Privacy And Registration Process
When you use our built-in VPN service, we do not log any information relating to your browsing activity and originating network address. You can find this in the Browser VPN section of Operas privacy policy.
It doesnt have any advanced privacy features nor strong security like ProtonVPN, for example. However, it still delivers safe day-to-day browsing.
- First, you must have an Opera browser. If not, go ahead and install it.
- Then download and install Opera VPN.
- Once the VPN finishes installing, you have to enable the VPN feature by going to:
Using the Opera VPN is easy you just click on the VPN label on the left of the Search/URL bar, select a server location, and click On. Thats it!
How Fast Is Opera VPN
Everyone understands that if youâre going to use a secure VPN connection, youâre going to lose a little bit of your Internet speed. That is just par for the course. The problem comes when you notice huge dips in performance in the name of âanonymityâ.
Whatâs even worse is when youâre not even promised anonymity and youâre forced to suffer through slow service.
This is what you get with Opera VPN.
Here you see speeds that are way down in the unacceptable territory. This one is slightly better, but itâs definitely nothing to write home about.
This is one of the slowest VPN connections we have ever seen. So Opera VPN can unblock Netflix. But the connection is so slow that streaming your favorite movie or television series on Netflix goes from being enjoyable to being a nightmare.
Not A True VPN Its A Proxy Service
The first thing you have to understand is that Opera is not a true VPN. It is a secure proxy service. This means that Opera will encrypt its own browser traffic by routing it through a server thatâs operated by a VPN in Canada.
However, Opera is not designed to encrypt the traffic on other web browsers or standalone email clients.
If You Want a VPN, Then Get a True VPN
Do you want a tried and test VPN service that protects all of the data you send over the Internet? Then we recommend NordVPN.
NordVPN has thousands of secure server locations across the globe.
They have a clear no-logging policy and offer unparalleled customer support.
Itâs also very easy to use, which reflects the companyâs commitment to providing a product that really works. There are no hidden fees or clauses. You are able to protect multiple devices with just one subscription.
Thanks to their Panama location, NordVPN protects you from a number of government surveillance programs that threaten to compromise your privacy.
- Offers phenomenal customer support and a live chat that is available 24 /7
- Allows torrenting
- NordVPN plans range from $3.30 a month to $11.99 a month
- NordVPN has special servers set aside to help you get around geo restrictions on services like Netflix
If Opera was a true VPN, it would encrypt every bit of Internet information going in and out of the device. It would not matter what application was handling the data.
Pros
- No customer service
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Can You Learn To Sing Opera
The ability to sing opera is within the reach of anyone who is passionate about singing and dedicated to practicing. Opera singers, on the other hand, have to meet specific requirements. In order to be considered for this position, you should be creative, able to work a six-day workweek, and comfortable singing in the middle of a busy schedule.
How To Begin Space Opera Novel
In space operas, the basic set-up is similar to a heroic fantasy, with the tropes transmuted into the space environment. The plot of your story could be structured as a typical heist movie, except the goal is to reach FTL. As an alternative to classic Pirate movies, imagine a world where the ocean replaces the void of space.
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Is Opera VPN Fake
Operas VPN offering is not the same thing as a VPN per se. A proxy server is just an intermediary between the browser and the Internet. Even if you value your privacy , a full VPN will still be necessary. *pa*ek informed Help Net Security that other tools you use, such as email clients like Outlook, will not be able to use this VPN.
It Doesnt Offer Their Servers Based On Country Locations
While previously, Opera VPN was offered as a free VPN service for the users whereby the users can choose from various server locations based on each country, the service has now transformed into a very limited private connection service. This is because the server locations are not available based on the country, but based on the continent. Users can choose between servers in Asia, Europe, and Americas for their private connection. It means that it is not good for bypassing the region locked content on the internet.
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What About Netflix Does Opera VPN Work With Netflix
Unfortunately, no Opera VPN does not work with Netflix.
So if you wanted a VPN service provider that worked with US Netflix, then Opera VPN isnt for you.
Youre better off looking at some premium and commercial VPN service providers like StrongVPN if you want to make sure that you always connected to US Netflix whenever you want to.
Do take note that you can access US Netflix website with Opera VPN.
You just wont have the opportunity to view any content because Netflix will block you.
Netflix will also show you a message that would say something like you are running a proxy.
