How to register for HMA Pro VPN

Account creation Below you'll find detailed info on how to use register and pay for HMA Pro VPN. Once you've done so, login to the VPN control panel and download our software. If you need help with our software, see this article: Pro VPN Client
1. Create an account here: https://vpn.hidemyass.com/vpncontrol/join Select a username, enter your email address, and choose a password. Then click on "Continue".
2. You will be automatically logged into the VPN control panel with your newly created account. If you don't, login here: http://vpn.hidemyass.com (alternative URL: http://www.securenetconnection.com) You now see the payment page, where you need to select A payment plan (1 month / 6 months / 12 months) A payment method: Credit card (via 2checkout / Cleverbridge / Avangate) Paypal Google Checkout (credit+debit cards) Liberty Reserve Bank & wire transfer A recurring status (=if you want your subscription to renew automatically when it's about to expire) Once you've selected all this, click on "Checkout" below.
What comes next, depends on what payment processor you chose. Usually you need to select your country and currency, then enter your billing details. Once you've sent your payment, it will be reviewed and processed by the payment processor. Please don't wonder - should you login to the VPN control panel @ http://vpn.hidemyass.com BEFORE your payment has been finished getting processed by the payment processor, you'll only see the payment page (screenshot above). Once your payment has been received by us, you'll now see the VPN control panel when logging in. It looks like this:
Paying via credit card - using GoogleCheckout
If you wish to select "Google Checkout" as your payment processor, choose Now click      You'll be redirected to the payment page, which looks like this -> You then need to login with your Google account. Enter the email address that is linked to your Google Account, and your password. Then click "Sign In".
On this page you need to enter your location (country) credit card number expiration date cardholder name billing address postal code city phone number Once done so, check all entered details once again to make sure they're correct. Note that all entered personal details must fit exactly to what your credit card is registered to. Otherwise GoogleCheckout might decline and refund the payment for security reasons. Now click on "Agree and Continue"
This is the final order page. You can now check a last time if you selected the right package (1 / 12 months) You should uncheck "Send me Google Checkout special offers", check "Keep my email address confidential" and check "I want to receive promotional emails from Hide My Ass!" Click "Place your order now". That's all!
Paying via credit card - using 2checkout
If you wish to pay via credit card or Paypal, you can use 2checkout (2CO) as your payment processor.   For credit card payments via 2checkout, select:   Now click      You will be redirected to the 2checkout website. On the first page, select your currency and country at the top right. (see screenshot) Then click on "Continue Checkout"
On this page, enter your personal details. Note that all personal details stay within the payment processor,they're not saved anywhere on HMA's side. Attention: All entered personal details must fit to your Paypal account, including your Email-Address. Otherwise the payment will get declined by 2checkout. Once finished, click on "Continue Checkout".
Now you'll be able to choose between a) paying with your Paypal accounts balance b) paying via credit card (MasterCard, Visa, Discover, DinersClub, etc...) This page also summarizes all info related to the order, so make sure everything is correct before you're going on. Now click on "Continue Checkout", and you'll be forwarded to the Paypal website.
Last step. Enter your Paypal email address and password to login at Paypal. You'll be asked for a last confirmation, then the payment will be sent. That's all.
Paying via credit card - using Cleverbridge
To pay via credit card using the payment gateway "Cleverbridge", select and then click on You'll get forwarded to a page looking like the screenshot on the right -> Enter your personal information (name, address, country), your email address etc. in the left form, and enter your credit card details on the right form. Before clicking on the "Next" button, please make sure that you have entered all data correctly. On the following page you'll be able to review your data and submit it. That's all :)
Paying via LibertyReserve
When selecting LibertyReserve as your payment processor, note that you need to have an account with them. If you don't have one yet, create it here: https://www.libertyreserve.com/en/registration To pay via LibertyReserve, select and then click ATTENTION: Please make sure to place your order after logging into the VPN control panel @ http://vpn.hidemyass.com and selecting LibertyReserve as your payment processor. We will not accept payments made without our system (manually sent payments). On this first payment page, you can check where the payment is going to, and the amount to pay. If that is correct, click "Login".
On this second payment page, you need to enter your LibertyReserve account login info. First enter your account number (starting with an "U", like "U75938562"), then your password. Below you need to enter the captcha code (0982 in this example). Verify that everything has been entered correctly and click "Next". You are now seeing your "welcome message" that you need to confirm; check the checkbox and click continue.
On step number 3, you can see your account balance in USD / EUR / GoldGrams. Now you need to choose how you want to login. In this example, we choose to login with our "Login PIN" (usually 5 digits). Enter that login pin on the next page and click "Continue".
We're almost done. This is now the step where you need to select your currency and enter your "Master Key" (usually 3 digits). Do so, then click "Preview". Then you should select "additional transfer info", meaning that LR wants to know the reason of your payment. Since they don't need to know, select "other", or anything you like. Click "Preview" again.
This is the final, last page. You just need to check if everything is correct, e.g. payment destination amount fee memo payment purpose private payment (yes/no) If everything is OK, click "Confirm" and your payment has been sent. That's all!
Paying via Paypal
To pay your HMA! Pro VPN subscription via Paypal is probably the easiest and quickest way. On the order page, select   and then click You'll be forwarded to the Paypal order summary page that looks like the screenshot on the right -> Enter your Paypal email-address and password, then click on "Log In". Now you should see an overview of the order, where you can review and confirm all order data and your personal info. Proceed by clicking the "Next" button. Your order has been processed. That's all!
Paying with bank & wire transfer
If you wish to pay via bank/wire transfer, select  and then click            You will be redirected to a website displaying our UK bank details including IBAN, BIC/SWIFT for international transactions. Please make sure to use your VPN account username as payment reference, otherwise we can not relate the payment to your account which will result in a delay of your account activation/subscription extension. If you have any questions or forgot to include your username in the reference, please contact us @ info@hidemyass.com and let us know your username, the reference you've used, and your billing name. Please allow up to 5 working days for the payment to be received.

