iPhone 7 sales put Apple back on top as the world’s top smartphone vendor in the fourth quarter, according to a new report from Strategy Analytics, which attributed at least some of the growth to Apple’s ability to capitalize on Samsung’s recent missteps. The latter, of course, is referring to the Note 7 battery recall, which had led to exploding devices due to design… Read MoreAs you’re probably aware, China has a history of very strict policies regarding online content. The country recently approved a new cybersecurity law, expected to go into effect this summer, which further establishes firm state control over information flows and tech equipment.
As for VPN providers, the situation is no different in the country. China routinely campaigns against VPNs, aiming to interrupt or completely block the services. Still, using a VPN is not illegal in China – the focus is on censorship, rather than punishment.
Indeed, VPNs are very popular in China, especially among expatriates and those in academic circles. But circumventing the ‘Great Firewall’, the nickname given to the country’s vast system of online censorship, is becoming harder. It’s important to note that almost every major internet service provider is controlled by Chinese authorities.
Dealing with this level of censorship of the net is far from easy, but some VPNs are willing to tackle the problem, having proven methods of maintaining uptime in a difficult online climate. Obviously you need to look for a capable service in this respect, and pick out a reliable VPN, too.
Choosing one with high quality customer support is also important, for when downtime does rear its ugly head. And obviously the number and range of available servers (particularly those in Asia) will help you obtain a better, faster connection. Tight security and privacy is, as ever, a primary consideration as well.
So which are the best VPN services for those based in China? We’ve picked out five top-notch efforts for your delectation.
ExpressVPN is one of the most popular VPNs in China, and it’s a go-to provider for many because it deftly navigates around the Great Firewall. The service’s wide array of server locations is a big plus, with Hong Kong and Singapore-based servers being especially relevant in this case.
ExpressVPN offers a consistent performance, with neat dedicated apps for the mobile experience. For any trouble that might occur, there’s round-the-clock live chat and email support available from China (the website is not blocked).
There’s no free trial of the service and the pricing isn’t cheap. Still, the 30-day money-back guarantee at least gives you some fall-back, and the year-long plan provides the best value for money. The packages available are:
One of the main advantages of VyprVPN is its proprietary Chameleon security protocol which can help bypass VPN blocking, scrambling OpenVPN packet metadata to ensure it’s safe from the tendrils of deep packet inspection.
VyprVPN is a tier-1 VPN network, which means the outfit owns all of its servers. There are enough of them to ensure good performance (14 are located in Asia), along with solid support for mobile operating systems, and 24/7 live chat for troubleshooting.
The much-praised Chameleon protocol is excluded from the basic plan, which itself offers a rather miserly two simultaneous connections. On top of that, the service is expensive, but does offer a 30-day refund period and a three-day trial. Despite the cost, what’s on offer here could well be worth paying for – your best bet is the Pro plan to make sure you get the benefit from Chameleon. The packages available are:
This Hungarian VPN offers a rather enjoyable experience that’s easy to set up. Surprisingly, there is no native mobile support which is a shame, considering you can connect up to five devices simultaneously. Instead, the company offers detailed guides for configuring mobiles manually – although that won’t be ideal for beginners.
There are several servers in Asia which make for a reliable and speedy performance, and you get round-the-clock technical support. One of the more interesting features is the refund policy, which is valid for up to 10 hours, 100 sessions or 10GB of bandwidth.
Buffered VPN is somewhat expensive, with the 12-month plan providing the best value. The packages available are:
AirVPN is a very up-front service with an engaging forum community. That’s not surprising when you find out that it’s operated by ‘activists and hacktivists’ in defence of net neutrality and other online freedoms.
The website lists all the available servers and their current load. The number of server locations is low, admittedly, although seven are located in Asia. Nevertheless, the provider has no problems manoeuvring around geolocation restrictions and China is no exception. The service offers solid and reliable performance, even if signing up and getting going is a bit of a hassle.
AirVPN has reasonably priced plans – five of them, to be exact. A 3-day plan offers a convenient way to try the service out, while the 12-month plan boasts the best value for money. The packages available are:
StrongVPN is one of the favourites among visitors and expats in China. It supports the most popular platforms with detailed manual setup instructions for others. This VPN features a decent number of server locations, and has no problems navigating around the Great Firewall, with connections proving reliable and pretty fast.
And if you want security, there’s wide protocol support, up to 2048-bit encryption, along with StrongDNS, the company’s own concoction to protect against DNS leaks. However, there is a limit of two simultaneous device connections which spoils the fun just a little.
