VPN Blog

Did you ever want to browse a website you thought would be really great but weren’t able to connect to it (even though your Internet connection was fine) or just got a message telling you the content wasn’t available in your country/region?

You’re not alone – blocked websites is something people around the world have to put up with. No worries, though – we’ll show you exactly how to unblock websites in this handy guide.

Ever wondered if a VPN slows down Internet connection speeds? It’s a pretty popular topic – in fact, many people like to claim VPNs either slow down Internet speeds or speed them up.

Well, there are a lot of things you need to consider when thinking about VPN speed – and we’ll discuss all of them in this in-depth guide. We’ll also tell you which VPN speed tests you can use to see how your connections are doing.

HTTPS vs VPN services – what’s the better option?

This is a question we got asked lots of times by our users and other people online. So, we put together this article to showcase what HTTPS and VPNs actually are as well as what sets them apart, so that people can understand why it shouldn’t be a matter of HTTPS vs VPN tech since both of them work well together.

We’re happy to say that, as of today, you can start using the IKEv2 VPN protocol on your Android devices with CactusVPN. The setup process is pretty simple, but we put together a helpful tutorial to show you all the steps you need to take. Continue reading

We’re happy to announce that, as of today, CactusVPN will be offering support for VPN over ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol, a supporting protocol that sends error messages if a service or a host/router can’t be reached/isn’t available) and DNS (Domain Name System, which is responsible for translating domain names into IP addresses, and vice versa). Continue reading

Netflix has tons of amazing shows and movies on display: House of Cards, The Crown, Hemlock Grove – and those are just a few examples. It’s just a shame that many people have to unblock US Netflix to enjoy all of that.

If you’re in that situation, no need to worry since we’re going to show you how to watch Netflix from other countries in this article.

When it comes to debating Smart DNS vs. VPNs, it’s pretty much impossible to get a clear answer regarding which one is the better option. That’s because the answer solely depends on what you want to accomplish online.

Overall, it’s easier to think of a Smart DNS and a VPN as 2 services that are both useful for particular scenarios instead of 2 services that necessarily need to compete with each other.

With this article, we hope to give you a clear picture of what a Smart DNS and a VPN are, and how they are different in their own ways. We’ll also do our best to give you a straightforward answer regarding which one you should use.

Whether you’re a British expat living in Spain, a UK citizen on vacation there, or someone from Spain who just loves UK entertainment, you probably tried at one point to view UK TV in Spain only to quickly realize you just can’t do it.

Well, we’re going to use this article to address why that happens, and to offer you an easy workaround. After all, UK entertainment is simply amazing, and there’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to enjoy it just because you’re from a different country.

Chromecast is definitely an amazing device when it comes to modern entertainment. Though, all the convenience of being to cast your mobile screen on your TV does make you wonder – how secure is Chromecast actually?

Well, while there might be some concerns, you don’t need to worry that much. Making your device more secure isn’t really difficult. In fact, we’ll show you exactly how to secure Chromecast in this 4-minute article.

Want to test VPN connections to make sure everything is running as it should but not sure where to start?

No worries – we’ve put this guide together to show you exactly what VPN tests you should run to check your connections, and how to do it as well.

Not sure if you should use a VPN for travel during your next vacation? Don’t worry – we’ll tell you everything you need to know about this.

Now, the short answer is yes, you should definitely use a VPN when traveling abroad. In case you’d like to know exactly why, just read on or use our Table of Contents links.

Ever wondered what the benefits of VPNs are? Well, we aim to answer all your questions with this thorough article.

We’ll start out by showcasing the main advantages in a clear, streamlined list. For those of you who’d like a more in-depth look at the benefits of VPN services for specific scenarios, we’ve got you covered with the rest of this article – like how a VPN can help your business, how a VPN service can make traveling more enjoyable, and other interesting stuff like that.

A lot of people like to debate the topic of “VPN vs. firewall” or “VPN vs. antivirus,” trying to promote one solution over the other. But the truth is that VPNs, firewalls, and antivirus software work best in unison, not separately.

To help you better understand why, we’ll go ahead and explain what a VPN, a firewall, and an antivirus are, and how firewalls and antivirus software are different from VPNs.

Selecting the best VPN server location can be difficult if you are new to VPNs. Even people who have been using VPNs for a while can encounter difficulties sometimes.

Well, don’t worry – we’ll go ahead and explain what things you need to keep in mind when choosing a VPN server.

Using a VPN at work may be the solution to remove a lot of unnecessary stress in the relationship with your employer.

If you are like the rest of us poor working Joes, you probably spend between 8 to 12 hours a day at your job. Now, that is definitely a very a long time! At some point throughout this day, you may want to access your personal email, your Facebook or even perform a few personal Internet tasks.

