Opera offering free VPN service in it's newest browser version.

[lisek991]

Quote

Opera has updated its desktop browser with a handy feature to keep you safe on the Web: a free built-in VPN service that you can turn on with just a click.

Well.. To be honest, I've used Chrome almost all my life, but this is something that may persuade me to switch to Opera.
It's a quite big step forward, especially that it's free.

Will Linus stop being sponsored by tunnelbear? It seems to be obsolete now... 

Source: http://thenextweb.com/apps/2016/04/21/operas-browser-comes-free-vpn-service-baked-right/#gref

[mach]

And Opera is just bought by a Chinese company.

 

[ShadowCaptain]

1 minute ago, lisek991 said:

Well.. To be honest, I've used Chrome almost all my life, but this is something that may persuade me to switch to Opera.
It's a quite big step forward, especially that it's free.

Will Linus stop being sponsored by tunnelbear? It seems to be obsolete now... 

Source: http://thenextweb.com/apps/2016/04/21/operas-browser-comes-free-vpn-service-baked-right/#gref

 

Seems awesome

 

question is...... do they keep any information stored on their servers

[I am an SSD]

9 minutes ago, lisek991 said:

Well.. To be honest, I've used Chrome almost all my life, but this is something that may persuade me to switch to Opera.
It's a quite big step forward, especially that it's free.

Will Linus stop being sponsored by tunnelbear? It seems to be obsolete now... 

Source: http://thenextweb.com/apps/2016/04/21/operas-browser-comes-free-vpn-service-baked-right/#gref

Thats a really good move by them . They are going to have a LOT more people using opera now.

[ZetZet]

11 minutes ago, lisek991 said:

Will Linus stop being sponsored by tunnelbear? It seems to be obsolete now... 

no? You can use standalone VPN in games and other services other than just browsing the web.

[Energycore]

Holy shit Opera just became interesting again.

[SaladFingers]

I used to be an Opera fanatic.... until they just scrapped everything and went the Chromium way. All the nerdy settings I loved were gone, and everything just looked like an empty Chrome clone. I figured, better actually use Chrome itself so I can use my google account with it.

 

Now this could be something to get me back to Opera. Need to find the "gotcha" part though, free VPN built in a browser sounds too good to be true.

[Guest]

I'm wondering how many public IP addresses they have to offer.

The one time I used a free VPN (back when froot was free) I noticed quite a few results of lots of people abusing it. The Escapist site wouldn't even load , let alone allow me to post on their forum.

[Master Disaster]

1 minute ago, Svinsparbriivu said:

I'm wondering how many public IP addresses they have to offer.

The one time I used a free VPN (back when froot was free) I noticed quite a few results of lots of people abusing it. The Escapist site wouldn't even load , let alone allow me to post on their forum.

The large majority of free VPN services don't offer support for SSL/TLS encryption and ergo do not support logging into any site that uses a secure password. That's generally a paid only feature.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Master Disaster said:

The large majority of free VPN services don't offer support for SSL/TLS encryption and ergo do not support logging into any site that uses a secure password. That's generally a paid only feature.

Errr, a browser doesn't rely on the network for SSL/TLS.

A VPN server can do SSL/TLS, but that's for encrypting all traffic going through it, not offering it as a service for applications.

[AlTech]

To be completely honest. I used chrome until I had to carry a laptop around every day. That is when I switched to whatever was default. Over the brief period I used a Mac, I used Safari mainly but still rarely using Chrome.

 

Then during my time using Windows on laptops I've mainly used Microsoft Edge and now I use Vivaldi as my "backup browser".

[Centurius]

Now if only they got security keys working so I could use my yubikey and I'd switch back.

[Master Disaster]

1 hour ago, Svinsparbriivu said:

Errr, a browser doesn't rely on the network for SSL/TLS.

A VPN server can do SSL/TLS, but that's for encrypting all traffic going through it, not offering it as a service for applications.

Yes actually it does, if the network point blank refuses the handle an encrypted request how else do you suppose the browser is meant to complete the handshake?

 

Nevermind, that was a huge brain fart. I was thinking of proxy, not VPN. Sorry dude.

[Mew]

6 hours ago, AluminiumTech said:

To be completely honest. I used chrome until I had to carry a laptop around every day. That is when I switched to whatever was default. Over the brief period I used a Mac, I used Safari mainly but still rarely using Chrome.

 

Then during my time using Windows on laptops I've mainly used Microsoft Edge and now I use Vivaldi as my "backup browser".

I would do the same because both Edge and Safari are optimized for power consumption but both Edge and IE suck so I have to use chrome.  

[Mr.Meerkat]

Opera got bought by a Chinese company with the strict internet laws in China...won't be surprised if they only did this so people in China can stop paying for VPNs to be able to access facebook n stuff...

[Doobeedoo]

Seems good. Would want to see the speeds and what they log.

[Guest]

16 hours ago, mach said:

And Opera is just bought by a Chinese company.

 

But they're still based out of Norway (and subject to Norwegian privacy laws) for the foreseeable future.

 

And the VPN they're using is based out of Canada

[Technous285]

I'm trying the Dev version of Opera 38 (regular version is 36) which has the built-in VPN, and the 3 VPN country settings (currently) are: Canada, Germany, USA.

Using the USA setting to watch new Last Week Tonight episodes on YouTube (not available on Australian IP addresses currently) and it is letting me watch the whole episodes with minimal buffering (compared to my normal YT buffering).

 

The browser also keeps track of how much data you've received using the VPN ability, which could be useful for those who like to keep track of stats and such.

[mach]

3 hours ago, bwat47 said:

But they're still based out of Norway (and subject to Norwegian privacy laws) for the foreseeable future.

 

And the VPN they're using is based out of Canada

I still don't trust it. Laws won't stop governments from exploiting users' privacy.

 

The company acquired opera also make some of the most obnoxious, shady but popular software in China, the "360" series of shitty malware. Those are the type that install a bunch of crap if you just press "next", and you will never be able to completely get rid of it unless you nuke your harddrive to dust.

I don't even dare to visit their homepage without using a sandboxed browser window. 

[Guest]

On 4/22/2016 at 0:46 AM, mach said:

I still don't trust it. Laws won't stop governments from exploiting users' privacy.

 

The company acquired opera also make some of the most obnoxious, shady but popular software in China, the "360" series of shitty malware. Those are the type that install a bunch of crap if you just press "next", and you will never be able to completely get rid of it unless you nuke your harddrive to dust.

I don't even dare to visit their homepage without using a sandboxed browser window. 

Qihoo is only a minority shareholder (Kunlun is the main player), and the deal hasn't even been approved yet.

 

Obviously, like with any closed source program if you don't trust the company then don't use it. But IMO there's no reason to believe Opera is all of the sudden going to turn into malware because they might end up with Chinese shareholders. As long as they remain a Norwegian company I'm not particularly worried.