How to make screenshots on different operating systems and devices

This article explains how to make screenshots on different devices.
This is e.g. necessary if you need to provide us with screenshots of a certain issue with software on your computer, if you want to show us something etc.

Windows

On Windows, doing screenshots is quite easy. You can either do it manually or use tools for that purpose.

Manual

Do manually make a screenshot, press CTRL + PRINT on your keyboard.
This will capture your current screen and put it into the clipboard.
Now you need to paste it somewhere, e.g. in MS Paint (Start Menu\Programs\Accessories\Paint) or run "mspaint".
When paint is open, select "Paste" from the menu or press CTRL + V on your keyboard.
The screenshot should now have been pasted into paint.
You might want to edit the file now, crop it, or add some notes.
When that is done, save the file as .JPG or .PNG file somewhere on your computer.
Now you can either send it to us via email or upload it somewhere, e.g. imgur.com or imageshack.us

Apps

There are hundreds of screencapture tools on the web.
Several good ones are listed here -> http://imgur.com/apps
I'm using Hyperdesktop -> http://gethyperdesktop.com/
It also automatically uploads the screenshot after capturing, and puts the link to into the clipboard.

Mac

Manual

In Mac OS X, you can use simple keyboard shortcuts to do all sorts of things, including capturing images of what’s on your Mac screen.
For example, you can take a screen shot of your entire screen by holding down the Command and Shift keys and pressing a 3.
If you hold down the Command and Shift keys and press 4, Mac OS X turns the cursor into crosshairs you can use to select whatever portion of your display you’d like to capture in a screen shot.
If you immediately hit the Spacebar after typing Command-Shift-4, Mac OS X replaces those crosshairs with a little camera.
Using the camera, you can take a screen shot of the Dock, the entire menu bar, a single open menu, the desktop, or any open window.

Apps

There are numerous tools to capture the screen on Mac OS, for example:

• http://www.yellowmug.com/download/SnapNDrag.dmg
• http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/11440/snapclip/
• Many more @ http://www.pure-mac.com/screen.html

iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod)

Capturing screenshots of course also works on all iOS devices. Either manually or via app.

Manual

You can capture screenshots on your iOS device without using a third-party-app. iOS 2.0 or higher is required for this.
To capture a screen shot:

1. Press and hold the menu button (the main button below the screen).
2. While the menu button is held down, press the power/lock button (the switch on the top edge of the device).

Note: You can also hold the lock button and press the menu button, or try to press the two buttons simultaneously.
Do whatever is easiest, but if you keep both buttons held down too long, you will get the power down confirmation.
Your screen will flash white for a second and make a camera shutter noise (if you have the volume turned up) to indicate that the screen shot has been taken.
The screen shots you take are automatically saved in the default Photos app under an album called "Saved Photos" or "Camera Roll" depending on your device.
From here you can email one or more screen shots or other pictures, by clicking the menu icon (a rectangle with an arrow coming out of it, in the bottom left corner of the screen).
Clicking the menu icon from a single picture will email the one image. If you click the menu button from an index page, you can select multiple pictures to email.
How-to video for iPhone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=VpaHowHKX1E
How-to video for iPod touch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9TQ4IaEC_Vk

Apps

There are tons of apps on the market that allow you to capture screenshots. Just search for "screenshot" and try some.
For just making a screenshot to send it to our support, the manual method will do fine.

