Blockless Review

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Based in Canada, Blockless is a provider dedicated to offering users the possibility of browsing internet safely and enjoying the content they want to watch without censorship or geo-location restrictions. The service was initially focused on offering SmartDNS, which is a convenient and fast streaming solution. However, it has now introduced VPN as a way to help customers to keep their privacy protected while they are connected to internet. We will take a look at Blockless to find out more about the features and additional options geared towards online privacy and security.

Security and Privacy

While Blockless claims to offer a VPN solution, the service is mainly a SmartDNS that aims to give users the possibility of streaming media content from anywhere in the world, bypassing geo-location restrictions. The service changes the DNS server address settings on your device, which enables them to intercept authorization requests from websites and applications and provides them with a virtual IP address that matches the specific requirements to access their content. Your actual IP address is disguised and you will appear as if you were connecting from a country in which the content you want to watch is available.

With SmartDNS, the traffic is not encrypted, which means that your internet connection won’t slow down and you will be able to stream media with satisfactory speed and performance. However, no encryption also means that there is no security for your data. In order to help users to protect their privacy and keep their online traffic secure, Blockless has added VPN encryption to their standard client. Blockless Secure is an option that users can select in the app to enhance the protection to their privacy. However, there is not information about the level of encryption applied.

It is good to see that Blockless is taking steps to ensure that customers can do more than browsing internet and streaming content seamlessly. Privacy and security are essential and the provider is taking steps to offer greater control over them. The improvements applied to their traditional app aim to offer ad/malware blocking, flexible region-switching, as well as full encryption and the possibility of browsing anonymously.

Unfortunately, it is not clear how the security is implemented and while they mention that military-grade encryption is applied, there are no specific details about this. The provider states that no logs are kept of users’ online activity, but since the VPN solution is quite recent and there is little information available, people who require high protection for their privacy and who wish to keep their anonymity intact, should be cautious when using this service.

Features

As previously mentioned, the center of Blockless is the SmartDNS service, for which they provide good support and setting up guides. The service is compatible with Windows, Mac OS X, Android, iOS and Google Chrome. Blockless can be set up on a wide variety of devices including smartphones, tablets, desktop computers, game consoles, smart TVs and routers. The client offers different options including preferences, account settings, manage subscriptions and help. The VPN service also offers the option to switch between protocols.

Another convenient addition is Smart Guard, a smart blocker technology that removed ads from websites and services. This will improve the speed of your connection as there won’t be larger graphics loading up. Additionally, Smart Guard helps to protect your privacy as it reduces the risk of being tracked through third-party ads. In terms of speed, it has to be noted that with VPN option, the service is not the fastest we have used. However, if you are only interested in browsing and streaming content from other countries, you can select the surfing mode, which doesn’t involve speed loss.

Servers

Blockess has servers in 25 countries including Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Netherlands, Australia, Sweden, United Kingdom and United States. They cover the countries that offer some of the most popular media content. However, not all the locations are active at all times so you will need to check the servers status to see what options are available. Blockless offers the possibility of connecting to up to 5 devices simultaneously.

Plans

There is a free VPN plan available, which offers unlimited bandwidth and ad blocking to enjoy improved security. However, it is restricted to one region and you can only connect one device at a time. The Premium plan costs $7.50 per month and it provides access to all the servers in the network, as well as the possibility of connecting up to five devices simultaneously. It includes advanced ad blocker and streaming SmartDNS. Before subscribing to a plan or in order to use the free service, you will need to create an account with your email address and password.

Customer Service

The website has an appealing design but it doesn’t offer as much information as we’d like to see. It includes a support section where users can find answers to queries about the service, billing, features and more. However, there are some details (such as payment methods supported) that are not clearly revealed until you check their service agreement. The customer support can be contacted via live chat and email, but many customers have reported that their responses are often delayed.

Conclusion

Compared to other VPN providers, Blockless is expensive and it doesn’t offer the variety of locations or the level of encryption and anonymity that you can get from the most recognized names in the industry. Blockless may be suitable for browsing websites that are blocked in your region or for streaming media that is subject to geo-location restrictions. However, their VPN solution is still new and it is not clear how secure it truly is.