Tag Archives: free

UnoTelly – watch TV while you’re abroad with ease, eliminate geographic restrictions

Rating: ★★★★½

PROS:

  • Easy, practical way to reverse geographic restrictions
  • Cost effective at $4.95 for DNS alone package
  • Clever interface with easy configuration
  • Fast VPN servers

CONS:

  • VPN is a good extra to have, but don’t rely on it for security

Price: $4.95 (~£3.50) per month for DNS package, $7.95 (~£5.75) per month for DNS + VPN, discounts available on pre-payment

A hotly debated issue on the internet is the use of geographic restrictions on online multimedia. Some believe it’s a necessarily evil that protects rights holder’s interests while others think it simply restricts the concept of the internet. Whichever way you look at it, in most jurisdictions it is legal to use a VPN or “smart” DNS to circumvent geographical restrictions. It is normally down to the rights holder or streaming service to clarify whether using the service outside of its intended country of delivery is allowed or not. Just to be clear – I’m not condoning or protesting the use of these techniques to access services abroad – this is a review focused on the benefits of using UnoTelly.

This is by no means the first service I’ve tried with this objective. There are several ways of covering or manipulating your online location to access foreign services, but UnoTelly’s offering is an attempt to simplify the process and allow access to services not only on your PC or Mac, but also on devices such as the PlayStation 3 & 4, Apple TV and iPhone/iPad.

Using the UnoTelly website is a piece of cake. If you’re using the site from your desktop computer or laptop, you’re automatically prompted to set up DNS (and Dynamo if necessary) to be able to access your desired service. Once you’ve done that, there’s a built in directory of services that you can use. If there’s any specific guidelines for accessing a certain service, these are provided with clear simple instructions.

Using UnoTelly one other devices is a little more complicated but still relatively easy to do. First of all, you need to activate your network’s IP address against UnoTelly’s firewall. This can either be done manually on demand or automatically via a dynamic DNS setting on your wireless router. Once that’s done, you simply set the DNS server address on the device you’d like to use, configure the Dynamo setup to match the region of each service you’d like to use, and then fire up the relevant app! Thankfully, once you’ve done this the first time, settings are always preserved so you should only have to configure it once (unless you wish to change regions).

The service works seamlessly and made mince meat of my heavy demands and frequent server changes. The online interface is very easy to use and serves as a useful service guide.

All of the above is covered under the primary UnoDNS offering. The second offering that UnoTelly has is their UnoVPN service. A VPN is another way that geographical restrictions can be avoided, as all of your internet traffic is routed through a foreign server in the country you’re intending to view from. For some users, the VPN service will be simpler and quicker to use – particularly if you’re primarily going to want to benefit from UnoTelly on PC or Mac. For most people, however, the UnoDNS service will more than suffice and if you’re using set-top boxes or smart TVs you’ll find the DNS service much easier to set up.

That’s not to say the VPN is bad at all, though. Once you’ve got it set up (instructions are provided for many devices but the service is mainly aimed at PC and Mac users), it’s permanently configured on your device and can be switched on or off on demand. Speeds from the UnoTelly VPN servers were very impressive, with consistently high speed test results across all of their servers. However – be warned – if you’re intending to use your UnoVPN service as a security measure (as many VPN users do), you’ll be disappointed. The PPTP authentication method that UnoVPN uses is very basic and widely regarded as insecure. UnoTelly does stress, however, that their service is designed to be used for performance and not security – so don’t get your hopes up.

In conclusion, UnoTelly provides a very simple and user-friendly method of accessing international multimedia services and gives you the ultimate choice between DNS redirection and VPN routing. The service functions flawlessly, even if it does need a little time to set to optimal settings. As the saying goes, it “does exactly what it says on the tin”!

You can get a free 8-day trial here.

FREE Microsoft Office for UK university students!

If you’re a current university student in the UK, you could well have access to full free desktop versions of Microsoft Office through Office 365.

Microsoft says over 99% of UK universities are signed up to the subscription plan so for the length of your studies you can get free access to the entire suite of Microsoft Office suite.

Simply click here to go to Microsoft’s site and enter your university email address. Check your email for a confirmation link, and voila free Office!

You can use the software on up to 5 PCs and/or Macs and the subscription is valid until your studies end. There are also a certain number of colleges that are signed up for the service, so it’s worth checking with your academic email address.

Drop us a comment if you grabbed free Office!

How to force delete files in Windows

Sometimes with Windows, I come across issues where I can’t delete files on my hard drive because I “don’t have permission” to delete them. I typically tend to come across the issue after Windows has installed Windows updates – I end up with garbled folders that I can’t modify or remove.

Thankfully, there is a solution. I’ve come across a program called Unlocker – which is a Windows extension that forces files to delete even if your user can’t.

It’s free and can be downloaded here. Use it with care (don’t remove any files by mistake), but it can be a great tool for removing temporary files.

O2 UK drops The Cloud wifi access from February 2012

O2 recently announced that Pay Monthly customers will lose their free access to The Cloud wifi services as of February 2012.

If you’re on a data plan with O2, you may be aware that you currently have free access to both BT Openzone and The Cloud as part of your contract. Handy for making sure you’re not using your limited data allowance when you’re in a public place.

Sadly, as of 1st February 2012, O2 customers won’t be able to use The Cloud for free wifi. O2 say all data customers will still have access to BT Openzone and also to their own wifi networks (but O2 wifi networks are free to anyone, anyway).

This probably has something to do with the sale of The Cloud to BSkyB. Bit of a shame really, as there are The Cloud hotspots at my local train station and at various other public places that I use – but no major loss I guess.

Is the new “Find My Friends” app by Apple a handy tool or a stalker’s paradise?

To coincide with the release of iOS5 on October 12th, Apple released several new optional apps for iPod touch, iPhone and iPad. One of these apps is Find My Friends, which claims to be a handy tool for locating friends and family by making use of their GPS and A-GPS functionality.

The new app has been met with mixed reviews – with many claiming the app could simply be used as a stalker’s tool in the wrong hands.

However, I happen to think that the app is a very clever idea – with many not-seen-before features that make the app a safe, unobtrusive yet helpful way of keeping track of friends and family.

First of all, the app is completely opt-in only. This means that people can only track you with full permission granted by you – meaning nobody can publicly see where you are.

You can either invite people to permanent access to your location, or temporary “event” access which gives people access to your location for a set date and time. This means, for example, that if you’re meeting somebody at a festival, you can give them temporary access which terminates when the festival is over.

Also, you can quite easily turn off the app’s location tracking if you’re going somewhere you’d rather other people didn’t know about – simply by switching on ‘Hide from Followers” in the Me tab – making it easy to hide personal places. Whilst I’d quite like it to have a function where you could tell it not to report specific places, I’m sure this could eventually be possible.

Overall, I think this is an improvement on many previous tracking apps that have been released – and could seen as very useful to many.