Android

When using original Android firmware, you should better use apps to take screenshots, since the manual way is quite complicated.

Manual

In case you have a modded custom Android firmware version, you may have an easy way to do screenshots already implemented. (so e.g. you can do it with a tap-combination)
If you're using the original firmware, this is quite complicated, because you need to install the Android SDK. Here are tutorials for it:
On Windows: http://www.addictivetips.com/mobile/how-to-take-screenshots-of-android-device/
On Linux: http://www.howtoforge.com/how-to-take-screenshots-of-your-android-smartphone

Apps

Similar like iOS, there are also apps you can use on Android to capture the screen. For example:

• https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ScreenCapture22
• https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.tomorrowkey.android.screencaptureshortcutfree
• https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.liveov.shotuxtrial
• https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.geeksoft.screensho
• https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=kr.dinosoft.android.CaptureMeFree

For more, see: https://play.google.com/store/search?q=capture&c=apps

Linux

How to capture screenshots on Linux differs of course from distribution to distribution and from GUI to GUI.

• Gnome: The Gnome GUI has an integrated application for taking screenshots, it can be found at "Applications/Accessories/Take Screenshot"
• KDE: Try the command "ksnapshot".
• Manual way: You can also take a screenshot of the entire screen by pushing the "Print Screen" (PrtSc) button on your keyboard. To get a screenshot of only the active window, use Alt-PrtSc.
• More ways to do screenshots on Linux are explained here: http://tips.webdesign10.com/how-to-take-a-screenshot-with-ubuntu-linux

How to edit HOSTS-file in Mac

The hosts file is a text file that maps hostnames to IP addresses.

Upon typing a url address on the browser, the system is checking if there is a relevant entry on the hosts file and gets the corresponding IP address, else it resolves the IP via the active connection’s DNS servers.

1 - Open the Terminal.app (Either by start typing Terminal on the Spotlight, or by going into Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal.)
2 - Open the hosts by typing on the Terminal that you have just opened:
    $ sudo nano /private/etc/hosts
3 - Type your user password when prompted.
4 - Add the line "76.13.13.48 plus.smtp.mail.yahoo.com" (of course replace IP and smtp hostname with your personal settings) without quotes to end of the file and save.
5 - Restart your Mac.
This should manually route the traffic from the DNS host to the IP.

How to edit HOSTS-file in Windows

Windows:

1. Navigate to your Windows folder, usually located on C:\

2. Now go into the subfolder system32, then to drivers and to etc By default, you cannot see these hidden folders since they are system folders. So you maybe need to enable "Show hidden files, folders, or drives" first. Here's how to: Windows XP: Click "Start → Search". In the Search Results window, scroll down and click "More advanced options". Check the boxes, "Search system folders", "Search hidden files and folders" and "Search subfolders". Windows Vista: (Previous to SP1) From the Windows Start menu, click "Search". In the "Advanced Search" area, select "Include non-indexed, hidden, and system files (might be slow)" In Windows Vista SP1 or later, follow the instructions below for Windows 7, which should be similar. Windows 7: First make sure you have Windows set to show hidden files and folders ("Start -> Computer -> Tools -> Folder Options -> View -> Show hidden files, folders, or drives -> OK"). To search for files or folders in hidden locations, click "Start -> Computer" and, in the window that opens, enter the name of the file or folder in the Search Computer box.

3. You should see a file called hosts here

4. Now you'll need to open Notepad with administrator privileges, e.g. by rightclicking the notepad shortcut and select "Run as Administrator".

5. In notepad, click on "File", "Open" and navigate to the folder where the HOSTS file is stored (e.g. C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc) You'll need to select "All files (*.*)" instead of "Text documents (*.txt)" in the bottom right of this window. Otherwise you won't see the hosts file.

6. Go to the end of the file and then add this line if you have a GMail account: 74.125.157.109 smtp.gmail.com this line if you have a Windows Live/Hotmail account: 65.55.162.200 smtp.live.com and this line if you have a Yahoo email account: 76.13.13.48 plus.smtp.mail.yahoo.com Alternative IPs that you should try to use instead of the IPs from above, in case you are still unable to send emails, are: 209.85.227.109, 74.125.91.109, 74.125.39.16, 74.125.93.109 <- GMail 65.55.172.254 <- Windows Live/Hotmail

7. Save the file, then you can close the notepad. Should you be unable to save the file, that means that your hosts file is protected by your antivirus or some antispyware applications. You can just deactivate this software before saving, and reactivating it after saving. In case your hosts file is just set to read-only, you can change that as shown in the image on the right. Rightclick the hosts file, select "Properties", then this window appears. Uncheck "Read-only", then click "OK". Usually it should work right out of the box, but in some cases you need to restart your email software.

