SOCKS

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To establish a SOCKS-Connection, you must be connected to the VPN and have a paid subscription.

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SOCKS Proxy Installation

SOCKS-Address:
socks.hide.me

SOCKS-Port:
1080

What is SOCKS?

The SOCKS protocol is a robust and versatile protocol which is located as an intermediate layer by the TCP/IP reference model, just between the Transport and Application layer. There is no limitation to the number of applications / protocols which can use the SOCKS proxy.

We have linked our SOCKS-Proxy with the VPN connection for the following reasons: hide.me stands for security and this security is not provided with a pure SOCKS-Proxy, because as with any proxy server no encryption is available and authentication usually takes place in plain text (very few applications support GSS-API). Thanks to the combination between SOCKS and a VPN connection, the best balance between security and speed is reached, all outgoing SOCKS-Connections are optimized accordingly and all traffic is encrypted. For example, you can achieve much higher transfer rates with P2P-Applications , when combined with our SOCKS proxy. Another advantage is that our SOCKS-Proxy can be used against IP leaks and is significantly easier to configure than an ordinary firewall.

If the VPN-Connection would to be interrupted, then the Proxy will lose the connection. So you can limit the data traffic of certain applications, such as Firefox, Chrome, uTorrent or Thunderbird on our VPN server. Most applications offer a support for SOCKS5 so no additional authentication with Username and Password is necessary in this case. Should the application lack support for the SOCKS5, then all traffic for that particular application can be bridged with Proxifier (Windows/Mac).

Windows

Download Legacy Download (XP/Vista)

ChangeLog

2.1.2

• Improve stability of app selection for split tunneling
• Fix for 1231 error
• Minor style improvements

2.1.1

• Improve location selection
• Define Custom Server (Premium feature) in location selection
• Connect to Favorites in taskbar

Servers

Location		Internet Address
Canada - Montreal		free-ca.hide.me	+ More details
Netherlands - Roosendaal		free-nl.hide.me	+ More details
Singapore - Singapore		free-sg.hide.me	+ More details
USA		free-us.hide.me	+ More details
USA - East		free-us-east.hide.me	+ More details
USA - West

Frequently Asked Questions

About the free plan

• Can I use hide.me for free?

• Can I renew my free plan once it has expired?

• What does "best effort" bandwidth mean?

• Do you log the activity of free users?

Payment

• Will you log my payment information on your system?

• Which payment models do you offer?

• Do you provide discounts if I pay for a longer period?

Features

• Does your VPN work with BitTorrent clients?

• Is account sharing allowed?

• Do you limit Premium accounts? Do you have a fair-use policy?

• When do you reset the traffic limit in the plus plan?