Tag Archives: Safety

Life abroad: Vypr VPN

**I fixed the prices – I was doing it monthly, but I went back and re-calculated the price based on an annual purchase 🙂 Much cheaper that way!

Vypr VPN

A while back, I did a review of Astrill’s VPN service and quite a few of you were interested in learning more about other VPN services!

The internet is a wonderful, beautiful place full of friends, libraries, travelers, and fellow photographers. It is also a dark and scary place full of perverts, hackers, and identity thieves. Personally, I want to be able to access the first group while putting myself at less of a risk of the second group! Wouldn’t you agree? 🙂

I’ve now tried a few VPN programs here and there, and I wanted to keep you updated on my findings.

VYPR

I had heard about VyprVPN before, since quite a few people at my institution like to use the program instead of Astrill. If any of you have been following my updates and the news, you would know that Astrill has been off and on recently. I’ve had a lot of problems where it doesn’t work on my IPad, and it is frequently stopped working on my computer as well. I have days where it is not operating and right now, about once a day I have to turn it off and re-boot the program. Plus, they recently had to put out a warning that a government in Asia had seized their servers in an investigation. While that doesn’t affect me, a lot of users weren’t happy that they were that vulnerable.

So when I recently was given the opportunity to test out VyprVPN, I thought I’d give it a try. The people I know who use it gave it pretty good references through last year, and now here I’ll give you info on my experiences with it. 🙂

In interest of comparing this with Astrill, I’ve used the same 2+ people on several devices as my basis for both.

Price: $100/year (billed annually).

Review: There is a basic plan ($80/yr) that has almost all the features (minus: the Firewall, some cloud storage, other protocols), but it only allows for 1 simultaneous connection. Given that my family has two people online most of the time, 1 connection wouldn’t be enough. So I need to get the VyprVpnPro system at $100/yr. It comes with everything I need, and includes 2 simultaneous connections. You would definitely want to buy it annually, the price almost doubles if you do it monthly.

You can start with a 3-day free trial, and cancel it if you don’t like it. I like this process, because it lets me see if it will really work before I hand over that much money.

If you do decide Vypr is for you, go through this link for an extra 50% off your first month 🙂

Installation: Easy (very)

Review: There were no problems with Installation, it downloaded smoothly and started right up. One small confusing thing is that the website for Vypr is called GoldenFrog, so go to http://www.goldenfrog.com to set up an account. You’ll start by setting up the account and getting your username and password. Then you need to download the program.

Download process is easy, just double click to open the installation program and walk through the steps. Unlike with Astrill, there were no problems with the Proxy Settings on my computer, the instant I downloaded it, it went to work!

Use: Easy (pretty much)

Thankfully, the interface of the program is pretty easy to use. If you have a techno-dummy on your hands, they can use this without too much trouble.

When I turn on my computer, I open the program from my desktop. You can set it up to start automatically if you want. The box will look like this:

Untitled picture

If you want to just connect right away, just click the blue connect button. If you want to change locations, click the exclamation mark looking blue button.

The little gear in the top right corner is where you can change the protocols.

That’s all there is to it! Just click connect and then close the program when you’re done.

Access: Scattered

First, let me say that this part may be unfair to Vypr. Many people in my school swear by Vypr; they claim that it is tons better than Astrill and works great for them. At least 2 other people though have had the same problem I have – none of the servers connect on our computers.

The technology is easy to use but works sporadically and is highly unreliable for me – remember others say it works fine in the same building. Their website says that if Vypr is not working with a US connection, try hooking in to Netherlands or Hong Kong. I’ve had a lot of problems with Vypr’s connections in the US, so I tend to rely on the Netherlands or Hong Kong system. However, that is still very sketchy in regards to successful connections. Plus, there are several websites that require that you be connected to the US for them to work, such as Hulu.

So far, on my Apple Products, Vypr is more reliable than Astrill. However, Astrill is more reliable on my Windows Laptop. It’s kind of a toss-up there. I have not attempted either on a Mac, but I would presume that Astrill is less reliable on a Mac as well.

Customer Service: Good

Actually, I haven’t really had a reason to talk to their technical support. I have asked questions of my account manager though, and he was incredibly personable and friendly. Vypr has been very gracious when I speak with them, and I haven’t had any problems on that front!

Conclusion: This service isn’t great on my Windows laptop, I have a hard time getting a connection, even through Hong Kong or Netherlands. On the other hand, it’s been pretty stable on my Ipad, so there’s that. Other users have conflicting experiences. Some swear by it and others say it’s not working much.

The program is expensive, more than some competitors, but if it works on your Mac when other programs don’t that might be worth the cost. I don’t have any problems with turning it on and off, it’s incredibly easy to use. I like that I can change servers as often as I want! I also like that there is a program no matter what device I use. There aren’t any add-ons you have to pay for or consider which is pretty sweet; they just come with the program.

All in all, if I could figure out how to make the connection work more often, I would really like this system. Maybe y’all have some tips?

This is my experience with Vyprvpn, anyone want to throw in their opinion of ExpressVPN to give a comparison? How have you done with Apple Products here? Windows? Android?

