Hola VPN had one of the largest customer bases, boasting 47 Million users at a time. It was one of the best IP changers around and has had as many as 109 million users, or so they claim.
What devices doesn’t Hola work with?
Hola works with most big platforms; it supports both Windows and Mac OS, Android and iOS, works with gaming consoles like the play station 4 and Xbox one, and a few more like your smart/Apple TV. So for all their faults, they do provide support to a variety of different devices. But it does not support Linux operating system.
They provided good services, and it was free of cost for the average user. But as the saying goes, all good things must end.
How was Hola exposed?
It has come to light that Hola was selling its 47 Million user database of free users as a botnet service through its Luminati service. Every person using the Hola service for free was an exit node. To put it in layman’s terms, it means that every one of the 47 million users owns a computer that could have been used by anyone willing to pay for it as a server to access the internet.
Instead of Hola’s server, people would use your computer to reroute their data, implicating you in the process. That means your location would be found if they did something illegal and were tracked.
And as if that wasn’t bad enough, Hola gave them administrator privileges on your computer, meaning they had complete and total control of your system whenever they wanted.
Anyone willing to pay would be able to access your computer as they wished and would be able to see all your stored data and copy, delete or even upload anything off of your computer. I do not have the words to stress how bad this is. (Read Hola For NetflIt’sIt’s a massive invasion of your privacy and if you still have Hola on your computer, uninstall it as soon as possible. This also includes the hola browser and the Hola chrome extension.
According to the people who uncovered all this, their latest update said Hola released a statement saying this was all a glitch and was fixed within a few hours.
But instead of fixing this serious issue, they made it impossible to track their activities, meaning now nobody can know for sure if they are still doiit’shis. Hence, it’s much better to go for one of the alternatives.
What Hola alternatives are there?
Depending on your requirements, there are a couple of different things you can go for. For example, many people used Hola to stream tv shows and channels that were region locked.
The first option is to choose some better VPN providers and get a VPN changer. To get the best services, you will have to pay for them, as a free VPN doesn’t deliver quality service. (apart from a few key providers – you can check out our completely free VPN picks here)
Top VPN services:
ExpressVPN is a good, well-rounded VPN service provider.
- It doesn’t cost much.
- Provides a multitude of different features.
- It has a massive network you can choose from.
- With great speed, you can stream whatever you want, whenever you want.
- It provides 256-bit encryption to protect your data and is entirely anonymous, so you don’t have to wordon’tout anyone spying on you.
IPVanish is another great VPN service provider.
- It claims to be the
world’s fastest Vworld’sider, so you expect quite a bit from it from the start, and in all honestly, it does not disappoint. - It’s effortless. It’s, has a network of 700+ VPN servers in over servers with more than 40,000 IPs.
- And becauseIP’ss fast, it doit’s a bit when you’re streaming your movies at a good resolution.
- It also comes with some extra things like a web proxy, free of charge, of course.
Another way to stream your favourite channels shows, and movies are through an intelligent DNS provider. This is a relatively simple service, as it requires no software installation and costs half as much as most VPNs.
It will not protect your data or identity and will change your computer’s IP address, allowing you to access region-restricted content.
Unlocator is a great DNS provider, it supports 219 different channels, and the numbers will grow. Unfortunately, unlike ExpressVPN, it does not support Netflix America, which might be a deal-breaker for some.