How to configure your DNS settings on Android

There are 2 ways to change your DNS on Android devices: a) change the DNS servers of a VPN connection When using this way, the DNS servers you enter only get used while the VPN connection you set it for is active. Open "Settings", then navigate to "More..." -> "VPN". When connecting via PPTP or L2TP from your Android device, you should have at least 1 connection listed here. If not, see our article Android for instructions on how to create them. Tap and hold your VPN connection, then select "Edit profile". Check "Show advanced options" - more options will appear. Here, enter your DNS servers separeted with a space at "DNS servers (e.g. 8.8.8.8)" For example, you could enter here "8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4" or just "8.8.8.8". Hit "Save". When now connecting with this VPN profile, your Android device will use the DNS servers you entered. b) change the default DNS servers When using this way, the DNS servers you enter only get used while no VPN connection is active. To be able to change the default DNS servers your device is using, you might need root (if "Set DNS" fails without root) The easiest way to do this is to use e.g. the app "Set DNS" from https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.mytechie.setDNS The other way to do this is to manually edit the file /etc/resolv.conf after removing its write protection. This can be done either with a terminal app like Android Terminal Emulator (via vi or other command-line based text editors), or you can use your favorite text editor, as long as it can access the root folder /etc

How to configure your DNS settings on iOS

In this example we'll set our iOS device (iPhone, iPad, etc.) to use Googles DNS servers (8.8.8.8 + 8.8.4.4). This gives a potential increase in speed - note that this can only be done when using WiFi connection. Open up the settings on your iOS device and navigate to the WiFi settings. Select the WLAN network you're connected to and tap the blue arrow next to it. Here, change the DNS settings to Googles DNS servers by tapping on the line "DNS" In this DNS field, enter 8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4(comma and space are important!) Go back to previous screen and press the Home button. That's all :)

How to configure your DNS settings on Mac

Short: System Preference > Network > Airport (WiFi) or Ethernet (LAN) > Advanced.. > DNS > under DNS Servers click the + button > Add 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220 (or any other IPs from the list below) > OK
When you're on your desktop, click the Mac Apple, then click on "System Preferences". The System Preferences window will appear. Click on "Network" here.
Now you'll see the Network center. Select your ethernet adapter here on the left, then click on "Advanced..."
Click on the "DNS"-tab. Now you can add DNS servers by clicking on the "+" in the bottom left.
Add the desired DNS servers: OpenDNS: 208.67.222.222 + 208.67.220.220 ComodoDNS: 156.154.70.22 + 156.154.71.22 GoogleDNS: 8.8.4.4 + 8.8.8.8 UltraDNS: 156.154.70.1 + 156.154.71.1 NortonDNS: 198.153.192.1 + 198.153.194.1 Once finished, click on "OK" at the bottom right of this window.
Back in the network center, you'll see that the newly added DNS servers now appear right next to "DNS Server:" - so it's done now. Click on "Apply" at the bottom right to save your changes. You've successfully changed your DNS settings.

How to configure your DNS settings on Windows

This tells your computer which DNS to use for all your internet browsing. Most home users have this set to "automatic" and the DNS is provided by the user's internet provider, but you can use any DNS you like. How to change your DNS settings on Windows is explained below: Navigate to your system control panel, e.g. through the start menu. If it looks like on the window on the right - select "View network status and tasks" here. If you have a list view in the control panel, select "Network and sharing center"
Now, arrived in the Network and Sharing Center, click on "Change adapter settings" on the left.
Now a window that lists all your network adapters will appear. Select your main network adapter (either LAN or WLAN, depends on what you're using), rightclick it and select "Properties".
Here in the properties of your network adapter, select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click on "Properties"
You'll now see the advanced properties of the TCP/IPv4 settings. Don't change anything in the upper field regarding IP, Subnet or Gateway. Select "Use the following DNS server addresses:" And enter 2 DNS servers of your choice here. When using HMA Pro VPN, it's recommended to use OpenDNS. OpenDNS: 208.67.222.222 + 208.67.220.220 ComodoDNS: 156.154.70.22 + 156.154.71.22 GoogleDNS: 8.8.4.4 + 8.8.8.8 UltraDNS: 156.154.70.1 + 156.154.71.1 NortonDNS: 198.153.192.1 + 198.153.194.1 Click on "OK". That's it!