UK2’s new VPN is a notch above your average secure, remote Internet connection

UK2, probably best known for its Web hosting and domain registration services has now released a Virtual Private Network (VPN) solution that anyone can install on their Windows, Mac OS X or Linux system.

There are lots of VPN services out in the wild, letting users access the Internet as if they were situated in another country or for additional security when browsing on a public WiFi network, so why is this different? Well UK2 has a big network with datacenters located worldwide with big pipes between them, which means users should be able to set-up VPNs without worrying that the capacity to that country is going to get used up and stop the remote service working properly.

In the VPN settings, both the total bandwith (in GB) can be set and the maximum speed throttle (in Mb/s). This will ensure that the VPN can be set to terminate before any ISP bandwidth caps are hit, and to avoid falling foul of any speed monitoring and ISP throttling. This is especially useful when accessing high bandwidth streaming services such watching HD YouTube (or equivalent) streams.

UK2’s publicity goes to great lengths to show why using a VPN is useful to run secure sessions over a public (unsecured) WiFi network (such as in a coffee shop) so that accessing online banking can be made safer, as the over-the-air session will now be encrypted and only pop out in the clear when it leaves the UK2 datacenter (well ‘in the clear’ as far as HTTPS/SSL traffic can be –  as most online banking uses SSL).

Locations

Currently, UK2 offer four VPN termination points; London, Amsterdam, Salt Lake City and Tokyo (with more to follow). These may seem random, but when a VPN is used to access a service, the IP address accessing the service will be that of the VPN service not that of the end-user, which opens the service up to other uses.

Technicalities

UK2 doesn’t say what it logs and doesn’t log (it can be safely assumed all sessions are logged) and both PPTP (point to point tunneling protocol) and L2TP (layer 2 tunneling protocol) are supported, which should suit both Windows, MacOS X and Linux users. There are allegedly no bandwith or speeds limits, which means that the system should operate as fast as your broadband connection. However, bandwidth limits (GB) and bandwidth throttle limits (Mb/s) can be set in the VPN account settings.

Currently the service is free, but when charging is enabled, the service will cost $7 per month.

➤ UK2 VPN