Norton Hotspot Privacy

Symantec has launched a new personal VPN service under its trusted Norton brand and the result is an easy-to-use VPN service that delivers consistent performance with no bandwidth requirements. Even though the field of VPN services is getting a little cluttered, Norton Hotspot Privacy stands apart from its competition because it's one of the first products from a major security vendor. For a fairly affordable price tag, users can secure their network connections without any bandwidth limitations and for multiple devices. That right there deserves the Editors' Choice mention.

VPN Service in a Nutshell
Your computer is online because your ISP has assigned it an IP address. There are many services that can take the IP address and figure out the geographic location of the ISP, which may or may not be close to your physical location. Sometimes, you don't want your online activity to be traced back to you, or to your ISP. Or you may be trying to access a service that is restricted by geographic region. A personal VPN service overrides the IP address with one drawn from its own pool of servers, so you can suddenly pretend you are in a different state or country.

Personal VPN can also benefit business travelers, too. I often use it on the road to secure my hotel wireless connection when I want to login to my company's Google Apps account to check my email. A VPN service can't replace corporate VPN servers as it won't connect to internal systems and applications, but it could encrypt the network connection when using public networks to access work-related Web services.

A Matter of Trust
Logging into a VPN service is essentially a trust relationship between you and the vendor you select. The IT department controls the corporate VPN server and is trustworthy, but with a personal VPN service, you are relying on the vendor to not take advantage of you. You are taking them at their word that they won't monitor your activity, or use weak encryption, or broadcast your information to third-party groups.

Deciding whether or not to trust a vendor can challenging, as you have only the information on? the vendor's Website to go on, and whatever support forums that may exist. In this environment, Norton Hotspot Privacy has a leg up on most of the competition. One of the first VPN services offered by a major security vendor, Hotspot Privacy takes advantage of its brand recognition. Symantec benefits on both ends of the spectrum as it can sign up users looking for a personal VPN service who recognize the brand, as well as users who are not thinking about a VPN service but see the Norton name and decide to add it to their security arsenal anyway.

Protecting the Connection, Norton Style
Pricing is pretty straightforward. Users have to buy a license, for $19.99 a month or for $44.99 a year, before they can use Norton Hotspot Privacy. Unlike many of the other competitors, Symantec decided to not bother with a free version of the software, or even a free trial. This can be problematic for users who like to try before they buy. Luckily for those users, and for those who don't anticipate needing the service regularly enough to justify a one-month or one-year commitment, Symantec offers a "One-Day" pass for $2.99.

On the plus side, there are no bandwidth caps, unlike OkayFreedom or the basic version of proXPN. While the main screen lists how much bandwidth was consumed in that user session, there is no indication of how much was used in a month. You use as much as you need without having to worry about whether or not you are about to hit a monthly quota. It's a freeing feeling.

Symantec did something new with Hotspot Privacy. One user account can support up to five devices. This means that with one license, I can install the client onto five different devices, Macs and Windows, and protect them all. Considering this is a paid service, it's a nice touch, since very few users would want to shell out $19.99 a month for each machine in the household.

It's nice to find a VPN service that works for both Macs and PCs, as Norton Hotspot Privacy supports Mac OS X Leopard (10.5), Snow Leopard (10.6) and Lion (10.7), as well as Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and 7. I am waiting for Norton to extend the protection to all mobile devices. That would really be useful, considering how people don't think twice about piggy-backing onto wireless networks with their tablets. Norton extended iOS support recently, but no word on Android.

Setting Up and Getting Started
Symantec simplified the entire process to get started, since all I had to do was create my account on the Norton Hotspot Privacy Website, activate my account with a license code, and then download and install the software.

When the service launched, it opened a window that took up almost a quarter of my laptop screen, which is a little too much real estate for an application that normally lives inside my system tray. If I am logged into the Norton Hotspot Privacy account, the software automatically binds the program to the device under that username. f I am not logged in that first time, the software will connect to the server but prompt me to log in. If my license is out of date, I can update right from this window?Next: Norton Hotspot Privacy: Setup,? Performance

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