Tags: computer, Electronic, Living Abroad, Safety, Teaching Abroad, VPN, Vyper, VyperVpn, vyprvpn

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Categories Computer Issues, Life, Teaching

CAQ: Is China Safe?!? – The Health Issue: Pollution

27 Feb

Continuing the Commonly Asked Questions series based on questions people give me about China. While it may not answer everything, I hope that it will clear up some big misconceptions people have about this beautiful country. You can find the first part “Is China Safe: the Size/Languag e Issue Here.

CAQ #2: Is China Safe?!? ~ the Health Issue: Pollution

Yes, this is really what my city looks like some days

Concern: China is a scary place with backdoor doctors, unsanitary practices, horrifying pollution, and dangerous hazards lying around everywhere.

I’ll start by addressing Pollution in this post~ the biggest concern for most people. Is there pollution in China? ~ Yes, of course there is. There is also a lot of pollution in the US, Korea, Japan, England, India, etc. Is smog a problem? ~ Yes, smog can be a bad problem, especially on certain days. The worst of the smog arrives when we haven’t had rain in a while (Henan had a drought this year, so that didn’t help), when they burn off the fields in the fall, and when the machines are running extra long at the local factories. There are certain days when skyscrapers right in front of you completely disappear and you can taste the acid in the air. I’d say that’s been about 7-8 days in my first semester here in China (Aug-Feb). It can be really, really bad.

My City Today

Of course, I live in Zhengzhou which is one of the worst cities in China, so I can’t measure the rest of China by that. You can see a rating every day for most Chinese cities’ pollution level here, and Zhengzhou is always pretty bad. But if Zhengzhou is the worst they have to offer, I don’t think the problem is as prevalent as people believe.

First, I’d like to say (and I’ll probably repeat this in later posts), a large part of your ability to withstand the smog depends on your own body. Personally, I generally suffer from serious skin sensitivity and asthma; one bad day in the US will knock me out. But in China, I’m actually the healthiest I’ve been in a while. My skin clears up, my asthma goes away, I suffer fewer headaches, I’m breathing much better. Others are the opposite; they’re fine in the States and then get landblasted with respiratory illnesses here. I think a lot of it is dependent on how your body likes certain environments. Mine seems to like China.

Furthermore, as far as actual pollution goes, it isn’t like every single day I am terrified of walking out the door. Only about 2-3 days this semester have I been unwilling to leave without a mask.There is also the fact that Zhengzhou has coal mines not to far away ~ and that always adds to the issue, just look at the coal towns in West Virginia. We have to dust about twice a week to clean the black off everything, especially outside windows. That gives me a few concerns about Black Lung or something similar, but it’s my own fault for choosing to live so close to the coal mines.

Seeing the sun in a bright blue sky is a pretty rare sight around here, but we do get it, especially after a rain. And I can see the stars many nights, so long as the fireworks haven’t smoked the place up. I breath fine for the most part, although I know some people who struggle. They do have masks everywhere; you can always pick one up to help you out. I personally never really use them unless it’s during the crop burning week.

One nice part about China is that the people here are incredibly health conscious and actively work to clean the mess up.Even big factory owners know that their children have to breathe in ‘the air they create; it provides a lot of incentive to clean the mess up. ‘They are truly worried about the situation, and there are constant

discussions on how to eliminate or guard yourself against the threat posed by air pollution. They have extremely advanced masks, they make sure that everyone knows what days to avoid going outside and what days it’s okay. They are constantly planting trees, bushes, shrubs, and adding water in an effort to combat the problem and reoxygenate the air. Zhengzhou even bought a “Smog Machine!” It goes around the streets spraying water in an effort to cleanse the air. 🙂

If you move further out of the big cities, the problem isn’t half as bad anyway.

So maybe some cities in China are worse than most of the United States, but they are working with millions more factories, mines, people and other pollution causing issues. As my student’s say, just look at the advancements they have already made in eliminating causation factors. Give them a few more years, and they will probably have advanced in leaps and bounds. They like their clean air, and generally the Chinese are a stubborn/innovative set. If they want clean air, they’ll find a way to get it. It just takes time and patience, and a willingness to wear a mask every so often till the problem is fixed.

Tags: China, Health, Life in China, Living in China, Pollution, Safety, Travel

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Categories China, Life, Teaching, Travel

Fighting Fires!

28 Mar

Now the event itself was a bad thing, but I was kind of excited to be an honorary firefighter for a day! 🙂 The ground in Illinois is so dry right now that there are warnings against fires because even the smallest thing can send a field or forest up in a blaze. The problem is that there isn’t very much to stop a fire once it starts going, unless it hits a road or creek. With fields, you are pretty much fair game.

Nonetheless, there have been a series of fires recently on the farms near my Aunt and Uncles (even a couple earlier on their farm). So when my Aunt and Uncle got a call that the forest and field had caught fire right along their driveway during my visit this past weekend, we all jumped in the jeep/trucks and took off. Thank god they have some amazing neighbors, because we were able to catch it before it got to close to the house. Unfortunately, it had already been burning awhile and part of the field and forest were gone.

Anyway, this was my first time helping to put out a fire, and I had the opportunity to learn some about how to put it down. I was proud to have helped!