How To Setup Operavpn
Once the software is installed, you must enable the VPN feature by going to Menu -> Privacy & security -> VPN -> Enable VPN. Note that I had an old version of Opera installed, and needed to uninstall it and reinstall the latest version in order for this option to become available.
Using the VPN is then just a matter of clicking on the VPN label to the left of the Search/URL bar, selecting a server location, and clicking On
It is worth noting that the VPN feature looks very similar to the SurfEasy browser extension . Unlike that extension, however, the VPN bundled free with Opera does not have a 500MB data limit.
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Security Passed Dns Leak Tests But Lacks Advanced Security Features
Opera VPN uses military-grade AES 256-bit encryption, which provides data protection thats almost unbreakable even by governments. However, Opera VPN doesnt channel your connection through a tunneling protocol like OpenVPN, IKEv2, or WireGuard. Most VPNs use these secure protocols to further shield your data from prying eyes and sneak around firewalls. Opera VPN, however, relies on HTTPS over TLS 1.3 the same protocol used by millions of websites to communicate sensitive data.
To see if my data really stayed private with Opera VPN, I tested for DNS leaks. This looked for instances of my actual location and IP address becoming visible to third parties, like administrators on websites I visit. After I connected to a server in Asia, I was relieved that my DNS test only found IP addresses associated with Opera VPN.
DNS leaks arent the only fault that can reveal your IP address. For instance, many browsers and messaging apps rely on WebRTC for their real-time communication capabilities, such as voice or video. Unfortunately, a protocol used by WebRTC makes it easy for malicious third parties to detect your IP address. To see if Opera VPN would compromise my IP address this way, I ran a WebRTC leak test. Im happy to report that Opera VPN kept my IP address hidden.
Another major security disadvantage to Opera VPN is that it encrypts only your browser traffic. Banking apps, torrent software, and other programs wont be protected even while youre connected.
Whats The Catch With Opera VPN
Well, its already been a while since Opera introduced us to its free, web-browser-embedded VPN. However, people still take it with a grain of salt and a fully-raised eyebrow. And who can blame them, really?
Theres a widely-spread say that with free services, you become the product. Meaning that if you dont pay for something such as a VPN with money, the provider might find another way to generate revenue.
This generally applies to free VPN services that offer no guarantee that your data wont be collected and sold to the highest bidder. You might even see ads, which can be full of malware or trackers.
However, Operas free VPN doesnt seem to interfere with your day-to-day browsing, and can even spare you from seeing a lot of ads. So, whats the catch?
Well, although customer skepticism is totally understandable and even justified, the most obvious explanation is that theres no catch.
Opera VPN has no advanced features, their server network is not that big, and not even the speeds are impressive.
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Speed How Fast Is Opera VPN
Opera VPN has an average network speed, as shown in our speed tests. I connected to their Americas server to test its speed. Every VPN slacks some of the connection speed. But some are slower than others. In case of this VPN, I got extremely slow speeds.
My internet connection before connecting to Opera VPN was 27.93 Mbps
It decreased quite a bit after I connected with the VPN, i.e., 13.47 Mbps
It certainly does not boast blazing fast speed, so I believe it was obvious to expect such a speed.
Pricing And Plan Options
Being a free provider, you wont have to pay anything for it. A few years ago, Opera VPN was a standalone provider, split from the browser, so it would make more sense for it to be premium. However, being only a small part of the browser, the company doesnt offer a premium version of it.
And the truth be told, even if offered a premium version, we doubt it would even be worth purchasing.
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Where Are Opera VPN Servers Located
Opera VPN servers are located in five countries. They are:
- The United States
- The Netherlands
- Singapore
Opera released plans to extend its server-bases to different locations around the globe. Currently, they allow users to connect to what they refer to as âpreferred servers.â These are the servers in:
- The Americas
- Asia
- Europe
What is frustrating is that you have no idea what city youâre being connected to. You have to roll the dice and hope for the best.
While we are at it, we should add that there is no kill switch fixture. This is something you just expect from a VPN. A kill switch is going to cut your session automatically if your IP is leaking.
It Is Only Available Within The Browser
While this browser offers a free private network service for the users, it cant be used just like any other dedicated private connection services. The main difference is that it is only available within the browser, and if you want to enjoy the private connection, you need to use Opera in order to do that. Moreover, it is available only on the desktop version of Opera, and you cant use it on the Opera Mobile app. But, you can download the Opera VPN app from the app store to enjoy the same private service as available on the Opera desktop browser.
