if you have the 'wrong' country ID. This number is like a license plate nailed on your back and it helps to keep you out of video platforms as well from as to document which websites you visit and therefore which kind of person you are. For how long the information about you will be kept officially depends on the country you live in and on the provider you're bound to. Some (very few) don't have any interest in your privacy, others (most) will not only store your data for a long time but also for retrieve by companies or authorities, e.g. for data retention purposes. CyberGhost VPN helps you to reboot the Internet and bring back the time, the Net had been a promise for more freedom, more privacy and more information for all people. CyberGhost anonymizes you by changing your IP address and therefore protects and safeguards your privacy. It lets you surf, where others won't want you to and unlocks blocked content. Better, though, it connects you encrypted by AES and keeps important data like credit card numbers safe in insecure environments like public hotspots and Wireless LANs. In short: CyberGhost VPN gives you back the freedom to roam, wherever you want to, to express your opinions and to feel comfortable again while surfing, sharing files, using WLAN and managing your online banking account. And it does it with ease, its operation is straightforward, simple and, of course, secure.

What's new in this version: Version 4.7.19 includes more Servers and faster connection.