The plan selection is also on the weak side, with only two options to pick from. Both come with a 5-day money-back guarantee, with the annual plan clearly offering the best value for money. The packages available are:
Technology plays a major role in our everyday lives. Not only do we use it in domestic environments, but it’s even more important in the business world. Companies use computers and other technological innovations to streamline operations, improve efficiencies and speed up complex processes.
It’s safe to say that computers and other IT hardware are critical in business operations. If physical technology is slow or breaks down, then firms can end up missing deadlines and targets, causing a whole heap of trouble. And the same thing goes for software applications – companies need them to work effectively, as they rely on them.
Sometimes, amongst the chaos of huge workloads and strict deadlines, it can be hard to keep an eye on business software – problems can often slip under the radar, and even when they’re undetected only for a short time, they can still affect productivity greatly.
That’s why application performance management (APM) systems exist. A major area in the field of IT and systems management, these tools can monitor and manage the performance of software deployed within a business. The aim of APM solutions is to detect and diagnose application performance issues as soon as possible, enabling them to be solved more quickly, thus saving money in the long run. Here are some of the best APM offerings out there.
Correlsense is a company that offers a number of application performance management technologies, and SharePath is the firm’s leading product, designed for business and IT managers who use complex software on a daily basis.
The platform provides users with a complete picture of the service and performance levels of key enterprise applications. It can be used with applications split across areas such as mobile, SaaS, cloud, data centre and legacy platforms. SharePath monitors apps in real-time, so you don’t have to worry about issues being missed.
What’s great about this APM solution is that it analyses all user activity, meaning that issues accidently caused by employees can be addressed straight away. As well as this, there are dashboards that you can share with everyone on your team, and you’re provided with service level reports and alerts. To top it all off, there’s a ‘Lite’ version which is completely free to use (although naturally it’s feature-limited).
Loupe is an effective, feature-packed application performance management tool. Aimed at enterprises and IT administrators, this solution lets you trace events, performance and other metrics to work out the causes of issues affecting software negatively.
A good APM solution will help you find problems with apps straight away, and if you’ve got to hunt through a sprawling list of potential issues, then it’s going to be hard to do that. However, Loupe automatically groups log events so you can find and address performance issues with a minimum of fuss.
The system also gives you a visual understanding of your application usage and offers insights into bottlenecks that can subsequently be tackled. It’s easy to get up and running with this system, as you don’t have to install anything onto your servers – the setup process is very nicely streamlined.
Plenty of businesses use the cloud along with on-premise systems, and when you have a bunch of different apps – from cloud through hybrid to traditional software installations – monitoring them all can be very difficult. Traverse is an APM tool that aims to tackle these sort of scenarios.
It can automatically discover apps, networks, servers and systems, meaning you don’t have to dedicate time in order to configure things manually. Once it’s set up and running, Traverse will monitor each device and app to determine if there are any issues. If a problem is identified, it’ll fire up a troubleshooting process and try to resolve it before your business is affected.
You can also back up and restore changes across your applications, and you’re sent predictive analytics concerning their overall performance.
If you’re a developer or have a team of software engineers working within your company, then it’s obviously quite common to come across performance issues and other bugs. Stackify Retrace is a targeted ‘devAPM’ system, giving development professionals the tools they need to find and address problems effectively.
The platform alerts developers if any issues and bugs have been found, and it can be used to improve performance levels across test and production servers. Retrace has been designed so that it provides visibility, data and actionable insights into app performance and faults.
There’s a centralised dashboard that displays code performance and metrics, including errors and logs. Stackify can also be used with most common app stacks, and this is a highly scalable SaaS solution, so it’s easy to install and use.
Applications Manager is a tool which does exactly what it says on the tin. It’s being marketed as an enterprise-ready, usable and affordable APM. Businesses are provided with everything they need to ensure critical applications and systems are always in perfect working order.
This solution can find and address issues involving the end user, applications and important components such as databases, servers, ERP packages, web services, cloud platforms and virtual systems.
Applications Manager works with a single install and allows you to address issues easily, plus when looking further down the road, it’s highly scalable – indeed, it can scale to up to 50,000 applications.
Samsung isn’t launching its upcoming Galaxy S8 flagship smartphone at Mobile World Congress, but it looks like the Korean firm will unveil a new tablet at the Barcelona show. Today, Samsung teased an upcoming device through invites to a press event on February 26, the eve of MWC. This looks like being the Galaxy Tab S3, which just cleared the FCC hinting at an imminent arrival. Its… Read More