The Internet is full of amazing music streaming websites and apps. Some of the most popular examples would include Pandora Radio, iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Spotify, Apple Music, Radio.com, SoundCloud Go, Napster US, and TuneIn Radio.

It’s just a shame that – quite often – you can only enjoy what they offer after you unblocked the music sites in question.

That’s right – depending on various factors – you might not have full access to any music streaming website or app you want.

Picture this – you just landed a sweet gig as a freelancer for a client that pays well. They were impressed with your work, and want to hire you, but there’s just one problem – they need to schedule a VoIP call with you. And you live in a country where VoIP services are blocked.

Whether you’re just going on vacation or on a business trip, it’s extremely easy to spend anywhere between a few thousand dollars up to tens of thousands of dollars per year on airline tickets nowadays – depending on how frequent you fly, and where you fly to.

Things might not be this bad if airlines wouldn’t rely on online price discrimination so much. It’s actually why many frequent travelers have started using VPNs to get cheaper flights too.

Ever wondered if there are any worthwhile benefits to using proxy servers?

Well, as a matter of fact, there are a few decent advantages (but also drawbacks) you as an online user should consider when deciding whether or not to use such a service.

We recently patched an issue with our CactusVPN Windows client’s installer package. To our knowledge, our users haven’t been directly affected by this vulnerability. Also, if you have the Windows client already installed, you don’t need to worry as you are not at risk. Continue reading

Nowadays, you can’t really enjoy a quality gaming experience when you’re online without using a gaming VPN. And while you might think that VPNs are only used to secure people’s data and privacy, the reality is that they can do much more than that.

In fact, they can make playing online a more fun experience. If you don’t believe us, just take a look at the main reasons you need a gaming VPN in the first place:

Are there any major, noteworthy differences when it comes to comparing free VPNs vs. paid VPNs? Other than the price thing, obviously. After all, they’re both VPNs, so they should be able to offer you the same experience, right?

Not quite. In fact, when you start taking a closer look at the main disadvantages that set free VPNs apart from their paid counterparts, that’s when things really start to get interesting – but not in a good way, unfortunately.

Each month, there are over 2 billion active Android devices registered by Google, making it safe to assume that there are at least 1 billion monthly active Android users (if not more) on the market. That’s 1 billion people – or more – whose personal data, online privacy, and digital freedom is in constant danger – provided they don’t bother to hide IP addresses on Android devices they own and use.

The SEO industry has been making massive gains over the past years. More individuals and businesses rely on SEO to improve their branding, social reach, and online traffic – and the money spent on SEO backs that up. Back in 2016, the US alone accounted for $65 billion being spent on SEO, with the numbers being expected to rise to around $79 billion by 2020.

How many people in the United States use a USA VPN when they go online?

Not enough, in our opinion. According to some research, as little as 5% of all Internet users in the country use a United States VPN when accessing the web. Since there are around 286 million online users in the US, that would amount to somewhere around 14 to 15 million VPN users.

“But why would I need a US VPN when I live in the United States? I already have access to all the content I could want!”

Spotify is a popular music platform that lets you access thousands of songs from a multitude of artists. It also allows you to tailor-make your own playlist and let it play for hours at a time.

But what about the restrictions against this service applied by your school? Or the regional licence agreements that prohibits access to the platform? In this post, we’ll look at how to get Spotify unblocked at school or anywhere else using a VPN service.

We would like to inform you that we have updated the OpenVPN SSL certificate. This is a routine procedure in order to maintain the high security standards here at CactusVPN.
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The CactusVPN macOS app has now been updated to version 6. This means that our customers will be able to enjoy higher levels of convenience and performance across the board, with the same high levels of privacy and security. The following changes have been made: Continue reading

We’re happy to announce that users of CactusVPN will now have the ability to unblock French websites using Smart DNS and stream new content. Our service is expanding, and we’re happy to provide you with access to a huge amount of French streaming sites, covering a wide range of genres. Continue reading

CactusVPN is proud to announce that we have set up five new VPN servers in Europe and Asia. Subscribers will be able to take their pick of a huge selection of streaming content previously blocked due to geo-restrictions, while maintaining the highest levels of privacy and security. Continue reading

We know you can’t get enough of the good news from CactusVPN, so we love bringing you more and more great news! Following the improvements we made to the Android TV and Amazon Fire TV login process, we decided it was time to extend that to all Android devices. Continue reading

Our efforts to make things easier and safer for you on the mean world wide web translated lately in a series of new additions to the list of accepted payment methods.

We always struggle to find ways of making your experience with us better and since we already know that you care about your online privacy and safety, we decided it was time to add some new payment methods which expand the ways you can purchase our services.
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The good news keep on rolling with CactusVPN! After the launch of our Android TV and Amazon Fire TV Smart DNS apps, we discovered an improvement that needed to be done on the sign in feature of both apps. Continue reading

They say good news travel fast, so make sure to let everybody know that CactusVPN made a great addition to the big list of ways it makes your life easier online! A brand new Amazon Fire TV VPN app is now available!