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Opera VPN Review : Is This Free VPN Safe
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All reviews published on Wizcase meet our strict reviewing standards, in order to ensure that each review is based on the reviewer’s independent, honest, and professional examination of the product/service. Such standards require the reviewer to consider the technical qualities and characteristics of the product alongside its commercial value for users, which may affect the product’s ranking on the website.
How Fast Is Opera VPN We Checked Its Speed
Did someone mention speeds? Oh, sure we did. Our speed test is the most exhausting one, accompanied by the streaming test. In this part of our Opera VPN review, we carefully test the provider, to make sure that we squeeze every bit of performance out of it.
Since this is a proxy more than a VPN, we cant expect some madly fast speeds. After all, speeds depend on many factors that are hard to control, so its not strange that even some premium providers arent impressive in this regard.
For that reason, its important to see how we did our tests. We did 3 tests in the morning, 3 in the mid-day, and 3 in the evening, for 3 different locations. Also, we kept the best score and used the best location when that was possible.
Our physical location is in the USA and we used these 3 locations for testing:
- The United States
Without using this service, our native internet speeds are:
- Ping: 11 ms
- Upload Speed: 202.20 Mb/s
Now, when using Opera VPN, our ping, download, and upload speeds respectively, for 3 testing locations, are:
US Server: 69 ms / 42.36 Mbps / 59.17 Mbps
UK Server: 198 ms / 20.31 Mbps / 14.56 Mbps
Australian Server: 476 ms / 5.68 Mbps / 1.74 Mbps
Wasting on talking about speeds is pointless. Even when using the server in our country, we already saw a massive speed decrease, which made our internet browsing much worse. While the UK server showed pretty bad results, the Australian server was a final nail to the coffin.
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How Secure Is Operas VPN
The safety and security of Operas VPN depend on two major factors: encryption of internet traffic to and from the VPN server and no logging. When you enable Operas VPN, your browser creates a secure connection to one of our VPN servers. This connection uses industry-standard 256-bit encryption. To put that number in perspective, the encryption key is one of an extraordinarily large number of keys . In other words, a hacker will not be able to guess the key. Your connection to our secure VPN servers will remain private and away from prying eyes, making it the safest free VPN provider.
Chrome Extension Leaks Detected
The security nightmare continues to deepen.
IP leaks undermine a VPNs reason for existence. They uncover your IP address, exposing you to your ISP.
This typically happens through DNS leaks and WebRTC leaks.
A DNS leak bypasses the encrypted tunnel connection of your VPN, connecting you to a website with your original IP out on display.
WebRTC leaks occur when well-intentioned APIs undermine the security of your connection.
Whether the leak is coming from DNS or WebRTC, still the ending results are the same. Your original IP is visible.
Because of the dangers that leaks present to those seeking true online anonymity, we put all of our VPNs through a series of tests to see if theyre secure.
Out of four tests, Opera VPN failed one of them .
WebRTC leak was OK:
- perfect-privacy.com/dns-leaktest: Passed
- Chrome Extension Leak: Failed
Usually, we run a virus scan on installation software as well, checking for 66 different harmful viruses. But seeing as how Opera VPN has no installation software, we could not do that.
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You Can Sign Up For Opera VPN Anonymously
One privacy advantage Opera VPN does offer is that you do not need to sign up to use the service. This means there is no need to provide your email address, payment information, or any other personally identifiable information before you start using it.
This is better than the vast majority of VPNs, where you need to create an account or register payment information in order to use the product.
Nonetheless, Operas intrusive logging policy means the browser collects information that can easily be used to trace your activity back to you. In reality, the lack of a sign-up process is a convenience and a small anonymity boost, but nothing more.
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What Do Other Users Say About Opera VPN
Before wrapping up our review, lets see what users have to say about Opera VPN. Well start with Reddit:
This user says something that confirms our speed test. He says that its very slow, mentioning the 90s. Furthermore, he says that its unusable for anything except browsing text and image, and claims that they sell your data anonymized, which can definitely be the case, as they share it with other countries.
Now, lets check the Google Play Store:
Long story short, this user complains about the browser being unreliable and buggy. Albeit, he gave it two stars, which could imply that he was probably satisfied at some point. Now, we usually go over to the Apple Store but since Opera Touch Web Browser doesnt include a VPN, well move to Trustpilot:
This is a short review from the user that claims that it doesnt load the pages properly in 80% of the cases. Which, if youre using this proxy, could very well be the case.