In part 3 of the Steganos Online Shield 365 we are going to explore if there are any quirks which we have to watch out for. Oh yes, there are a few. BTW let us be very clear here - even though I’ve been offered an year’s free subscription of Steganos Online Shield 365 worth $79.95, my policy is to test out the (any) software in and out, and list out problems, if there are any.
The reasons are two. One, a wishy-washy review does not do the readers any justice. Two, it doesn’t do justice to the software too - if there are quirks, it better be sorted out sooner than later.
So here are the quirks I found with Steganos Online Shield 365.
The number 1 problem is in signing in to cloud based services. Every cloud based service tags log in attempts from ‘alien’ IPs as suspicious. Thus both Google and Facebook tagged my attempt to login as suspicious and put me through hoops to sign in. In Facebook, it was sort of interesting, but irritating to identify 5 friends from their photos. And Google, well what to say about them!
![steganos_sign_in_trouble_facebook_go[1]](http://lh6.ggpht.com/-5rYIMmuEWcY/UZZtkbDmIeI/AAAAAAAAJ6E/B28BK9pSqfk/steganos_sign_in_trouble_facebook_go%25255B1%25255D_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800 "steganos_sign_in_trouble_facebook_go[1]")
The next major problem is trying to use my Android phone with the Steganos Online Shield 365 VPN service. Since there is no login / user-password feature with Steganos (they use a ID based handshake for connections), and I can’t figure out a way to use my Android phone with VPN.
The 3rd bit of inconvenience is while we can select the shield located by country (one of the 5 mentioned), there isn’t a feature to select specific city within that country. Perhaps it is asking too much!
There is also one quirk, if at all, when Steganos refuses to start the shield and throws up an error. It did for me today saying ‘VPN Starter Service’ cannot be reached and to start it.
![steganos_starter_service_misnamed_1_[1]](http://lh3.ggpht.com/-vvVNs6na_mc/UZZtmBc4RtI/AAAAAAAAJ6U/cBswkEMgM1M/steganos_starter_service_misnamed_1_%25255B1%25255D_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800 "steganos_starter_service_misnamed_1_[1]")
The only problem is that ‘services.msc’ doesn’t list any ‘VPN starter service’ or ‘Steganos starter service’, named as such. The service in question is actually named ‘Online Shield Starter Service’.
On my Windows 7 PC, though it is shown as an Automatic Start service, it sometimes fails to start and causes this problem. Starting it manually makes the shield up and running.
:-D
![steganos_starter_service_misnamed_2_[1]](http://lh3.ggpht.com/-IW-u9GsShZ8/UZZtnjg-_yI/AAAAAAAAJ6k/xjg4keWDl8E/steganos_starter_service_misnamed_2_%25255B1%25255D_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800 "steganos_starter_service_misnamed_2_[1]")
My recommendation? It is time for everyone to start using one VPN or another. And as of now, Steganos seems to be the best bet (for users in India at least).
Disclosure: As above (one year free subscription).
The reasons are two. One, a wishy-washy review does not do the readers any justice. Two, it doesn’t do justice to the software too - if there are quirks, it better be sorted out sooner than later.
So here are the quirks I found with Steganos Online Shield 365.
The number 1 problem is in signing in to cloud based services. Every cloud based service tags log in attempts from ‘alien’ IPs as suspicious. Thus both Google and Facebook tagged my attempt to login as suspicious and put me through hoops to sign in. In Facebook, it was sort of interesting, but irritating to identify 5 friends from their photos. And Google, well what to say about them!
![steganos_sign_in_trouble_facebook_go[1]](http://lh4.ggpht.com/-07wD4XMU5m0/UZZtjg5rrlI/AAAAAAAAJ58/PgBxhxpWn7U/s1600-h/steganos_sign_in_trouble_facebook_go%25255B1%25255D%25255B2%25255D.jpg "steganos_sign_in_trouble_facebook_go[1]")
The next major problem is trying to use my Android phone with the Steganos Online Shield 365 VPN service. Since there is no login / user-password feature with Steganos (they use a ID based handshake for connections), and I can’t figure out a way to use my Android phone with VPN.
The 3rd bit of inconvenience is while we can select the shield located by country (one of the 5 mentioned), there isn’t a feature to select specific city within that country. Perhaps it is asking too much!
There is also one quirk, if at all, when Steganos refuses to start the shield and throws up an error. It did for me today saying ‘VPN Starter Service’ cannot be reached and to start it.
![steganos_starter_service_misnamed_1_[1]](http://lh6.ggpht.com/-nivI67IbfO0/UZZtlYv2qaI/AAAAAAAAJ6M/UBsPmjhsSBI/s1600-h/steganos_starter_service_misnamed_1_%25255B1%25255D%25255B2%25255D.jpg "steganos_starter_service_misnamed_1_[1]")
The only problem is that ‘services.msc’ doesn’t list any ‘VPN starter service’ or ‘Steganos starter service’, named as such. The service in question is actually named ‘Online Shield Starter Service’.
On my Windows 7 PC, though it is shown as an Automatic Start service, it sometimes fails to start and causes this problem. Starting it manually makes the shield up and running.
:-D
![steganos_starter_service_misnamed_2_[1]](http://lh5.ggpht.com/-Wfc8_MJI4p4/UZZtmnMwAYI/AAAAAAAAJ6c/oOKlAyUgI4Q/steganos_starter_service_misnamed_2_%25255B1%25255D%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800 "steganos_starter_service_misnamed_2_[1]")
My recommendation? It is time for everyone to start using one VPN or another. And as of now, Steganos seems to be the best bet (for users in India at least).
Disclosure: As above (one year free subscription).
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