Because we know it’s important for you to have access to your favorite streaming platforms and online services from any device, we decided to help you bypass geo-restrictions while also staying safe, directly from your Fire TV device! Continue reading

Awesome news for CactusVPN users! You can now install the CactusVPN VPN app directly on your Android TV!

We know how important it is for you to be able to easily access your VPN and Smart DNS on any device. And that is exactly why we decided to give you the option to access the internet through CactusVPN effortlessly from your Smart TV.
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For all those that kept a close watch on CactusVPN, the good news keeps coming! After the IKEv2 VPN support protocol introduction news, we made some very important changes to our VPN iOS app. You can now connect directly through the app! Continue reading

If you already are a customer of CactusVPN, or you are just thinking of starting using our services, it’s important to know that we have introduced one of the best and most modern VPN protocols: the IKEv2 VPN Protocol.

CactusVPN wants to make sure that your internet experience isn’t hindered by any inconvenience of any kind and this is why we have just added support for this type of VPN protocol: IKEv2. Continue reading

Because we always struggle to deliver the best possible services to our customers, we are proud to announce that our Android VPN App has been constantly updated within the past couple of months and it is now in its most advanced state yet. Continue reading

At CactusVPN we’re passionate about building new features and functionalities to delight our users and improve their online experiences. Now, we are thrilled to announce that we’ve added yet another feature – the “Internet Kill Switch” functionality. So whether you are using our Windows app or the macOS app, you get to benefit from this small but extremely useful improvement. Continue reading

That’s right! More good news for our iOS app users! We know that in the fast-paced online world, you come across many challenges. But worry not, as we are always crafting and improving our products to fit every user’s needs. Apart from safety online, we believe in free access to all content for everyone. Continue reading

Good news for those who wish to access websites blocked outside Sweden! We are very excited to announce that we have started unblocking geo-restricted websites from Sweden with our Smart DNS technology. Continue reading

Good news for all CactusVPN apps users! We are happy to introduce you to the newest version of our VPN apps for Windows and macOS.

This is one of the many things we have been working on in order to build the best ever experiences and offer the highest level of security for our users. The new improvement focuses on the update of the OpenVPN protocol to its latest 2.4.2 version. It’s worth mentioning that OpenVPN is the most secure VPN protocol and now you can benefit from it’s latest version using our Windows VPN app and macOS VPN app. Continue reading

We always find new ways to create the best services for our users here at CactusVPN. To make this possible, we’ve added a number of new features to our Windows and macOS VPN apps that greatly enhance functionality and overall user experience. Many of these improvements expand on the existing capabilities of the apps, allowing users to customize their processes. Continue reading

We always strive to offer our customers the best and most secure tech solutions and today, we are pleased to announce that we have a brand new addition to our portfolio. You now have the opportunity to enjoy a brand new state-of-the-art VPN server based in Sydney, Australia.
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We are thrilled to announce that our services are now available all across East Asia and are especially dedicated to our clients from China. Whether you live within the East Asian borders or planning any travels in the area, you will now get to experience a secure Internet connection with no restrictions using our new VPN server in Seoul.
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We are very happy to announce that we have added our German VPN server to our Liberty VPN package. This means that we allow now downloading torrents on our VPN server from Germany. Of course alongside you can still continue to use the four servers from Netherlands and two Romanian servers that were available beforehand. All of these VPN servers offer a gigabit connection meaning that you get the fastest possible connection, no matter where you are.
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When you think about a VPN provider, the first words that pop to mind, probably most of the times, are security protocols, servers, encryption technologies, speed performances and so on. But behind all these mandatory features are often passionate people that are giving, every day, their best to deliver top services. We, from CactusVPN, are among them.
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The road to perfect online privacy and safety is filled with constant technical improvements and that is exactly what are we doing. We are constantly working to make sure you benefit the best VPN and Smart DNS services available on the market. All this being said, we are happy to let you know that we just made some important updates to our VPN Software for Windows.
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Dear present and future clients. It’s time, to make yet another celebratory announcement regarding our technical improvements. We just completed our gallery of VPN servers with some great new ones, so you can enjoy an unrestricted and safe browsing at the highest performances.

The new servers are in Montreal, Canada; Nuremberg, Germany and Paris, France. They are available for you within the VPN + Smart DNS package, for the same price as before.
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Ladies and gentlemen! We are proud to announce an important security upgrade to CactusVPN services! Our VPN servers and VPN protocols run, starting right now, on the latest version of SoftEther. This new upgrade is the result of our constant efforts to ensure, at all times, the best protection there is for your online traffic.
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